Jean Godden & Her Cozy Relationship with PI Reporters (Part 2): & her campaigning on the clock.

Big disclaimer: expect the comments thread to be spammed by Jean Godden's campaign consultants, as has been the case all along.

It turns out that Jean Godden hasn’t been just warming her seat at all, and has been quite busy. Campaigning during working hours, that is.

According to a complaint filed at the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC) Jean Godden’s campaign had 52 campaign events on her City of Seattle desk calendar, totaling 87 hours of time booked, 20 of which were during regular business hours.

Dave Coons, who volunteers for the Joe Szwaja campaign, filed the complaint. He said that there were numerous violations of the Municipal Code, which prohibits candidates who are current office holders to conduct business while using city equipment. In this case, according to him—computers, her City calendar, and her staff, who scheduled events for her campaign, and were apparently directed by Jean Godden.

Godden also had her staff book 24 hair appointments at Amanda’s in Wallingford, 12 of which were during city hours, and of which one doubled as a meeting between her and a campaign manager, Carlo Davis. Copies of her calendar indicate numerous occurrences like these; so much for the argument of isolated incidents.

SEEC rules do provide leeway for notating engagements that are not related to city business, so that city officials do not double book and miss important scheduled city business, and to track whereabouts in case of an emergency. However, according to a letter sent out in 2005 by the SEEC, redistributed to 2007 incumbents, “When your staff schedules a fundraiser or a campaign appearance for you, whether or not they initiate or accept the call, the primary beneficiary of that act is your reelection campaign, and the benefit to the City is incidental.” A reply to Coons’ complaint further states that “...Such activity raises serious issues under the Ethics and Elections Codes”.

Another example: just last August, Godden staffers were in communication with Cathy Allen, the head of the consulting group used by the Godden campaign, to schedule a speaking engagement for a luncheon with the Consular Association of Washington. Dawn Todd, Seattle legislative assistant, facilitated the arrangement between the Connections Group, Allen’s firm, and Ronald Masnik, Consular Association President. When it turned out that Godden could not make the event, Todd helped with getting a replacement in her stead—Cathy Allen. In short, e-mail shows that city staffers were setting up events with Godden’s campaign consultant, using city computers and time.

This is one example of the numerous instances of personal engagements being arranged on the city’s dime. Numerous e-mails also show Godden bantering and making social arrangements with various PI reporters over the past two years, without any apparent business being conducted. Godden muses to M.L. Lyke of the PI about a reception, and calling her on Lummi Island. Another, with Kerry Godes, a UW employee, in the thread, makes dinner arrangements. Lyke was a $50 donor, and Godes a $100 donor.

Another from Godden to Angela Galloway of the PI does some PR for herself, about how she carpools, exercises, and is eligible for the HOV lane. Not exactly city business, but good fluff for newspaper gossip, one can suppose. Another e-mail simply compliments Regina Hackett of the PI on a story and invites her to “come sit on her blue sofa”. And another, in response to an inquiry by Kery Murakami, PI reporter, on a unfinished sign about rules of conduct in City hearings, Godden simply sends a Dave Letterman style top-ten list, which included items like “Eye rolling reporters must sit in back rows”, and “All media reports must include at least one quote from someone surnamed ‘Fox’” (an apparent dig at John Fox, a homeless advocate--who hasn't endorsed her). Funny and all—if you’re still a columnist, but not so much, if your time is supposed to be spent actually answering questions.

It does suggest that she doesn’t take the job very seriously.

Another e-mail exchange with a PI editor, Janet Grimley, discusses another “Women Night Out”, saying that it’s nice to get together with old friends because “when it comes to [her] reporter friends, they have to keep a certain distance if they’re going to cover [her]...like a friendly divorce”.

But that’s not all.

Another document provided to TPN shows that 19 meetings with her current campaign manager, Carlos Davis, were coordinated by Godden’s staff between February 24th and the end of August. Another shows seven appointments with Cathy Allen, her campaign consultant. On her meetings with her campaign fundraiser, McKenna Hartman: 40 meetings totaling 76 hours, 3 of which with master fund raiser Colby Underwood.

Some of the meetings with Hartman note a connection with “Triad”. Turns out Triad is short for Triad Development Corporation, a campaign donor, and their CEO “Mr. Grimm has overseen the daily operations of Triad and the development of over $1 Billion in commercial real estate.”

Godden downplays her connections with big-time developers. But her calendar shows numerous meetings between her and major lobbyists for the developers, including those from the Rental Association of Puget Sound; Joe Quintana, representing the interests of the “Denny Triangle” development; Dan McGrady (Vulcan aka Paul Allen’s company), to name just a few. Ironically, even the developer interests' time on the books don’t stack up to the amount of time meeting with campaign staff.

Some of the entries are brazen. For example, on January 25th, she is scheduled for (an) “oyster shuck and baby kissing” at a well known downtown restaurant, during city hours. One entry indicated that Godden blew off a Finance and Budget meeting on February 6th, 2007, in order to meet with a campaign constituent. The entry is marked “per campaign request”, as are many other meetings.

Undoubtedly, the Godden campaign will downplay this all as no big deal. That's the biggest reason why the SEEC should investigate the complaints fully.

In the meantime, it's worth reassessing whether or not Godden has actually been doing her job, to give a clear picture of what four more years might look like. If using city resources to run her campaign and meet with developer interests are what we want in a City Council, then we have no business complaining when it seems that council members aren't working for all of us.

Those that are even doing the work, that is.

UPDATE: "Blog For King County", run by Gentry Lange, highlights the strange history of Carlo Davis' comment posting history for the Godden campaign on all sorts of web sites. Plus, BFKC is a good read, and we're ashamed that we've overlooked it in our side bar (hat tip to Gentry for the story).