Category: Elections

Are these city publications appropriate? Candidate gets unfair boost from taxpayer media

Written by Randy Corman 12 Comments
This 2010 Public Service Announcement law ensures public officials running for election don’t get unfair benefit from publicly-owned communication channels. This law was recodified in a new chapter starting next year, but the basic law will remain the same. (See new version at the end of this article).

A Councilmember acquiring a municipal leadership certificate by attending Association of Washington Cities training and workshops is not exactly breaking news.  Outside of a handful of Renton City Hall insiders, few people could typically tell you which Council Members have this certificate.  In recent years Renton has sometimes announced the awarding of these certificates, largely to make the public aware of how Association of Washington Cities (AWC) programs positively contribute to the City of Renton education and functioning. Renton pays dues to AWC for these services.

However, per RCW 42.17A.575, cities must be very careful not to include public officials running for election in Public Service Announcements, to avoid using public facilities to help a candidate.  Ironically, the prohibitions about using city resources to campaign is one of the many topics on ethics that Councilmembers might typically learn in AWC training.

The law says “No state elected official or municipal officer may speak or appear in a public service announcement that is broadcast, shown, or distributed in any form whatsoever during the period January 1 and continuing through the general election if that official or officer is a candidate.”

So Renton should be careful about timing announcements about candidates so as not to prop up campaigns with public dollars.

This week’s City announcements were the most unfair timing possible.  In the hard-fought race for Renton City Council Position 2, the third-place finisher Raman Mann (who got nearly a quarter of the primary votes) just TODAY endorsed second-place finisher Mary Clymer.  Ms. Clymer now has a strong chance to unseat the incumbent Carmen Rivera, who is so mired in controversy that the British “Daily Mail” just reported on her campaign troubles to its tens of millions of readers.

The same day Raman Mann’s campaign made his endorsement of Mary Clymer, the City of Renton was flooding social media sites, the City’s email list, and the City’s website with flattering stories about Councilmember Rivera’s AWC certificate.

The City’s website article is quite lengthy, and includes so many  testimonials by and about Councilmember Rivera that it reads precisely like a voter-pamphlet submittal:  “Renton raised me, and I’m honored to give back through public service…(more content)….the training strengthens the work I do every day fighting for equity, transparency, and practical solutions that serve our entire community…(more content)…Born and raised in Renton, Councilmember Rivera resides in the Tiffany Park area with her spouse.”

This statement appears to be exactly the kind of city-sponsored support piece that the state legislature determined should NOT be paid for with taxpayer dollars in an election year, let alone in the critical weeks between a primary and what is sure to be a close general election.

I’ve included samples of the City Facebook post, the City Bulletin (which is distributed to a mailing list), and the City Website that were all just published promoting the incumbent, the same day that the challengers were combining their campaign teams to make a winning run in the general election.  The Renton City YouTube Channel also features a council meeting presentation of the award.  Taxpayers pay for the staff time to film, write, edit, prepare, and upload all of these statements.

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Mary Clymer has my enthusiastic support for Renton City Council Position 2

Written by Randy Corman 14 Comments
Mary and me at this year’s dragon festival downtown. The festival was put on by Renton Arts Commission, a group that has benefited immensely from Mary’s involvement and volunteer work.

I’ve been encouraging Mary Clymer to run for Renton City Council for many years.  She is an inspirational leader in our community, an experienced Renton business owner, and a beloved producer/promoter of the arts.  She has been demonstrating in all her work and community activities that she is perfectly-suited to help lead Renton towards an even brighter future.

Mary has been around Renton leadership all her life.  I enjoyed serving on Renton Council with Mary’s grandfather, Earl Clymer, when he was Mayor of Renton. We worked together on such key projects as finalizing Renton’s Aquifer Protection Ordinance, creating our first Economic Development Department, bringing IKEA into town, and accommodating rapid growth in manufacturing at Boeing and Paccar.  Mayor Clymer wanted to hear from residents, giving each resident TWO five-minute opportunities to converse with council at every council meeting– once near the start, and once near the end– a practice which kept us connected to our residents and their needs.  Mary has told me she wants to help foster that same degree of open dialogue her grandfather did, even on difficult subjects, and ensure the Council, Mayor, residents and businesses work closely together on a bright Renton future.  Mary’s parents, like her grandfather, modeled Renton community engagement and service to her throughout her life.

In contrast, the incumbent is finishing her first term on Renton Council, and has unfortunately made many enemies through her combative, impulsive style.  No current Renton elected officials are supporting the incumbent for reelection.  Countless Renton residents and all of the incumbent’s council colleagues have been on the receiving end of her calling them liars or even worse names simply for having reasonable differences of opinion with her. A recent Axios article describes the incumbent’s past domestic violence arrest and ongoing anger management issues.  Even worse, some of the incumbent’s policies have proven dangerous to Renton residents.  For instance, she aggressively lobbied to keep a state law banning almost all police pursuits even while Renton’s other six councilmembers all lobbied for the opposite, to allow reasonable police pursuit authority.  The police pursuit restriction passed the legislature, but then had to be rescinded three years later after it led to skyrocketing rates of reckless driving, car theft, violent road rage, smash-and-grab burglaries, and fatal car crashes. The incumbent later promoted a legislative bill which would prevent police from pulling over motorists who lack basic safety equipment like brake lights, another law which would have increased fatal accidents if the legislature had not rejected it.

To get the positive, safe future that everyone in Renton deserves, we need a healthy change in Renton Council Position 2.  Mary Clymer is ready to be that change.  Please vote for Mary by August 5.

From left, me, my wife Cathy, Mary Clymer, and Former Mayor Denis Law at Renton’s Farmers Market

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