Handling of mayor’s texts brings $5M claims against Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) – Two former public records officials who whistled over the missing text messages from Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan have each filed $ 5 million lawsuits against the city, saying they faced and had retaliated forced to resign.

Records commissioner Stacy Irwin, with the assistance of her colleague Kimberly Ferreiro of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, reported that the mayor’s office broke the Public Records Act in responding to inquiries from journalists and others about Durkan’s announcement. The inquiries centered on decisions made by Durkan and other city officials over the past year amid protests against racial justice and civil unrest in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

The allegations accuse Irwin and Ferreiro of “engaging in illegal acts” and of “contempt, ridicule, abuse and hostility” in retaliation for attempting to comply with the law, The Seattle Times reported.

Durkan spokesman Anthony Derrick said the mayor’s office cannot comment on any pending claims or litigation.

In responding to inquiries and lawsuits against the city, the mayor’s office found that Durkan’s text messages had not been kept as required by law for months.

Michelle Chen, the mayor’s legal advisor, instructed officials not to notify the requesters, and instead the mayor’s office tried to recreate the missing text messages using copies stored on others’ phones – with only partial success , carried out an external study for the Commission.

Chen also participated in “inappropriate government action” by deciding to exclude Durkan’s missing texts from certain inquiries, the investigation found.

“I knowingly broke the law on Michelle’s advice, and while I was trying to strike back, she ultimately demonstrated her power,” Irwin wrote in her claim.

She added, “Michelle is a fear-based leader and occasionally reminds us that we do what the mayor wants, which for us was a subtle reminder that they can let us go anytime.”

Chen’s attorney Darwin Roberts said Wednesday she denied the allegations.

“It is nonsense to claim that Ms. Chen ordered Ms. Irwin or Ms. Ferreiro to hide public records,” he said. “MS. Chen made every effort to act in accordance with the law at all times, according to the legal advice she received from the prosecutor regarding the handling of the pending PRA inquiries. Ms. Chen also tried to retrieve copies of the mayor’s text messages who had lost the city’s systems and advocated improvements to the city’s systems to better preserve records. “

The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission’s investigative report found that Durkan’s texts were not on file from late August 2019 to late June 2020. The investigation did not investigate how or why the mayor’s texts were lost; it focused on how requests for these records were handled.

Durkan’s office has confirmed that at some point their phone was set to delete texts that are more than 30 days old. Neither Durkan nor the IT department took responsibility for selecting this setting, which violates state laws and the city’s record-keeping guidelines.

Durkan said that while Chen’s actions were inconsistent with the Public Records Act, she did other “invaluable work and dedicated service” to the city.

The Seattle Times sued the lost texts last month, alleging the city violated the law by withholding, destroying, losing, or otherwise failing to preserve Durkan’s records after being requested by reporters.

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