Ethics complaint against Kennewick mayor will go to a public hearing, attorney concludes

An ethics complaint filed against the Kennewick mayor will proceed to a public hearing to determine if the city’s Code of Ethics was violated.

It is the second complaint forwarded to the city’s independent ethics officer since the city council passed an ethics policy for its members last year.

The ethics officer, attorney Thomas Atwood, found this week that there could be enough evidence that Mayor Don Britain violated the city’s ethics code for a public hearing to be scheduled.

The finding that there is sufficient evidence for a hearing is not a determination that a violation has occurred, Atwood emphasized in his statement.

The complaint against Britain alleged that he violated the requirement that the “professional and personal conduct of officials must be above reproach and avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

Britain was fired from his job as a Washington state Department of Social and Health Services case manager after an administrative investigation by the Washington State Patrol into his relationship with a female welfare client.

The ethics complaint alleged he improperly helped the client to obtain state benefits, including an electronic card for food, a gas card and allegedly unneeded items for a welding class.

Britain has said previously that in most cases other DSHS officials gave final approval for those benefits for the client.

The ethics complaint went beyond the WSP investigation to accuse Britain of possible crimes, including theft, perjury or interference with official proceedings.

The WSP investigation did not accuse Britain of any criminal activity and is not under criminal investigation in the matter.

Ethics complaint focus is relationship

Atwood determined that the alleged violation was neither minor nor inadvertent, in which case it would be resolved informally, according to the city Code of Ethics for council members.

It was not inadvertent “because it was clear that Mr. Britain’s participation in an ongoing relationship with his client was a deliberate choice on his part,” Atwood said.

They shared a lease on an apartment where both lived, and he used frequent-flier miles to buy her a plane ticket to Hawaii at the same time he traveled there. Britain said they did not stay together there.

Britain has denied that he had a romantic relationship with the woman and said he did nothing wrong.

He said he was just trying to help out a mother who was facing eviction, by renting her and her children a room in his apartment when he needed a new place to live at the first of last year because of his pending divorce.

The apartment management recommended her name also be on the lease, he said.

“I believe that the romantic or platonic nature of the relationship is irrelevant,” Atwood said in his findings.

The concern is that the relationship between a DSHS manager and a DSHS client “is fraught with a conflict of interest,” he said.

It is the sort of conflict of interest that led DSHS to create a policy against personal relationships with clients, he said.

“I find that by having a personal relationship with a person that he was able to provide benefits to, he created, at a minimum, the appearance of impropriety,” Atwood said. “He should have stepped down from handling her benefits at the time the relationship went beyond a purely professional one.”

Mayor recall tossed by court

The complaint was signed by Councilmen Bill McKay, Brad Beauchamp and John Trumbo. They also voted in the minority against electing Britain as mayor for 2020 after he lost his DSHS job in October.

Britain has been appealing the DSHS decision with the help of his union.

Britain also faced a recall petition by a Kennewick resident over the same allegations included in the ethics complaint, but last week a Benton County Superior Court judge ruled that a council member or mayor could not be recalled for actions not part of official duties.

In the ethics complaint, the next step will be to schedule a public hearing, with Atwood deciding who to call as witnesses.

After the hearing, Atwood will have 30 days to make a recommendation to the city council. The recommendation could range from dismissing the complaint, to reprimanding Britain, to assessing a civil fine of $1,000.

In December, Atwood considered the first ethics complaint, filed against Trumbo, and found there was sufficient reason to schedule a hearing on the complaint.

Earlier ethics complaint

Trumbo’s ethics hearing was set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19. Full coverage of the hearing will appear in Friday’s Herald.

He was accused of falsely representing himself as a councilman when he made a call to the buyer of state Sen. Sharon Brown’s Canyon Lakes house. He had questions about the house, repairs, a mechanic’s lien, the sale and the assess value.

When the buyer was confused about why a councilman was calling him, Trumbo said he tried to clear up the confusion and said he was not calling as a councilman or in any other professional capacity.

The ethics complaint was signed by Councilman Charles Torelli and recently retired Councilman Paul Parish.

Trumbo was censured by the council in April for presenting himself as a councilman in an unauthorized investigation related to Mayor Pro Tem Steve Lee.

Trumbo was removed from board and committee assignments for the rest of 2019 for “misuse of office.”

A majority of the council also adopted a new ethics policy, with the first ethics complaint under the new policy filed against Trumbo just days after the council hired Atwood to serve as its $240-an-hour ethics officer on an as-needed basis.

This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 4:39 PM.