Spokane pursued leak of study

In the language of Watergate, plumbers try to find leakers – and that’s what happened in Spokane last week as top City Hall officials wrangled over who leaked a $260,000 efficiency report to the newspaper.

The finger-pointing began last Wednesday after The Spokesman-Review posted on its Web site a Jan. 9 draft of the Matrix Consulting Group’s “Efficiency and Effectiveness” study commissioned by Mayor Dennis Hession.

Hession had kept the study from the public for two weeks, circulating it only to department heads and City Council members who agreed to secrecy pledges. It calls for major City Hall reforms – including better tracking of purchases and job performance and the elimination of nearly 100 jobs.

On Thursday, the day after the newspaper posted the report on its Web page, the council’s chief executive assistant called the newsroom. Mary Franklin asked for the first two pages of the leaked study draft to be faxed to City Hall. Spokesman-Review editors declined the request.

The council wanted the information because Hession’s office suspected the leak came from a council member, said City Councilman Bob Apple, who insists no one on the council leaked the document. Hession’s staff hasn’t continued an inquiry into the leaked document, said City Hall spokeswoman Marlene Feist.

“We’ve moved on. The mayor’s office hasn’t been pursuing that at all,” Feist said.