Officials ask Dolezal, two others to resign
MAUREEN DOLAN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 years AGO
SPOKANE - Mayor David Condon and Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart held a press conference Wednesday calling on Rachel Dolezal and two other commissioners to resign from the city's police oversight committee.
The city hired Winston & Cashatt Lawyers to conduct an independent investigation of a whistleblower's claim against three commissioners in the Office of Police Ombudsman Commission who were accused of workplace harassment and breach of confidentiality, among other complaints.
The outside firm found eight violations of the city's ordinances, codes and charters that created the commission.
"We are deeply disturbed by the facts contained in the report of findings from the independent investigator," Condon said at the opening of the press conference. "The conduct is unacceptable and definitely falls far short of the community's expectations of volunteers who sit on city boards and commissions.
"The conduct of these three members is a very serious violation of the public trust that we cannot tolerate. For that reason we have asked each of the three members to resign immediately."
Condon said he asked the city council to begin the process to remove the three members if they choose not to resign.
The commissioners are Dolezal, who chaired the commission, and commissioners Kevin Berkompas and Adrian Dominguez.
In a 24-page report detailing the allegations against the three commissioners, investigators found proof that the three commissioners created a hostile work environment for the city's ombudsman assistant, for trying to assume the duties of the police ombudsman, altering commission meeting minutes, publicly criticizing and threatening an ombudsman employee, openly displaying bias against police, making false statements to investigators and breaching confidentiality of officers involved in misconduct investigations.
The investigators also concluded that Dolezal's position with the NAACP was a conflict of interest with her position on the commission.
The report redacted the name of the employee - who worked as an assistant to the former Police Ombudsman - who told investigators he retired in December because of what he perceived as misconduct from the same three commissioners.
"These findings are unacceptable and the city council is prepared to take swift action to ensure the police ombudsman commission can get back to its important work," Stuckart said, adding the next steps are being discussed, which include contingencies to account for any action the council takes to remove the commissioners.
Stuckart said the council will begin the removal process as early as this afternoon during its regularly scheduled meeting. He gave each commissioner 24 hours to respond in writing to the investigation's findings if they choose not to resign.
Complicating matters is the fact that the city has completed the interviewing process for a new ombudsman, but the ombudsman commission has a role in selecting from the final three candidates.
Once the three commissioners are removed from the commission, there will no longer be a quorum on the five-person committee to complete the hiring process.
Both Condon and Stuckart said they plan to meet with the Spokane Police Guild to see if they will support a one-time waiver of the city's ordinance to let the city council make the ombudsman selection so they do not have to wait until three new commissioners are selected.
"The mayor and I are committed that immediately if we have ombudsman commission appointments open that we will reach out to the community with a timeline that is very strict and move forward with appointing new commission members."
Condon said if the police guild will not allow the council to appoint the new ombudsman they are prepared to appoint new commissioners as quickly as possible to get the ombudsman positions filled as soon as possible.
Condon said a separate ethics investigation into Dolezal's application to become a commissioner has been turned over to the city's Ethics Commission on Tuesday, but has not received a response from them on Wednesday afternoon.
MORE IMPORTED STORIES
Spokane officials issue joint statement on Rachel Dolezal
Coeur d'Alene Press | Updated 10 years, 1 month ago
ARTICLES BY MAUREEN DOLAN

Daylight saving time begins today
If you arrived an hour early to everywhere you went today, you might have forgotten to move your clock back. Yep, it's daylight saving time. Daylight saving time officially ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 5, and returns on March 10, 2024, when clocks are moved an hour forward.

Time to 'fall back'
Daylight saving time officially ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 5 and returns March 10, 2024, when the vast majority of Americans will then “spring forward” as clocks are set an hour later.

Fires, smoke continue to affect region
Smoke from the region's wildfires continued to affect air quality Monday as firefighting response teams continued to battle multiple blazes throughout North Idaho and Eastern Washington.