Tri-Cities government watchdog, public records advocate dies

A self-appointed Tri-Cities government watchdog has died.

Roger Erich Lenk, 61, died Monday in Richland.

The Pasco resident was a current member of the Franklin County Planning Commission, representing west Pasco’s Urban Growth Area Boundary district.

He also was very active with Boy Scout Troop 159, which online records show he helped incorporate three years ago.

Derrick Braaten, Franklin County’s planning and building director, called Lenk the epitome of a civil servant.

He said Lenk was really diligent in his responsibilities and duties, and took it upon himself to rewrite the planning commission bylaws.

“He’s going to be missed,” Braaten told the Tri-City Herald. “He never resisted a challenge, and was always willing to step up and help. He was a really great guy, and Franklin County is diminished without him.”

Lenk used to serve as the human resources director for the city of Richland.

Since retirement, he made it his mission to advocate for public records in local and state government and school districts and often filed lawsuits to get access to the records.

He frequently monitored campaign law and filed complaints about election violations to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, or PDC.

Lenk also was no stranger to filing complaints with the Washington state Auditor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office accusing public officials of misconduct, improper use of public money or other wrongdoing.

Pasco annexation

Lenk co-founded the anti-annexation group Citizens for Lifestyle Preservation nearly a decade ago when Pasco was moving to annex his unincorporated area of Franklin County known as the “doughnut hole.”

The contentious battle led Lenk to complain to the state that Pasco City Council members violated city or state policy when they sent personal emails from their city accounts.

Lenk discovered the emails when he requested files from the city related to the four council members who voted in favor of the annexation. The state Auditor’s Office determined there was no violation by the council members.

He also was part of an effort by the “doughnut hole” residents to incorporate their own city in that area of west Pasco. The petition, signed by hundreds of residents, was denied by the Franklin County commissioners.

Kennewick complaints

In recent years, Lenk took on the mayors of Kennewick, including Don Britain.

He complained to the Washington state Executive Ethics Board that before Britain was fired from his job as a state Department of Health and Social Services case manager, he used state resources for city and other business.

Britain has asked to enter settlement negotiations after the ethics board found reasonable cause to believe he violated several sections of the Ethics in Public Service Act.

And in 2021, the state PDC fined five officials with the Kennewick Public Facilities District for improperly spending more than $20,000 of taxpayer money.

The state agency, responding to two separate complaints filed by Lenk and Vic Epperly, found that wording in a series of advertisements for the 2017 Link campaign crossed the line into marketing.

Union Gap upheaval

Lenk didn’t just focus on the Tri-Cities.

In 2012, he requested electronic copies of all emails sent or received by Union Gap Mayor Jim Lemon, city council members, the city administrator, the city clerk and the clerk’s staff.

He believed the emails contained evidence of corruption, and were sent during upheaval at City Hall, according to a Yakima Herald-Republic story.

That upheaval included allegations that Lemon — who served for five tumultuous years — was creating a hostile work environment for city workers.

Three years alter, Union Gap was ordered by a Yakima County Superior Court judge to give Lenk electronic copies of the emails or explain why it could not.

Lenk wanted the records in electronic form, not printouts, because they would show which computer was used to write and send messages, the Herald-Republic reported.

Mueller’s Greenlee Funeral Home of Pasco is handling Lenk’s funeral arrangements.

This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 1:38 PM.