In switch, West investigators to meet in public
A panel appointed to investigate Spokane Mayor Jim West will hold its second meeting Friday, and it will be open to the public, a city official announced Wednesday.
The decision reverses an earlier plan for the five-member panel to meet secretly to discuss whether West violated city policies or laws by offering internships and appointments to young gay men he met online.
A meeting of the group was postponed last Friday after The Spokesman-Review filed a formal protest, taking the position that secret meetings of the panel would violate the state’s Open Meetings Act.
The state law says special panels must conduct business openly if there is an “extreme level of public interest,” if the work involves “decision-makers” in government and if the “scope of membership includes heavy-hitters.”
The newspaper took the legal position that the special panel investigating West meets all those criteria.
“We are pleased the city attorney and his appointed commission have agreed with our contention that the commission’s investigation ought to be conducted in public,” said Steven A. Smith, editor of the newspaper.
“This isn’t a media issue,” Smith said. “The case before the commission is of critical importance to our community, and its citizens are entitled to full access to their work, including all fact-finding, all interviews, documents and records as well as all deliberations leading to a resolution and eventual recommendation.”
The five members of the panel are retired Judges Harold “Pete” Clarke and Philip Thompson, university professors Tom Truloe and Michael Stebbins and private attorney Nancy Isserlis.
The announcement about Friday’s public meeting didn’t come from panel members, but from Marlene Feist, the city’s public affairs officer who works for West.
“The team members will define the scope and methods to be used in their investigation,” Feist said in a four-sentence announcement.
Panel members “will have access to whatever information they need to complete their work.”
Members of the “independent commission” were selected by City Attorney Mike Connelly, an at-will employee who answers to the mayor. Connelly could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
City Council members Bob Apple and Cherie Rodgers have said the panel is illegal because neither it nor its members were approved by the council.
Council President Dennis Hession previously told the newspaper he disagreed with that argument, contending the panel isn’t the kind of board or commission that requires council approval.
Thompson’s seat on the panel has also raised questions of conflict of interest because the retired judge served with West for seven years on the board of directors of Morning Star Boys Ranch.