SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward took a stand against the city council’s call for an independent investigation into Police Chief Craig Meidl in a press conference Monday afternoon. She believes the city council’s resolution calling on her office to do this is redundant and political.
Chief Meidl is accused of giving special access and information to downtown business owners.
Complaints against him in October 2022, prompted the Office of Police Ombudsman to initiate an investigation in October. Its report in December 2022 found that he exchanged hundreds of emails with downtown business owners that included special access to the chief and information.
Meidl insists he did nothing wrong.
"We have done this for many organizations," Meidl previously said.
Last month, 21 community groups called for Meidl’s resignation.
Then, the city council began drafting a resolution asking the mayor’s office to launch an independent investigation into the chief to determine the full scope and nature of his conduct.
But Monday afternoon, Mayor Woodward made it clear she will not direct staff to do this.
"I am deeply concerned about the council's insistence on keeping alive a topic that has already gone through an independent investigation by the Office of the Police Ombudsman, and that was closed many, many months ago,” Woodward said.
The resolution cites Spokane Municipal Code (SMC) 4.32.030(Q), which requires the administration to direct human resources to investigate complaints against the chief of police.
When asked about the mayor's obligation to follow city code, Woodward said, “Well, we do that when they come from the community. But when it is political and it comes from city council, I’m not obligated to do anything.”
Council President Breean Beggs said the complaints have come from members of the community.
“The mayor wants to ignore the city code, that's a little ironic because she's the law and order mayor,” Beggs said.
He explains the ombudsman can’t investigate complaints against the police chief. They can only create a report of observations—which it did in December 2022.
“We just want it to be cleared up once and for all," Beggs said. "HR is supposed to do it, and if HR can't do it, an independent investigation will be preferable.”
Council member Lori Kinnear added that the investigation won’t focus only on Chief Meidl.
"We're also wanting to the investigation to include people in our office to see if they were throwing gasoline on this fire and people in the mayor's office," Kinnear said. "So, it's not just about the Chief."
The resolution is not yet scheduled for a city council vote, but KREM 2 will provide an update when it does.
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