Organizers of a free speech initiative in Seattle have accused City Attorney Mark Sidran of violating the city's municipal code for allegedly using his public office to campaign against their proposed ballot measure. Free Speech Seattle, which is sponsoring Initiative 46 to overturn the city's ban on posting fliers on utility poles, has filed its complaint against Sidran with the city's Ethics and Elections Commission.
So far, Free Speech Seattle has 11,000 of the required 19,000 petition signatures to get the measure on November's ballot. Free Speech argued Sidran used his public office in a TV news interview Feb. 25 and in a press release June 15 to campaign against the initiative.
"He's the city attorney. He should know about this. It's embarrassing," said Tim Crowley, I-46's campaign manager. "Our hope is that the (Ethics and Elections Commission) tells him to stop."
Sidran, however, said the complaint misses the mark because he said the ethics ordinance allows elected officials to give their opinions on ballot measures in response to a specific inquiry, such as a TV reporter's question.
And he said his press release was "about a lawsuit to enforce the law, it was not about the proposed initiative."
Crowley thinks otherwise. The complaint said that in a KCPQ/13 newscast, Sidran voiced his opposition to the initiative. "It appears he did so from his city office," the complaint said.
The complaint also cites a Sidran press release explaining the city was filing a lawsuit against a moving company for alleged violations of the 1994 ordinance outlawing signs on city poles. The lawsuit seeks to collect nearly $7,000 for the removal of 132 signs, Sidran's release said.
The complaint said the Sidran press release included a quotation from a Seattle City Light line crew chief Bill Tilton, who is a member of IBEW's Local 77. Less than two months before the release, Crowley debated a Local 77 representative about I-46 on a radio show.
Carolyn Van Noy, the Ethics and Elections Commission's executive director, said an impartial investigation will be conducted as quickly possible and that it would be resolved by November. "We won't drag it out."