West spent hours online at Gay.com

Spokane Mayor Jim West’s city-owned computer recorded 6,626 pictures, most of them from Gay.com, during a three-month period earlier this year, according to public records released this week.

The electronic records include a list of dates and times West used his City Hall computer to view profiles of men who are members of Gay.com and who post their pictures on that Web site.

The usage times mostly are in the evening or early-morning hours, and frequently on weekends, but there are other occasions during the work week.

The data show that West spent hours on Gay.com, apparently looking for contacts.

On April 25, while in Washington, D.C., on a Chamber of Commerce-sponsored trip, West logged onto the Gay.com Web site from 5:52 p.m. until 10:46 p.m., the records show.

On May 1, as part of the same trip to the East Coast, West’s computer logs show he accessed Gay.com between 1:39 p.m. and 7:41 p.m., leaving traces of 1,357 photos, some of them tiny “thumbnail” pictures.

The records were requested in May by The Spokesman-Review under the state’s Open Records Act, but weren’t released until Wednesday by the city attorney’s office because West and his team of private attorneys fought public access to the material.

Assistant City Attorney Milt Rowland initially released the records Wednesday as 108 pages of photocopied material, without the log entries in chronological order.

On Friday, the city attorney’s office complied with a request from the newspaper to provide the same data on a computer disk so it could be put into a spreadsheet and analyzed by dates and times.

Anyone can access Gay.com from the Internet, but more sexually explicit photos – such as those found on West’s computer – are only available to Gay.com members who must sign in with passwords.

West was such a member, giving him access to the adult material.

In early May, The Spokesman-Review filed a written request seeking access to the contents of the mayor’s City Hall computer and a copy of its hard drive disk.

The city provided print versions of the mayor’s e-mail, but West resisted access to other material, including Web sites he visited, triggering the lengthy legal battle.

On Nov. 17, visiting Superior Court Judge Richard Miller ruled the contents of West’s computer were public record.

But the judge barred release of the specific Web addresses at Gay.com which, he said, could potentially identify the Gay.com members whose pictures ended up on West’s computer.

The following day, an investigator hired by the City Council issued an 18-page report concluding West violated city policy by using his city computer to access “pornographic material” at Gay.com.

“The mayor’s use of his city-issued computer to view graphic pictures of male nudity, genitalia and sexual activity on the Internet clearly was access to ‘obscene, profane, pornographic pictures or representations,’ ” Mark Busto said in his report.

“Further,” the investigator concluded, West’s “use of his city computer for this purpose was not limited; rather it was frequent and extensive.”

Busto, a Bellevue attorney who was paid $20,000 for his work, also concluded West violated state law, or his oath of office, by offering city internships and appointments to young men he met on Gay.com.

The investigator’s report can be viewed in its entirety at www.spokesman.com.