Summary of SEEC Violations Complaint Against Jean Godden

DAVID M. COONS
Seattle WA 98103


To whom it may concern:

On October 12th, 2007 a complaint was filed with the Seattle Ethics and Election Commission against council member Jean Godden. The complaint describes how Jean Godden has violated election law by using her city calendar and city staff to coordinate her campaign. The Ethics and Elections Executive Director , quickly moved to dismiss the complaint based on a letter he crafted in early 2005. The complainant immediately moved for an appeal. By law an appeal stays any opinion and subsequent dismissal until review by the full commission.

The appeal contends that city staff exceeded the scope of the 2005 letter by repeatedly arranging specific details relating to the campaign including fundraising and scheduling events. This is a serious election violation.

According to legal council sought by the complainant this appeal will hold up in a court of law. Further, the 2005 letter of opinion sent out to all elected officials may in itself be unlawful.

The Seattle Times erroneously reported the matter dismissed when in fact it is under appeal even though they were provided the necessary information to get the reporting correct.

Is Jean Godden Breaking the Law in Her Bid for Seattle City Council?

This election season has been a real roller coaster. From Tim Burgess and David Della fighting it out in the papers, to Venus Velasquez and Jane Hague having their personal driving records smeared all over the news, we've seen more than a few headlines about people's personal lives crop up almost weekly. Even Richard McIver is in on the action, er... so to speak.

Personally, I think that people's personal lives are mostly their own business. Because to me it's what a person does in his or her professional life that really counts, especially when they are seeking political office. Now of course, driving under the influence when you are leaving a campaign event or while on the campaign trail clearly blurs the lines. And not taking clear accountability for one's actions also speaks volumes. But to me what one does in office is of paramount importance.

And just what has Jean Godden been doing in office? Well clearly her own calendar shows that she's been violating the law.

Over at The Paper Noose Blog, they've posted quite an interesting series of articles on Jean Godden's questionable ethics. But as the author points out, it is really up to the people of Seattle to decide whether or not Jean's ethics are "Black and White" as she has claimed in campaign fliers in the past.

So to that end I've obtained a copy of the complaint and scanned it for your perusal here:

Jean's Calendar Part 1
Jean's Calendar Part 2
Jean's Calendar Part 3

And since those are kinda lengthy reads, I'll post quick highlights of events and coordinating activities that appear on her Official City Calendar below. Pay particular attention to February 7th where she actually blows off a city council finance and budget meeting to attend a campaign event, as well as the amount of coordination that appears between her and Carlo Davis her campaign manager, to the point of even posting his cell number. Also, just what official city purpose could there possibly be for keeping track of where Cathy Allen is? I mean really...

1/23 Mckenna (fundraiser) knows you may be a few minutes late

1/25 Oyster shuck and baby kissing

2/1 Marty Yellam will attend this event-per campaign

2/7 McIvars office and Drago’s office have been notified that jean is unable to attend budget meeting

2/8 Mckenna ill(fundraiser)

2/16 Thank donor

2/16 Cathy Allen leaving for Lummi

2/22 need to make up four hours with Mckenna-(fundraiser) fundraising calls

2/24 Gian Carlo (campaign manager) will meet you at amandas, and I told him to bring cards

2/24 Nickels BBQ-per campaign-they have envelope to make donation

2/26 Rosanne is contact person-per campaign

2/27 Mckenna(fundraiser) will meet you on the 61st floor of the Columbia tower

2/27 Talk to Carlo(campaign manager) about evening events-Marianas? RVD?
Talk to Mckenna(fundraiser) about april(staffer)

2/28 Gian carlo (campaign manager) will accompany you. I made donation of $40 on their website (campaign event coordinated by scheduler)

3/7 Cathys place (political advisor)

3/13 Amanda says it only takes half an hour(Amanda is hair dresser)

3/15 Call Mckenna (fundraiser) to cancel march 22nd if appropriate

3/29 Schedule with Amanda (hair dresser)for april 4th a.m.

4/3 It’s an hour and a half only Mckenna

4/9 six and a half hour behind on phone calling (Fundraising)

4/10 Carlo (campaign manager)is not going

4/16 8 1/2 hours behind with calling (Fundraising)

4/16 Mckenna gone this week Colby will call with Jean (Colby underwood is
Mckenna hartmens boss)

4/18 Amandas as early as you can (hair dresser)

4/19 with Colby

4/23 Phone bank

4/25 Campaign event
Carlo Davis 206-383-XXXX cell [CELL NUMBER REMOVED BY GENTRY]
Mckenna says its 5:30-7:30 at the palace ballroom

5/3 Carlo will come at 9:30 (a.m.)and drive
11:15 a.m. COPE interview-if possible they would like the questionnaire back ahead of time-they are going to email it (campaign event coordinated by scheduler)

5/4 only 6 1/2 hours behind in calling time ,cancelled april 12th (fundraising)

5/11 Carlos RSVP’d

5/12 Carlos gone through may21st

5/14 contact carlo

5/17 Candidates forum- notes: contact gary poulet
Format: all city council,port and school board considered. 2min statement followed by Q and A with brief answers of yes or no answers. (godden staff took this call for the campaign)

5/21 36th dist dems endorsment meeting- notes; format 2min opening comments followed by Q and A for 25 min. (godden staff took this call for the campaign)

5/22 Carlo will drive/Carlo has returned

5/30 Campaign event- notes; opening statement, two questions, closing statement,rapid fire rounds

