Using "2+2=0 logic"

Watchdog group blasts legislative board decision clearing Longview state Sen. Jeff Wilson of ethics violation in open records case

A government watchdog group says it is “seriously troubled” by a Legislative board’s decision clearing state Sen. Jeff Wilson of an ethics violation when he failed to comply with the state Open Records Act.

Among the evidence against Wilson, a Longview Republican, is that he threw away a personal cell phone knowing that he was required to preserve public records on it.

Thomas Samuels, the Longview citizen who filed the ethics complaint against Wilson, said the decision by the bipartisan Legislative Ethics Board to exonerate the senator “gutted my faith in the rule of law.”

Wilson did not return requests for comment texted to him last week.

The case involves a state public records request that Samuels made on February 9, 2024, seeking all emails, texts and other communication records among Wilson and four members of the Longview City Council. The council foursome were those who later orchestrated the firing of Longview City Manager Kris Swanson — without cause — on March 13, 2024.

Samuels is one of three citizens suing those council members for alleged violations of the state Open Public Meetings Act relating to their firing of Swanson. He sought records from the group to document suspected illegal collusion among them.

In response to Samuel’s request, Wilson first told the Senate Public Records Office on March 5 last year that he did not use a personal cell phone for legislative business, according to legislative documents. Official business conducted on personal cell phones must be disclosed under the state Open Records Act.

Nevertheless, Wilson declared that he had “completed a thorough search” of his personal cell phone and found no records relating to Samuels’ request, according to an investigative report by the Legislative Ethics Board.

(The Senate Public Records Office does not have authority to search a legislator’s personal cell phones or equipment. But it asks lawmakers to sign a “declaration form” stating that they have searched their devices themselves. Wilson is a member of the Legislature’s “Sunshine Committee,” which reviews and recommends changes to the state’s open records law. So he should know the relative laws and procedures.)

However, records that the council members disclosed to Samuels showed that Wilson did, indeed, exchange a handful of text messages with Councilman/Mayor Spencer Boudreau and Councilwoman/Mayor Pro Tem Kalei LaFave on January 24-25 last year, according to the ethics board report and the OPMA lawsuit. At least one of them was on his personal cell phone.

The council members’ records also showed that Wilson had phone exchanges with Councilman Erik Halvorson three times on Jan. 21.

The texts related to confusion over the city’s $3 million legislative request for funding homeless programs, including the city-sponsored Hope Village pallet home community.

The council members were attempting to hold Swanson to account for a clerical error that was later traced to the city’s lobbyist. Wilson is a political ally of LaFave. He and his wife contributed a total of $1,000 to LaFave’s 2023 electoral campaign, accounting for nearly 17% of the $6,000 she raised.

After learning about the texts, Samuels on August 22 filed a complaint against Wilson with the Legislative Ethics Board and turned over his evidence. Samuels wrote that he had “incontrovertible proof” that Wilson had communicated with the council members.

Samuels alleged that Wilson “appears to have deliberately and falsely denied having any responsive records to my request … and appears to believe he is not subject to the laws and rules that govern his elected office.”

Wilson told ethics board investigators “he could not respond to the public disclosure request because he no longer had the phone that would have contained the texts. When asked when he got a new phone, (Wilson) replied that it was sometime in March of 2024. When asked what happened to his old phone, he indicated that he threw it in the garbage.”

Wilson had been reminded by Senate staff on February 9, 2024, that he had to “preserve potential records ... and suspend all ordinary destruction and recycling procedures” of communications equipment, according to the ethics report.

Despite all these findings, — and concluding that Wilson still possessed the phone when he was notified of Samuels’ records request — the ethics board exonerated Wilson of ethical wrongdoing. It noted that the senator did not receive the “declaration form” until a month later, on March 5, 2024. “By this time he could have already disposed of his old phone,” the ethics report said.

The panel concluded, in a order signed on December 16, that there was no evidence of an “intent to conceal” records on Wilson’s part. Intent must be shown to make him guilty of an ethics violation, the panel noted.

According to state law: “No state officer or state employee may intentionally conceal a record if the officer or employee knew the record was required to be released, was under a personal obligation to release the record, and failed to do so. This subsection does not apply where the decision to withhold the record was made in good faith.”

The ethics board ruling left Samuels and others shocked and outraged.

“I was in disbelief” when he read the ruling, Samuels said Thursday. “It gutted my faith in the rule of law. I felt naive. I felt (Wilson) was dead to rights on this.”

Friday, Samuels received an email from Jennifer Strus, the ethics board’s lawyer, saying he could not appeal because he was not “somehow harmed” by Wilson’s actions.

“Well isn't that just peachy,” Samuels said by email.

The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG), a Seattle-based, non-partisan nonprofit that advocates for government openness, blasted the ethics board’s decision.

The group said in March 13 statement that it is “baffled — and seriously troubled — by the finding.”

Under the board’s logic, “2+2=0,” the statement said.

The ethics board consists of two retired and four current legislators, with three from each party. A former community college president from Spokane is the seventh member.

I was unable to reach the current board chairman, Clark County Republican Larry Hoff. His phone number and email address are not listed on the ethics board’s site.

The ethics board considers complaints in executive session, so minutes of its meetings do not reflect its deliberations in Wilson’s case.

The irony of that secrecy helps illustrate the difficulties citizens encounter holding officials accountable and transparent.

“The Legislative Ethics Board’s dubious decision comes as the state Legislature continues its ongoing assault against the state Public Records Act, as exemplified by lawmakers’ undefined claim of ‘legislative privilege’ to withhold records from the public,” WashCOG wrote in its response to the Wilson decision.

In November, a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled that Washington lawmakers may withhold records that are “privileged.” It was the second lower court ruling to affirm such a privilege, even though the state Supreme Court had previously ruled that lawmakers’ records are public.

Both those recent rulings are under appeal on grounds that lawmakers should not be allowed to decide what records are disclosable and which are not.

Wilson did not claim any exemption to the open records law; he just seems to have deliberately side-stepped the disclosure and record-retention provisions.

The records Samuels requested would have been less than a month old, and the exchanges with LaFave and Boudreau should have been fresh in his mind. And Swanson’s ouster was a highly charged public issue.

Wilson also knew he was supposed to save records from his personal cell phone. But he didn’t.

Wilson and the Ethics Board dropped the ball on this one. This is just one more lamentable example of the decline in the rule of law.