LOBBYISTS ‑- LEGISLATORS ‑- INFORMATION TO LOBBYIST'S EMPLOYEES ‑- INITIATIVE 276

LOBBYISTS ‑- LEGISLATORS ‑- INFORMATION TO LOBBYIST'S EMPLOYEES ‑- INITIATIVE 276

Necessity for legislators to provide information to lobbyists' employees under § 18, Initiative No. 276

                                                                   - - - - - - - - - - - - -

                                                                 February 7, 1973

Honorable A. J. Pardini
Minority Whip
House of Representatives
Legislative Building
Olympia, Washington 98504                                                                                                               Cite as:  AGLO 1973 No. 22

Dear Sir:

            This is in response to your letter dated February 5, 1973, asking whether you are required by Initiative No. 276 to provide employers of registered lobbyists with certain information which one such employer has by letter requested of you; i.e., the

            ". . . name of any corporation, partnership, joint venture, association, union or other entity . . ."

            of which you or any member of your immediate family are a member, officer, partner, director, associate or employee.

                                                                     ANALYSIS

            Apparently this information is being requested of you in order to assist a certain company which employs persons registered as lobbyists under Initiative No. 276, in the preparation of the annual report required by § 18 of this recently enacted measure.  The full text of this section reads as follows:

            "Every employer of a lobbyist registered under this act shall file with the commission on or before January 31st of each year a statement disclosing for the preceding twelve months the following information:

            "(1) The name of each elected official candidate, or any member of his immediate family to whom such employer has paid any compensation, the value of such compensation and the consideration given or  [[Orig. Op. Page 2]] performed in exchange for such compensation.

            "(2) The name of any corporation, partnership, joint venture, association, union or other entity of which any elected official candidate, or any member of his immediate family is a member, officer, partner, director, associate or employee and to which the employer has paid compensation, the value of such compensation and the consideration given or performed in exchange for such compensation."

            In accordance with a temporary injunction entered on January 12, 1973, by the Thurston County Superior Court in Fritz, et al. v. Gorton, et al., the initial reports called for by this section will not be required to be filed until January of 1974 ‑ covering the preceding twelve‑month period of 1973.  Nevertheless, in order to compile the information necessary to enable it to make this required report when due, the company here in question has written a letter asking you, as an elected official within the meaning of § 18, to provide it with the above indicated data.

            Clearly, there is nothing contained in the initiative which would require you, as a matter of law, to provide this or any other employer of lobbyists with such information as has been requested.  Whether or not you do so on a voluntary basis, in order to assist an employer of lobbyists in its compliance with the initiative, is therefore entirely up to you.

            We trust the foregoing will be of some assistance to you.

Very truly yours,

SLADE GORTON
Attorney General

PHILIP H. AUSTIN
Deputy Attorney General