SPECIAL 610 KONA INVESTIGATION: Kennewick Council wrong-doing or misunderstanding?

What happens at city council meetings tend to be fairly routine.

But, what happened in Kennewick on and around the September 4th council meeting was anything but routine.

Current Kennewick City Councilman Steve Young is facing a recall petition that Benton County Superior Court Judge Bruce Spanner ruled on August 31st could proceed on one of the originally seven charges.

That ruling...on a Friday...set into motion a series of emails between Young's attorney Bob Thompson, Kennewick City Manager Marie Mosley and City Attorney Lisa Beaton that lasted through that weekend...emails News Radio 610 KONA obtained.

During the correspondence, Thompson indicated that his client would like to ask that the legal fees be paid for by the city of Kennewick, something that is allowed for under RCW 44.96.041...but that they would probably miss that day's deadline to get in on the council's agenda for the following Tuesday...September 4th. He noted they could take it up at the next meeting the week after.

But, Mosley wanted to try and take care of it on the 4th.

"I think it's more our past practices and protocols have been. As long as I've been the City Manager, if somebody has requested or if there is something coming on the agenda, we try to get it on as soon as possible, at that next council", Mosley noted.

But, the preliminary agenda had already been released, since the day before the meeting was the Labor Day holiday.

So, at the regularly-scheduled staff meeting at 9am on the 4th, Mosley introduced "Item 7A".

"And we discussed, as a department head team, as our City Clerk is there as well, the proper notification requirements of eight hours prior to the meeting, which at that time, we were well within that time-frame", Mosley added.

But in fact, two codes reference that any changes must be submitted with eight "business hours" notice prior to the 6:30pm meeting start time, according to Lisa Beaton.

"Our code, 2.04.020 allows for furnishing a copy of the agenda to council and the media at least eight business hours prior council", Beaton said.

Adding to the situation, one of the council members was not going to be in attendance.

Bill McKay told Mosley Thursday, August 30th that he had a business trip...before the court decision and before any talk of asking council to approve the payment for legal services for Young.

"So at that point in time, I provided Council Member McKay what was on the agenda, what I was aware was on the agenda, at that time. We kind of went through that, and it was pretty routine items that I was aware of at that time, with Council Member McKay", Mosley said.

All that set up fireworks at the September 4th council meeting.

With item 7A added to the agenda, councilman Matt Boehnke fired the first salvo.

"I move to table the agenda and adjourn the meeting", Boehnke requested.

That failed on a vote of 4-to-2.

Next Councilman John Trumbo attempted to table just item 7A.

"We have on our agenda Item 7A, which is a recent addition. We have a council member who is not present, who has expressed to me that he would like very much to be present for 7A. For that reason, I recommend that 7A be tabled", Trumbo exclaimed.

That also fell short on a 3-to-3 vote.

Then Trumbo tried to move the item into an executive session, but Councilman Paul Parish spoke up.

"I think the big problem here is we have one council member not present, and that's of his choosing. This is more about how the vote is going to go, I think, rather it is an executive session is going to change anything, John", Parish noted.

And that motion, too, failed 3-to-3.

But, what's of note is that Councilman Steve Young voted in those procedural votes, but excused himself when the actual discussion of item 7A came up.

Ultimately, the council voted 3-to-2 in favor of paying for Young's legal fees to fight the recall petition. But was this all on the up-and-up?

Marie Mosley, Lisa Beaton and even Mayor Don Britain all deny any wrong-doing.

"Absolutely not. There was no intent to try to get it on the agenda because Council Member McKay was not there. That was not the intent at all", Mosley proclaimed.

"We didn't have a clue until Saturday that they wanted to make that request. So, to me, it's a timing component, and there was also no intent on the part of staff to try and circumvent anything", Beaton added.

"And it bothers me when comments are made up here on the dais suggesting, at least my perception and what I heard, that out council and our City Manager were doing things in a non-transparent and non-scrupulous way, which is the furthest thing from the truth", Mayor Britain said during the meeting.

But what about allowing Young to vote on motions pertaining to an issue he's directly involved in?

The City Attorney believes that was OK.

"To me, they are about process, they are motions relating to process, and not the substance of the actual matter. And so, when it came time for the actual matter to be addressed, he did recuse himself and he actually left the room", Beaton said.

So, not only is there a question about whether or not the item should have been placed on the agenda when it was, there is no definition of what constitutes "business hours" on any Kennewick code.

And then there is a potential conflict of interest raised by having Councilman Young voting on the motions he did.

News Radio 610 KONA reached out to Young and asked him to comment on that, and he declined to get back to us.

Councilman Trumbo took those concerns to the non-profit group Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington State, and read their response during the October 16th meeting.

"The motion to approve payment of the legal expenses did not meet the advanced notice deadline, perhaps because of the Labor Day holiday on Monday", Trumbo recited.

At which point, Marie Mosley responded, "I can tell you that never in my past experience, as I've been the City Manager, have we ever interpreted that section to be anything other than eight hours prior to the council meeting. And, this is not a one-and-done type of situation that happened on September 4th. We have added items to the agenda many other times."

And it all may be a moot point. There is currently no state law to apply for when local procedures are not followed.