Ethics hearing against Kennewick councilman brings out differing accounts

The Kennewick city ethics officer heard conflicting accounts of a telephone call at the center of an ethics complaint against Councilman John Trumbo at a public hearing this week.

The ethics officer, attorney Thomas Atwood, now has 30 days to make a recommendation to the council on how it should handle the complaint filed against Trumbo by Councilman Charles Torelli with Paul Parish, before Parish’s recent retirement from the council.

His recommendation could range from dismissing the complaint to reprimanding Trumbo to assessing a civil fine of $1,000.

Trumbo argued Wednesday night that the complaint was not valid because Torelli and Parish had not signed the complaint as being “under penalty of perjury” as required by a state law that Trumbo said applies to the city’s Code of Ethics for council members.

Trumbo said Atwood could dismiss the complaint outright, but Atwood declined to make an immediate decision after the nearly two-hour session, saying he would review the documents before making his recommendation to the council.

Torelli said at the hearing that Trumbo’s phone conversation in mid October with a woman who had purchased the Kennewick home of state Sen. Sharon Brown was “an abuse of influence.”

Trumbo asked the buyer, LuAnn Davison, questions about the sale, a mechanic’s lien on the home and whether remodeling had been done on the home.

Davison testified that when she returned a call from Trumbo, he identified himself as a councilman but said she might also recognize his name as a longtime Tri-City Herald reporter.

Davison said she thought Trumbo wanted to talk to her about city business and asked him if the call, which included a mention of city permits, was the best use of a councilman’s time.

‘Start being a councilman’

The conversation was inappropriate, she said at the hearing. At the time, she asked for a meeting with the city manager and was granted time the next day with the city manager, city attorney and chief of police.

Trumbo gave a different account of the phone call, saying because Davison is an insurance agent who works in Hermiston, he did not want her to think he was former Umatilla County Sheriff John Trumbo, who retired in 2004 after 14 years in office.

He said he told Davison that he was a Kennewick councilman with a name that might sound familiar because he was a retired newspaper reporter, but said he was calling her as a resident of Kennewick and a taxpayer.

When she asked later in the call if he was writing a news article, he said he no longer worked as a reporter, Trumbo said.

He also later repeated that he was calling as a private citizen, and not a councilman, he said.

He then phoned Brown, he said, “as a courtesy.”

He said that Brown then sent the Kennewick city manager an email saying that someone should sue Trumbo.

Parish said that he signed the ethics complaint against Trumbo because it is wrong for a councilman to call someone and ask financial questions. It reflects on the council, he said.

Atwood asked Parish if he thought a private citizen could call and ask prying questions, but not a councilman.

What Trumbo did was against the city’s ethics code for council members, Parish said.

Parish said he previously told Trumbo that he should “stop being a reporter and start being a councilman.”

Torelli agreed that Trumbo should not be asking intrusive questions as a councilman and said he believed that Trumbo started asking Davison questions before he explained that he was acting not as a councilman but as a private citizen.

Trumbo contends no merit to complaint

Trumbo was censured last year by the council for representing himself as a councilman as he did his own investigation into matters related to Mayor Pro Tem Steve Lee. The incident led to the council adopting a new ethics code for council members on a split vote.

Torelli said that it appears that Trumbo finds it appropriate to look into the private lives of people using the weight of his position as a councilman.

Trumbo said that because he fully disclosed his identity and purpose for calling Davison the ethics complaint against him has no merit.

The written complaint called out his “continued behavior” of using his title to infer he was acting in an official capacity to perform personal investigations, undercutting pubic trust.

Trumbo said there was no hearing or fact finding before his censure last year and that the ethics officer should not consider what was only the opinion of some council members.

He said his efforts to look into issues “do not undercut public trust but bolster it.”

After the ethics officer makes his recommendation to the council, members will consider what action to take next.

Last year the council sanctioned Trumbo by removing him from board and committee assignments for the remainder of the year based on “misuse of public office.”

Trumbo has yet to make clear his interest in the sale of Brown’s house and the lien. However, he said that as he has learned more it may be a matter that should be brought to the attention of the council.

This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 3:55 PM.