Two Bellevue Parks Department officials are under investigation for suspicion of using city resources to assist the Bellevue Parks Yes committee.

State law prohibits the use of public agencies and their facilities to promote ballot propositions.

A complaint from the commission asserts that the city of Bellevue conducted inappropriate polling this year to gauge support for a potential parks levy and then shared the results of those surveys with the Bellevue Parks Yes Committee, which is campaigning in support of that proposal.

The complaint also suggests that city staff coordinated communications about the ballot measure with political advertising from the pro-levy group.

“The city has yet to determine exactly what happened,” said city of Bellevue spokesman Tim Waters. “That’s what we’re in the process of trying to do.”

Reports of misconduct first came to the Public Disclosure Commission from Steve Finley, who worked as a consultant for the Bellevue Parks Yes campaign.

“He told us he had some concerns about their practices, and we asked him for evidence,” said Lori Anderson, a spokeswoman for the commission.

Finley supplied e-mails showing that Bellevue Parks Director Patrick Foran had provided the Bellevue Parks Yes committee with a list of contractors that his division frequently works with.

“We were going to do a letter to the vendors,” Finley said.

Foran was a campaigner for the Bellevue Parks Yes committee. Public officials are not prohibited by law from working on behalf of ballot measures, but they have to do it on their own time, and they can’t use city resources.

Bellevue Parks Yes Campaign Manager Karen Roper at one point e-mailed Finley about her group’s efforts to obtain the list of contractors.

“Patrick has his staff working on this,” she wrote.

Foran eventually provided a list of vendors without making an official request for public documents.

The parks director also commissioned a poll to gauge support for a potential parks levy.

The survey tests how certain pro- and anti-levy statements would affect voters’ likeliness to approve the measure.

One question reads: “…tell me if it (this statement from supporters) makes you more inclined to vote to approve the measure…’This measure will help protect water quality in Bellevue’s creeks, streams, and Lake Washington.'”

Waters says the city did this to test its assumptions about citizen satisfaction surveys that the City Council used during its deliberations over the parks levy.

Other e-mails suggest that the city and pro-levy campaign might have coordinated communications about the ballot measure.

Roper wrote to a group that included Foran and Bellevue Parks Department Information Officer Robin Haaseth that the pro-levy campaign should include at least three mailers from Bellevue Parks Yes and one “mailer produced by the city that would present the facts – projects and costs – map, etc.”

The city denies that it was involved in any type of improper mailing.

The Public Disclosure Commission is expected to meet with city officials to review and clarify the guidelines for government agencies during elections, according to Waters.

For now, the city is pleading ignorance.

“We’re trying to figure out if we were inadvertently inconsistent with those guidelines,” Waters said. “We just don’t know at this point and time.

“This isn’t combat with the PDC. It’s an educational process we’re going through.”

Finley claims the city and campaign group played too loose with election rules, ultimately violating their intent.

“There were too many (Public Disclosure Commission) rules that were not being taken seriously,” he said. “The excuse I always got is that everyone else does it.”

The commission’s complaint identifies Foran and Bellevue Parks Department Fiscal Manager Doug Sanner as suspects in the investigation.

Penalties for this type of offense can range from $4,200 to $10,000 per violation, depending on whether the commission decides to seek prosecution by the Attorney General.

Anderson says the investigation will have no affect on the election in November.

Joshua Adam Hicks can be reached at jhicks@bellevuereporter.com or 425-453-4290.