UPDATE: Compliant dismissed.
The complaint filed against Cascade Bicycle Club by Gene Hoglund on behalf of Citizens Against Raising Car Tabs was dismissed by the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission today.
Hoglund filed a complain with the SEEC earlier this week claiming that Cascade Bicycle Club and Transportation Choices Coalition improperly used taxpayer funds to substantially underwrite Streets For All Seattle and that the groups used hundreds of thousands of city dollars for the Prop 1 campaign.
"It really was a frivolous waste of taxpayers' money. [The opposition] had absolutely no foundation in facts or reality."" said Craig Benjamin,
Policy and Government Affairs Manager at Cascade Bicycle Club.
"By filing frivolous complaints like this, our opposition shows they are grasping at straws because their position has so little substance. This is a distraction technique," wrote M.L. Kelly on the Cascade Bicycle Club blog.
Previous article:
At the request of the Citizens Against Raising Car Tabs the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC) is investigating the contributors report of the Seattle Streets Campaign, a campaign promoting Seattle Prop 1 for $60 car tabs.
The Citizens against Raising Car Tabs claim that Cascade Bicycle Club and Transportation Choices Coalition improperly used taxpayer funds to substantially underwrite Streets For All Seattle.
The group says that Transportation Choices and the Cascade Bicycle Club have received hundreds of thousands of city dollars for the Prop 1 campaign and requested an investigation of ethics violations.
Read the Streets For All Seattle SEEC List of Contributors Report, here.
In return, Cascade Bicycle Club says the investigation is "a frivolous waste of taxpayer money".
"We are very confident that it will be dismissed shortly," said Craig Benjamin,
Policy and Government Affairs Manager at Cascade Bicycle Club.
"The opposition continues to do everything they can to avoid talking about what Proposition 1 actually does and how it will benefit Seattle and instead are running a campaign based on deception and misleading negative attacks."
Cascade Bicycle Club has been contracted by the city to perform services related to education of youth, safety and outreach to neighborhoods, distribution of helmets, safety classes for adults, summer programs for disadvantaged youth, and safety improvements around schools.
"Clearly our opposition doesn't know how our organization works," Benjamin said. "Much of our political work happens through our c4 organization, while our education work occurs within our c3. For tax and legal purposes, there’s we are very careful to make sure that there is no connection between any of the contractual work and our work in support of Proposition 1."
Benjamin said that most, if not all, of the contract money mentioned in the complaint was spent well before Proposition 1 got on the ballot. And, the money donated to Prop 1 came from Bike PAC, which is funded through individual private donations.
"We are disappointed in our opposition and look forward to continuing the conversation with voters about how Proposition 1 will make our transit faster and our streets safer," Benjamin said.
