An elected Tri-Cities official resigned in December. He’s asking for his seat back
Steve Simmons — the former Pasco School Board member who resigned in December after his wife took a position with the district as a food service worker — wants his job back.
He is among eight candidates scheduled to be interviewed Tuesday night for the vacant at-large Position No. 5 seat.
The school board is expected to appoint a candidate after four hours of interviews and an executive session.
The candidates include:
- Josie Garcia Guzman
- Rafael Pruneda
- David Stroup
- Rosa Torres
- Ericka Hoag
- Heather Kubalek
- Jennifer Yaniz
- Steve Simmons
“We had a great pool of applicants, and of those selected to be interviewed,” board President Scott Lehrman told the Tri-City Herald on Monday. “We believe we’ll find somebody who will serve in the best interest of all Pasco students.”
The names were released with the posting of the meeting agenda on Friday, Feb. 10.
The Herald filed a public records request on Feb. 6 for all materials and resumes of the candidates after the application period closed on Feb. 3.
The school district’s public records officer said the documents on the eight applicants would be provided in a month, however, the applications were provided to the Herald on Tuesday after the initial story was posted online.
The school district has not publicly released any additional documents — including job histories, qualifications, resumes or application materials — to the public before Tuesday’s interviews, despite the information being subject to release under Washington state’s Public Records Act.
The person who is selected will take the oath of office and begin serving at the next board meeting on Feb. 28. Pasco School Board members are not paid for the position.
Not a conflict
It appears an exception to the board’s policy on conflicts of interest was the reason Simmons resigned and reapplied.
He has not responded Monday to multiple requests by the Herald about his decision to apply for his old position.
Pasco School Board Policy 1610 spells out what is a “conflict of interest” for school board members, including that they cannot benefit — financially or otherwise — from any decisions by the board.
That’s why Simmons said he quit at the Dec. 13 meeting to allow his wife the ability to begin her new job.
However, district policy allows him to rejoin the board since she already is an employee and her salary is tied to the district’s pay plan or collective bargaining.
If he’s appointed back to the school board, Simmons also will have to recuse himself from any business that may affect her duties, employment or pay.
Simmons appeared to create a conflict of interest at a Nov. 8 meeting when he voted in favor of passing his wife’s contract among other consent agenda items. It’s unclear if he knowingly or unknowingly voted for it.
That vote eventually was deemed to be null and void under state law because of his connection.
Simmons, a preventative maintenance manager at Hanford, first won election to the Pasco School Board in 2021.
It was later learned that he had convictions for fourth-degree domestic assault but that didn’t prevent him from serving on the board, and he told the Herald at time that he had learned a lot about conflict resolution and relationships in the years since.
The application for Simmons’s vacant position posted by the school districts asks applicants to list any convictions for crimes, including any domestic violence, harassment or molestation charges.
This story was originally published February 14, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
