LOOPHOLE LISA DIGS HER ETHICAL HOLE DEEPER
POSTED 26 July 2023
A day ago, Lisa Brown began her legal defense on ethical issues that may prevent her from being mayor of Spokane. In doing so, she has completely contradicted her central campaign theme. Brown has boasted a resume that includes funneling billions to Washington cities through her appointed position with the state. Her position as director of state Commerce, she says, is why Spokane should elect her mayor as she will continue to make the money flow. But, is that ethical or even legal?
Sue Lani struck a chord. In a caustic response to Spokesman-Review columnist Sue Lani Madsen’s recent thought-provoking piece, Lisa Brown posted,
“The statute they cite was intended to prevent an elected official from giving a grant to a company and then going to work for that company. It does not apply to a candidate for office. I negotiated no contract at Commerce. I led a team that disbursed, through formula and competitive awards, billions in federal and state funds …”
Brown continues,
“Ironically, one of my biggest complaints against the Mayor is how the city has failed to get its fair share of state and federal funding during her tenure.”
No Lisa, the statue, Employment after public service, doesn’t deal with candidates. The statute deals with former state employees like you. One doesn’t get any higher up in state government as an appointed employee than director of the WA Department of Commerce.
Brown was appointed in 2019 by Governor Inslee as a consolation prize for losing her campaign for congress by ten percentage points. She served in that position until March 3rd of this year, a day after she announced her campaign for Spokane mayor. That’s right. She began her campaign while she was still a state employee. Ethical?
The ethics law that Lisa passed in 1994 and is likely to violate if elected mayor is covered in our story here.
EDITOR’S NOTE: As a citizen of Spokane, I’m going to take this opportunity to ask a candidate directly:
Lisa, let’s pretend for a moment that you may not be in violation of state ethics laws (remains to be seen) by being mayor, could you at least explain your recent mixed messaging?
You claim that you negotiated NO contracts while at Commerce. Here is one contract of presumably hundreds that required a negotiation, see page 8. If you didn’t negotiate the contract who did? Were you a “hands-off boss” at Commerce and weren’t really responsible for moving all that money? Please make up your mind.
Have you ever negotiated any substantial contracts? If you didn’t do so as director of Commerce, you certainly wouldn’t have done so as chancellor at WSU Spokane. You like to take credit for bringing the WSU medical school to Spokane, but wasn’t that taxpayer money? As a state legislator you didn’t negotiate contracts, correct? In fact, the only contracts that you negotiated have been on your political campaigns. You have paid one contractor this year $85,000 and growing (your campaign PR firm) and is the same firm that Commerce paid hundreds of thousands to on your watch. This is almost half of your campaign budget. As a Ph.D in economics, how do you justify paying a PR firm that much money, including producing a television advertisement, then not having enough money to put that ad on TV? These are the real world realities of budgets – you don’t just get to raise taxes when the money runs out.
You posted yesterday that Spokane didn’t get its “fair share” of state and federal funds.” Why NOT! As the director of the department of Commerce, why didn’t you see to this? Were you withholding funds or knowledge of funds? If so, this is a serious dereliction of duty. Too bad for Spokane that you didn’t negotiate contracts at Commerce. Could you have at least called the mayor and not just emailed your husband?
I won’t hold my breath for a response. However, these questions are in need of answers. Maybe a simple citizen webpage doesn’t rise to your attention Lisa, but we, the not-so-silent majority are watching and waiting.