Lynch blasts S-R on coverage

Spokane Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch returned to work Monday from an unexplained medical absence and criticized The Spokesman-Review for its coverage of his disappearance from City Hall last month.

“Am I angry? You bet. Am I upset? You bet,” Lynch said in an interview Monday afternoon about newspaper coverage of his leave.

Lynch left his job with undisclosed health issues on Sept. 18. Through his wife, he requested and was granted a medical leave on Sept. 25 by Mayor Dennis Hession. The leave came after Lynch had suffered a black eye and broken rib, which he blamed on a Sept. 3 bicycle accident, and two of his vehicles were spotted by police in August at a city park known for lewd conduct.

Last Thursday, the newspaper reported that Lynch’s request to be placed on paid medical leave came at a time of questions about his visits in August to High Bridge Park at the confluence of the Spokane River and Latah Creek, a park long known for nude sunbathing, lewd conduct and drug use. The story was accompanied by a photo of Lynch with a blackened right eye.

In responding to records requests from the newspaper, the mayor’s office reported last month that police officers had seen two vehicles registered to Lynch at High Bridge Park on Aug. 11 and 18.

Lynch said that he was checking on police patrols to make sure that the department was getting control of the problems at High Bridge Park, part of which is known as People’s Park, and his interest in the enforcement effort was documented in a string of e-mails among himself, the city parks director and police brass.

Lynch appeared in public Monday during a televised briefing session of the council, in which the deputy mayor leads a series of reports on departmental requests. At the start of the briefing he made a short public statement about his absence and news reports surrounding it.

“I didn’t know such a brief absence would cause so much consternation on the part of one of our local publications,” Lynch told the council during its televised briefing session.

“I didn’t fall off the face of the earth. I am here. I am well. And I haven’t taken a fall off my bike in the last couple of weeks. Things are good,” he said.

A newspaper photographer was in the chambers taking pictures of Lynch. Lynch looked at the photographer and said, “I hope you get a more flattering picture of me this time than you did last time.”

Lynch’s levity evaporated when asked for further comment in an interview after the briefing session.

“As far as The Spokesman, I’m done with them,” he said. “We made an effort to be open and transparent. We gave them all of the information, gave them the e-mails, gave them what the police had, and all they’ve done is throw a wider net and a wider net in an attempt to come up with more that is just not there. It was a make-believe story to begin with,” he said.

Lynch declined to provide more details of his health. “It’s none of your business,” he said.

Hession said that Lynch did not provide him with any details of his health condition when he called the mayor on Sunday to say he was reporting back to work on Monday. Hession said that Lynch will continue to be his appointed deputy mayor, an administrative position that Lynch has held for five years and under three different mayors.

“Obviously, Jack’s health is important to us,” Hession said, “and we need to be sensitive to his needs.”

At least one other top official at City Hall criticized the newspaper’s coverage of Lynch’s absence.

In a letter to the editor submitted on Monday, Spokane’s chief financial officer lashed out at the newspaper for its coverage of Lynch.

“I am Spokane’s CFO and work with Jack daily, but unsubstantiated character assassination should offend us all, whether or not we know the victim,” Gavin Cooley wrote in the letter.

“How many times must conspiracy theories and gossip disguised as news demean important civic discourse, confuse citizens and cause outsiders to shake their heads and wonder why Spokane does this to itself?”