News
2005-08-03
Spokane city
council takes over mayoral investigation
After a panel of
legal experts and scholars resigned, the Spokane, Wash.,
city council voted to take over an investigation into
After a panel of
legal experts and scholars resigned, the Spokane, Wash.,
city council voted to take over an investigation into
allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse of power
against Mayor James E. West. The 7-0 vote came after
the fifth and final member of an independent commission
resigned Monday, saying, "Spokane continues to burn while
the mayor fiddles."
The council,
which previously voted to ask West to resign, will hire a
lawyer or human resources expert to review whether the
mayor's hiring practices and use of e-mail to seek
personal relationships with men he met in online chat
rooms violated city policies. West, a former
Republican majority leader in the state senate who routinely
voted against gay rights, has repeatedly denied any
illegal conduct.
Council president
Dennis Hession acknowledged that the findings will have
little effect—West can be removed from office only
through a recall—but said the review is
important for public confidence. "To me, it's
about the process of going through this exercise and not
about the results," he said during the council meeting
Monday. The council's report will be submitted to the
city's human resources department, which handles
personnel matters.
The five-member
panel of two retired judges, two college professors, and
an attorney investigating West dissolved Monday after lawyer
Nancy Isserlis became the final member to resign. The
panel had been appointed by city attorney Mike
Connelly, who subsequently resigned to take a similar
job with Spokane Valley. Connelly, who worked for the mayor,
seized West's computer and computer files after The
Spokesman-Review newspaper began publishing a
series of articles in early May alleging that the mayor
offered internships to young men he met in a gay
online chat room.
West is the
subject of a recall attempt that is before the state supreme
court, and the FBI has confirmed that it is conducting
an investigation into whether the mayor's activities
violated federal laws. The resolution, adopted by the
council Monday, is not limited to just the issues of
whether West violated city computer use and hiring policies.
The newspaper outed West as a closeted gay man who used his
city e-mail to offer an internship to a man he
believed was a high school student but who was
actually a computer expert hired to confirm that West was
seeking dates online. The newspaper investigation also
included allegations by two men that West molested
them when they were boys in the late 1970s. West has
strongly denied those accusations. (AP)
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