5/30 more details to come from carlo

6/2 Carlo will be there

6/6 WCV Interview-note Questionnaire submitted

6/7 RHA PAC Interview-Note; fill out,e-mail back questionnaire

6/7 Tell carlo if Jean goes to bike thing

6/11 SEA WILL CONTACT THE OFFICE WITH A TIME FOR JEAN TO BE THERE
(godden staff took this call for the campaign)

6/20 each candidate will have about two minutes to speak and the time to answer questions

6/26 speak and be considered for endorsement

7/12 Carlo will appear

7/13 Carlo will meet you there
Cathy will meet you at your house and you will drive together to lummi

7/18 pick up carlo at 5:50 at usual parking space

7/31 Carlo will come to office
endorsement interview-questionnaire already filled out- friends of seattle contact person sean sean@sean howell .com 206-372-5979

8/1 Jean Godden fundraiser-NOTES; PICK UP CARLO AT LITTLE PARKING SPOT THOMAS HAS 25 RSVPS EXPECTS 20 TO 30 PEOPLE. TOMIO WILL DO A QUICK INTRO THEN ASK

8/10 festive bites, wine,entertainment carlos’s dad
rsvp’d yes (this is a campaign related event set up by staff)

8/15 campaign event- Notes; $25 suggested donation contact number:206-632-5100—carlo will contact, parking suggestions on invitation

8/16 carlos coming
campaign event-notes Contact Margret Irvine, Informal BBQ 2min speech

8/23 stop by with carlo

Now all of this information is public record, so it's not like Joe Szwaja's campaign had to go out and hire a private investigator to dig into Jean's background. In fact if you look at her calendar most of the entries appear with a notation that says "per campaign request". Um.... that's about as clear of a violation of the law as one could possibly ever hope to find. But hey, with Mr. Carlo "I post under multiple identies all from the same IP address" Davis running her campaign, I can't imagine what else they carelessly have been up to?

Jean Godden's Campaign Manager Carlo Davis Trolling Against Joe Szwaja

Carlo Davis, the campaign manager for Jean Godden, has spent a significant amount of time trolling the blogs distorting the facts, and posting under a list of fake names. Until recently this was simply a suspicion that I had no way to actually confirm, but recently The Paper Noose Blog traced his IP address and Carlo Davis then admitted to at least one of his blog pseudonyms.

In the comment thread, The Paper Noose writes:

Why is it that Godden supporters don't sign their posts with their real names, while Szwaja supporters do? Please don't avoid the question. The fact that the Godden campaign seems to spend a lot of time trolling on blogs speaks volumes to the fact that the campaign is deathly afraid of where some actual information about your candidate will come out; because sure as hell, the PI or Times aren't going to do it.

Why indeed? One of the most frequent commentators in the blogs has been a poster calling themselves "Xiu Xiu". The Paper Noose:

"CD" in the thread above, is posting from the same (obscure independent) ISP server, and the same IP number as the numerous posts on past Szwaja posts (labeled "xiu xiu"). It is also the same obscure ISP that hosts the Connections Group website, headed up by Cathy Allen.

Of course Carlo Davis then denies that he could possibly be Xiu Xiu, however, from the type of posts Xiu Xiu makes consistently, it's not a far stretch to assume that they are one and the same, especially when the IP address is the same.

Carlo Davis, posting under the name landsfarthereast, has a lengthy track record of distorting the truth on wikipedia as well. So much so that he was eventually banned from further edits, as he pushed Joe Szwaja to the level of wikirage.

His livejournal account confirms this identity as "landsfarthereast" at http://psshutthefuckup.livejournal.com/profile, where he also lists his name as "CD"... the same as the name he posts under at The Paper Noose. The AIM name listed: Landsfarthereast, the same name he posts under on Wikipedia. This IP address is linked to a defunct Bellingham IP address. Carlo used to go to school in Bellingham and has that location listed on his livejournal. So it's fairly clear who CD and Landsfarthereast is.... Carlo Davis, Jean Godden's campaign manager.

Now, I don't know about you, but I find the name "PS Shut the Fuck Up" to be quite charming.

Carlo Davis listed as Godden campaign manager: http://www.jeangodden.com/contact.php

List of all of his edits on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Landsfarthereast

The discussion page on Joe Szwaja's wikipedia page highlights many of the attempts by the Godden campaign to distort the facts.

Carlo on the Seattle PI sound off uses the Landsfarthereast name and calls Joe, "joe "i put women in the hospital" szwaja": http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/soundoff/comment.asp?articleID=328576

If Jean Godden's campaign manager is spending all this time on wikipedia, and other blogs, using fake names, why is it such a stretch to consider that Xiu Xiu is also Carlo Davis?

In fact, Goldy over at Horsesass.org has stated that the Godden campaign shopped the DV story to several news outlets before it finally came out in the PI. Goldy states:

Just to back up Geov here on his explanation of the process, the story on Szwaja was fed to me a few days ago, so it was clearly being pushed to reporters and bloggers. Though I was a bit surprised to see it appear so quickly in the P-I.

And the Seattle PI states that the Godden campaign was handing out the article on Joe at events: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/327973_godden17.html

So from lies and factual distortions, to handing out stories that they've spoon fed to their media friends, Jean Godden's campaign manager has clearly been trolling the blogs, wikipedia, and regular media with negative campaigning against Joe Szwaja. Rather than running on issues, or Jean's track record, Carlo Davis believes that destroying the opponent is his job. Obviously Jean Godden agrees.

Seattle deserves better than Jean Godden and Carlo Davis. Vote for Joe Szwaja for Seattle City Council Position 1.