Commerce Connection: Meet “Galfridus,” Lisa Brown’s cosplaying plant at Commerce
Posted 9 October 2023
Current Employment:
Geoffrey “Galfridus” Bracken’s LinkedIn page lists his current job as “Program Manager” at the Washington State Department of Commerce. His highlighted skills: federal grants management, compliance, risk management, administrative support. He claims to have worked at Commerce since July of 2022 – hired when Lisa Brown was Director of Commerce.
Previous Experience:
Prior to joining Lisa Brown’s team in his critical role at WA Commerce, Bracken’s most substantial work experience (on his LinkedIn account) includes, Treasurer and Manager for “People for Kate Burke” (4 years, 6 months), and other work for less than two years each for employers including a ten-month stint as the Assistant Director of The Spokane Renaissance Fair. This may be where Geoff assumes his alternate name, “Galfridus.”
Why Galfridus Matters:
WA Commerce has contracted with Spokane-based Empire Health Foundation for “camp hope” at least in the amount of $3.47 million. Empire Health Foundation has donated $240,500.00 to the political committee “Justice not Jails” which is formed to oppose Spokane County Measure One.
Geoffrey “Galfridus” Bracken works at Commerce and is the Treasurer for “Justice not Jails.”
Wasinington State laws (which Lisa Brown voted for in ’94) regarding state executive officers and employees are strict concerning employee “moonlighting” and use of government resources and employee time used for personal interests. State employees have paid thousands of dollars in civil penalties just in the last few years for violating the laws for surfing the internet at work, not to mention conducting paid political work on the taxpayer dollar.
One of the expectations of state employees working in the executive branch (Commerce among them) is that they report any outside work that may be perceived as a conflict of interest as detailed in the “Ethics in Public Service Handbook.”
The handbook states,
You cannot:
◦ Have direct or indirect financial interest
◦ Engage in a business or transaction or professional activity
◦ Incur any obligation with anyone you regulate, contract with, or supervise that could interfere with your official duties
It is unclear whether Bracken has disclosed his political work to his Commerce Supervisors as is required (this is a great question for Lisa Brown), however, it is clear that at least on one occasion, Bracken filed political papers for a campaign during typical work hours.
On June 16, 2023 (a Friday) at roughly 3:30 pm, Bracken filed a report with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission for his client, “Elect Lyndsey Shaw.” Unfortunately, only committee registration time stamps are available through the PDC “Open Data” system – not all reporting. We are in the process of requesting time stamps on the hundreds of reports filed by Bracken during the past two years for his multiple clients.
“No state officer or state employee may use or authorize the use of facilities of an agency, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of a person to an office … Facilities of an agency include, but are not limited to, use of stationery, postage, machines, and equipment, use of state employees of the agency during working hours …”
Busy-Bee Bracken’s current political treasurer clients include:
Justice not Jails Primarily funded by Empire Health Foundation, a recipient of WA Commerce funding (again, where their Treasurer Bracken is employed).
SCAR PAC Currently $18,500+ in debt for unsuccessful legal attempts to block Spokane’s Proposition One from going to the voters. SCAR has also donated to the anti-Spokane County Measure One campaign.
People for Paul Dillon Received a formal written warning by WA Public Disclosure on 7/26/23 for failure to disclose assets. Dillon until recently was the PAC Director at Planned Parenthood (see below). Was also a PAC Director at 509 Forward PAC Sponsored by Lisa Brown for Congress.
Elect Lyndsey Shaw Has received $500 from Mariah McKay whose Spokane Independent Metro Business Alliance nonprofit organization has advertised to pay contract workers to oppose Spokane County Measure One (this may not be in keeping with IRS prohibitions on political advocacy by nonprofits).
Kitty (Melanie) Klitzke Received $1,000 from John Culton (longtime aide to Sen. Patty Murray) and recent lobbyist for Desimone Consulting Group which has a lobbying contract with Spokane City Council (Lisa Brown gave the Desimone money back). Klitzke is a former officer of 509 Forward PAC Sponsored by Lisa Brown for Congress whose email kitty509forward@gmail.com is still being utilized by an officer of the PAC. Readers may recall that Lisa Brown’s dark money PAC spent her leftover congressional money from her failed 2018 run to fund a poll on her chances to run for mayor of Spokane while she was still Director of WA Commerce.
Citizens for Liberty & Labor Primarily funded by Spokane Firefighters Union PAC which has donated to COMMITTEE TO ELECT KITTY KLITZKE, ELECT LINDSEY SHAW, PEOPLE FOR BETSY WILKERSON, and People For Paul Dillon.
Planned Parenthood Advocates Of Greater Washington PAC Sponsored by Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and Northern Idaho Paul Dillon (see above) is an executive at Planned Parenthood and until recently was in charge of this PAC.
What is for sure is that Geoffrey Bracken, an employee of the State of Washington, is more than moonlighting as a volunteer political Treasurer.
He has a robust paid “side gig” that is deeply entrenched in Spokane’s liberal political machine that to the average citizen is too cozy for Commerce.