City Fines Pro-Mallahan Group

10/30/2009

The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission has fined a firefighter and union leader $5,000 for failing to report his group's political contributions.

Kenny Stuart is president of Seattle Firefighters Union Local 27. He also founded a political action committee called Working for Seattle. The group has raised over $100,000 in support of Joe Mallahans mayoral bid. This week the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission learned about the group, and charged Stuart with failing to report its donations. The money came from firefighters, builders groups and business leaders, among others. Stuart notes that his group did file at the state level. He says the failure to file with the city was inadvertent.

Stuart: "I was horrified that somehow this mistake had occurred on my watch, and I'm doing everything to rectify it."

The commissions executive director Wayne Barnett said the case is serious because the group has more money on hand than either of the mayoral campaigns. Stuart must pay half of the $5,000 fine immediately; the other half will be suspended if he faces no further election law violations in the next two years.

I'm Amy Radil, KUOW News.

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