The Public Disclosure Commission is conducting a preliminary investigation into the recent complaints that the King County Library System (KCLS) over-stepped its boundaries with a letter sent to Renton residents on July 2.

Last week five people filed complaints with the commission alleging KCLS used public money to sway Renton residents into voting for the Piazza site location on the Proposition 1 ballot measure for the August 7 election.

The fact-finding or vetting process is part of standard protocol, according to Lori Anderson, commission spokesperson.

“We’re looking into the allegations and we haven’t made any decisions yet,” Anderson said via a phone interview Wednesday afternoon.

Public Disclosure Commission officials will know more in a couple of weeks, she said.

Despite the fact that ballots were mailed out this week and any investigation could continue past the Aug. 7 election, there are no internal deadlines or timelines that dictate how the Public Disclosure Commission handles complaints.

They try to get complaints resolved within three months, said Anderson.

“Regardless of what the outcome of this complaint is, it’s not going to have any affect on the election,” she said.

The process for complaints is that a preliminary investigation is done to ask questions informally and gather information. If the information leads the commission to believe there is merit to the questions raised, then a formal investigation is launched.

During the formal investigation people are interviewed under oath and documents can be subpoenaed. Based on that information, a staff report is written and only after that can formal charges be issued.

Right now, the complaints made aren’t even at a level where a case number has been assigned, said Anderson.

To date Dave and Renate Beedon, Beth Asher, Rosemary Quesenberry and Kal Lambert have filed a complaint with the Public Disclosure Commission on this subject.

Renton City Council member Randy Corman emailed concerns to the commission and spoke with a staff member about what KCLS could do preceding the election before KCLS sent out the letter.

After the letter was sent, Corman contacted the commission again to make sure his concerns were counted with the complaints, Anderson said.

His letters, although they aren’t a formal complaint in the commission’s standard format, will be considered along with the other formal complaints, said Anderson.