Seattle council critic admits ethics complaint was politically motivated
Oct 30, 2015, 6:02 PM | Updated: Nov 2, 2015, 5:22 am
Is Kathy Yasi a concerned citizen or is she conducting a political hit?
That’s the question KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz asked of Yasi, a Seattle daycare owner who has submitted a formal ethics complaint against Seattle City Council member Tim Burgess.
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Yasi says she was interested in a childcare-related proposition on last year’s ballot — one that Seattle City Council member Burgess weighed in on through his Twitter page. As she looked further into Burgess’ Twitter account, she found other posts with political angles.
“Using your city website to publicize your Twitter account is wrong,” Yasi said. “It’s pushing his own campaign, and it’s pushing the campaigns of other people he supports. It’s wrong and he made a mistake.”
Burgess’ page on the City of Seattle’s website links to his Twitter page, on which the council member posted campaign tweets.
“Mr. Burgess has been using his website to promote his Twitter account and his Twitter account promotes his own campaign, and the campaigns of others,” Yasi said. “As far as I can tell, that is using city assets and resources to promote yourself, which is not allowed. I think he should have known better.”
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Yasi submitted a formal ethics complaint to the city about the issue. Since the complaint was filed, Burgess removed the questionable tweets from his account.
Yasi says she’s happy Burgess erased the tweets, but still wants the complaint to go through the ethics process. She says it’s about integrity and has called Burgess’ online actions “corrupt.”
For Rantz — who acknowledges that personal and public accounts need to be kept separate — this isn’t about integrity. It’s a political hit. Specifically, it’s a blast against Burgess, with the ulterior motive of helping his opponent, Jon Grant, in the current council race.
“I’m not a Tim Burgess fan, I’m not a Jon Grant fan. I don’t like either of them,” Rantz said. “But I look at this and I don’t see huge corruption. I think this is a political hit that seems calculated.”
For example, Rantz points out, he could go to council member Kshama Sawant’s Twitter account and find posts for various political campaigns and call her out for the same thing. But Yasi hasn’t gone after Sawant. Only Burgess.
“I question whether or not this shows anything corrupt,” Rantz said. “This seems like a political maneuver to bring attention to a campaign in a negative way so that people will not want to vote for Tim Burgess, but would want to vote for Jon Grant. This is not necessarily the story of a voter who wants to keep everyone honest. You are just going after Tim Burgess.”
Yasi didn’t argue with Rantz. Actually, she agreed with him.
“It is absolutely politically motivated,” Yasi said. “I would love Jon Grant to do very well in this election. And I also expect integrity from elected officials.”
Yasi added that her full-time job kept her from being able to scour Burgess’ record for more mistakes.
“I would have loved to have found something bigger,” she said.
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