Longview councilor Kalei LaFave's new relationship raises ethics concerns

She recently acknowledged a romance with the city's IT director, a connection nearly identical to one she objected to involving the former mayor and spouse

Longview City Councilwoman Kalei LaFave is in a romantic relationship with a city department head, creating a nearly identical ethical concern she and others raised two years ago against Councilwoman MaryAlice Wallis and her husband, then-city IT director David Wallis.

This is, to quote Yogi Berra, deja vu all over again.

Recall some history here: Two years ago, then-City Manager Kris Swanson selected David Wallis to be the city’s new IT manager. Wallis had been the top recommendation of two separate four-member employee committees that reviewed applicants. Wallis had decades of experience leading computer departments for government agencies, and he and Swanson had worked together for Cowlitz County when Swanson had been county auditor.

Swanson consulted with the city attorney and Municipal Research & Services Center — a nonprofit that gives legal and policy guidance to Washington city governments — about the ethics of hiring the spouse of Councilwoman MaryAlice Wallis, who was then mayor. Wallis was fully outside the hiring decision, and the IT manager answers to the city manager, not the mayor, and is not answerable to or supervised by council members. So Swanson was cleared to hire David Wallis to lead the IT department.

Nevertheless, the hire became a campaign issue in 2023, as candidate LaFave and her conservative allies complained about favoritism and conflicts of interest. They often blistered MaryAlice Wallis, even though she had no part in the hiring decision and had no supervision over her husband as a city employee.

LaFave was one of the loudest critics of the move. The issue was no doubt one of the reasons that she and the four-member council majority that came to power in 2024 fired Swanson that March, although Swanson was terminated officially “without cause.”

Fast forward to last July: Acting City Manager Jim Duscha, hired as a temporary replacement for Swanson, hired Mike Sullivan as the new IT director to replace David Wallis. Wallis had quit to an accept a higher-paying job at Lower Columbia College in part because he was fed up with the commotion, rumors and innuendo that swirled at City Hall following Swanson’s sacking. (It is absolutely untrue, he told me last week, that he was forced to quit his position with the city).

Sullivan, whose wife filed for divorce on May 22, met LaFave after the city hired him. The two have been living together at LaFave’s home. LaFave, who is not currently married, recently revealed on her Facebook profile that the two are in a relationship, confirming reports that had been circulating in local political circles for weeks.

The matter also came up at last week’s City Council meeting when Teresa Purcell, a Democratic activist, asked if the city has a policy regulating such relationships. (The city has a nepotism policy, but the council’s only direct employee is the city manager. So the policy does not apply to LaFave’s relationship with Sullivan, just as it did not apply to the Wallises.)

Still, her liaison puts LaFave, who is also Mayor ProTem, in an identical position that she and her allies objected to with the Wallises: She’s a council member in a relationship with a city department head. There are two differences: Their relationship didn’t start until some time after he was hired, and they are not married.

LaFave’s critics are now blasting her for hypocrisy. What went around is now coming around.

LaFave’s personal life and relationship with Sullivan are her own business. But there is a public interest here that makes the story newsworthy.

There IS a potential for conflict here, just as there was for the Wallises.

LaFave did not respond to two questions I emailed to her midday Thursday. One was whether she believes she should apologize to the Wallises, given that she is now in a near-identical situation. The other asked how she and Sullivan would avoid conflicts of interest.

I believe that couples can work together in the same enterprises. My wife, Paula, and I did so for years at The Daily News, though neither of us supervised the other. Over the years the city has employed many couples.

Also, in a small community the pool of talent is limited so that a spouse or partner of a current worker may, in fact, be the best person available for a job.

Couples in these circumstances must maintain a strict sense of decorum and professionalism and avoid even the sniff of favoritism.

Recognizing that, the Wallises worked assiduously to avoid a hint of nepotism. David Wallis did not even attend City Council meetings. MaryAlice Wallis recused herself from voting on a salary compensation plan for senior managers. He sent a staff member to the city’s accessibility advisory commission instead of attending himself because his wife was the council liaison to that group. They would not usually even chat when encountering one another at City Hall.

I believe LaFave cares deeply about this community and is well-connected to its businesses and people. But her ethical rudder sometimes is unsteady.

She wanted to hire Duscha, a friend, as permanent city manager without a search, even though she and her council allies had blasted the previous council for hiring Swanson that way. Her failed attempt was clear duplicity.

To this day, she still claims she was scapegoated and fired unjustly in 2015 for mismanaging finances while executive director at United Way of Cowlitz and Wahkiakum Counties, despite an accounting audit that found the agency in financial distress.

She and the rest of the council majority that fired Swanson and hired Duscha face a lawsuit that they violated the state Open Meetings Act and allegations that they are not complying with the state Open Records Act. (See my June 20 story, ”Hacked" phone, trashed phone.”)

So there is cause for vigilance here, and LaFave should recognize that.

As IT director, Sullivan has access to sensitive city information. It’s absolutely essential that he and LaFave maintain a wall between them when it comes to city business.

And I do think that LaFave owes the Wallises an apology.