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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.
I don’t know whose idea it was to prepare and broadcast all this gushing information about the incumbent at such a delicate time in the election. None of the other elected officials in Renton are endorsing the incumbent, so it seems unlikely they would intentionally be working to give her assistance in such a questionable way. It leaves me wondering whether Council Member Rivera herself got the ball rolling, and timed her receiving of the certificate and the publicity material to happen at this point in the election. The city has added numerous communication personnel this year, and perhaps they were taken advantage of. Councilmember Rivera could have potentially earned this certificate years ago since it comes from her getting trained on her obligations and duties as a council member; her receipt of this certificate is not a breaking-news achievement that the city needed to share with the public in the heart of the election, unless it’s to try to show the public she is qualified.
Maybe someone will attempt to argue that this fits in a loophole of the law because it’s “urgent news” or some similar bogus argument, but that still won’t make it right. It’s clearly a violation of the spirit of the law, if not the letter of the law.
To me this is simple and obvious. The City of Renton should quit spreading this story during the election.
City Facebook post that showed up in my feed today
Also featured on City of Renton Instagram
Also posted to City of Renton X site
City of Renton August 15 bulletin
The following article is published on the Renton City website:
The Council Member’s quote on the city website above reads like a voter pamphlet statement
These final paragraphs of the website article make it really look like a Public Service Announcement, not breaking news.
Meanwhile, the challengers are using their own campaign funds, following the rules, as the third-place Primary Election finisher endorses the second-place finisher.
Candidate Raman Mann endorses Candidate Mary Clymer, posted today on Facebook
This is how the recodified Public Service Announcement law will read starting next year– essentially the same.
Thank you Randy, for saying exactly what I was thinking yesterday, when it felt overwhelming looking at how many times this was shoved down our throats. Very few people care about this, it’s just to get CR’s name out there right after the Primary. Mary Clymer is the best choice for Renton, proven through years of her consistent steady leadership throughout our Community. CR came out of nowhere 4 years ago while Mary Clymer has been well respected all her adult life in Renton due to her own good character. The incumbent recognizes her uphill battle in this race. She’ll use whatever crappy tactics needed to overcome her very worthy opponent. What a contrast between these two—good vs. evil!
PS—Ed Prince bragged that all 7 council members now have “achieved” this certification. Just what do they learn??? Doesn’t seem to me that it’s helped any of them be effective council members for Renton, just gets them kudos from fellow electeds.
PDC would definitely look into this. The presentation is typical back slapping city nonsense, but spending time and resource to publish this is what gets them in hot water.
What are the possible consequences of their actions?
What does it take to get this certificate?
It takes about 30 hours of class/study/workshop time to get this certificate. This is the equivalent of about one unit of college credit in a college-quarter system. Since it took the council member four years, it represents about 8 hours of training per year. AWC training is very good, and I’m glad our council members are receiving it. But almost everyone with a corporate job should be getting about 8 hours of basic training per year, and significantly more in highly-skilled positions. Most workers don’t see their names broadcast in major social networks and press releases for getting basic training done.
Only took her until the last few months of her time in office? Just in time for the doomed reelection effort? Gee, how convenient.
I actually felt Councilmember Prince did a job “downplaying” the award of this certificate – and instead of giving Rivera accolades during the presentation, he almost dismissed it as “something every other council member has at least 1 of, sometimes two.” It was notable to me how lackluster his announcement was.
He can’t stand her.
Nobody can. Nobody on the Renton council endorsed her. The only one that’s nice to her still is Ryan and that’s because he’s a Boy Scout.
What is the PDC and what could they do?
The PDC (Public Disclosure Commission) could potentially look into this if a formal complaint is made. The PDC’s focus is usually on monitoring the activities of campaigns, candidates, and lobbying firms, that are often staffed by non-professionals and/or those with a strong political agenda. The PDC typically expects/hopes that cities and other government agencies will largely self-patrol their own actions to prevent violations.
In most legal matters covering cities, the Mayor and Council Members are supposed to be the primary line of defense to ensure all laws governing city powers and responsibilities are complied with. It’s pretty rare for the Attorney General, PDC, or any other agency to make a formal complaint against a city. Because of this, it’s important that every council member and the Mayor are all free to speak their mind and raise this type of complaint, and that the rest of our elected officials take any complaints seriously.
Much of the damage is already done with respect to this particular burst of campaign publicity for the Carmen Rivera campaign. Even if the city was fined, it would just be us taxpayers paying the fine, and the impact on the election can’t be undone or even known. But it is important that the city does not do it again, and the public should demand election neutrality from our communications staff in all future campaigns.
Also, the city should perform an after-action review, and figure out how this happened. If it was manipulated into happening by the Carmen Rivera Campaign, the PDC should definitely become involved.
Oh, goody.. the local rag picked it up:
But noting about her DV abuse. Weird that a British newspaper would cover that, but our own newspaper wouldn’t. Wouldn’t have anything to do with one of the editors [redacted] Carmen?