Battle Ground on tenterhooks
Date: 9 Mar 2010 Comments:0Battle Ground is waiting for transparency.
The Columbian-March 8, 2010: The Battle Ground City Council met behind closed doors for nearly three hours Monday night to discuss the findings from an investigation into who is leaking privileged information from executive sessions.
The council reconvened in open session just before 10 p.m. and took no action. Acting City Manager John Williams will issue a news release today regarding the investigation. The two-page report will be a summary of the findings and will not include all details, Mayor Michael Ciraulo said after the meeting.
Ciraulo would not comment on whether the investigation identified someone who was leaking information.
“We all agreed that we were going to say, ‘No comment,’ and let the report speak for itself,” he said.
Battle Ground Mayor Mike Ciraulo
Ciraulo called the executive session Monday evening, citing state statutes permitting closed-door sessions to review complaints or charges brought against a public officer and potential litigation. At the time, the council had not yet seen the report and did not know the findings from the investigation.
Ciraulo initially said earlier Monday that the discussion would take place during a public session, but the city’s legal counsel advised the city council against doing so.
Ciraulo, Deputy Mayor Phil Haberthur and council members Bill Ganley, Chris Regan, Alex Reinhold, Lisa Walters and Paul Zandamela all attended the meeting. City Attorney Brian Wolfe, Williams, Patrick Brock, the city’s special attorney obtained for the investigation, and the two investigators also took part in the closed-door meeting that began at 7 p.m.
The investigation was conducted last month by Jon Walters and William Curtright of Public Safety Testing Inc. of Lynnwood. The investigators interviewed all participants in Battle Ground City Council executive sessions from January 1, 2009, to the present, as well as anyone else who was identified as the recipient of confidential information.
Last month, the city council approved spending up to $23,000 for the investigation. The council also approved paying no more than $5,250 (30 hours at $175 per hour) to obtain Brock as outside legal counsel. The final cost for the probe was unclear Monday night.
The council unanimously approved launching the investigation at a meeting Dec. 21 after Reinhold raised concerns about e-mails he received from people in the community.
The e-mails included privileged information from closed executive sessions.
Marissa Harshman: 360-735-4546 or marissa.harshman@columbian.com.









