Editorial: Appointing Isserlis aids city’s effort to right ship

The city of Spokane has come a long way in the past six years toward reforming its aggressive strategy of battling anyone who dare claim they’ve been wronged by City Hall, especially in the area of police misconduct.

The death of Otto Zehm was the last straw for most citizens, who wanted right and wrong to become factors in how the city would respond to alleged police misconduct. Before reform, the city was focused almost exclusively on winning legal cases, regardless of the facts. This gave rise to the odious practice of filing countersuits against citizens with legitimate cases in the hope of scaring them off.

In 2006, the city had a Citizens Review Commission overseeing police conduct. It had no staff, no budget and was failing to file required annual reports. It went years without reviewing a single misconduct case.

Then the Zehm case lifted the curtain on police oversight and found that the city attorney’s office was working with the Police Department to undermine accountability.

Since then, a new police chief has come and gone, as have two mayors and two city attorneys. A police ombudsman’s office has been established, though it does need to be fortified. New Mayor David Condon has vowed to chart a different course in trying to bring about more accountability. He wants to settle the Zehm civil case and drop the indefensible legal strategy of blaming the mentally disabled janitor for his in-custody death. He is open to a federal review of the police’s use-of-force practices and is amenable to efforts to “demilitarize” the culture.

Recently, the mayor hired respected lawyer Nancy Isserlis to take charge of the City Attorney’s Office after firing Howard Delaney for his handling of the controversial case of Sgt. Brad Thoma. She vows to get the department off the front page of the newspaper, which would be a welcome development.

But for all the comings and goings of key players in the past half-dozen years, one significant figure remains: Assistant City Attorney Rocky Treppiedi. He is the attorney who spearheaded the city’s legal strategy of intimidation, worked to keep the details of the Zehm case from public view and devised the blame-the-victim strategy that has put the city in a difficult bind.

As a candidate, Condon said he would not seek Treppiedi’s counsel. Now, it would appear that the attorney’s fate has been left to Isserlis. At the very least, he should be forever removed from police matters. If he remains, then her efforts to restore trust will become more difficult.

It is a positive sign that Condon selected Isserlis even though she did not vote for him. It signals that he wants to chart the right course, not the politically expedient one. The general reaction to her hire has been positive.

Cynics may claim that little has changed since Zehm’s tragic trip to a convenience store. But new leaders have been installed in all the relevant positions, and real progress has been made in the areas of accountability and oversight.

We hope the appointment of Isserlis is another positive step on the path to reform.