[OLYMPIA | JERRY CORNFIELD]—Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson has admitted to violating state ethics law and accepted a $4,000 fine for allowing a former top adviser to travel with him on a state plane to the Tri-Cities last summer.
Under an agreement awaiting action by the state Executive Ethics Board, Ferguson would pay half the fine, with the rest suspended if he commits no new violations for two years.
Ferguson and Kate Reynolds, the board’s executive director, each signed the stipulated agreement earlier this week. The Executive Ethics Board will consider approving, rejecting or modifying it during its May 8 meeting.
By reaching the agreement, Ferguson, a Democrat in his second year as governor, avoids the board conducting a public hearing on the charges and potentially imposing a fine of up to $5,000 for each violation.
In accepting the settlement, Ferguson agreed that evidence “is such that the Board may conclude” that he violated the Ethics in Public Service Act.
Ferguson could not immediately be reached for comment. Brionna Aho, his communications director, said the governor handled the matter without use of state resources.
If the agreement is adopted, it will close the book on allegations arising from the flight last June, which Ferguson invited Mike Webb, his former chief strategy officer, to join. Webb had resigned weeks earlier amid complaints that he fomented a hostile workplace.
For the flight, employees of the governor’s office occupied six of the plane’s seven seats. Webb sat on a seat over the plane’s toilet.
In January, the board concluded there was “reasonable cause” to believe that the governor’s actions ran afoul of Washington’s ethics laws, which bar the use of state resources for the private benefit of a non-state employee. Reynolds concluded then that the governor provided “a special privilege” to Webb by allowing him to travel on the Washington State Patrol aircraft,
Ferguson contended last year that use of state resources was “de minimis in nature” and not for private gain, and he asked for the matter to be dismissed.
“Allowing an individual to travel as a guest neither interfered with official duties nor provided that individual with any improper advantage derived from state office,” he said in a written response to investigators.
The agreement obtained Thursday says the governor “admits that they made a mistake, and it will not happen again.”
Ferguson also agreed that he violated two statutes — one barring use of state resources “for the private benefit or gain of a non-state employee” and the other prohibiting him from using his position to secure “a special privilege” to a non-state employee by allowing them to travel on a state aircraft.
The Washington State Patrol told investigators that aircraft costs for the trip were $2,094.68 per flight hour.
Webb, who now works for the Singleton Schreiber law firm, declined to comment.
SOURCE: This article was authored by Jerry Cornfield of the Washington State Standard part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Author: Washington State Standard
