March 4th, 2019

Wayne Barnett

Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission

Seattle Municipal Tower

700 5th Ave, Suite 4010

Seattle, WA 98104

Director Barnett,

I am filing an ethics complaint against against Kshama Sawant, on behalf both of myself as a
Seattle resident and my fellow District 3 neighbors, regarding her activities between 2016 and
2018. Based on recently published internal documents produced by members of the leadership
of the Socialist Alternative party, it appears she has committed at least two violations, one of
the Seattle Code of Ethics, and another of the Public Records Act of Washington State. 

While I expect that these apparent violations of city and State law will ultimately be adjudicated
at the ballot box, I believe for the health our democratic institutions the voters of District 3 and
Seattle deserve to know definitively the extent and legality of Councilmember Sawant’s actions
during her tenure in office.

Councilmember Sawant appropriated city funds and resources for use by a political party
Rule: Section 4.16.070(B)(2) of the Seattle Ethics Code reads, “A covered individual may not…
use or attempt to use, or permit the use of any City funds, property, or personnel, for a purpose
which is, or to a reasonable person would appear to be, for other than a City purpose.” 

Violation: Kshama Sawant permitted the use of city funds and personnel by the Socialist
Alternative party.

Fact 1: In an internal memo, the Socialist Alternative Party clarifies that their hiring practices for
full-time employment by the party is, first and foremost, political in nature and for the benefit of
the Socialist Alternative party. 1

Fact 2: The Socialist Alternative party asserts that Councilmember Sawant’s office is
subordinate to the party.2 

Fact 3: Councilmember Sawant confirms that the “Council Office” is subordinate to the
Socialist Alternative Party.3


“Socialist Alternative hires comrades to work full time first on a political basis, and this starts
with a national and international perspective.” (Appendix A, page 2)
1

“…The council office is a critical political asset and organizing tool that belongs to the Seattle
branches, and to the national organization…” (Appendix A, page 4)
2

“…I completely reject the idea that the Council Office is failing - in any way - […] to be
accountable to the SEC [Socialist Alternative Seattle Executive Committee] and the [Socialist
Alternative] organization…” (Appendix B, page 4)
3

 Fact 4: The Socialist Alternative party effected a personnel change of city paid staff in
Councilmember Sawant’s office by terminating Whitney Kahn.4 

Conclusion: Both Councilmember Sawant and the Socialist Alternative party have stated that
the Councilmember’s city-paid office staff are accountable and subordinate to the Socialist
Alternative party. The Socialist Alternative party Executive Committee members explicitly
stated that their criteria in hiring all paid staff (“full-timers”) is done for political purposes above
all other considerations, and demonstrated their control of city-paid staffing by terminating an
employee in Councilmember Sawant’s office. These statements and actions definitively
demonstrate the use of city resources for the benefit of a political party and not for the benefit
of the city of Seattle. Violations of this type are a class B felony per RCW40.16.020.

Councilmember Sawant violated the Public Records Act

Rule: RCW42.56.080(2) reads, “Public records shall be available for inspection[…]and agencies
shall[…]make them promptly available to any person…” RCW42.56.010 defines a “public
record” as, “…any writing containing information relating to the conduct of government or the
performance of any governmental or proprietary function[…]by any state or local agency
regardless of physical form or characteristics…”

Fact 1: Public Records Act requests for documents regarding the employment of Whitney
Kahn resulted in zero documents produced by Councilmember Sawant’s office.5 

Fact 2: A bulletin written by a subset of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Alternative
party references the existence of documents regarding the conduct and termination of Whitney
Kahn, stored in a “Google folder.” 6

Conclusion: Councilmember Sawant and her staff have been using 3rd party communications
services to conduct City of Seattle business (the hiring and firing of her staff), and deliberately
concealed those documents Public Records requests, in violation of RCW42.56. Violations of
this type are a class B felony per RCW40.16.020. 


“…The EC and comrades leading the work in Seattle felt Whitney should not be one of the
five staff focused on the local work of the branches in Seattle…” (Appendix C, page 1)
4

SCC Insight published, “…Public Document Request filed related to the termination of
employment of Liebermann and Kahn returned no documents or emails from Sawant and her
office — nothing at all…” (https://sccinsight.com/2019/01/07/sa-sawant/#more-9518)
5

“[…]a number of the documents relating to Whitney and Rebekah have now been made
available (though not all) and the links are available to four additional documents in Response to
the EC Majority Reply[…]. A clear notification needs to be sent to all comrades calling their
attention to the additional documents (separate from the ‘sensitive material’) that were excluded
by the EC in their various packets.” (Appendix D, page 11) and “…On June 15th a new
document from Whitney (titled 06/14 WK Statement to June NC) was also added to the
‘sensitive material’ Google subfolder called "Council Staffing: WK.” (Appendix D, page 12)
6

 While elected officials are expected to make decisions based, in part, on their ideological
preferences, they may not legally appropriate government resources to advance that ideology
outside the boundaries of city business. Nor may they shield documentation of those actions
from the public record by conducting city business using private communications services. 

I request that you review the attached documents and excerpts as well as other information
now available to the general public 7 to determine whether these apparent violations reach the
legal threshold of violations under the Seattle Code of Ethics and RCW40.16.020. Thank you
for your consideration. 


Sincerely, 


Logan Bowers

District 3 Resident

CC: Mark Mayo

CC: Attorney General Bob Ferguson

SCC Insight has published a large number of internal Socialist Alternative documents at,
https://sccinsight.com/sadocs/.
7