Hutchison accuses Constantine of improperly pressuring colleagues

King County executive candidate Susan Hutchison said 2-year-old e-mails show her opponent, Metropolitan King County Councilmember Dow Constantine, improperly pressured his colleagues to vote for a ferry tax by threatening to kill a separate tax for flood control.

The e-mails obtained through public-disclosure requests tend to support — but don't prove — earlier claims by Councilmember Kathy Lambert that Constantine told her there would be no vote for the flood tax if she didn't first vote for a ferry-district tax he was pushing to fund passenger ferries.

Council members have offered conflicting accounts about Constantine's role. He has steadfastly maintained that he never linked the two property taxes.

At the time the taxes were approved in November 2007, County Council seats were partisan positions. They have since been made nonpartisan.

Last week, Hutchison released a Nov. 9, 2007, e-mail from Constantine to an aide, saying he was "fully prepared" to vote against the flood tax and a mental-health tax after an aide told him two of his Democratic colleagues were backing away from supporting a prompt vote on the ferry tax.

Constantine said last week that comment "was one line in many, many e-mails and it was just between me and one of my staff people in a moment of frustration." He said he supported the flood tax and worked for its passage.

Additional e-mails released by Hutchison this week show that Constantine staffer Chris Arkills was worried about what he called "the Julia problem" — Democratic Councilmember Julia Patterson's opposition to the ferry tax.

"She needs to know that this is very important to you and that she may not get your cooperation on other issues coming before the council if she doesn't back you on this," Arkills wrote Constantine on Oct. 17, 2007.

Patterson, who represents most of Kent and Tukwila, supported a flood-control district tax to beef up levees on the Green River.

Two days later, Arkills suggested a more conciliatory approach to get Patterson's vote: "We can do some things to make her happier," such as directing ferry dollars to demonstration routes in her district.

Patterson has said she reluctantly voted for the tax so Renton and Des Moines would be eligible for future ferry service.

Republican Councilmember Reagan Dunn e-mailed council attorney Jim Brewer Nov. 5, 2007 and asked about the law on "vote-trading" and whether it would be legal for council members to remove projects from a colleague's district "when that Councilmember refuses to vote in favor of tax increases, and that increase is not rationally related to the project removed."

Dunn said he spoke to Brewer and e-mailed him after Lambert, a Republican, told him that "Dow said to her personally the projects were going to be pulled if we didn't vote for the ferry district, and the flood district was going to be pulled."

Dunn said Constantine didn't tell him directly he would kill the flood tax or pull any projects.

Lambert said Constantine told her the flood tax depended on her vote for passenger ferries, but she doesn't remember him threatening district projects.

Constantine denies linking the ferry tax to either the flood tax or projects in colleagues' districts.

Brewer wrote to Dunn that "it is long-settled law" in Washington that vote-trading is illegal and could subject an official to recall. Although courts have ruled only on agreements to trade votes, Brewer wrote, "it appears reasonably likely" that a court would find that an offer of a trade or a threat of retaliation also is illegal.

After receiving Brewer's opinion, Dunn said he met with Constantine. "He and I came to an agreement that there would be no projects pulled out of my district and I would be allowed to vote my conscience, which was a vote against the ferry district, and there would be no negative repercussions for my actions," Dunn said.

Constantine said he doesn't recall such a meeting with Dunn, and said he never attempted to make passage of the flood-control tax contingent on approval of the ferry tax.

"We're in a very heated election season right now and you have these two staunch Republican allies [Dunn and Lambert] of my very conservative opponent and they are apparently willing to do or say just about anything to help her get elected," Constantine said. "Look at the objective facts. We didn't need their votes for any of these measures. There were no repercussions whatsoever."

Democratic Councilmembers Larry Gossett, who was council chairman in 2007, and Bob Ferguson, who was budget chairman, have said Constantine did not use the flood tax to pressure members to fund ferries that serve his West Seattle and Vashon Island constituents. Patterson and Democratic Councilmember Larry Phillips have both said they believe Lambert's account, but neither said Constantine personally told them the votes were linked.

Ferguson, who sponsored a sales tax to provide services to persons with mental illness or addictions, said he saw no sign of vote-trading on the three taxes — for ferries, flood control and mental-health services — that were under consideration.

Hutchison said the e-mails showed Constantine "played politics with public safety. ... They also prove that when Constantine said his colleagues were trying to rewrite history, they were not, they were simply telling the truth."

Constantine said of Hutchison's claims, "It's completely inconsistent with how I've worked in my time in politics in the Legislature and around here, and everybody who's worked with me knows that. It's just not how I am."

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