February 02, 2009
Ron Sims rains on own parade by violating state campaign laws
Oops. On the day that Ron Sims gets nominated to a senior position in the Obama administration, he reveals more ethical shortcomings by committing a serious PDC violation, earning himself a formal complaint.
See the Twitter box in the upper right corner of the King County Executive web page. Since about 6pm Sunday it's had a link to a P-I editorial promoting Sims' preferred candidate for Elections Director. [snapshot here].
That is a flagrant violation of RCW 42.17.130:
No elective official nor any employee of his [or her] office ... may use or authorize the use of any of the facilities of a public office or agency, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person to any office
Sorry, Ron, the law applies to you too.
Toby Nixon has filed a formal complaint with the PDC
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 02, 2009
01:50 PM | Email This
2. It's not forgetting to be pay taxes owed, but it's a start for Mr. Accuracy Rate.
3. He may have felt compelled or required, to do it, to fit in at his new job.
4. Ron Sims: Utilizing technology to break campaign finance laws more efficiently!
5. He's not your problem now, maybe you can select someone sensible to run for his now open position.
Tim Eyman for King County Executive. =P
6. Would also be interesting to learn what facilities or public resources, including any time provided by Ron Sims while working for the citizens of King County, if any, were used in the prerecorded phone calls that Sims recorded to endorse Huff that interrupted my family during dinner a couple weeks ago? Was a private advertising company used? Were the calls recorded in Sims' office or other county facility? Was Sims or any other county employees "on the clock" in their county jobs when those recorded calls were produced?
7. Since he has a D after his name it is all good. He just needs to apologize and move on...
8. Change we can believe in!!!!!!!
9. Another attaboy for Toby Nixon.
10. Wishful thinking!
The article starts with deadline dates, and other information pertaining to the director of elections race.
The middle paragraph includes statemnet in the form of an endorsement for Huff, that could have easily, tongue in check, been overlooked by a young zealous staffer whose motivation was only to get information out on the county web site. If you think anything more than this will happen, dream on! At best an apology will smooth over everything and the beat goes on.
I am more concerned about Sims going to DC to manage $39 Billion. Sims has proven to be swayed by special interests and lobbyists which is the antithesis of Obama rhetoric. But let him figure that out at least we are rid of Ron's wasteful spending.
Now for Phillips and read my article last week when this announcement first surfaced.
Be careful what you wish for in a replacement, it could and will be worse if it is Phillips.
11. KC Conundrum:
The middle paragraph includes statemnet in the form of an endorsement for Huff
Exactly. Thanks for agreeing.
that could have easily, tongue in check, been overlooked by a young zealous staffer whose motivation was only to get information out on the county web site.
That it was an "overzealous staffer" does not exonerate anyone.
At best an apology will smooth over everything and the beat goes on.
At "best," the PDC will follow its normal procedure and penalize Sims for any violation, and it goes on the record as a violation. Plus, it will be brought up as one of his many offenses during the whole process.
No one thinks he will go to jail or get anything more than a small fine for this, of course, so I'm not sure what your point is.
12. Sims is no doubt wishing he had "forgotten" to pay 30 or 40 thousand bucks in income taxes. That level of "oversight" might have granted him some consideration for the #1 HUD post, rather than #2. Oh, well, live and learn.
13. Democrat culture of corruption.
14. In light of this, he sounds perfect for the Obama administration.
15. Good catch Stefan. My glee at watching Ron Sims depart the pattern here in KC will be sweetened by knowing he does so with a PDC complaint stuck to his shoe.
16. Looks like it's either been taken down or rolled off the county site now. Good think I captured a PDF of it first.
17. It looks like the "Twitter updates from Ron Sims" on the Executive home page shows only the top 2 items on his Twitter stack.
It also looks like he pulled the P-I link off his Twitter page altogether.
18. Face it folks, it is the only way we could get rid of his Majesty. Promote him to his level of incompetence. If memory serves me correctly, that, I believe is is called the "Peter principle". Even the 65% land grab couldn't dethrone him in PR of KC! LOL.
Good luck and don't let the door hit you!
19. I wish the Iranians would hire and put him in charge of their army. They would be broke and immobilized within a month. World peace.
20. Oh My God!!!
I want to retire as I will be 62 next month but with people like Tom Daschle, and Timothy Geithner failing to pay income taxes and not being prosecuted for their failures and adding in Rom Sims on top of that already corrupt mixture to help Obama puts Obama's approval rating at about 10%. My retirement will be adversely affected by Obama and his policies with hyper-inflation.
21. Laws? He's a dem and you think he's to follow laws? Those are for the little people.
PLEASE RON, TAKE THE MAYOR WITH YOU.
22. Good job Toby!!!! Keep up the good work!!!! Hope you run again in 2010.
I'm behind you 100%!!!! Again, hope you run again in 2010.
Ruth Gibbs
regpc3@aol.com
23. He's leaving our town thank god, what more could anyone ask for.. BBBYYYEEE Ron, don't let the door hit you in your corrupted taxing ass!
24. How has Sims used HUD money in the past? Here's how: sweatheart deals for developers.
This is the type of stuff that derail his nomination, but probably won't... please read this and if you can front page it:
http://eatthestate.org/03-11/RonSimsBaggage.htm
25. Lets cut Ron some slack. He said and I quote" I am going to work for the most charismatic man on the face of the planet and he happens to be the President of the US". No one should be held responsible for their actions during such an intense "Obamism". Lets withdraw the formal complaints so he can get out of here on time.
26. Cato, at least if Eyman ran (which I would recommend against it), the issues of the executive race would be well-defined. The Democrats wouldn't be able to run their feel good campaigns like they want.
27. pudge; totally disagree but won't waste my lousy typing skills debating someone that probably would lynch the man standing next to the horse thief.
I can think of at least 5 other major situations that would stop Ron dead in his tracks from going to DC. But we need him out of here.
Let's check back after this surfaces to see who is correct.
28. Hmmm who kept reelecting the king county robber barons? and why.
29. Shorter KC Conundrum: so instead of presenting an argument, you realize you can't, so you just make personal attacks instead.
Are you CERTAIN you dislike Ron Sims? Because you act a lot like he does.
30. Cato, at least if Eyman ran (which I would recommend against it), the issues of the executive race would be well-defined.
If Little Timmy Eyman ran he'd have to disclose how much every special interest group pays him to launch one of his usually misguided initiative campaigns. Ron Sims would look golden when everyone got a glimpse of all the dirty slush money Little Timmy Eyeman gets every year from the gambling and construction lobbies.
31. Yeah I am Sims man "pudge", really interested in Ron's incompetence being taken to a whole new level. He can waste $39 Billion of tax payer money instead of $4.4 Billion at the county level. Does the peter principle ring any bells here?
As for thinking Ron orchestrated the PI reference on the twitter site, you give him way to much credit, this was done by his PR folks for sure, probably the same one that made the statement in the Seattle Times:
Sims' office pulled the tweet after being informed of the complaint Monday. Sims spokeswoman Carolyn Duncan said it was "a very innocent post" intended to alert readers to the election deadline.
"There wasn't any intent to endorse any candidate," she said.
And I have water front property in Florida, Florida, Florida for sale. See my while board for details."
32. KC Conundrum:
As for thinking Ron orchestrated the PI reference on the twitter site ...
I never said he did. I only said he's responsible for it.
