Spokane Valley City Council will sue Councilman Al Merkel over Public Records Act fight

The Spokane Valley City Council voted to sue one of its own members this week in the continuing drama over the actions of City Councilman Al Merkel.

The extraordinary measure is aimed at forcing Merkel to comply with open records rules and his use of the social media platform Nextdoor.

The council voted 6-0 Tuesday to allow City Manager John Hohman to move forward with the legal action.

Hohman said the lawsuit is necessary because Merkel’s compliance is needed to satisfy the city’s legal obligation to adequately fulfill public records requests. The city could face its own potential legal action, and subsequent financial losses, for not adhering to state law as a result of Merkel’s obstinance.

“Violations of the Public Records Act may subject municipalities to significant liability, including daily monetary penalties and attorney’s fees, and can erode public trust and reduce accountability,” a release from the city states.

Merkel, who refused to leave the chamber as the board deliberated, was not allowed to vote due to state law related to an elected official’s potential conflict of interest.

“It sounds like this is gonna go in front of a judge, so we’ll have an actual judgment,” Merkel said at the end of the meeting. “Not from some paid person, not from some lawyer, but from a judge. We’ll see what happens then.”

Merkel said in a Wednesday statement that he is prepared to countersue the city for bringing forth a “frivolous action” and for “violations of my civil rights.”

City Attorney Kelly Konkright said legal action may be the last tool available to the council to get Merkel to comply, after an independent investigator determined the councilman’s posts on the platform reached the burden of proof of being “more likely than not,” open records, and that they were not being properly logged as required by the Public Records Act.

That finding was upheld by the city’s contracted hearing examiner Andy Kottkamp following an appeal by Merkel. His fellow council members then voted unanimously to strip him of committee assignments, and to publicly censure Merkel – a formal condemnation for his actions – in a special meeting Dec. 19.

Hohman said Merkel still hasn’t complied with Kottkamp’s ruling as of this month.

Merkel claims he has complied, and that the vote Tuesday was the latest effort from a council intent on “shutting me up.”

The councilman attempted to create a new “official” account in January, which was subsequently deleted by Nextdoor for being a duplicate account, Merkel said in an email.

He then began using the old account again, despite it not being tied to his city email and failing to include his councilman title, as required by the council’s governance manual, according to the city. He provided the necessary information to connect the account to PageFreezer, as well as spreadsheets from Nextdoor identifying his social media activity at the end of January.

The spreadsheets did not include the necessary context of that activity and “therefore do not include all information sought by third parties submitting public records requests,” according to a timeline published by the city.

PageFreezer also appears to not be enough, as it does not capture Merkel’s activity on other pages outside of his own profile. Merkel denied the city’s request to provide screenshots to fill the gaps in the information provided, according to a release from the city.

Konkright said Merkel has also been uncooperative with login attempts after the initial connection with PageFreezer by failing to pass on codes sent to him as part of a two-factor authentication process.

“Any inference that he has provided us with complete, unfettered access to everything on that Nextdoor page that may be a public record is false,” Konkright said.

Hohman said the city has received more than 60 public records requests related to Merkel since last January, and has been unable to respond fully to any because of Merkel’s failure to produce his records.

Merkel maintains the belief his social media activity does not constitute conducting city business, despite Konkright’s, the investigating attorney’s and Kottkamp’s findings to the contrary.

He said the lawsuit will be a waste of taxpayer money.

Mayor Pam Haley took umbrage with Merkel’s attempts to paint himself as the victim of his fellow council members.

Haley told the public that she is not the one continuously attacking fellow council members and city staff online, in discussions with the community or in council chambers. She said Merkel has, however.

“I can tell you 150 things he said about me, whether it be I’m a criminal, on the take, all kinds of things,” Haley said.

Haley added that she finds it disingenuous Merkel is concerned with wasteful spending, as he’s the one who appealed the initial investigation finding, requiring the city to pay for the process. She stressed that the action is only intended to have Merkel follow state law, counter to what he may claim.

