"Strippergate" is back in the news. Glaring front-page headlines announced recently that the King County prosecutor will pursue criminal charges against the owners of Rick's Strip Club - Frank Colacurcio and his son - for allegedly funneling illegal campaign contributions to city council incumbents Heidi Wills, Judy Nicastro and Jim Compton two years ago. The three had voted in favor of a controversial rezone benefiting the club.
The city has placed a $650 lid on an individual's contributions to a candidate per election. The Colacurcios are accused of dodging that limit by slipping cash to friends, relatives, and associates who then gave that money to the three incumbents.
Relentless coverage of these illegal donations dominated the news during the 2003 election and contributed to the defeat of Wills and Nicastro. Just for good measure, voters also kicked Margaret Pageler out of office even though she had nothing to do with the scandal. Lacking a credible challenger at the time, Compton was narrowly re-elected.
More pressing concerns
While too much has been said about "Strippergate," little or nothing has been said or done about the more important, and far-reaching examples of how special interests shape Seattle's decision-making.
In the fall of 2003, the Seattle Displacement Coalition filed a complaint with the Seattle Ethics Commission that was subsequently upheld, charging council member Compton with failure to disclose at least one free trip: he flew on a Vulcan Company (a Paul Allen owned business) private jet and enjoyed free admission to a Portland Trailblazer game with refreshments and seating in Allen's private box.
Soon after, Compton cast one of the critical votes favoring Vulcan's local agenda, including co-sponsorship of a resolution committing the city to the promotion of biotech development in South Lake Union. Compton only acknowledged these ethics violations after they were discovered and made public by the press.
In the wake of this clear case of influence peddling, neither the ethics commission nor county prosecutor furthered an investigation into Vulcan or Compton's conduct.
Compton was only required to abstain for one year from a narrow set of "quasi-judicial" matters directly affecting Vulcan's interests. Conveniently, the bulk of council actions related to Vulcan would not come up again until that year had expired. Today, Compton again is championing Vulcan's plans in South Lake Union.
Last year the coalition also filed a complaint with the ethics commission charging the mayor with accepting illegal contributions to his office fund in 2002 and 2003 from Vulcan.
At the time of these contributions, Vulcan was under contract to the city and actively negotiating other lucrative contracts. City ethics laws bar parties from making donations to the office fund while under contract or pursuing contracts with the city.
While Vulcan refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, Mayor Greg Nickels returned more than $500 in contributions from Vulcan. The Ethics Commission did not question the veracity of the Seattle Displacement Coalition's charges and affirmed the appropriateness of returning the funds to Vulcan.
No closer look
However, the commission did not choose to seek charges or fines against either party. These breaches of ethics involving the largest player right now in city politics, should have at least suggested the need for a deeper investigation of Vulcan's role.
This year, Vulcan and its employees already have given $3,100 to the mayor's re-election. Companies and their employees with interests directly tied to Vulcan's agenda in South Lake Union have given another $9,000 to the mayor.
City council president Jan Drago has received, from Vulcan and its employees alone, more than $2,500 for her re-election campaign.
Last August Drago sponsored a fundraiser for the Vulcan-backed "Build the Streetcar" campaign. Vulcan and other benefiting property owners used this campaign to promote council approval of the streetcar.
The campaign also lobbied council members for creation of a local improvement district (LID) that would restrict their contribution to only $25 million of the streetcar's $50 million cost.
By sponsoring or even attending this fundraiser, Drago likely violated state "appearance of fairness" rules, because she knew at the time that she soon would be voting on the LID. Such council votes are considered "quasi-judicial" and require council members to abstain from giving prior support or even meeting with potential beneficiaries of pending actions. Yet Vulcan representatives met numerous times with Drago, the mayor and other council members prior to this vote and surely must have discussed how much they would pay under the LID.
In the council elections of 2003, an investigation by The Stranger showed that Compton received $13,000 in contributions from Vulcan, its employees and related interests.
It was during that campaign that Compton took his ride on a Vulcan jet. In January 2004, The Stranger also broke the news that Nickels hosted a fundraiser the previous month for two incoming city council members, Jean Godden and Tom Rasmussen. Many in attendance, according to The Stranger, were affiliated with Vulcan.
According to records filed with the Ethics Commission, that fundraiser brought in $4,575 for Rasmussen and a similar amount for Godden.
On December 8, 2004, Vulcan threw its own fundraiser for Rasmussen at Allen's Experience Music Project. Later in the month a similar fundraiser was planned for Godden.
A source quoted in The Stranger said, "Vulcan higher-ups spent the weeks before the Rasmussen fundraiser making phone calls to low-level Vulcan contractors and suppliers, none-too-subtly encouraging them to join the party."
A check of election records for the month following Vulcan's events shows that together Godden and Rasmussen received more than $60,000 in contributions during that period.
"Strippergate" is a tawdry soap opera about an aging, former area porn kingpin and his son bundling contributions from friends and families to skirt campaign finance limits. Their goal was a rezone to expand a parking lot.
Vulcan and its lobbyists are seeking more than a half billion dollars in city subsidies along with rezones.
And we've got a mayor and key council members falling over themselves to support the entirety of the Vulcan agenda - an agenda that casts a long shadow over the future of this city.
If "Strippergate" can continue to dominate the attention of the ethics commission and now the county prosecutor's office, when will we see the Vulcan connection get the attention it deserves?
Outside City Hall is a monthly commentary from the Seattle Displacement Coalition. Have a few words to share with Carolee Colter and John V. Fox? Editor@capitol hilltimes.com.
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