SPOKANE, Wash. - The City of Spokane Ethics Commission voted Wednesday and found Mayor David Condon did not violate the city’s ethics code in speaking to City Council about the dismissal of former Spokane Police Chief Frank Straub.
The vote surrounded a complaint about whether or not the mayor answered truthfully when asked if Monique Cotton had anything to do with Straub's resignation.
The complaint had alleged the mayor "knowingly and intentionally withheld information from the public and City Council regarding Monique Cotton's sexual harassment allegations against former Spokane Police Chief Frank Straub."
Cotton was at one point the public information officer for the Spokane Police Department but was abruptly transferred to the parks department. At the time, city leaders said the move was a promotion. It was not until later that it was learned she was moved because of the sexual harassment allegations.
The complaint accused Condon and his city administrator Theresa Sanders of being dishonest when asked if Cotton had anything to do with Straub's resignation. Wednesday afternoon the commission said they did not have enough evidence that showed that they lied.
"At least I got him taken to the principal's office, if the principal decided not to punish him I can't control that," said Joe Shogan, the former city council president who filed the complaint.
Shogan said after this recent decision he is ready to move on.
"They did their job and I sleep well at night but I am done with this, this has taken over two years and that's enough time," he said.
At a hearing on April 18 of this year, Condon denied the allegations and said he was truthful during the Straub/Cotton incident.
The commission said Wednesday they did not have enough evidence to support the complaint. A few commission members said while they did not agree with the way Condon reacted to the entire situation, that was not what they were looking at in this instance.
The mayor released a statement after the vote:
“Over the past three years, we have learned a lot about city policies relating to employee conduct and how we administer them. Those learnings, with assistance from the community, have helped update our reporting practices and add new avenues to ensure an employee can file a complaint in person, electronically, over the phone, and anonymously if they so desire. I have also required my staff to be mandatory reporters of any complaint, formal or informal, to human resources for investigation.
Over the past three years, there has been considerable public discussion and debate, media attention, and third-party legal review of how we handle employee concerns and personnel matters. That scrutiny has included a federal judge, a state judge, a former federal prosecutor who conducted an independent review, and the Ethics Commission – each time with the same result. While we have not been perfect, we have been open, honest, and forthright.
While we have welcomed the scrutiny, it is time to move forward and focus on what has been learned to make sure employees feel comfortable and empowered to file a complaint if they so choose.”
This is not the first investigation into the incident, as Condon's statement indicates. A report from an independent investigation by the Seabold Group in 2016 initially arrived at the conclusion that Cordon, Brian Coddington, the city spokesperson, Nancy Isserlis, the former city attorney, and Theresa Sanders, Spokane city administrator, “deliberately withheld information from the City Clerk regarding the existence of…documents with intent and purpose of delaying the production of those records until after the Mayor’s election.”
The investigator, Kris Cappel, the next day after the report was released to elected officials, amended that report, writing a letter explaining her decision to remove Condon and Coddington from the revised findings released to the public.
Condon, and the other city officials involved, have maintained their innocence.
Condon is not eligible for re-election after his second term comes to an end late next year.