One last time ..... THERE WAS NO CORRUPTION

In spite of numerous explanations, facts showing there was no corruption in my office and the resulting disastrous consequences of last year’s election there are still some people who what to hold on to mistaken beliefs. They will believe what they want to believe but to me they have the credibility of birthers or those who believe that 9-11 was a hoax to give President Bush a reason to attack Iraq. I have moved on from the election, but I do grow weary of the twisted facts, outright lies and in the case of one blog, comments such as “like past Mayor’s comments, the Prosecutor declining charges does not prove innocence.” But weary as I am about this; let’s go over this one more time.

Following my announcement in January of 2011 that I was going to run for a third term as Mayor of the City of Pacific a series of things started to occur. First was the appearance of www.anybodybut rich.com, a website funded by a local business owner who was upset that my administration would not turn away from violations he was making of zoning laws, permitted uses under his business license and environmental standards. It was not that we were against what he wanted to do, it was that he refused to follow the same process everyone else was required to use. He was upset we would not give him special treatment. This is the same person who tried to recruit City Council Members to run against me and who paid for papers and campaign workers to deliver them in the last weeks of the 2011 campaign. This is the same person who still has a lawsuit against me because of the already disproven allegations that my travels for training and conferences were outside of the scope of my job as Mayor and illegally funded by taxpayers. It is funny that even though the current Mayor’s actions have required him to hire an outside attorney because he was outside of scope, I am still covered by the City Insurance Company because even their investigation showed I did nothing improper.

Following a meeting with members of the council and this business owner, questions about my use of the city credit card were raised by the City Council. Although I will admit I could have handled this situation a little more calmly than I did, I asked the Insurance Company to do an investigation into the allegations if nothing else to show due diligence and that there was no attempt to cover up anything. The investigator looked at my travel, the types of training I took and if the training was consistent with my role as Mayor and in the public interest. That report by Canfield and Associates is included elsewhere in this blog. The only question that the investigator could not confirm was an incident in 2007 where my wife accompanied me to a conference in New Orleans.

That conference, sponsored by FEMA and ICMA (International City Management Association), was “Restoration 2007”. I not only attended this conference, in spite of being a “Strong Mayor” and not part of a Council / Manager form of government, I helped organize and plan for this event as well as being one of the workshop speakers. For my efforts in organizing the event, my conference costs were picked up by the host. When I purchased the airline tickets from Orbitz.com they would not allow for split billing. When I talked to the Finance Director at that time, I was instructed to pay the city for my wife’s ticket (which was done prior to the purchase), and then purchase the tickets together on the city credit card. This was consistent with what had been done the previous year when the Community Service Director and her husband traveled to Anaheim for the All American City Award. This was disclosed to the council at the time of purchase and In August was discussed with the Washington State Auditor’s office as part of the 2006 audit. It was decided that although not technically illegal it was not a best practice. We then internally changed the practice of how spousal travel would be dealt with to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

As for other travel to and from training programs sponsored by FEMA and/or DHS there are two important facts confirmed by the investigations and by documentation that has been provided. First the types of training taken are consistent for Governmental Administration including elected officials. In fact in the IEMC classes I shared the governmental role with three Texas Judges (comparable with a County Administrator) and a City Council member. Although it is admittedly unusual for a Mayor to take these classes, the information was brought back and directly applied for Public Benefit in our emergency plans and were all concerning information that is important to the Policy role of government. Secondly the investigation showed and verified that this travel was accomplished at little or no cost to Pacific residents or taxpayers. Local businesses such as Gordon Trucking, Valley Truck and Equipment and Commercial Metals made donations to what was a line item in the city budget as “Mayor’s Travel”. These donations were to cover travel expenses not reimbursed or otherwise covered by DHS/FEMA. As traveling to EMI in Emmitsburg Maryland was complicated by cross country flights and specific times that FEMA provided buses picked up students at the airports there was a choice. Fly out at midnight our time on Saturday night and not make it to sleep until 8 pm Sunday night and be a zombie all day Monday or fly in on Saturday day, stay overnight in Washington DC or Baltimore and arrive refreshed at EMI on Sunday. Again these trips were all booked on Orbitz.com with a typical cost of $75-$100 a night. Although Mayor Sun’s blog might claim that I was gallivanting around the country staying in 5 star hotels, it was a dramatically reduced cost and for justifiable reasons. Even though the cost was covered by donations, I constantly looked for ways to keep cost as low as possible. Cost of Airfare to EMI was always covered by a reimbursement by FEMA to me and then deposited into the City Accounts as a line item in the Mayor’s travel.

FEMA’s reimbursement policy at EMI (Emergency Management Institute) was not something that I or any other student had control over. They were required by Federal Policy to reimburse the student and could not legally issue a check or payment to the city, regardless of how the travel cost were originally funded. Approximately 6 weeks after a class they would electronically transfer a reimbursement for airline cost and baggage fees to my account. Upon receipt I would write a check to the city or deposit the funds in cash back to the city. These items were also listed in the Mayor’s travel fund line item and typically were flagged as FEMA reimbursement. During the investigation we did find a few cases where the deposit was mislabeled and deposited in the wrong fund; however in no case was it ever shown that funds were not immediately turned over to the city. After the turmoil started in the Council, a reimbursement for a class in January was used to partially fund travel to a class in June, however that was partially because the travel in January was partially funded by an airline voucher for being bumped from a flight. When the reimbursement for the June class was received it was immediately turned over to the city.

Not all of my travel was to EMI; I also traveled to DHS funded training at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston Alabama, TEEX in College Station Texas and CHDS in Monterey California. In these courses Governmental contractors would book the flight themselves and the only cost would be an occasional meal and/or baggage fees. Again these would be covered by donations and/ or reimbursements by the Federal Government. Although some people might question if the training had a public benefit (and this question was brought up by opponents and by council members) both the investigation by the insurance company and the fact that information brought back was immediately included in our CEMP and /or training and exercise that was provided to staff and to citizens.

I have tried to stay out of the controversy over Mayor Sun and the efforts to recall him. I personally wish that he had been outstandingly successful in running the city in spite of the fact that I know there was not corruption, an out of control budget or employees making outrageous salaries. I do not find any glee in seeing our city become the laughing stock of the nation or a poster boy for dysfunctional government; I fought too hard to bring us back from that when I took over as Mayor in 2004. My only issue in this at all is I am tired of people, including the mayor, continuing to mislead the people of this great city. So one final time; there was no corruption in city hall under my watch, I did not illegally use the city credit card to fund a future career (although if the city wants to they can pay for some of my student loans) and local taxpayers did not fund out of control travel, vacations in 5 star hotels for me and my wife and fancy meals at expensive restaurants. If you don’t believe me the facts are here in this blog and you can verify my figures in the public record.

FACTS DO NOT LIE.