PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Commissioner Pat Rodgers admitted Tuesday he erred when he failed to report a $1 million property sale in his 2002 campaign financial statement.
Rodgers said he will amend his July 15, 2002, state Public Disclosure Commission financial report to include the Bainbridge Island real estate transaction.
“I will write PDC a letter and state the situation,” the Brinnon Republican said.
Rodgers’ oversight was revealed Monday by political watchdog and Mats Mats resident Mike Belenski, who brought it before the county commissioners, including Rodgers, during a public comment period.
“It was just a lack of knowledge. It was not purposeful,” said Rodgers, noting that it was his first run for county commissioner.
He was defeated in the fall 2002 election by the Democratic candidate, Wendi Wrinkle.
Wrinkle resigned from the Board of Commissioners in mid-2003 because of health reasons, and Rodgers won a special election in fall 2003.
He sold the Bainbridge commercial office and residential property in April 2002.
Belenski, displaying Rodgers’ state Public Disclosure Commission documents and a Kitsap County real estate excise tax affidavit blown up to poster size, said: “I think it’s a reflection on a person’s integrity, and find it disturbing that the whole story on Mr. Rodgers is not on these documents.”
‘Just an oversight’
Rodgers, after Belenski’s presentation, said in his courthouse office: “It was not a purposeful thing. Just an oversight.”
Rodgers on Tuesday said the transaction in Kitsap had no bearing on or political gain for him in Jefferson County.