Leslie Hamada: Alleged violation of RCW 42.17A.555 by using the facilities of the Kent School District to list the candidates school district email & phone number as the contact information on her Facebook page Leslie4KIDS. (May23, EY23)

Case

#138381

Respondent

Leslie Hamada

Complainant

Justus Phelps

Description

A complaint was filed against Leslie Hamada, an incumbent Kent School District School Director, and a candidate for re-election to that office in 2023, alleging violations of RCW 42.17A.555 by using the facilities of the Kent School District (KSD), when she included her KSD email address and telephone number as the contact information on her Facebook page, which was alleged was to support her candidacy for re-election.

On January 13, 2023, Leslie Hamada filed a Candidate Registration seeking re-election to the office Kent School Director, Position #3 for the 2023 election cycle. Ms. Hamada selected the Mini Reporting Option, which does not require her to file any campaign finance reports, and listed Glen Hamada as Treasurer.

Ms. Hamada was a 2017 candidate for School Director for the Kent School District and elected to the Kent School Board. In addition, she previously filed as a candidate for State Representative in the 47th Legislative District in 2008, and as School Director in 2011, but was not elected.

Ms. Hamada stated that she has two Facebook (FB) accounts, that both are hers personally and “paid for and managed by me. Leslie4Kids is a FB page I set up a few years ago to just keep the community abreast of what I was doing as Board Director for the Kent School District (KSD) which I was elected to do 4 years ago.”

Ms. Hamada stated that she honestly never thought of her Leslie4Kids Facebook page as a campaign page, and that “no KSD funds were used to set it up, manage, or do campaign work on.” She stated that she “never campaigned on this site purposely or did the Kent School District contribute any money or management to run this site.”

Ms. Hamada stated she “purchased and kept records on the website that was definitely used for campaign purposes” through the Campaign expenditures she made to Go Daddy and the URL to purchase a site. She stated that paid for, managed the site, and reported it as expenditure for her campaign (http://www.lesliehamada.com).

Ms. Hamada stated that after receiving the email from PDC staff about the complaint, she immediately double checked the Facebook site contact information and made the correction listed her personal email and telephone number. She stated that she “never intended it be used for campaign purposes----only a vehicle of communication while doing my job as a Board Director.”

Ms. Hamada stated that really used the Facebook page “to contact me in that manner” and that “in no way was I trying to use government entity to pay for any campaign usage or expense.” She added that she “completely took down this FB account Leslie4Kids ---as of 6/22/2023 and will be using my official campaign website for my campaign going forward.”

Based on these findings, PDC staff found no evidence of further violations that would require conducting a more formal investigation into the complaint or pursuing any enforcement action in this instance. However, staff is reminding Leslie Hamada concerning the prohibitions found in RCW 42.17A.555 against using Kent School District resources and facilities, including school district email addresses and telephone numbers as contact information, to support her candidacy for re-election in 2023, or to support or oppose any other candidate or ballot proposition.

The PDC has dismissed this matter in accordance with RCW 42.17A.755(1).

Disposition

Case Closed with Reminder

Date Opened

June 13, 2023

Areas of Law

RCW 42.17A.555