Please be informed of a recent, deeply concerning interaction I had when seeking transparency from our elected official, Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope.
I was recently informed that Mr. Swope had filed his financial affairs disclosure forms incorrectly with the Public Disclosure Commission, and after further research, confirmed this information. The origin of Washington’s disclosure law that requires these annual forms can be traced to the efforts of concerned citizens in 1970 believing that the public had the right to know about the financing of political activity of its elected officials. This transparency law is nothing new — it has been well established and clearly understood in Washington state politics for 53 years now.
When I reached out to Commissioner Swope to explain the concerns and how it looks optically to have very obviously incorrect information since he took office posted, Swope promptly replied as follows:
“Dear Kyle,
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I genuinely appreciate your diligence in this matter. Upon reflection, I realize that I misunderstood the question about having anything new to disclose. I was not aware that I needed to remove items from previous years that no longer apply. My oversight was inadvertent, and I am fully committed to resolving this issue immediately. You can be assured that from the day I started as commissioner, I have dedicated myself entirely to this role, giving it 100% of my attention. I will be contacting the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) today to correct my disclosures and will consult with my CPA to ensure that all future filings are in strict compliance with the requirements.
Your alertness to this issue underscores the importance of transparency and accountability, values that I hold in high regard. Thank you for helping me uphold these standards. Best regards, Sean.”
Commissioner Swope did then promptly fix his filings, which now reflect allegedly accurate information, including the recent amendment dates. These are all available to the public on the PDC website. However, I am left with two glaring questions:
1. If Swope does in fact hold transparency and accountability in such high regard as he claims, why is he completely “misunderstanding” his filings, multiple years in a row, in the first place? This does not show a high regard for transparency.
2. If Commissioner Swope has repetitively failed to correctly file multiple years of forms accurately, what other forms, etc., has he not read correctly, filed correctly, pasted last year’s answers onto or “misunderstood” in his capacity stewarding our tax dollars?
Commissioner Swope failed to correctly perform a duty required of him and has not been openly transparent with his constituents until specifically confronted about his lack of accurate transparency.
Feigning ignorance on the matter when caught is no excuse.
What else is Sean Swope neglecting to accurately report — personally or on behalf of his constituents?
Kyle Wheeler
Toledo
