Despite being out of elected office, former Republican state Senator Cheryl Pflug isn’t through making headlines. Eighteen months after accepting an appointment to a $92,500 a year post on the Growth Management Hearings Board, she still appears to be missing a few requisites for the posting. Here’s an excerpt of the article I wrote as a special piece today for Washington Focus:

Growth Management Hearing Board member and former Republican state Sen. Cheryl Pflug has yet to be admitted to practice law in Washington, according to the State Bar Association’s public database, a situation that may mean the Central Puget Sound panel of the state’s powerful land-use planning entity is not constituted in accordance with state law.

Also complicating matters is the appearance that in early 2013 Pflug specifically instructed fellow board members and GMHB staff not to share information about her status with senior staff in the office of Gov. Jay Inslee, according to email messages obtained through a public records request. …

Though emails sent during her first several months on the board show that Pflug communicated internally with members and staff about taking leave to study for and take the bar exam, in Feb. 18, 2013 she wrote to inform her colleagues of a change of plan due to complications with selling her residence. …

Pflug stated that her goal at that time was to have all parts of the exam taken by the end of July. Board Chair Nina Carter asked Pflug if she wanted to let Inslee’s office in on her new plan. …

“Why would you deem it desirable to inform the governor’s office?” Pflug wrote back…

“It’s nobody’s business,” Pflug wrote. “And I think we will all benefit from having me stay out of the limelight.”

Click to read the entire article at Washington Focus.