By Diane Hettrick
Former Lake Forest Park city council member Alan Kiest is running for election to an open LFP city council seat in the current election against former Redmond city council member John Resha. Ballots were delivered this weekend to Lake Forest Park households.
Brandi Kruse, an award-winning reporter for KIRO, reported on the Dori Monson show that a 25-year-old former employee under Kiest's supervision as a high-ranking supervisor at the State DSHS had filed a complaint with DSHS.
The complaint triggered an investigation by the State Patrol, which is the contract police agency for DSHS investigations.
As routine procedure for DSHS, Kiest was transferred to another position, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Kruse quotes a letter from the DSHS Regional Administrator to Kiest:
"This assignment is not a disciplinary action or presumption that misconduct has occurred," DSHS Regional Administrator Deborah Doyle wrote to Kiest in a letter. "You will be provided an opportunity to respond to the allegation."
Kruse published a second article on Kiest quoting unhappy employees, most of whom were apparently terminated by DSHS. They included an African-American employee named Salahadin Z. Wazir, who claimed that DSHS supervisors treated him differently as an African-American male. He filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint against four supervisors in two offices, including Kiest.
Kiest spoke to the Shoreline Area News and pointed out that DSHS policy both inside and out of investigations prohibits managers from discussing personnel matters.
However, responding to Kruse's charge of discrimination against African-American males, he said:
"She has identified four individuals as making such a charge. Her reporting is based on claims that have been resolved and settled years ago. It is not uncommon for persons being separated from employment or subject to disciplinary action to respond to the employer with a charge of discrimination. Whenever such charges are filed they are formally investigated by state or federal authorities. No such charge has ever been determined to be valid for actions I have taken as a manager."
The Wazir case went to court, where four of six charges were dismissed. Two were allowed, one of which was retaliation and did not carry with it an element of discrimination.
"Ms. Kruse cites three former employees of the office I have managed. In all three cases the department’s employment actions regarding them were taken at a higher level than mine. These actions routinely are based on consultations with professional personnel officers as well as representatives of the Office of the Attorney General. The individuals were afforded due process per their union contract. And many of the employment actions were reviewed by authorities following challenges from the employees. Again, there were no findings of improper conduct by me."
As for the young woman in the current case, Kiest says DSHS has employed an independent investigator and the investigation is currently in progress.
"At this stage I have not been presented with details of the complaint and my employer precludes any comment by me during the investigation, as is the custom."
The current case has been under investigation for two months. DSHS investigations have been known to take up to a year for completion.
It is hard to believe that Brandi Kruse is an award-winning journalist! She and Dori Monson (a Lake Forest Park resident) seem intent on determining the outcome of the Lake Forest Park City Council Position 7 election with their biased, unbalanced, and irresponsible reporting. My hope is that Lake Forest Park voters will recognize their political motivation and vote accordingly. It is refreshing to read the Shoreline Area News piece which clearly demonstrates that Alan Kiest is unable to comment because DSHS policy prevents managers from discussing personnel matters. It won't surprise anyone who knows Alan Kiest personally when he is ultimately vindicated of the allegations made against him. Keep up the good work, Diane!
ReplyDeleteYes, Ms. Kruse was premature in presenting this report. It was all about the timing. Sure, it's noble to consider preventing someone who is guilty of wrongdoing before an election to keep them from being elected. BUT, she just didn't complete her homework and hasn't provided the details, most commonly known as evidence, necessary for listeners to know what is really going on. The timing of the release of the report and knowledge that Mr. Kiest could not respond was not fair to him. She simply should have waited until the Washington State Patrol finished their investigation. Mr. Kiest is not guilty of anything at this point in time. He has demonstrated he can be a great council representative based on his past experience. He's still in the same boat. Boo to Ms. Kruse for instigating a trial by media.
ReplyDelete~ Jason Colberg
2013 Lake Forest Park City Council candidate (who's been following this report closely)
When I was editor of the Patch site in 2011, several people brought up a DSHS investigation into Mayoral candidate Dwight Thompson's role as a foster parent in response to a complaint by a child in his care. Some of these people apparently opposed his candidacy, although this was "not" the reason it was being made an issue. I did a public records request of the pending case. Months later after election the investigation, a lengthy document was produced by the state. I received a letter from the state saying the investigation found NO wrong doing on the part of Dwight Thompson and is a sealed record. I felt there was too little information at the time and throughout to report anything at election time, The only story would have been direct personal testimony from Dwight and the foster child, which appeared to be a he/said she/said, incident, and at that point it was in the hand of attorneys. Again because the report is not public and there was nothing to cite, except an allegations of people seemed to have no viable evidence, I did not see a journalistic purpose in reporting it at the time.
ReplyDeleteThis is the so called "Gov Watch" number one candidate? Where is the "Watch" on him?
ReplyDelete