The King County Council passed an ordinance back in the 1980s that used taxpayer money to buy the development rights to rural farmland in South King County. Since I lived on a ten-acre farm south of Enumclaw, I applauded the decision as far-sighted. I worked to support the farmland preservation plan, believing it was in the best interests of the residents of King County. I still do.
One of those plots of farmland whose development rights were purchased was the Thomas farm in the eastern section of Enumclaw just north of SR 410. The rights were sold to the County by Ben Thomas, Allan’s father. This happened in spite of the property being within the boundaries of the City of Enumclaw. Allan B. and Joann E. Thomas were convicted on Thursday, May 19 in federal court in Seattle. Allan was convicted of 10 of 15 charges. Joann was convicted of all 15 felonies. The charges include conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, and mail and wire fraud “to steal local drainage district tax dollars for their own use” (Department of Justice Western District of Washington, September 30, 2019). They were charged with a six-year scheme to divert more than $400,000 in local tax dollars to own pockets.
According to King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg, it wasn’t worth the effort or the cost to prosecute the Thomases. For election officials and the Accounts Payable Department in King County and the State Auditor’s office, it was a dereliction of their duty. There are 104 separate drainage and diking taxing districts in King County that these government agencies are designated to monitor. They failed.
Council member Reagan Dunn was informed about the misuse of funds by a whistleblower back in 2018. He went to Satterberg’s office to inform him. Dunn got no satisfaction from the prosecutor, so, having been a federal prosecutor previously, he asked the federal government to investigate. That’s why the case was tried in the Federal Courthouse in Seattle rather than by the County.
King County Elections are supposed to make sure elections are held properly on a regular basis. For about 30 years there were no elections for Drainage District No. 5. Where was the oversight? How could such a thing have occurred? There is no good answer except dereliction of duty and incompetence.
Bills for work on the ditches and gravel were supposedly purchased. The Thomases presented their bills to the County Office for Accounts Payable. Allan Thomas used his son’s company that was not licensed. The son testified that he had done work for the Drainage District once. But later bills were submitted for the same business and other shell companies where no work had been done. The bills were paid, no questions asked.
The State Auditor’s office gave the Thomases a clean bill of health in their financial reports. They should have caught these discrepancies. There are several layers of oversight in government to catch what one layer may have missed. Instead, the auditors rubber-stamped the payments for thousands of dollars year after year. The Thomases would send in invoices. No one checked to see if the companies actually existed or were even licensed.
The Thomas’ defense team argued that the Thomases are victims of the then Enumclaw city attorney wanting to expand businesses into the Thomas farm. This argument is ridiculous because xthe accused’ father sold development rights to the County. It can’t be developed according to the open spaces ordinance passed by the King County Council back in the 1980s.
The only reason this case became public is because an angry whistleblower, frustrated with the lack of action on the part of the County Prosecutor, called up King 5 news reporter Chris Ingalls and told him what to look for and where to find the information by using the public record requests.
In order for society to function properly, all parts and levels of government must work together to protect the taxpayers and the voters. This is not a partisan issue, because all of us pay taxes. In this case, several layers of government failed to do their jobs. Chris Ingalls and the media are what brought the information to light. Only a federal judge and the media acted with accountability.
The last line of defense against corruption is an informed media. For all of its flaws, First Amendment protections are vital and must be preserved to save our democracy. The media bring the truth to light. When the light shines on corruption, the wicked scurry away like cockroaches. This is what happened in the Thomas case.
Because of the lack of accountability at many levels of government, how many hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent investigating and prosecuting this case?
If only people had done their jobs.
