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We’ve cleared another Roanoke City Council election cycle, but this time around, the residue of it includes more than bad feelings, losers and some new faces on the council dais.

It includes a special prosecutor and allegations of candidates and an unregistered political action committee running afoul of state election laws.

It also includes what is now an incomplete record of the financing of this election, despite laws that demand a complete, accurate and transparent record.

As a data-geek, a journalist who believes fervently that open government is good for everybody, and the purveyor of a database of city council campaign contributions , that troubles me.

The record of this election apparently has a signifiant hole in it. How big a hole?

We’re probably talking about an amount equal to 15 percent or more of the total documented spending by all six council candidates and all four mayoral candidates combined.

And while it’s clear where a lot of that money was spent, the source of that money remains shrouded.

Whatever happens with the investigation, at a minimum the financial history of this off-the-books PAC ought to be documented and put on the books after all. The completeness of the record demands it.

By now, you’ve likely heard of the “Joe Smith” attack ad on candidate – now councilman-elect – Court Rosen, which ran in The Roanoke Times and also the Roanoke Star-Sentinel. In The Roanoke Times, the ad included a line saying it was sponsored by “Joe Smith” and Citizens for Sensible Decisions.

Only it turns out that Citizens for Sensible Decisions was not registered with the State Board of Elections, as required by law, and “Joe Smith” is really Councilman Brian Wishneff, who missed re-election when he came in just over 100 votes behind Rosen.

Wishneff said he gave the phony name only after an argument with a Roanoke Times advertising representative, who finally encouraged him to give any name he wanted. The newspaper’s management denies that.

So now we have a special prosecutor, Botetourt County Commonwealth’s Attorney Joel Branscom, investigating the matter to see if anything occurred that amounts to a violation of the law.

Regardless of whether anyone winds up in court over this, Branscom would do citizens a favor by at least documenting every dollar which flowed through Citizens for Sensible Decisions.

Even the money of which we are aware is no small amount.

Citizens for Sensible Decisions bought three full-page ads in The Roanoke Times over the weekend before the election. Times officials told reporter Laurence Hammack that the average cost a full-page ad is just over $8,400.

Ads are often discounted, but even at that, we’re in the neighborhood of $20,000. Only three candidates for council or mayor raised more than that as of reports filed just before the May 6 election. Total fundraising by all the candidates totaled about $130,000 in the same time period.

That money – both the collecting and spending of it – is accounted for in reports filed by the candidates.

So you know who supported them with cash, and how much. And when those who are elected begin to legislate, you can go back and look at whether they are doing favors for their supporters. That’s a big part of the point of documenting campaign finance and opening the records to the public. It’s part of the transparency of government.

But in Citizens for Sensible Decisions, we have thousands of dollars unaccounted for.

Who gave it? How much? What precisely did it buy?

Answering those questions ought to be an outcome of any investigation, whatever other findings, charges and penalties might occur.