Valleyfest makes a splash with Merkel’s dunk tank

The 36th annual Valleyfest was a splash, and Spokane Valley Councilman Al Merkel made sure of that.

Merkel sat in a blue dunking booth with his signature bright orange shirt and swim trunks. A banner hanging across the tank read “Dunk councilman Al Merkel (and candidates Brad Hohn and Catherine Nelson) for charity.”

Merkel is a current council member, but both Hohn and Nelson are vying for spots on the council in the November election. Hohn is running against incumbent Laura Padden, and Nelson is running against incumbent Pam Haley.

By 1 p.m. Saturday, the Merkel dunk tank had raised over $300 for the Spokane Valley Children’s Foundation. Merkel estimated he’d been dunked around 20 times in the first two hours of Valleyfest.

Merkel could be heard shouting, “Come dunk your councilman!” as people walked by, often getting the attention of children who would ultimately send Merkel into the tank with a big splash.

“There’s a lot of seriousness around the council and I don’t think that’s required,” Merkel said. “This is just a good chance for people to come take their frustrations out by dunking their councilman.”

This is the first time a dunk tank has been at Valleyfest in decades, said Peggy Doering, Valleyfest’s executive director.

It all began during Coalition for Common Sense meeting, Nelson said. The coalition is a group composed of Hohn, Merkel and Nelson. The group was discussing how they would appear at Valleyfest several months ago, Nelson said, when she got the idea for a dunk tank.

“It was kind of a joke at first,” Nelson said. “I have a sense of humor.”

That joke partially came from the obvious disdain some locals and current council members have shown for Merkel, said Nelson. Since Merkel joined the council last year, meetings have often been contentious.

Merkel was sued by the city over violations of the Public Records Act and his use of the social media platform Nextdoor, with the council voting 6-0 in February to take legal action. The suit against Merkel followed the filing of a complaint by Yaeger stating that Merkel had been using the Nextdoor app as a form of city-related communication without the right post-documentation software. In other words, Merkel’s posts that would have been classified as public record were not logged as such.

In her investigation, Seattle-based attorney Rebecca Dean found that Merkel’s posts were open records and that he likely violated the public records law because posts were not being properly logged as required by the Public Records Act.

The City Council tank sat across from various candidate tents, including Nelson’s, Hohn’s, Kris Pockell’s and Ben Wick’s. No other candidates vying for City Council seats had tents at Valleyfest.