The Public Disclosure Commission has sent a warning letter to the Island County Property Rights Alliance for a “Post-it” style advertisement the alliance paid to have placed in the Oct. 21 edition of The South Whidbey Record.

The alliance was warned because the political ad that supported Initiative 933 did not include a required statement of who paid for the advertisement, said Tony Perkins, a political finance specialist with the Public Disclosure Commission.

The warning letter came in response to a complaint filed

Oct. 23 by Steve Erickson, an environmental activist who lives on South Whidbey.

Erickson is heavily involved with the Whidbey Environmental Action Network, but filed the complaint on his personal behalf.

Erickson’s complaint also cited another advertisement by the alliance that was published in the Oct. 21 through Nov. 4 issue of the Whidbey Marketplace in support of I-933. I-933, the “Property Fairness Initiative,” would require governments to pay property owners if regulations damage the value of their property. Erickson said that ad also did not list its paid sponsor, and was deceptive and untrue.

Erickson also filed a formal complaint letter with the Public Disclosure Commission, the state’s campaign watchdog agency, on Oct. 17. He claimed the Yes on I-933 Committee had violated the state’s Fair Campaign Practices Code with an ad the committee placed in the Oct. 14 issue of The South Whidbey Record.

Erickson said the ad falsely claimed that I-933 would protect the environment and farmers while leaving zoning and land-use untouched.

If passed, Erickson said I-933 would “allow re-zoning on demand of forest and farm lands” and turn the clock back a decade on shoreline zoning.

I-933 has been highly controversial. Billed as a “pay or waive” law, it would require governments to pay property owners if they suffer a loss in property value because of government restrictions. If a city or county could not pay for the loss in value, it would be required to waive land-use restrictions.

Legal land-use experts have said Washington’s main land-use laws won’t allow for waivers, however, and independent studies have said the claims filed under

I-933 could stretch into the billions of dollars.

While Rufus Rose, president of the Island County Property Rights Alliance, has taken responsibility for the faulty “Post-it” style sticky ad that was published in the Oct. 21 Record, the Yes on I-933 Committee has tried to deflect criticism for the content of its

Oct. 14 advertisement.

In an e-mail response to the complaint, Regnar Kearton said the Island County Property Rights Alliance was not a candidate, a political action committee, or a single-interest political organization, so the alliance was exempt from the rules.

Kearton also said his advertisement in The South Whidbey Record had been “distorted,” and he declined to take responsibility for everything in the ad. In his e-mail, he said the name of the ad’s sponsors, “Yes on I-933,” had been added by the newspaper’s staff, and he did not approve of the change.

“The entire nature of the complaint by Mr. Steve Erickson is irrelevant to our ad and to the issues. It is little more than ‘smoke,’” Kearton said in an e-mail to Perkins. “It actually addresses issues of regulation, ordinance or public policy that has nothing whatever to do with I-933.”

The PDC does not comment or give opinions about complaints that are raised under the Fair Campaign Practices Code, or the responses given by those who have been hit with a complaint. The PDC’s role is to raise awareness about complaints with the news media by distributing the complaint and the responses from the parties involved.

PDC officials said The Record was not a party in either complaint because the content of political advertisements is the responsibility of the campaign that pays for them.

Erickson said a warning letter wasn’t enough.

“Campaign finance laws are a joke,” he said.

“The same thing goes with their ads,” Erickson said of the pro-I-933 messages. He criticized the Property Rights Alliance and the Yes on I-933 Committee for “blatant falsehoods” in their ads.

“Here’s an initiative that says flat out you have to pay somebody to have any kind of buffer or restriction on steep slopes, streams or anything … and the government has to waive the law, and they are saying that protects the environment? Come on.”

“Saves farms?” Erickson asked. “Saves farms to be turned into housing developments.”

Brian Kelly can be reached at 221-5300 or bkelly@southwhidbeyrecord.com.