A Bainbridge Island resident is crying foul over the city of Bainbridge Island’s recent efforts to promote its $15 million ballot measure for a new police/court facility.

Chris Van Dyk filed a complaint last week with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, the state agency that serves as a watchdog on elections and campaign financing. In it, Dyk claimed Bainbridge City Manager Doug Schulze and the city council have used public resources to campaign for the 20-year, $15 million bond measure that will be on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Proposition 1, if approved by voters, will give the green light for the city to close its police headquarters on Winslow Way and build a new police station just north of city hall. Bainbridge’s municipal court would also be moved from a rental facility in Rolling Bay to the new building.

Dyk is a longtime political activist who gained some measure of regional fame after forming Citizens for More Important Things, a grassroots group that fought public financing for a new baseball stadium (later named Safeco Field) for the Mariners in the mid-1990s. The group also fought, unsuccessfully, against the tax financing scheme for Seahawks Stadium (now known as CenturyLink Field). Dyk and Citizens for More Important Things also tried to rally voters against the Seattle Sonics’ attempt to get a tax-subsidized makeover of KeyArena in 2006.

Dyk said his complaint isn’t based on any personalities in city government, but rather, the plan for the new police building itself.

“This isn’t about any internal politics,” Dyk said. “I got nothing but support and respect for the police department.”

“It’s just a capital project,” he said, and added that voters deserve a fair and impartial analysis on the high-dollar project from city officials.

Lori Anderson of the Public Disclosure Commission said the complaint was under review.

“The PDC staff reviews all complaints,” Anderson explained in an email to the Review.

“We’ll do a preliminary investigation to determine if the complaint is frivolous and does not require action. Next steps for complaints deemed by staff to not be frivolous are determined by how serious the allegations are. Minimally serious allegations usually result in a staff-generated warning letter,” she said.

Complaints that allege more serious violations of campaign laws undergo a deeper investigation, and Anderson said the agency would know in a week or two how the complaint against Bainbridge has been categorized.

City manager faulted

In his complaint, Dyk called out Schulze, Bainbridge’s city manager, for a recently published city manager’s report that was sent out to email subscribers.

In that bulletin, which was also posted on the city’s website, Schulze wrote that Bainbridge residents would have “the opportunity to vote to approve” a bond that would pay for the new police station.

Dyk said Schulze should have used neutral language in his message, and not “approve,” and Dyk also criticized the city for downplaying the impact of the loss of property taxes if land north of city hall is purchased for the new police station.

He said statements on the city’s website “minimize the true impact” of the loss of property taxes and sales tax revenues from the properties that would be purchased.

In his complaint, Dyk also pointed to a private email sent by Councilman Val Tollefson to islanders on July 24 that urged them to organize and support the “yes” campaign by contacting friends, writing letters to the newspaper, and raising funds.

“If you are willing to help with such an effort, or if you have someone to recommend who might do so, let me know,” Tollefson said in the email. “I would like to help identify leadership and supporters for that effort.”

Dyk’s complaint also alleges that a recent letter to the editor in favor of Prop. 1, signed by everyone on the seven-member council, violated the Open Public Meetings Act.

City spokeswoman Kellie Stickney, however, said city council members — as well as city employees — can voice their opinions on election issues as long as it is on their own time and those actions don’t use city resources.

(Tollefson said as much about the council’s First Amendment rights in the email message that accompanied the council’s “vote yes” letter. “Although we are permitted to advocate for passage of the upcoming bond issue, we are not permitted to use city resources in doing so. Hence the use of my personal, rather than city, email address” he wrote to those who received the letter to the editor.)

City’s history comes up

Dyk said Bainbridge’s history on capital projects — the rising cost of the new city hall when it was built, the overpriced restroom in Waterfront Park, the controversial Winslow Way rebuild — came to mind when the police station plan changed from a shared building with the Bainbridge fire department to a stand-alone city building.

“Cut me some slack for being a cynic,” he said.

What followed then, he said, was the city’s use of taxpayer-funded resources to support the bond measure.

City spokeswoman Kellie Stickney said there has been a bit of confusion, however, among some about what city officials can say about the ballot measure.

And, if residents have questions for the city about the ballot measure, they’ll get answers.

“The city is a source of information, factual information, about the project,” Stickney said.

“We are allowed to answer questions,” she said, recalling a recent query an islander had about the current owners of the property the city’s eyeing for the new police department.

“Those types of factual questions we are completely able to answer,” she said.

Not everyone understands that, Stickney said.

Dyk, though, said the city hasn’t been upfront about the total costs for the project. Bainbridge hasn’t disclosed the full impact of interest and city indebtedness for the project, which he estimates will ultimately cost islanders about $28.8 million in taxes.

He said the city’s underestimate on the true cost of the project may lead him to file a second complaint.

“I’m not being critical of the city government,” Dyk said. “They get paid next to nothing for burning up weekend hours and nighttime hours, and being on the receiving end of every crank in town, including me.”

The proposal will have a significant financial impact on islanders, he added, and the positives and the negatives of the proposal should be aired.

“That’s all I’m saying.

“I just don’t get the sense that the public debate has happened over this thing,” Dyk said.