OP/ED: Club Manzanita Behind the Curtain (Part 1); Call to Action – Request Release of Investigation

The Mayor was never told what the complaint was about, the City Attorney provided no assistance to the Mayor during the investigation and after successfully delaying the completion of the report until after the Mayor resigned, the City Attorney advised the Council that now that the Mayor was no longer a member of Council, she also was not entitled to have a copy of the investigation or told what the accusations were.

Once again, a Council that  claims  transparency with the public is a priority, proves otherwise by this action. The former mayor has called for the full report to be released which begs the question, whose interests is the City trying to protect?

In a situation where a City refuses to release a public record, citizens under State Law may petition the District Attorney of the County in which the City is located and force the release of the document. Several citizens have filed the appropriate request with the DA and now you can contact the DA with your concerns.

If you believe that you are entitled to know just what cost you $146,738, then consider letting the Tillamook County District Attorney hear from you. A brief email or letter with a sentence or two identifying yourself as a resident, voter, part time homeowner or simply an interested citizen  who believes that the public interest in this matter outweighs any reasonable need by the City to prevent the release of this public record should be directed to Ms Olson. Please talk to your friends and neighbors and ask them to consider adding their voices to this important request.

Getting any details on this matter to date has been met with strong resistance by City officials. It took a public records request by the Headlight Herald for the City to finally release the original $139,043 investigation costs. Despite repeated citizen requests for information on what misbehavior took place, the City has finally settled on the official response that this is a record that is protected by attorney-client privilege and citizens will not be told anything. As for the Mayor herself, she not only will not be told what the accusations were by the “anonymous employee” which turns out to allegedly be the City Manager, she will not be able to obtain a copy of the investigation.

Think about that for a moment. Mayor Simmons  was put into office with the largest number of votes in City history. Within 5 months of taking office and attempting to learn her new responsibilities as a public official, an investigation by a Portland law firm is initiated based on unknown accusations allegedly by the City Manager and the City’s position is that this is none of our business.

The ongoing investigation by the Oregonian and other media interests into sexual harassment allegations involving Nike managers demonstrate the legal posturing utilized to keep the public in the dark when those in power seek to avoid public scrutiny. Nike first hired a law firm to investigate the sexual harassment claims by employees and initially refused to release the investigation findings arguing it was protected by attorney-client privilege. A media coalition successfully argued that the public’s interest in the matter was paramount and thousands of pages of documents were subsequently released.

When Nike refused to release additional records containing the redaction of specific executive’s names who were accused of sexual harassment on the grounds that such release would only “embarrass and shame” those individuals, Nike again lost that argument.

 Is there any citizen who has been following this story who believes that the expenditure of $147,738 of public funds to investigate these unknown accusations against Mayor Simmons  would be of no public interest? Is there a lesson here for our Council based upon Nike’s Board of Directors failed attempts to bury the tawdry details of what takes place out of public view in their corporate world?

Fortunately, in cases like this the Tillamook County District Attorney will now have the opportunity to evaluate just what records City officials will be permitted to withhold from citizens. The DA will evaluate if the public interest involving the material facts of  this complaint and how our elected and appointed City officials  conducted themselves in this matter outweighs the City’s need to preserve confidentially and continue to deny the records release.

If you believe that the public interest is best served through transparent disclosure of the decisions of our elected and appointed City’s officials, consider respectfully sharing your thoughts with an email or letter to our District Attorney to have this investigation report released for public review.