City Silencing My Next Door
As I have maintained since Council Member Higgins attacked my use of nextdoor in my first council meeting, there’s been an effort to come after my Nextdoor account and my right to free speech. This entire action reveals how little our council members and unelected city manager— particularly Councilmember Yaeger (who claims to be a conservative, and submitted this frivolous investigation)— prioritize your tax dollars. One week it’s, "We have a budget shortage," and the next, they’re wasting millions on Sprague. Now, they’ve resorted to spending taxpayer money on expensive Seattle lawyers to attack me.
The investigator’s findings rest on a convoluted interpretation of government records laws. She acknowledges that my role does not require me to post, that I was not directed by the city to post, and when it comes to whether my posts further city interests, she calls it "complicated." Frankly, that’s legal jargon for stretching an argument to fit a narrative. The answer is clear — my posts are not part of my official duties. Anyone with any sense can clearly see that my posts railing against the waste and mismanagement of our city government and gathering citizen input stating how wasteful the Sprague project was have not furthered “city interests” as this city was still interested in wasting the money regardless of what I or the citizens thought.
At its core, this is about silencing me, despite previous assurances to the contrary so that this city administration can go on wasting and raising your taxes without interference. So now, the question I pose to you, the community, is: What should I do next?
Everything I do will have some cost to you the taxpayer, because all we are doing is having a political theater show at your expense. Let me know how you would like me to proceed, because I work for you and its your money.
Here are the options:
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Appeal the Decision: I could challenge this in front of a hearing examiner. While I believe the hearing examiner is fair, the city's lawyers will likely continue stacking the deck against me. I will at least have “my day in court” and all of you can attend. This route will also cost a significant amount of taxpayer money — based on prior invoices, this investigation has likely already cost $18,000, and appealing could easily double that.
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Accept the Reprimand: The governance manual states that at worst, I could be removed from my boards, which includes the Opiate Council. This would be unfortunate, as we’ve made significant progress in addressing the fentanyl crisis in our region, but that’s the potential cost.
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Stop Posting: I could simply cease my public engagement on Nextdoor, which might make this all go away. However, that would mean less transparency and direct communication with you, which would also come at a cost to the public.
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Other Options: I’m open to hearing suggestions from the community on how to move forward.
Please let me know your thoughts by contacting me either by phone at 509-3828-0097 or email at amerkel@spokanevalleywa.gov, or on nextdoor of course.
Best Regards,
Al Merkel
City "Investigation"
The report is included above and contains salacious and rediculous claims made intentionally to besmirch me and to cover up the bottom line:
Today (May 9, 2024), I received a report that cleared me of all legal wrongdoing despite what the city wrote in a misleading and disparaging press release this morning, and the trumped-up claims of Harassment and sexual discrimination that the city inappropriately spread throughout the community in an attempt to damage my character and reputation and disenfranchise my constituents. It is clearer than ever that this entire investigation has been nothing more than some ineffective councilmembers and city bureaucrats who cant take criticism plotting since before I came to office to fight my valid questions about how the city conducts business with a conspiracy to besmirch me in order to protect their jobs and elected positions.
This report attempts to hide the fact that the conspirators couldn’t even get all of the city staff on board, noting that seasoned staff members found me amusing or shrugged me off, while emphasizing the subjective feelings of a few individuals. The report even goes so far as to insinuate that “staff members” felt that they were afraid that I would be an “active shooter”. These farfetched “fears” are clearly disconnected from any semblance of reality and are genuinely insulting. Clearly, for Manager Hohman providing a “safe work environment” would include shielding staff from other imaginary fears like boogiemen and leprechauns. This is obviously an attempt to find a reason to justify ostracizing and segregating me as has been done without proper authority. I have been told that I must work from a closet and only use the back door to come into city hall.
There are many other reasons to question the claims in this report, such as the fact that while it accuses me of leaning over counters, there are still plexiglass emplacements at many counters in city hall from covid. Also, as I have maintained my interactions with staff have been limited since I took office due to direction from Manager Hohman that I not interact with staff in December of 2023.
Do I respect the opinions of staff who don’t like how I have approached something? Sure, but such differences in opinion on approach are part of life, and as I have maintained no one has approached me with any concerns besides this political hit job. If from staff’s perspective the only way to approach a difference of opinion is to file anonymous formal complaints, it is a demonstration of the general attitude of the city about differences of opinion, that they should be crushed rather than fostered.
Am I loud and direct? Sure, that’s what voters elected me for. I wasn’t hired to fit in with city staff, I was elected to represent the ideas that I campaigned on in the way that I do. Voters and constituents in this city want clear answers and that is what I provide.
Spokane Valley was founded a little more than 21 years ago on protest. Our cities founders had decided that neither the City of Spokane and Spokane County cared to represent the views of the citizens who lived in what became Spokane Valley....
THEY DISSENTED...
they were tired of the business as usual approach that Spokane and Spokane County were taking to our regulations and our taxes.
THEY DISSENTED, and charted a different course.
In those early days we were not strangers to political conflict as we formed this city. Council members changed with frequency, new opinions were welcomed by the staff and the residents.
it was not a “safe space”.
No government should be a safe space devoid of conflict and differing opinions. This is even memorialized in our governance manual as it has been since the beginning.
Unfortunately, things changed. Gradually citizens were lulled into a kind of sleep. land was available and cheap, the balance of city services was good, people were happy. That was the valley I grew up in.
gradually, many of these good things got worse. Land has gotten tight due to bad policy from Olympia, and bad development policy from the city council enacted by staff. Basic city services like police were ignored, and ridiculous projects like the Sprague road diet were enacted. worse of all we stopped caring about taxing our residents and started implementing councilmanicly taxes without a vote.
CITIZENS WOKE UP!
These were the issues of my platform! This is what I ran on. I was clear in every interview, every release, and at every door that I was coming to advocate for changes. I ran on a platform of they (the council and the city) are "not running things right" (though I believe I was slightly more eloquent).
This was the platform that got more than 65% of Spokane Valley residents to elect me to this office. to do it, the constituents of this city unseated the longest serving Spokane Valley councilmember, a huge upset to what many of the political elite and bureaucrats thought would happen. NOW THOSE SAME PEOPLE ARE IN DENIAL.
This whole investigation has been nothing more than a thinly veiled political attack. the through line of that attack is clear: I SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO BE CRITICAL OF WHAT THE CITY DOES!
Looking at this letter, it is very clear what I am supposed to take away: don't say things are not being done correctly, don't have a different opinion, don't dissent... GET IN LINE!!
What these councilmembers and city manager don't understand is that we want change! we don't want business as usual if that means wasting money, raising taxes, loosing public safety, and destroying the quality of life this city was founded on protecting.
Well I will continue to dissent.
Our city is a legal adult, it's time to grow up. everyone needs to be big enough to handle criticism, I should know I get criticized all the time by staff and council members.
it's not illegal to have an opinion, it's not illegal to believe that my city "does not know what [it's] doing", and most importantly it's not illegal to run for office on a platform of fixing the way the city works and then following through on advocating for those fixes!
THAT IS MY JOB.
