The City of Kirkland is actively preparing reports to submit to the Public Disclosure Commission in reaction to complaint by the conservative watchdog group Evergreen Freedom Foundation alleging that the city did not disclose payments to some lobbyists.
“We are currently working on gathering reports from 2005 to 2009,” said City of Kirkland Intergovernmental Relations Manager Erin Leonhart.
The complaint states that the City failed to disclose payments totaling $143,000. Kirkland was not ranked in the top 20 in the state in the complaint against 68 separate state agencies.
Leonhart said that the lobbyists are used to help move forward the city’s legislative agenda adopted by the Kirkland City Council.
“They are there to help try and protect our revenue,” said Leonhart. “Part of it is to try and get capital funding.”
As far as concrete benefits from the lobbyists Leonhart pointed to the $3 million the City of Kirkland received from the state for the redevelopment of Totem Lake Mall. That money was ultimately transferred to the redevelopment of Parkplace.
“Far and away that paid for itself,” said Leonhart. “Lobbying does serve a purpose.”
The $143,000 that was not disclosed during the five year period to the PDC is just a fraction of the City’s overall budget. The City of Kirkland had a budget of $366 million for 2009 alone.
The two lobbying agencies that the city used were Soren Northwest Inc. and Phil Watkins Public Affairs Inc.
The report said that Soren Northwest Inc. Received payments from the City of Kirkland totaling $95,000 from 2005-2009. The company had approximately $324,500 in undisclosed payments to government agencies in Washington State, according to the report.
The City of Kirkland paid Phil Watkins Public Affairs Inc. $6,066.68. The company had approximately $48,000 of undisclosed payments from government agencies around Washington State in 2005, the report stated.
The complaint alleges that “the City of Kirkland apparently failed to properly file L-5 lobbying forms as required for public agencies under RCW 42.17.190,” and that the only report available on the PDC Web site from the City of Kirkland is from the first quarter of 2007.
“There are no other reports disclosing the expenditures for the other quarters,” said Preston Mui of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation in the complaint. “Because of this, I believe Kirkland failed to properly file L-5 lobbying forms with the PDC.”
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation said in a press release that “data compiled by contract lobbyists and public agency lobbying report forms filed with the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) reveal $6 million worth of taxpayer-funded lobbying expenditures in 2009 alone,” and that Washington State government agencies have spent $24 million from 2005-2009 on lobbyists.
