Campaign donation legal, looks bad
Saturday, September 29, 2007 11:46 PM PDT
By Staff
Printable version
E-mail this articleEthical questions are arising from a $1,000 campaign contribution Longview City Councilman Don Jensen accepted from a car club that receives city tax money.
Jensen, who is up for re-election this fall, accepted the donation in August from Unique Tin. Jensen is past president and 18-year member of the car club, but he also is chairman of the city committee that allocated $2,100 to Unique Tin to help fund its annual car show.
The state Public Disclosure Commission, which oversees political campaign finances, said there was nothing illegal about Unique Tin's donation to Jensen, or Jensen's acceptance of it.
However, while Jensen's peers on the council say they believe he would never deliberately do something improper, some agree the exchange "doesn't look good."
"If it had been me, I wouldn't have taken it, just because of appearances," Councilman Chet Makinster said Friday. "I told him that myself. Appearances -- it just doesn't look good. But I don't think he did anything wrong."
Jensen, 65, is a retired firefighter and is chairman of the city's lodging tax committee, which decides how to distribute tourism funds. He said Friday he told committee members he was a member of Unique Tin, and it didn't occur to him that anyone might fault him for taking a political donation from the club.
"Unique Tin donates to the Toy Run, they donate to hospice, and they donated to me. It never crossed my mind because here the club was donating to me like they do everyone else," Jensen said. "I guess I'm just too naive to be thinking about that sort of thing. ... It's campaign season, I take money from everybody.
"In hindsight, I guess, I should've stopped and looked at that. (But) I don't think it's improper, so there's no reason not to take it."
Jensen noted that he originally ran for office in 1999 after trying to get the council to approve a car cruise. Longview is a town full of car buffs, and they wanted a voice on the council, he said.
"I'm a car guy," Jensen said. "I guess that's why they keep supporting me."
Longview Finance Director Kurt Sacha, who records the minutes at Lodging Tax Advisory Committee meetings, said Jensen did not vote on Unique Tin's application for tourism tax dollars because the other four committee members' vote to approve it was unanimous. As chairman, Jensen would vote only to break a tie, Sacha said Friday.
Sacha said the committee approved Unique Tin's application on Aug. 31, 2006. It forwarded its recommendation to the City Council, which officially approved the funding request.
The car show was held Aug. 24-26 this year. Unique Tin donated $1,000 to Jensen's campaign Aug. 30, according to the PDC.
Jensen's opponent in November's election, Burgerville manager Benjamin Harrison, said he doesn't have a problem with Unique Tin's campaign contribution.
"I don't see anything that's raising a red flag immediately as I hear it portrayed. From what it sounds like, he's part of a club that's supporting him, and he's been able to support them through the council," said Harrison, 30.
'Dirty politics crap'
Unique Tin's campaign contribution to Jensen had "absolutely nothing to do with the lodging tax," said club treasurer Phil Williams, who is Jensen's brother-in-law. (Williams is aware his relation to Jensen will raise eyebrows, but said "that has nothing to do with anything.")
Williams, 59, said he isn't aware what committees Jensen is on. Everett Timmreck, the car show's director, filled out the lodging tax application.
It's not as if the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee was a one-man board with only Jensen on it, Williams pointed out. He attributes the sudden interest in Unique Tin's contribution to Jensen to "dirty politics crap that goes on every year at election time."
Jensen asked the club at a meeting in June if it would be interested in supporting his campaign for re-election, Williams said. Someone made a motion, another club member seconded it, and the majority of members at the meeting voted to donate club money to Jensen's campaign, he said.
The club, which has about 50 members, told Jensen he would get the donation after the car show, Williams said.
"As far as I know, the people would've still agreed to give him the money whether there had been any lodging tax money or not," Williams said Friday. "As far as I'm aware, there was absolutely no impropriety on anyone's part."
Unique Tin charges $25 for entries in its car show, held the fourth weekend of every August at the Cowlitz County fairgrounds. Some of the money raised is set aside for the next year's event, and the remaining money -- usually a few thousand dollars -- is donated to community organizations such as hospice and youth sports leagues.
The car show started in 1974 at a swap meet that drew seven cars. Today, the club limits the number of car show entries to about 350 vintage and custom cars, trucks and motorcycles after drawing a record 554 cars in 1996. Unique Tin spends about $13,000 to put on the event each year.
The show draws several thousand people to Longview, which is why Unique Tin is eligible for tourism tax dollars.
In 2006, lodging taxes collected by Cowlitz County and its five cities totaled $636,000, according to the state Department of Revenue. Taxes on stays at motels, hotels, campgrounds and RV parks raised about $58 million statewide last year.
The lodging taxes must be used on advertising to promote tourism. Groups receiving the tourism funds must submit invoices for advertising expenses to their local government for reimbursement.
So far, Unique Tin has submitted invoices to the city for a street banner and 150 posters, for a total of $1,268, Sacha said Friday. He had asked the car club to turn in receipts in large batches rather than in a trickle, the city finance director said. The club is eligible to be reimbursed for up to $2,100 in tourism funds this year and in 2008.
Longview-Kelso Chamber Director Rick Winsman, one of the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee's five members, said he didn't see a problem if Unique Tin spent the tourism funds on the car show as intended, and if the club's campaign contribution to Jensen wasn't attached in any way to those funds.
However, Winsman said, "Perception is most people's reality. As a city official in the past, I've recused myself from several votes ... because the perception was there that people would see it as a conflict, and I didn't even want to go there."
'100 percent committed to community'
Williams said no other political candidates have approached Unique Tin for donations, but if they did, the club would consider it.
"We donate to all kinds of things. We donate to the NRA ... just charities that the club members believe in," Williams said.
According to the PDC, the $1,000 donation is by far the largest any council candidate in Longview or Kelso received this year, with the exception of Longview Councilwoman Ramona Leber's opponent Chuck Wallace. The Democratic Men's Club of Cowlitz County gave Wallace $1,000. Jensen received $250 from that political group this year, according to PDC records, which are available for public viewing at www.pdc.wa.gov.
Jensen made no secret of the campaign contribution. Councilman Kurt Anagnostou, who also is up for re-election, said Jensen mentioned it to him recently when they were talking about campaign fundraising.
"I said, 'Geez, I need to join the freaking car club,' not thinking about the money we'd actually given them," Anagnostou said Wednesday.
Anagnostou said he's served on the council with Jensen for eight years and knows Jensen is "100 percent committed to the community."
"It would be hard for me to believe it would be something he would intentionally think of, that he would give them money and they would give it to him later," Anagnostou said.
But perhaps for the sake of appearances, Jensen ought to return the money to Unique Tin, he said.
Mayor Dennis Weber said he doesn't see it as a serious problem. Council members aren't expected to give up all their community connections once they take office, he said.
"What is important is that the public has the right to know," Weber said Wednesday. "Is that a serious connection or not? That is definitely a voter's prerogative to make that decision."
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