Councilors seek audit of top Longview official to ask: Can she wear two hats?

The latest twist in 'resolutiongate' is a red herring that seeks to discredit Ann Rivers

“Resolutiongate” has taken an unexpected pivot from where it began during a Longview City Council meeting on Feb. 8.

Councilman Keith Young this week released the text of a resolution that he said calls for an audit to determine whether Assistant City Manager Ann Rivers, who also is a state senator from Clark County, is adequately handling the demands of both jobs.

This is a red herring and, frankly, dirty politics.

The measure is now expected to be on the agenda at the next council meeting, which takes place on Thursday, Feb. 22. The resolution says the audit cost would be capped at $30,000. 

Young and fellow newly minted councilmember Kalei LaFave had tried to introduce a resolution as the council approached adjournment on February 8. But they were told it violated the council’s policy against introducing “surprise measures”and needed to be placed on the council’s meeting agenda a week ahead of time.

Young didn’t disclose the contents then, but City Manager Kris Swanson said she had evidence it was an attempt to invoke a state law to allow a simple council majority — four votes — to terminate her. Her contract requires approval from five members, and that won’t happen with the council divided at 4-3.

So disclosure that Young and LaFave’s resolution is aimed at Rivers is a surprise. There are rumblings that they changed the resolution to dodge criticism for going after Swanson. The city has been besieged with public record requests driven by suspicions — so far unproven — that council members colluded on the resolution in violation of the state Open Meetings Act.

Young had every opportunity when I interviewed him last Monday to state clearly that Swanson was not the target of the resolution. He declined to do so and has not returned requests for comment for this column.

In any case, the council called Swanson on the carpet during a Jan. 25 executive session over a minor clerical glitch in a legislative funding request. 

So, in the span of less than three weeks, the new conservative council majority is attacking the city’s top two administrators.

It’s time for the public to show up to tell these newbies to stop wasting time and city tax money on a politically driven audit and to start solving problems instead of creating them. 

The resolution targeting Rivers is troubling on several fronts.

First,  Washington law and ethics policy recognizes that members of the our part-time “citizen legislature” must work other jobs for living.  (The Legislature is in session 165 days in a two-year period.) That separate experience is valuable to the state, the law states. 

The idea of a “citizen Legislature”  is meant to keep  lawmakers in touch with the concerns of common citizens so as to avoid the detachment said to afflict members of Congress.

Rivers’ double duties pose no conflicts of interest, and her  connections in the Legislature are an obvious asset to the city.

Most state lawmakers have other jobs and can often be seen checking their business affairs on laptops during breaks in legislative proceedings.

State Sen. John Braun, a Republican, owns Braun Northwest, a Chehalis firm that outfits emergency vehicles at a sprawling site along Interstate 5. State Sen. Jeff Wilson, a Longview Republican, also serves as a Port of Longview commissioner. State Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, runs a small publishing company. Decades ago, the late state Sen. Don Talley talked politics and policy while making deliveries to customers of his Kelso butcher shop.

So why subject Rivers to exceptional scrutiny just because she has a public sector non-legislative job?  Her double duties pose no conflicts of interest, and her connections in the Legislature are an obvious asset to the city.

Secondly, the City Council may not have authority to conduct an audit of a city employee, though it does have authority to order a department review. All city employees but one are subject to hiring, termination and review by the city manager.  The city manager is the sole city employee subject to council review. 

So why is the council meddling in a task that is  — in normal times,  at least —  the exclusive purview of City Manager Kris Swanson?

Thirdly, the resolution does not specify or refer to any evidence of problems with Rivers’ performance.  It offers no justification for scrutiny.

Rivers joined the city as director of economic development and community development two and a half years ago and added assistant city manager duties last May.

Former City Manager Kurt Sacha, who retired in October 2022, said he was thrilled that Rivers agreed to work for Longview and that she has been ”obviously a great asset to the city.”

Rivers worked nights and weekends and used vacation time to make up for any city time she lost to legislative work, Sacha said. 

Rivers has worked with developers to increase the stock of low-income housing and helped bring Divert Inc. to Longview. The company is building a $40 million waste-to-energy plant at the city’s Mint Farm Industrial project.

Sacha said that none of the City Council’s three new conservatives elected in November have asked him about Rivers’ work performance.

Young,  LaFave and the rest of the conservative bloc need to be transparent and abandon the messianic notion that they are trying to save the city from the good old boys.

Rivers, a moderate, often is out of tune with the conservative, libertarian tenor of this region’s Republican politics. And she and Sen. Wilson had a pointed conflict last year when Rivers tried to get state  funds in the state capital budget to operate Hope Village against Wilson’s wishes. 

Wilson supported LaFave in the fall election and is an active kingmaker among local Republican circles.  He said by text message Friday that he had nothing to do with the resolution and had no further comment.

Rivers said she was not surprised by the resolution and knew last fall she could come under attack.

“To be clear,  Jeff has always had a problem with me,” said Rivers, who has represented the 18th Legislative District since 2012.  The district covers north Clark County and is adjacent to Cowlitz County.

Until now, no city councilmember has ever questioned her ability to wear two hats, she told me Friday.

This seems to be a way to bloody Swanson through Rivers. It is another example of this new council emerging as the most divisive I’ve ever seen in more than four decades of observation and residency in this city.

If the council goes ahead with it, there is a question of who would conduct the audit. Former Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha, an ally of LaFave, attended he council meeting on February 8. His presence has led to speculation that he would conduct the audit of Rivers or become interim city manager if the council fired Swanson. Duscha has not returned my phone calls.

This situation is the stuff of a political conspiracy thriller. But this is real life, and Young,  LaFave and the rest of the conservative bloc need to be transparent and abandon their mistaken notion that they have a mandate to save the city from “the good old boys,” as Young put in a Facebook post.

What they’re doing is going after two competent and dedicated women.

Do they really think they are helping the city?