More Allegations Against Senn

State Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn is again the focus of a state investigation into allegations from a group of whistle-blowers.

State Auditor Brian Sonntag was to announce today that he will investigate 108 separate allegations, ranging from personnel practices to alleged illegal practices.

He will refer the bulk of the complaints to the state Department of Personnel because it deals with managerial practices and work-environment issues. State auditors will handle any alleged violations of state law.

The complaints are part of 700 pages of grievances sent to Sonntag in June. It was the largest compilation of whistle-blower complaints ever levied against any state agency, he said.

"As the state employees union has stated as well, there is a great deal of unrest" in Senn's office, Sonntag said yesterday. Last year, for the first time in the office's history, insurance-commissioner employees organized into a union.

Employees have accused Senn of everything from verbal abuse to forcing out some of their colleagues, said Michelle Castaneda, an organizer with the Washington Federation of State Employees.

Senn was in Arizona on state business, but her campaign manager, Robert Harkins, said yesterday that Senn would have no comment until she knew the details of the allegations.

Harkins said Senn had "inherited an office of employees who worked under a commissioner with a laissez faire attitude" toward insurance regulation and speculated that the whistle-blowers may be "employees who are resisting (Senn's) changes."

The complaints are the latest in a series of skirmishes for Senn.

In May, a federal judge ruled that Senn did not order a former employee to do illegal campaign work.

The bulk of that lawsuit, filed against Senn by her former consumer-protection chief, Nickie Moran, was dismissed.

In August, Senn came under fire for accepting campaign money from a contributor who also had applied with her office for a license to sell insurance. Senn has said she would not take money from people she regulates and said after the incident she would not accept any more money from the contributor, Dennis Braddock, head of Community Healthplan of Washington.

Senn also was cleared of wrongdoing in an investigation into whether her office illegally shredded insurance documents.

Sonntag said the 1982 Whistleblowers' Act prevented him from divulging any details of the latest allegations or the investigation.

"We will brief (Senn) and interview her as part of our investigation, but her office will basically only know what has already been made public," he said.

Sonntag said the investigation will not be done by the November general election. Senn faces opposition from Republican challenger Anthony Lowe.