Group that promoted changing Lynnwood form of government files complaint against opposition group

Published 4:35 pm Friday, November 11, 2011

The organization that supported the proposition to change Lynnwood’s form of government has filed a complaint against the organization opposing the proposition.

A spokesman for the supporting group, “People for a Better Lynnwood,” says that the “No on Prop 1” organization failed to open its financial records.

“No on Prop 1” had registered with the state Public Disclosure Commission under what is called “mini-reporting,” which exempts it from filing detailed periodic reports until after the election as long as it raises and spends less than $5,000.

People for a Better Lynnwood spokesman Ron Siddell said Thursday that he suspected that the No on Prop 1 group had spent more than $5,000 on mailings and robo-calls but that he had been unable to find out because the No group had not made information available as required by PDC rules.

PDC officials were not available Friday because of the Veterans Day holiday.

A Prop 1 opponent said Friday that the opposition group had made information available and had spent less than $5,000.

Another opponent, Councilman Ted Hikel, said Friday that the mailings had been an independent expenditure by Mayor Don Gough, not part of the No group’s spending and that Gough had reported the independent expenditure.

Lynnwood Proposition 1 was trailing in the Thursday vote count by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com