VALIDITY OF RECALL PETITION GOES BEFORE JUDGE

By Chris Cook - Forks Forum Editor

“All you ever wanted to know and more about allegations and actions within the Forks Police Department” could be the title of a report released to the press that details events leading up to the mounting earlier this year of a call for a recall of Forks Mayor Nedra Reed.

A private investigator did the leg work for the 60-page report. He was hired by a Seattle law firm that provides legal services to the City of Forks.

The report details turmoil within the department that lasted for about a year. The problem never publicly acknowledged by the city until the recall petition action was begun.
Reed said Monday the investigation by the Seattle firm alone cost the city about $43,000.

The tab for the city in its defense of Reed, a billing separate from the investigation, is rising this week. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday for four hours beginning at 9 a.m. before Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams. Williams will determine the validity of a recall petition filed in part by three former Forks Police Department employees.

Last week the recall petition was torn apart on paper by Sequim-based attorney Craig Ritchie in a filing with the superior court. The Forks City Council earlier approved expending city funds in defense of Reed against the recall effort.

Former FPD sergeants Tom Scott and JoElle Munger, and Deanna DeMatteis are among the seven petitioners on the recall document.

All three were fired by Reed on Feb. 28, and are the subjects of much of the newly-released report. They are seeking an arbitration hearing through the Teamsters Union over their firings.
Termination letters sent to Scott, Munger and DeMatteis were also released by the City of Forks last week.

In the letters the city claims Scott was a “ringleader” seeking the ouster of Powell as police chief, and that Munger and DeMatteis sided with Scott.

The letter claims that Munger felt the investigation was biased, and the results of the interview with the private investigator was to remain confidential.

The City of Forks responded that she was interviewed accompanied by her attorney and a Teamsters Union representative, and failed to state the interview was biased at the time of the interview.
Charges that potential hires by the police department were discouraged by Scott are also made in the letters.

Possible religious discrimination against Powell is also noted along with potential discrimination against the police chief due to the end of Powell’s marriage to Karleen Powell. Karleen Powell later led in initiating the recall effort.

Ritchie is questioning the validity of the recall petition. Among his claims is that some of the petitioners were not involved in or affected by alleged actions by Forks Police Chief Mike Powell and others that are the basis for some of the seven charges made against the mayor in the recall petition.

Attorney Eileen Lawrence of the law firm Davis Grimm Payne & Marra wrote the report.

The report details letters sent to Scott, Munger and DeMatteis on June 4, 2007 that addressed concerns they had about Powell and other alleged improper actions within the Forks Police Department. The report also outlines and critiques the arguments the three give for seeking the mayor’s recall, and the facts the city says are behind why the three were fired.
Scott said Monday that the 60-page report “is a farce.”

“We have a good case, and I believe the judge will rule in our favor,” he said. “We want it to go to the voters. There is nothing frivolous here, we want the people to have their say.”

If the recall is approved by the judge, Scott and other backers will have to wait 16 days before they can collect signatures on the petition. They would need 223 signatures of registered voters in Forks, which is 35 percent of the 635 votes Reed received in her 2005 reelection victory, to bring the recall to a vote in Forks.
Reed is in her second term and takes no salary.

She said Monday that the city’s defense against the charges in the recall petition needs to be continued.

“It’s  been a very difficult year and a half for the City of Forks, and on behalf of the city I apologize to the community,” she said. The police department situation needs to be resolved once and for all, she said. “In the long-term it will benefit this wonderful community.”

Reed said a lawsuit filed by former Forks Police Officer Jim Dixon is being moved from Clallam County Superior Court to U.S. District Court in Tacoma. The suit alleges a violation of federal labor laws, she said. Dixon is seeking payment for overtime care he gave by keeping a K-9 dog for the Forks Police Department in his own home.

Posted April 9, 2008