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PDC approves multiple privacy substitutions, endorses using legal property descriptions instead of street addresses
Summary
At its June 5, 2025 virtual calendar, the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission approved several partial reporting modifications, allowing candidates and a donor to substitute legal property descriptions (and county) for street addresses to reduce safety risks, while denying a request to remove disclosure of 11 residential properties.
The Washington State Public Disclosure Commission on June 5 heard a series of requests from candidates and a donor to limit public disclosure of residential addresses and certain real-estate details on personal financial affairs statements.
Chair Jay Leach opened the brief adjudicative proceeding and told participants the commission can grant modifications under state law. PDC staff member Jennifer Hansen said most petitions concerned either redacting an address tied to an applicant's residence or substituting a legal description and county for the street address to satisfy reporting obligations while reducing public exposure. Hansen cited statutory authority the commission applies in these matters (RCW 42.17A.235; RCW 42.17A.240; RCW 42.17A.120; WAC 390-28-080).
The commission repeatedly offered an administrative solution: replacing a filer’s street address on the F-1 form with the legal description of the property and the county where it sits. Leach explained the legal description appears on deeds and is generally difficult for the public to translate into a street address, and he said that substitution meets statutory reporting requirements in many cases. "If you could provide that description to our staff, we can take the steps then necessary to change your record so it reflects the legal description rather than the address," Leach told petitioners.
Across cases the commission granted substitutions or limited exemptions where it found a personal safety risk that met statutory standards. In a higher-profile ownership case the commission declined to permit less disclosure for 11 residential properties held through an LLC, saying transparency about substantial local residential holdings outweighed the requested privacy for those properties. For one of the commercial LLCs the commission granted a narrower modification requiring disclosure of a 50% interest by a spouse.
Staff will follow up individually with petitioners to implement the modifications and to draft orders that reflect whether a filing is changed by substitution or will be formally denied/withdrawn if the filer prefers that language.
