Ken Gamblin

Sammamish City Council candidate Ken Gamblin filed his required paperwork with the state Public Disclosure Commission this week, long after the deadline for candidates to do so.

The last day for candidates to file for election was May 17. Forms called C1, C3 and F1 are required for candidacies, financial contributions and financial disclosures and must be filed within 10 days of declaring candidacy.

Gamblin, contacted June 12 by Sammamish Comment, said the forms were “Already filed. I checked and it is showing as processing. Will follow up on this this morning and update you on status.”

Later, Gamblin said he filed the Financial Disclosure form F1 June 9 but didn’t know he had to file other forms. He did this June 12 after The Comment inquired about his failure to file.

“Having never run for any type of office before, I simply didn’t realize that these forms were needed,” Gamblin wrote The Comment in an email. “I thought that I had already filed all needed paperwork when I filed to run for the office. Once I was informed that I needed to get this filed, I gathered the information and filed.

“I filled out all of the F1 docs on Sunday night, and thought they were uploaded then and all was good. Then based on [The Comment’s] email this a.m., I did another search and found the C1 forms to be filled out. And I did not see the F1 forms received, so I did that again, in a different format this time. So I did that. But when I look at the website now, I don’t see me listed, even though I got a confirmation in.”

A spokesperson for the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, with which the forms must be filed, told The Comment today that a migration from one computerize system to a new one hasn’t gone well. Candidates have been having trouble filing.

She confirmed Gamblin’s filings have now been received.

There are no mandatory penalties for late filers, but some could be levied if a formal complaint were made. The computer migration and inability to notify candidates that forms are required to be filed would be taken into account, the spokesperson said.

She also said that the PDC historically would send reminders to candidates about the need for filings, but the migration continues to block this capability.

Gamblin is running for city council Position 6, the seat now held by Tom Hornish. He is not seeking reelection. Gamblin is opposed by Rituja Indapure, a planning commission member.

Indapure ran for council in 2017 but was defeated by Chris Ross.