Lynch extends sick leave

Spokane Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch has further extended his medical leave, city officials confirmed on Friday.

The city’s second most powerful official was supposed to return to his job Wednesday. No reason was given for the extension of the leave. It’s the second time Lynch has taken sick leave since September.

Lynch notified City Attorney Jim Craven on Friday that he will extend his leave for an unspecified period of time, said city spokeswoman Marlene Feist. A new letter from Lynch’s doctor is expected early next week, she said.

“We expect him to extend his medical leave, but we don’t know for how long,” Feist said.

Lynch has enough sick time accrued since he was hired in 2001 that he could remain on sick leave through mid-April, Feist told the newspaper last week.

Under Spokane’s strong-mayor form of government, Lynch is an “at-will” employee who answers to only the mayor. His salary this year is $147,875.

Mayor Dennis Hession said Friday evening he and other city officials expect that the letter from Lynch’s physician asking for an extension of his medical leave will also include an “anticipated date certain” when the deputy mayor will return to City Hall.

Lynch’s first medical leave in September came after he suffered a black eye and other injuries that he blamed on a bicycle accident. He formally took sick leave after having been away from work for a number of days. That leave, announced to the City Council by Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession on Sept. 25, was expected to last several weeks. But Lynch returned to work the following Monday, Oct. 2, angrily denouncing the newspaper for reporting on circumstances leading up to his absence from City Hall.

While Mayor Dennis Hession was on vacation during the Christmas holidays, the mayor’s office was notified Lynch was planning to be gone again, until the end of January. “I couldn’t have been more surprised that he wasn’t going to show up after the first of the year,” Hession previously told the newspaper.

Lynch’s second medical leave was announced late on the afternoon of Dec. 29, just hours after The Spokesman-Review filed a public records lawsuit alleging that the city improperly refused to release police records detailing events preceding Lynch’s first medical leave in September.

Those records detail an investigation into why police ran the license plates on vehicles registered to Lynch on two occasions last year in High Bridge Park, a location known for illicit activity.

Lynch, according to a prepared statement issued by the mayor’s office in September, told Hession he had driven through the area on several occasions to check up on police enforcement there. Lynch has consistently refused interview requests since his first medical leave.

In late December, city officials received a letter from Lynch’s physician, saying the deputy mayor would need a medical leave through Jan. 31.

Economic Development Director John Pilcher was named acting deputy mayor in Lynch’s absence and is making part-time use of the deputy mayor’s office, where Lynch’s personal photos and files have been moved aside. Pilcher is also using the deputy mayor’s parking space at City Hall.

Several sources over the past week have told the newspaper that Lynch may never return to his job.

City Councilman Al French said Hession hasn’t told the council whether Lynch is being forced out or whether he”ll ever return to City Hall. French is widely expected to be a candidate for the mayor’s job this fall.

Lynch’s absence appears to be creating a power vacuum at City Hall, French said. All major departments, from police and fire to finance and economic development, report to the deputy mayor.

“There’s a great deal of confusion as to who is at the helm. Everyone is hunkering down,” French said.

A reliable city union leader who’s familiar with personnel moves at City Hall and asked not to be named said he has heard Lynch won’t be returning. Other sources confirmed those rumors but didn’t want to be named, saying they fear retribution from Lynch, known for occasional vocal tirades.

“I’d love to see him gone,” said City Councilman Bob Apple, who has been the target of Lynch’s sharp remarks at Public Safety Committee meetings. Apple said he has also heard the rumors that Lynch won’t return.

“It’s common practice at City Hall to put somebody on medical leave before they’re shown the door,” Apple added.

Any severance package for Lynch over $41,000 would have to be approved by the City Council, French said.

Under his personal services contract, if Lynch left the city now, he would be entitled to three months’ pay – approximately $36,720 – for his first five years of city employment, which were marked in March 2006, plus a smaller, pro-rated amount for the time since then.

Lynch, the former city administrator in Butte, Mont., was hired in 2001 as city administrator by former Spokane Mayor John Powers. He was named deputy mayor by his successor, the late Jim West, and temporarily served as acting mayor when West took a leave of absence in 2005.

Lynch stayed on as deputy mayor when Hession became mayor in December 2005 after West was recalled from office.

Former City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers said this month that she has been getting phone calls from City Hall about Lynch’s on-again, off-again medical leaves since she returned to Spokane after the holidays.

“It’s an established pattern in Spokane city government never to publicly fire anybody,” Rodgers said.