State fines WEA for political spending
Teachers union, which used nonmembers money for politics, must pay $400,000
spokesmanreview.com
Richard Roesler
Staff writer
OLYMPIA _ The state's largest teachers union was slapped Tuesday with a $400,000 fine for illegally spending nonmembers' money on politics.
Once attorney fees and investigative costs are tacked on, the judgment is likely to be the largest ever won by the state Public Disclosure Commission, PDC head Vicki Rippie said.
"I do believe that a strong message was delivered to the union community," she said from home Tuesday night. "This section of law must be complied with."
The money will not be refunded to those nonmembers, although some are trying to force that through separate pending lawsuits against the union, the Washington Education Association.
The late-afternoon ruling caught state and union officials off guard. WEA communications director Debra Carnes said she couldn't comment on the decision until the union's attorneys study it this morning.
"We believe that we always operate within the law and we always have," she said.
At issue is the Washington Education Association's longtime practice of requiring nonmember teachers to pay an "agency shop fee" nearly equal to the dues paid by members, because they reap the benefits of collective bargaining and other union work. That's about $600 a year, Carnes said.
It is illegal, under a 1992 campaign-reform initiative, to spend such fees on union political activity unless the nonmembers authorize it. State officials said the union illegally spent tens of thousands of nonmembers' dollars on politics over the past five years, and improperly mixed their money with that of members.
The money, Assistant Attorney General Tom Wendel said, was spent on things like school levy campaigns and the fight against Initiative 695, which reduced car tab fees to $30 a year and stripped millions of dollars from local governments.
The union, in court arguments in May, argued that it tried to comply with the law, but couldn't get a straight answer from the PDC about what to do.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor sided with the state. The union, he wrote, broke the law and didn't change its practices even after agreeing to "multiple violations" in a court document last September.
On the other hand, Tabor said, the Public Disclosure Commission should have moved faster to enforce a 1992 statute prohibiting political spending with such fees. The agency, he said, only took action when prodded by citizen complaints.
"The fact remains, however: a violation of statute is still a violation," Tabor wrote.
The state had sought a $200,000 fine, and asked that the amount be tripled, saying the union's actions were intentional. Tabor agreed, but ruled that doubling the fine would be enough. The attorney fees and investigative costs, which the union must pay, won't be doubled.
The union has 90 days to bring the judge a proposal for preventing similar problems in the future.
Rippie said the PDC is pleased with Tabor's ruling.
"He makes it very clear that this is not a minor accounting violation, as the WEA portrayed," she said. "He makes it clear that this was an intentional violation."
She said she's not sure how much the attorney and investigation costs will be, but said that it could top $100,000.
The group that started the complaint, Olympia's Evergreen Freedom Foundation, also was pleased by the decision.
"We don't think any employee should have money forcibly withheld from their paychecks to pay for politics," executive director Lynn Harsh said.
"It's just really unfortunate that this system has been set up."
The vast majority of the 70,000 people the union represents support its politics, union officials say. Only about 4,000 are nonmembers, and only about 300 to 400 of those have opted out of their dues being used for politics, they say.
"We're really upfront about our advocacy for public education," WEA spokesman Rich Wood said in May. "Our members expect that." |
