Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 1, 2026
By Emily Hanson Peninsula Daily News
PORT TOWNSEND — Two complaints have been filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission against Jefferson County PUD.
The complaints were filed on June 20 after PUD customers received their bills with a flier supporting the Jefferson County Proposition 1 Parks and Rec Levy, which is on the August primary ballot. The first complaint came from Shona Davis, who questioned whether public funds were used by Jefferson County PUD to pay for the fliers. Crystal Cox filed the second complaint for the same issue.
“Jefferson County Public Utility District is using publicly funded resources to promote a ballot measure, a levy which violates state laws prohibiting the use of public facilities or funds for campaign activity,” Cox wrote in her complaint.
Cox cited RCW 42.17A.555, “which prohibits the use of ‘public office or agency facilities’ to promote or oppose any ballot proposition,” according to her complaint.
PUD General Manager Joseph Wilson was unaware Tuesday the complaints had been filed but stated several people had contacted them about the flier and that the PUD attorney was already planning to contact the Public Disclosure Commission to let them know what happened.
“There was, I think, a misunderstanding of what’s allowed,” Wilson said. “There’s been other instances of the staff interacting with different agencies who request fliers be added to the PUD bills.”
Previous instances include Jefferson County requesting the PUD include information about recycling programs, Wilson said.
“An employee with the PUD received a request on this topic and didn’t discern that it was relevant to voting, which is different from other topics that have been included before,” Wilson said. “It was a mistake, and we’re going to have to do some process improvement to ensure it doesn’t repeat. We’ll use it as a learning opportunity.”
The PUD pays a company to perform its bill stuffing. As with other instances of additional information included with the bills, the PUD will pass on the cost of the levy fliers to the Jefferson County Parks Department.
“PUD funds were not used to cover the cost of this stuffing,” Wilson said. “PUD customers are not paying for the cost of the bill stuffing for the flier for the proposition.”
Jefferson County PUD strives to not be involved in politics, Wilson said.
“We understand that our customers receive our services and
our mission is just to serve those as affordably and reliably as we can,” he
said.
