Spokane Valley City Councilman Al Merkel will no longer represent the city on community boards and commissions after his appeal of an investigation into possible violations of public records laws was unsuccessful. It will be.
At a special meeting on Dec. 19, Merkel’s city council members voted unanimously to strip her of her committee assignments and to publicly denounce her actions.
The punishment is one of the harshest ever for a board member and will continue for the remaining three years of Merkel’s term.
“Merkel’s continued behavior is persistent and egregious, and could have been stopped at any time according to the governing manual,” City Councilor Jessica Jaeger said ahead of the vote.
The decision marks the end of a months-long ordeal over Merkel’s use of the social media platform Nextdoor, but hearing examiner Andy Kottkamp says in an appeal ruling it leaves Merkel in a legal predicament. It was recognized that it was possible.
In June, the City Council charged Yeager with violating the City Council’s Governance Manual and the Washington Public Records Act by blocking the public from seeing his posts and failing to keep proper records of his activity on the app. A complaint was filed against the member.
An independent investigation conducted by Seattle-based attorney Rebecca Dean found that Merkel’s posts on the platform were “likely” public records and were not properly recorded as required by public records laws. It was found that the burden of proof had not been met.
The City of Spokane Valley uses software called PageFreezer to record social media activity in the event of a public records request, and the City is legally required to conduct due diligence and provide the information. Mandatory. Merkel, a long-time avid Nextdoor user, has refused to add an account since joining the council last January. In other words, the investigation found that these posts were not properly recorded.
In the appeals court’s decision, Kottkamp upheld the findings that Merkel had breached parliamentary standards and public records laws in a number of ways.
Kottkamp determined that some of Merkel’s posts could be seen as directing or discussing city business and made them public record. Chancellor Merkel was editing her own posts and comments from the public on her posts. And Chancellor Merkel failed to provide public records, both by failing to register with PageFreezer, by lying about her search efforts, and by refusing to hold the records in a legally required document requesting them. He claimed that there was no such thing.
“Violations of public records laws expose local governments to significant liability risks, including daily fines and attorney fees, and can undermine public trust and reduce accountability,” the city said in the hearing examiner’s report and the council. This was stated in a release after the decision was made.
As the board debated what action to take against Merkel, she rejected calls to resign, citing a conflict of interest as the focus of deliberations and votes. Instead, the council member remained on stage with his microphone cut off while his fellow board members received a summary of the hearing officer’s findings and discussed next steps.
Yeager lamented the amount of city tax money spent on the investigation and appeals process, saying it should have gone toward the council’s long-term goal of strengthening the city’s police force. He said city taxpayers could have saved thousands of dollars if Merkel had followed the recording training provided and the city had signed up for PageFreezer, which costs about $50 per account. .
The city incurred more than $186,000 in Merkel-related costs last year, according to a city report included in the Dec. 10 meeting. The costs include more than $96,000 for “measures taken to protect City employees,” nearly $72,000 for “measures taken to protect City from legal risks,” and the city’s costs for employees. This includes $14,000 for “unproductive use of staff time”. It responded to 57 public records requests related to Chancellor Angela Merkel filed last year.
“He is not a victim; he made a calculated and prudent decision to ignore training, ignore state law, and ignore repeated attempts to rein in his actions,” Yeager said. “He’s trying to make himself look like the victim, but the victims here are Spokane Valley residents who are forced to fund an investigation into his actions to protect the city.” I am a taxpayer who did not.”
Mr. Yeager and Councilor Laura Padden called for the harshest possible punishment.
“I think it was a real embarrassment for the city,” Padden said. “It’s intentional and we need to stop it and we need to impose everything we can.”
Mayor Pam Haley said the city has the financial and legal responsibility to complete public records requests, which is why multiple trainings are provided to city council members by the City of Spokane Valley and the community committees they serve. He concluded the City Council’s comments by emphasizing that there is.
He warned that a lawsuit against the city related to Chancellor Merkel’s failure to comply with public records laws would lead to further waste of taxpayers’ money.
“The public is going to have to pay for it,” Haley said. “We have already wasted $200,000 trying to protect our citizens from increased taxes they would have to pay if they acted against us.”
Merkel responded with many of the same accusations throughout the year when faced with criticism from colleagues and the public. He called the investigation “a sham” and said city officials, fellow council members and investigators were biased against him.
Chancellor Merkel now included Kottkamp in her accusations, saying he was “an employee of the city government and rubber-stamped decisions behind closed doors.”
Over the years, Kottkamp has provided hearing screening services in seven Washington counties and 14 cities, as detailed on his practice website. Merkel’s comments about the lawyer, whose career spans more than 30 years, were in stark contrast to her thoughts about Kottkamp before the verdict.
After a hearing before Kottkamp in October, Merkel told the Spokesman-Review that she thought Kottkamp had “done a great job.”
“I think the trial judge was very fair and thoughtful and took into account the fact that I am not a professional lawyer,” Merkel said at the time.
Merkel opposed the parliament’s decision and went on to say that she would add her Nextdoor account to a page freezer after the outcry, but she also denied an inquisition finding that her posts constituted public record. He continued to criticize.
Merkel also accused parliament and city authorities of “ignoring the issues that matter most to residents,” as well as devoting people’s time and resources to “this demonstration,” which included an appeal requested by Merkel. He accused his fellow MPs of wasting the money.
He ended his allotted speaking time by appealing to Spokane Valley voters to stand by him when some of his colleagues are up for re-election in November.
“The people of Spokane Valley will have to make a choice,” Merkel said. “They are asking whether this bogus investigation and baseless accusations against me deserve attention, or whether the real crime is City Council’s failure to protect public safety, reckless financial mismanagement, and misguided projects. They will decide whether it is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Haley responded with a message of her own for Valley residents.
“We were totally ready to work with him until he said he came to Congress to burn the city down, and it looks like he’s going to continue to do that,” Haley said. “So I hope you understand that if he burns down the city, you will pay the same price as I did.”
