OLYMPIA — One investigation ended Tuesday but another may be starting for an e-mail sent by a union lobbyist to lawmakers linking donations to Democrats with passage of a contentious workers rights bill.
The Washington State Patrol announced Tuesday no crime was committed by the Washington State Labor Council official whose March 10 e-mail ignited the probe and led the governor and leaders of the House and the Senate to halt action on the Worker Privacy Act.
“Referring the matter for possible criminal prosecution was a gross overreaction and never should have happened,” said Rick Bender, president of the Washington State Labor Council.
“An honest mistake occurred in copying this e-mail to some legislators who already supported our legislation, so to characterize this internal e-mail as some kind of threat to legislative leaders — or a possible crime — is absurd,” he said.
Rep. Mike Sells, D-Everett, one of four legislators to receive the online communication, echoed the sentiment.
“There was nothing in it that was illegal. I’m not surprised at the result,” said Sells, who sponsored the House version of the bill. Sells is also employed as secretary-treasurer of the Snohomish County Labor Council.
When State Patrol investigators wrapped up their work, they sent the materials to the state Public Disclosure Commission.
Commission leaders didn’t request them but spokeswoman Lori Anderson said agency staff will review them to determine if any civil action is warranted.
Bender said the labor council will cooperate fully and is confident they will find no wrongdoing.
He was more frustrated Tuesday with how this incident put down the union group’s top legislative priority.
The bill would have prevented employers from requiring employees to attend meetings or respond to any communication dealing with union, political or religious matters. Companies could still hold meetings but employees cannot be punished for skipping the meetings or not answering what the bosses send out.
It had been at the focus of a tough fight between labor and business forces.
Gov. Chris Gregoire; House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle; and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, had all expressed reservations about the bill, though none had said outright that it should not be passed.
On March 10, after a conference call of labor leaders on strategies to win passage, a veteran labor council official sent a follow-up e-mail to participants and others.
In it, one of the points raised by the official suggested the state Democratic Party be told that “not another dime from labor” would be dumped into fundraising arms of the House and Senate Democrats until Gregoire signed the act.
Sells received it and didn’t give it a second thought. Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, decided to forward it to Brown.
That set in motion a flurry of activity culminating in a night meeting of Brown, Chopp and Gregoire.
There, the three decided the content of the e-mail raised “serious legal and ethical questions.” They killed the bill and asked the State Patrol to investigate. None of them commented Tuesday.
“We looked carefully at the e-mail and at the law,” State Patrol Chief John Batiste said in a statement. “We could not find a specific criminal statute that was violated.”
State Patrol detectives conferred with Thurston County prosecutors in making their decision. No one, including the labor official and the lawmakers, was interviewed in the weeklong inquiry, State Patrol spokesman Capt. Jeff DeVere said.
Late Tuesday, Sells and labor council leaders had not decided whether to try to get the legislative leadership to resurrect the bill.
Sells figured another reason would be found to prevent it from going forward.
If they did go forward, he said, “My guess is all this is going to kind of poison the atmosphere.”
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623, jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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