Tacoma mayor in trouble over campaign financial disclosures again. Here’s her punishment

Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission found Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards in violation of failing to timely file her personal financial affairs statement for the second time in two years.

At its hearing Thursday, the commission imposed a $500 fine for the second violation.

The annual F-1 report was due April 15. Woodards also did not meet the deadline for the 2020 F-1 report due April 15, 2021 and was fined $250. Woodards has yet to pay that penalty, according to compliance coordinator Tabitha Townsend.

Townsend told the commission Woodards began serving as Tacoma’s mayor in 2018 and was a City Council member for seven years and filed all of her F-1 forms. The 2021 violation was her first.

Woodards said in an interview Thursday she tried to file in 2020 but ran into an error as she was reporting her current levels of investments. She said this year she was focused on the needs of her community and not filing the forms by deadline.

“I meant to get to it,” she said. “I have nothing to hide. It needs to be a priority.”

A F-1 report contains personal financial information of candidates at the start of the campaign and annually by elected officials, state boards and commissions members, state agency directors, and legislative and gubernatorial professional staff. The information allows the public to assess if state officials have conflicts of interests. If a jurisdiction has at least 2,000 registered voters as of the last general election, then the elected official must file an F-1 report.

In August 2021, the Public Disclosure Commission fined Woodards $250 for failing to timely file a Personal Financial Affairs Statement for 2020. The filing deadline was April 15, 2021. That was her first violation.

The fine for first violations ranges from $0 to $500, and for second violations $500 to $1,500.

Townsend said during the hearing Woodards informed her she was reaching out to the collections agency to resolve the $250 penalty from 2021. She had not received the statement from the collections agency as of yet, Townsend said.

Woodards said she plans to take care of the penalty by the end of this week.

Woodards also filed her 2020 and 2021 F-1 forms on Aug. 18, ahead of the PDC hearing, she said. All of the reports are now current.

Woodards was absent from the commission’s hearing.

Commissioner Nancy Isserlis said the $500 fine could be suspended if proper arrangements are made with the collections agency to resolve the outstanding penalty of the previous case.

“That puts the burden on her to resolve it with the collections agency, get the money paid and go forth and commit no further violations,” she said.

The penalty is due within 30 days.

This story was originally published August 25, 2022 at 12:35 PM.