Councilmember Hague pins error on résumé

When Jane Hague was appointed King County's manager of records and elections in 1986, she submitted a résumé that claimed a college degree she didn't have.

Hague, now a Metropolitan King County Council member running for re-election, acknowledged making the misleading claim Friday, saying she was trying at the time to get credits from another university transferred to Western Michigan University so she could graduate.

"I jumped the gun," she said of her claim that she had a bachelor of science degree.

Western Michigan later informed her she would have to take additional classes to graduate — something she didn't do. "What I should have done is gone back and corrected that résumé, and I didn't. But I have taken responsibility for it," said Hague, R-Bellevue.

Hague's disclosure of the résumé is the latest wrinkle in an election season during which she has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol — and pleaded not guilty — and has agreed to pay an $8,000 fine to the state Public Disclosure Commission for campaign-finance and disclosure violations.

The county Democratic Party has declined to endorse her Democratic challenger, Richard Pope, a Bellevue attorney. Pope, a perennial candidate and former Republican, has come under attack from the GOP for an angry outburst during a 1995 legal deposition and for being removed from a case last year after he missed deadlines and said he was seriously depressed.

Hague said she recently looked at her personnel file because she didn't recall if she had submitted an application for the elections chief job when then-County Executive Tim Hill hired her for the position. In the file was a letter from Hill to then-Council Chairwoman Audrey Gruger about her appointment, along with the résumé.

Hague's claim that she was a university graduate was repeated in newspaper stories, Marquis Who's Who publications, a Municipal League biography, and a National Association of Counties publication between 1991 and 2000. "These things take on a life of their own," she said Friday.

Hague said those later, false claims may have resulted from her staffers relying on information in her 1986 résumé.

Hague's revelation of the résumé came more than four weeks after The Seattle Times requested access to her old personnel files in the executive branch — and was told those files had been destroyed. County Council Clerk Anne Noris informed The Times late Friday that some of those files had been transferred to the legislative branch.

Noris said she learned Thursday afternoon that Hague's personnel file was within the legislative branch. She said council Chief of Staff Ross Baker told her to wait until Friday afternoon to tell The Times of their existence.

It was not clear Friday when Hague or a personal staffer first looked at the personnel file and why The Times wasn't informed of the records' existence sooner.

Records were not provided to The Times on Friday. Baker said the records were being processed to remove identifying information such as Social Security numbers, which are not disclosed to the public.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com