Getting any details on this matter to date has been met with strong resistance by City officials. It took a public records request by the Headlight Herald for the City to finally release the original $139,043 investigation costs. Despite repeated citizen requests for information on what misbehavior took place, the City has finally settled on the official response that this is a record that is protected by attorney-client privilege and citizens will not be told anything. As for the Mayor herself, she not only will not be told what the accusations were by the “anonymous employee” which turns out to allegedly be the City Manager, she will not be able to obtain a copy of the investigation.
Think about that for a moment. Mayor Simmons was put into office with the largest number of votes in City history. Within 5 months of taking office and attempting to learn her new responsibilities as a public official, an investigation by a Portland law firm is initiated based on unknown accusations allegedly by the City Manager and the City’s position is that this is none of our business.
The ongoing investigation by the Oregonian and other media interests into sexual harassment allegations involving Nike managers demonstrate the legal posturing utilized to keep the public in the dark when those in power seek to avoid public scrutiny. Nike first hired a law firm to investigate the sexual harassment claims by employees and initially refused to release the investigation findings arguing it was protected by attorney-client privilege. A media coalition successfully argued that the public’s interest in the matter was paramount and thousands of pages of documents were subsequently released.
When Nike refused to release additional records containing the redaction of specific executive’s names who were accused of sexual harassment on the grounds that such release would only “embarrass and shame” those individuals, Nike again lost that argument.
Is there any citizen who has been following this story who believes that the expenditure of $147,738 of public funds to investigate these unknown accusations of Mayor Simmons would be of no public interest? Is there a lesson here for our Council based upon Nike’s Board of Directors failed attempts to bury the tawdry details of what takes place out of public view in their corporate world?
Fortunately, in cases like this the Tillamook County District Attorney will now have the opportunity to evaluate just what records City officials will be permitted to withhold from citizens. The DA will evaluate if the public interest involving the material facts of this complaint and how our elected and appointed City officials conducted themselves in this matter outweighs the City’s need to preserve confidentially and continue to deny the records release.
If you believe that the public interest is best served through transparent disclosure of our elected and appointed City’s official’s actions, consider respectfully sharing your thoughts with an email or letter to our District Attorney to have this investigation report released for public review.
Aubrey M. Olson
Tillamook County District Attorney
201 Laurel Ave.
Tillamook, OR. 97141
aolson@co.tillamook.or.us