Even though the curtain has closed on the August primary election, the campaign frenzy continues as candidates prepare for the second round of battles coming in November.

Steering a campaign for elected office requires handling finances and filing regular reports with the Public Disclosure Commission regarding expenditures and fundraising.

Diane Dobson, Renton City Council candidate running for Position No. 2, did not file any reports with the PDC until earlier this week.

PDC records indicate Dobson registered as a council candidate on June 2, but did not file any campaign finance reports until July 31. PDC requires full-reporting candidates to file detailed campaign finance reports on a monthly and weekly basis.

Dobson created a GoFundMe page — an online crowdfunding site — on June 2, where she has collected more than $5,000. The GoFundMe page lists all donations made to her campaign, including donations she received outside the site. According to the site, donations started coming in June, none of which were reported to PDC until July 31.

On Friday, July 28, The Reporter called Dobson to inquire about her missing PDC reports and her GoFundMe page.

Dobson said she was told last week by Jim Brown, her former treasurer, that he failed to file a report that was due July 25. She said she asked Brown to contact PDC to find out how to remedy the situation. She also said Brown was told by the PDC that reports were not able to be faxed, but would either have to be sent electronically or through mail.

In an email she sent later Friday, July 28, she said she “did not know the details of the discretion but as I indicated I was aware of a possible discretion.”

She also wrote she asked Brown to contact PDC to find out the filing discrepancies that occurred and what needed to be done to remedy the situation. Brown reportedly sent the July 25 report through two-day mail on Friday.

“While my treasurer has embraced this as their (Brown’s) shortcoming on the filings, I accept the responsibility of the oversight of the same as the candidate in the race. There was nothing intentionally done to defraud the public or deceive anyone,” she wrote in the email.

Dobson wrote Brown handed in his resignation on Friday and that she would contact PDC on Monday, July 31, to update the change of her campaign treasurer.

As of July 31, PDC reports indicated the campaign treasurer reins were passed to Kevin Hays.

In a phone call on Tuesday, Aug. 1, Dobson was asked why the PDC reports weren’t filed.

“I couldn’t tell you if it was… they just didn’t get filed. It wasn’t any intent of fraud, there was no maleficence, they didn’t get filed,” she said.

Dobson said she became aware Brown missed filling the report that was due July 25 after the fact, and that she asked him to contact PDC to let them know the report was going to be late. She said she found out that none of her financial reports were filed to PDC on July 28, before The Reporter called.

“As soon as I found out about the reports, I contacted my treasurer (Brown) and asked him to find out what the discrepancy was, and why the reports weren’t showing. His response was. ‘I’m on the phone with the PDC right now and checking on it,’” she said

She also said she went over the reported filings Brown handed her over the weekend and that she was not satisfied with them because “they were hard to follow.” She refilled all the missing reports to PDC electronically late July 31.

“They (the reports) were more a pen-and-paper, old-school type report, where the PDC has a little more straightforward reporting with the ORCA system; things are a little more succinct and little more easy to follow,” she said. “I didn’t want the PDC to have to work to try to review the documents or make heads or tails of the documents…. But for simplicity purposes for anybody else looking at the reports, I wanted it as straightforward and direct as possible.”

She also said the reason she sent an email on Friday was because, “I didn’t want it to come across that I was ignorant that there was a problem when you called or that I tried to hide it to deny it in any fashion. I acknowledge there was a problem without talking to my treasurer (Brown). I didn’t know what the extent of problem was yet…. It was just a matter of timing. I didn’t have an opportunity to go into great details with him or PDC at that point yet. My clarification is I didn’t want to seem evasive by any means.”

As of Aug. 1, PDC reports indicate Dobson’s total campaign contributions total $7,577.69 and total expenditure is $3,763.09. PDC reports include all donations she received prior to June 2 — the date she filed with PDC — and all donations she received through GoFundMe.

Dobson said she used a GoFundMe page to indicate both online and offline donations to be transparent about her campaign finances.

“While I knew the donations and contributions were being listed in the PDC, I’m about full disclosure and wanted to make sure that everything was out there and there was no question on public awareness on what we were doing and what were raising,” she said.

Reporting options for candidates

Candidates running for elected office must register with the PDC to do either full reporting or mini reporting.

Candidates who raise and spend over $5,000, or wish to receive more than $500 from a contributor must file under full reporting. Full reporting candidates are required to submit frequent and detailed reports of their contributions they receive and the expenditures they make, according to PDC.

Under mini reporting, candidates cannot raise or spend more than $5,000, nor can they receive more than $500 from any one contributor. Mini-reporting candidates are not required to report their expenditures to the PDC. However they are required to make their financial records available for public inspection and comply with political advertising requirements.

For more information on the reporting options, visit https://www.pdc.wa.gov/learn/publications/political-committee-instructions/registration-reporting/registering-committee.

How candidates registered

Dobson registered as a full-reporting candidate. As of July 31, she has filed all of her missing reports.

Dobson’s opponent for the November general elections, Armondo Pavone, registered as a full-reporting candidate, and has filed all necessary PDC reports on time.

Max J. Heller, the candidate for council Position No. 2 who lost in the August primaries, also registered as a full-reporting candidate, but failed to file any reports to PDC.

The Reporter reached out to Heller earlier this week and he responded by email after the press deadline Wednesday, saying his campaign did not fundraise any money.

“This was a very low budget campaign, where I spent $200 out of pocket on printed materials and car sign magnets for my vehicle,” he said.

He added he doesn’t believe in “heavy fundraising” and that is one thing he wishes to change.

“My campaign has been one of canvassing, doorbelling, talking to people in public areas and making contact on a personal level rather than my name of a sign,” he said.

When asked about why none of his reports had been filed yet with the PDC, Heller said “my PDC campaign finance report is late, that’s my fault and I am correcting that and getting that turned in.”

Candidates who are vying for Position No. 6, Ruth Perez and Jami Smith, both registered as full-reporting candidates, and have submitted all forms to the PDC on time.

Carl Eshelman, the Position No. 6 candidate who lost the August primaries, registered as mini-reporting. Eshelman filed with PDC on July 17, nearly two months after the candidacy filing deadline with King County Elections.

In an email, he said the delay to register was, “purely a misunderstanding on my part. I understood that if a candidate only intended to raise and spend less than $5,000 then they were not required to file. It took several emails back and forth with the PDC to finally realize that Renton is a large enough district that I needed to file no matter the amount I intended to raise and/or spend. Once I understood that, I filed.”

He also said he did not raise any funds and financed his campaign on his own.

Sarah Brenden and Dennis Box contributed to this story.

This story has been updated to reflect responses The Reporter received from Max J. Heller following the press deadline.