Kennewick council prepared 5-point ethics complaint, demanded mayor resign, records show
Before former Kennewick Mayor Bill McKay’s sudden resignation, his fellow council members were preparing to bring forth an ethics complaint for misuse of office, interfering in a police investigation, engaging with women being sex trafficked and soliciting a prostitute.
The Tri-City Herald obtained a copy of the ethics complaint review that was presented to McKay just days before he left office and a scandal involving illicit massage parlors became public.
The new documents released under Washington’s Open Public Records Act shed light on how community leaders were handling the situation behind the scenes after learning that McKay admitted to paying for sexual services at an illicit massage parlor while claiming he was conducting his own investigation into them.
Ethics complaint
Last April, the Kennewick City Council revamped its ethics policy, moving away from referring complaints out to an independent legal review. The new policy laid out a multi-step process that the council says offers more accountability, however it isn’t as transparent because it involves face-to-face conversations and executive session discussions, which are behind closed doors and not subject to public records disclosures.
It is likely though that pressure from fellow council members led to McKay accepting their request for his resignation.
The ethics complaint review given to McKay by now Mayor Gretl Crawford and Councilman John Trumbo would not have been made public until much later in the process had McKay refused to resign. It was only recently made a public record after Crawford emailed interim City Manager Lisa Beaton a copy.
It’s one of several steps going beyond traditional public record management requirements that the city of Kennewick has taken since McKay resigned. Other examples are now retired City Manager Marie Mosley and Police Chief Chris Guerrero creating timelines detailing their interactions with McKay about illicit massage parlors.
Crawford told the Herald that she prepared the document with input from Councilman Chuck Torelli, who is now mayor pro tem. The two headed the ethics committee after the new policy was passed.
Separate sets of notes also were released showing how Crawford and Torelli approached putting together the review.
Crawford and Trumbo met with McKay on Friday, Nov. 3, shortly after council members were informed that information involving McKay would soon be released in a public records request.
The ethics complaint review they presented him with lays out a variety of ethics policies and laws they believe McKay violated, informing him that if he did not resign by the following Monday a formal ethics investigation would begin.
Those violations include:
Soliciting a prostitute. McKay had admitted to at least two instances of paying for sexual services, according to a later special prosecutor’s review.
Engaging in sex trafficking. The document described this as “Commercial sexual exploitation of women: modern slavery.” In his recorded interviews with detectives McKay indicates he believes the women at the illicit massage parlors are victims of sex trafficking.
Pressuring a customer service employee and the city’s communication manager to reinstate a massage parlor’s business license. McKay brought in the owner of a massage business, which the documents say he was considered a VIP client at due to his status as the mayor, and tried to convince city employees to reinstate their license, saying it was wrongfully terminated. This was after new massage business regulations, which McKay voted for, were put into effect.
Interrupting and interfering in a law enforcement investigation. According to Guerrero he had repeatedly told McKay to stop “investigating” the illicit massage parlors and stop trying to talk to them about it, but he kept going to new suspected illicit parlors and then attempting to start conversations about the investigation.
Going around the city manager to engage with the police chief to interfere in police investigations. Guerrero and Mosley described an incident, the night before a massage parlor was raided, in which McKay pulled the police chief aside to talk about illicit massage parlors and made efforts to ensure Mosley could not hear what he was saying.
McKay initially refused to resign and a closed-door executive session was put on the agenda for the Nov. 7 city council meeting to review charges or complaints brought against an elected official. Trumbo also learned that McKay had hired a lawyer.
However, around noon the day of the meeting, McKay submitted his resignation, ending any official ethics inquiry before it began.
Crawford told the Herald that ultimately the new ethics policy worked as they had hoped, giving the council a way to hold their own members accountable.
Had McKay refused to resign, the full council would have discussed the review at the Nov. 7 meeting and it would have been entered into record.
Afterward a two week “cooling off” period would go into effect and if the council members bringing forward the complaint still wanted to proceed, a second non-public executive session would be held and afterward the council could vote to censure or reprimand McKay.
He would have had the option to request the discussion take place in a public session.
“As information came about, we followed up on it and we followed the guidelines of the ethics of the policy,” Crawford said. “I think it worked the way that we wanted it to, I think it had the outcome where accountability was put into place and then we, as a council and a city, moved forward.”
Timeline: Kennewick mayor’s sudden resignation and ensuing massage parlor scandal
