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Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission Cases, 1967-2005

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Seattle (Wash.) Ethics And Elections Commission
Title
Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission Cases
Dates
1967-2005 (inclusive)
1971-2001 (bulk)
Quantity
17.6 cubic feet, (44 boxes)
Collection Number
2203-01
Summary
Ethics and Elections Commission advisory opinions, whistleblower files, and case files.
Repository
Seattle Municipal Archives
Seattle Municipal Archives
Office of the City Clerk
City of Seattle
PO Box 94728
98124-4728
Seattle, WA
Telephone: 2062337807
Fax: 2063869025
archives@seattle.gov
Access Restrictions

Records are open to the public.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for processing this record series was provided through a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
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Historical Note

The Board of Ethics was established in 1971 to promote ethical behavior by City officials and employees, to provide advisory opinions regarding conflicts of interest, and to conduct hearings regarding violations of the Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics sets standards of conduct for City officials and employees in carrying out City business. The members of the Board of Ethics also served as the Fair Campaign Practices Commission, which heard cases of campaign violations, although the two entities maintained separate offices and staff. In 1991 the two entities were consolidated into the independent Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission. The Commission enforces campaign practices legislation, including financial disclosure requirements, and develops and enforces ethical standards for city officials and employees.

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Content Description

Reports, correspondence, memoranda, and other materials comprising case files of requests for clarification of ethics policies and election laws, advisory opinions, whistleblower files, and public disclosure requests of all of the above. The series is divided into two subseries, the first being the files of the Board of Ethics and the Fair Campaign Practices Commission. The second subseries contains the files of the Ethics and Elections Commission, created in 1991 by the merger of the two departments. While the Board of Ethics and the Fair Campaign Practices Commission were two separate agencies until 1991, their respective records were interfiled after the merger and maintained as one unit.

The first subseries, the case files of the Board of Ethics and the Fair Campaign Practices Commission, is divided into two further subseries, Legal Opinions and Cases, each of which is filed alphabetically by the type of opinion being requested or the party accused of violating either the ethics code or election law. The Legal Opinions contain requests from Councilmembers and others regarding ethics codes. The Cases contain investigations of presumed violations. This subseries contains material for cases from 1971 to 1991.

The second subseries, the case files of the Ethics and Elections Commission, is filed according to case number. After the merger, a system was established to assign a unique number to each case received by the department. The first two numbers of each file represents the year in which it was created, so that the cases are arranged chronologically. Files without case numbers are filed at the end of the year in which they were created. In addition to the case number, each case is identified further by either the name of the party requesting information or an opinion, the party accused of a violation, or, in the case of anonymous complaints, the department accused and the type of violation. This subseries contains case files from 1991 to 2002.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

[Item and date], Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission Cases, Record Series 2203-01. Box [number], Folder [number]. Seattle Municipal Archives.

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Administrative Information

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Finding aid prepared by Megan O'Shea
2011

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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