Ethics complaint filed against WA lawmaker behind rent stabilization bill

(The Center Square) – State Sen. Emily Alvarado, D-Seattle, is facing an ethics complaint accusing her of violating state laws related to her employment with an organization lobbying for Engrossed House Bill 1217 limiting rent increases. Alvarado is the legislation’s prime sponsor.

EHB 1217 aims to improve housing stability for tenants by limiting rent and fee increases, requiring notice of increases, limiting fees and deposits, and creating parity between lease types. It also provides for tenant lease termination and enforcement by the state attorney general. The bill would cap annual rent hikes at 7% for most units and 5% for manufactured and mobile homes. The bill prohibits any increase within the first year of tenancy but includes several exemptions, mainly for affordable housing providers.

On Thursday, Glen Morgan of We The Governed filed a complaint against Alvarado with the Legislative Ethics Board, writing, “In particular she is in violation of RCW 42.52.020 (Activities incompatible with public duties) and RCW 42.52.110 because of her employment with an organization that engages in lobbying efforts.”

The complaint asserts that “Sen. Alvarado is a Vice President, Pacific Northwest Market for Enterprise Community Partners. According to its website she ‘oversees Enterprise’s work in Washington and Oregon to create and preserve affordable homes and brings programmatic solutions to scale through policy advocacy.’”

According to its website, Columbia, Md.-based Enterprise Community Partners has “together with partners and funders, helped create or preserve 51,579 affordable homes by leveraging $3.85 billion in capital throughout Washington and Oregon.”

Morgan talked with The Center Square on Friday.

“She essentially uses her position as a legislator, to reward the company that she works for,” he said.

Morgan went on to note that he also filed a public records request for any related communications from Alvarado’s office, which he said “would probably really help ethics investigators.”

The ethics violation is clear-cut in his view.

“Because she’s getting substantial compensation for her work on housing policy from her non-legislative employer, who is lobbying for the very bill that she’s promoting, HB 1217,” Morgan said. “So they’re basically paying her and then lobbying to make sure that a bill she’s backing gets passed, which they’ll benefit from, and she’s not disclosing that, she’s not recusing herself; it’s all pretty obvious.”

Morgan said the conflict of interest is not entirely unusual.

“If we don’t exercise the limited oversight that we have in ethics laws, then they are just going to be continually broken,” he said. “By having them investigate and expose this, I feel like we’ll be more likely to reduce this type of behavior in the future.”

According to the state’s Legislative Ethics Manual, “legislators are prohibited from holding the position of executive director or other administrative officer of a trade association or other similar organization which has lobbying as a principal activity.”

The manual also states, “It is not a conflict of interest for a legislator to serve on an organization’s Board of Directors as long as the Board does not oversee the work of the lobbyist or set or oversee the legislative agenda. A legislator can remain on the Board in this situation but must recuse himself or herself from any decisions involving the lobbyist or the state legislative agenda.”

Morgan’s complaint contends that “because advocacy, policy, and lobbying are identified as activities on its website and Sen. Alvarado holds a position as an administrative officer and engages in policy advocacy, [she] is engaging in activities incompatible with public duties and is receiving compensation for official duties.”

The Center Square contacted Alvarado's office for comment on the complaint but did not receive a response.

The Center Square also sought comment from Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways & Means Committee hearing EHB 1217 on Friday. A legislative aide responded via email to say, “Senator Gildon sits on the Ethics Committee and will have to respectively decline to comment on an active complaint.”

Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, who also sits on the Ways & Means Committee, declined comment so as not to interfere with the ethics investigation.