“I have never said, I care what he says, because I don’t. I have never said, I don’t want him to say those things, because that’s not it either,” Haley said. “But there is a real financial risk to his behavior now, and I want to be able to pay for public safety.”

Several of the council members shared their displeasure in having to initiate legal action, citing a belief that there are more important issues in the city with which they should be concerned.

Councilman Ben Wick, who’s tended to stay out of the fray between Merkel and the rest of the council, said he felt he didn’t have much of a choice but to approve legal action. Three attorneys have all reached the same conclusion, and the council needs to protect the city from potential legal and financial risks brought on by Merkel and a failure to provide public records, he added.

“If anybody did come and claim and want those records, and we couldn’t produce them, and we didn’t take this step, I feel like it’s going to look even worse to a judge,” Wick said. “Where we knowingly had records out there, and we didn’t do everything we could do to get them to produce them.”

Councilwoman Jessica Yaeger, advocated for criminal charges against Merkel “because he’s stealing from all of you,” she told the public.“He’s stolen time, he’s stolen money that could have gone to public safety,” Yaeger said. “He’s a thief. If he could be walked out of here in handcuffs, that’d be great.”

Yaeger continued, saying Merkel doesn’t care for Spokane Valley residents, and that they should be organizing to remove him from office. She referred to Merkel as a “man-child,” while expanding upon an earlier comment from Hohman that the council and city are a dysfunctional family.

“The behavior that I have seen from this man-child would have gotten a spanking in my house, a time-out,” Yaeger said. “He would have been kicked out of my house, which I really wish one of the voters would do, is to relieve all of us of this pain that we go through every day, every week in these chambers, expel this child from our family, because he does not belong here.”

Tumultuous year in office

The lawsuit will be the latest installment in the controversy that’s surrounded Merkel since his swearing-in ceremony in January 2024.

Testy arguments have become a near mainstay of the Spokane Valley City Council’s regular Tuesday meetings over the past year, as Merkel has repeatedly butted heads with the board over construction projects, grant applications and the complaints and investigations related to him.

Last May, an independent investigator found Merkel repeatedly disrespected city staff, often engaging in “intimidating behavior.”

In one instance, he reportedly asked Haley to stay after a council meeting to speak, and then stood between her and the door as he got in Haley’s face and yelled at her, according to a city staffer who witnessed the event.

Haley confirmed the incident, telling The Spokesman-Review in May that he was “super aggressive.”

“He gets really close to you,” Haley recalled. “I tried to leave. He would not let me leave. He blocked the door, continued to yell at me, and I just kind of shut down.”

Deputy Mayor Tim Hattenburg said Merkel continues to be disrespectful to staff, even after his office was moved from the dedicated office space for the council to the first floor of City Hall and the completion of a more than $40,000 remodel to implement more separation and safety measures between Merkel and city staff.

Merkel found himself at the center of another city investigation into his conduct just two months after the initial investigation’s report was released, and shortly after he entered the race for a vacant state Senate seat in Spokane Valley.

Yaeger filed an official complaint against Merkel last June, alleging he blocked members of the public from viewing his posts on Nextdoor and was not properly keeping records of his social media activity as required by the Public Records Act and council policy.

The investigation’s findings that Merkel likely violated state law, which were subsequently upheld by the city’s contracted hearing examiner, are the subject of the current back-and-forth between Merkel, the city and the rest of the council.

The Public Records Act applies to every elected official, and is instrumental in ensuring those officials are transparent, Haley said.

“The point is to give the records to the citizens who ask for them within a reasonable period of time, something that has not been done, which leaves us very open to huge financial risk,” Haley said.

“If you support him, then I would be more than happy to take donations into our legal fund, because this is going to be expensive,” Haley added. “It’s just so he’ll follow state law.”

Editor’s note: This story was changed on Feb. 6, 2025 to correct the name of the Spokane Valley City Council. The original version was incorrect because of an editing error.