Kennewick City Council disappoints. Citizens deserve better behavior | Editorial

The infighting among Kennewick City Council members must stop.

The year just started, and so far they have focused more on each other than items on the agenda.

It is embarrassing, and Kennewick citizens deserve better.

In our election recommendations last fall, we said it was no secret that a distinct 5-2 split had emerged on certain contentious issues, with Councilmen John Trumbo and Bill McKay in the minority.

We also said we feared that hard feelings had cast a shadow over the council, and that we would like to see a collaborative spirit take hold among the city’s elected leaders.

Sadly, if the January city council meetings are any indication, the division appears worse than ever.

Lines appear to already have been drawn, with newly-elected Councilman Jim Milbauer aligning himself with the majority and newcomer Councilman Brad Beauchamp siding with the minority.

We recommended both Milbauer and Beauchamp in the November election, and still hope both will find a way to avoid the animosity that started before they were sworn in.

Unfortunately, they are caught up in the contentiousness already seen at the first city council meeting of the year.

Shortly after the split 4-3 decision for Don Britain to serve again as the city’s mayor, McKay announced he had filed an ethics complaint against him. It was signed by Trumbo and Beauchamp.

While the details of the complaint were not provided, Britain was embroiled in controversy last fall when he was fired by the state Department of Social and Health Services for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a female client.

The Washington State Patrol conducted the investigation and determined Britain helped the woman and her children financially, but found no criminal wrongdoing. Britain is appealing his dismissal through his labor union.

At a second meeting, Milbauer asked McKay and the others to withdraw the ethics complaint while Britain fights the allegation, saying he is innocent until proven guilty.

But McKay said that won’t happen. “I don’t know of a business in the whole United States that would make Mr. Britain their face and I’m not sure why Kennewick did,” said McKay.

To add to the drama, a group of citizens have filed paperwork to start a recall petition against Britain.

The ethics policy in Kennewick is new and implemented last fall. It was created partly in response to Trumbo’s push to chase down a damaging rumor against fellow council member Steve Lee.

Trumbo has denied he used his council position to try and get information on Lee, but others disagreed. In a 5-2 vote, the council censured Trumbo and took him off his committee assignments for 2019.

Trumbo is also the target of another ethics complaint set for a hearing Feb. 19 at City Hall. That case also involves concerns that Trumbo misused his city council position to find information — this time he was digging into the sale of Kennewick Senator Sharon Brown’s home.

The ethics policy should be a tool of last resort — not a means to pursue personal vendettas, which is what we fear it could become.

It will be a shame if the ethics policy ends up solidifying divisions rather than healing them.

Despite the council’s failure to get along, the city has managed to function well, thanks in large part to its highly effective staff. We would hate to see Kennewick city employees decide to look for work elsewhere.

At the moment, leadership on the Kennewick City Council is fractured. Britain may be the mayor, but he is not in a position to be the galvanizing force needed to bring the council together.

Someone else needs to take on that role. Both Beauchamp and Councilman Charles Torelli publicly lamented the divisive situation, so perhaps there is a good chance the group can heal its wounds and focus on the job at hand.

It will help if all seven members commit to treating each other with respect. They don’t have to like each other, but they do have to work together.

For the sake of the community, they need to focus more on city business and less on themselves.