Mayor Rich Changes His Tune

Mayor Rich Hildreth is singing a new tune. He had been insisting it was perfectly legal to use a city credit card for his personal business. 

But now the story is that the King County Prosecutor says hizzonor  never intended to break the law.

Huh?What does that mean? By implication it suggests the prosecutor is saying he’s letting the little scofflaw wiggle off the hook. Why would a prosecutor do that?

Here’s what the mayor's announcement says:

1.       "Charges of Corruption found unsubstantiated. Mayor cleared of all allegations

2.       Prosecutor has now officially declined to prosecute stating:  There is no evidence that the use of the credit card in anyway was meant to defraud the City or violate the law."

So if you violated the law unintentionally, how does that clear you of all allegations?

 

 

This looks like a slap in the face of the city council, because it lets the mayor off the hook for thumbing his nose at the branch of government that’s responsible for the purse strings. Why would a prosecutor help him do that?

Let me suggest a different interpretation. Here are some of the shenanigans that have taken place in the last 10 years in Pacific: 

• On three occasions, a mayor has lost paperwork authorizing a special election for Pacific to replace the mayor with a  city manager, causing King County to operate the election to make sure it was conducted properly. 

• The city has caused fill dirt and gravel to be dumped on county property in the area of the Stuck river without permission, and possibly in such a manner that flooding was made worse; the county had to pay for the gravel removal. 
• The public safety division of the city has been involved in racial profiling, which was followed by bringing in police from several jurisdictions to suppress a constitutionally-protected civil rights march. 
• Afterward, the public safety director was charged with drunk driving and accused of intimidating a police officer; he also tampered with a witness in a vehicular assault collision involving his son. 
• Following a KOMO TV exposé, the Klickitat County Sheriff’s office investigated the public safety director and found the accusations that he aimed a firearm at another individual to be credible. 
• Mayor Hildreth threw out the findings. 

 

• And now Mayor Rich is traveling all over the country on government-paid training for his next career, charging the travel expenses on a city credit card in an apparent violation of the state constitution. Put yourself in the prosecutor’s place. 

What kind of prosecutor wants to focus his resources on nincompoops? I wish I was in the room when the powers that be interviewed hizzonor, because I can imagine what they should have told him:  "Listen, Doofus, we have better things to do than mess with idiots. Knock it off, or we'll show you where the bear passed through the buckwheat!"
Of course, that isn't what the mayor was told, because the investigation was conducted by the police department that answers to him. But maybe the department owed him a favor for ignoring that Klickitat County report. One hand washes the other, right?

Really, Rich. You expect us to believe you?

Next time in Speed Trap City: A brief history of Mayor Rich’s integrity.