EVERETT — Snohomish County’s elected officials are supposed to file disclosure forms about their finances every year to reveal potential conflicts of interest.
Though everyone filed these forms with the state this year, County Executive Aaron Reardon and some members of the County Council have not filed them separately with the county. Earlier this month, the county’s ethics commission dismissed a complaint criticizing Reardon for this oversight, though it cautioned him to comply in the future.
“It was obviously frivolous, and it was dismissed as such,” Reardon said Monday in an e-mail.
The forms in question, F-1s, give the public a chance to review information related to the official’s personal home mortgage and sources of income. They’re available by request through the state’s Public Disclosure Commission. Also, people can look up the forms at the county campus in Everett.
Reardon filed missing forms with the county auditor for 2007-09 immediately after the complaint was brought to his attention. Forms for 2010 aren’t due until next spring.
In his written response to the complaint, Reardon said filing electronically with the state should have fulfilled his obligation to file with the county. Reardon also says he received no notice about submitting forms to the county.
Not so, said County Auditor Carolyn Weikel.
“There is confusion on whether it should be filed here or with the state,” Weikel said. “And that is why the county auditor’s office does send out e-mails, and multiple e-mails, reminding all of those elected officials and department heads that they do have to file with us.”
Councilmen Brian Sullivan and Mike Cooper, like Reardon, had no F-1s on file this year, while Councilman Dave Somers submitted his this month, after the April deadline.
“Clearly, if the council isn’t turning them in, it’s because there’s confusion,” said Cooper, who was undergoing cancer treatment around the time this year’s forms were due. “If there’s confusion, we need to clear that up.”
The county ethics commission consists of five appointed officials. They have received only one other complaint during the past five years, and it, too, was dismissed, said Kathryn Bratcher, the County Council clerk who also serves as clerk for the ethics commission.
Don Wlazlak of Marysville, a retired county analyst, filed the complaint.
“I was disappointed that they didn’t have a public hearing where Mr. Reardon would have to explain in public why he wasn’t filing them,” Wlazlak said.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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