Campaign-finance complaints filed against Tacoma officials

TACOMA, Wash. -- The state Attorney General's Office has filed a campaign-finance complaint against a number of Tacoma officials.

The News Tribune reports that complaints were filed Monday against Port of Tacoma officials, the Economic Development Board of Tacoma-Pierce County and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce.

The complaint accuses port officials of spending $45,000 of public money to oppose the validity of ballot measures in court. The Chamber and Economic Development Board spent about $10,000 for the same purpose.

The complaint argues that those expenses were not drawn from public coffers but should have been reported as campaign expenditures.

The three groups were opposing the validity of two ballot measures filed by the group Save Tacoma Water.

Representatives for all three agencies said they were unhappy with the complaint.