We, the citizens of Clark County, Washington, request an open, third party investigation into ethics violations perpetrated by Clark County Council member David Madore.  Examples of specific violations appear at the bottom of this petition as previously submitted to you via official county email.  Among those allegations are:  creating an intimidating and hostile work environment for county staff and employees, making accusations of legal wrongdoing by county staff and employees, making defaming and libelous statements regarding county staff end employees, publicly demeaning colleagues,  and recklessly inciting citizens against fellow councilors.

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Ethics Complaint Against Councilor David Madore
 

The citizens of Clark County, after experiencing years of frustration at the lack of transparency, incessant attacks on county staff, continued decisions that cost county taxpayers millions of dollars that will never be recovered, willful contempt for the media, ostracism for simply disagreeing with him, and continued favoritism toward one special interest group, hereby file the following complaint of Ethics Code violations against County Councilor David Madore. This is being done under the County’s Rules of Practice and Code of Ethics as amended May 17, 2016.

 

We are requesting the Board convene an Ethics Committee to investigate these charges against Councilor Madore about violations of the Council's Ethics Code and report to the citizens of Clark County their findings.  If the Ethics Committee finds violations, we request appropriate action be taken including removing Councilor Madore from appointments to Boards and Commissions on which he serves.

 

Charge #1: Councilor Madore continues to violate Ethics Code #1 by actions that are dishonest and lack transparency, and he continues to not be accountable for his actions.

 

Relevant Ethics Code #1: A county councilor should be vigorously dedicated to the democratic ideals of honesty, openness and accountability in all public matters involving county government.

 

·         Councilor Madore himself developed and continuously modified Comprehensive Plan Land Use Alternative #4, and purposely developed planning assumptions to support that alternative that have been ruled Invalid by his own hand-picked expert consultant.

·         On several occasions, Councilor Madore did not release important documents relevant to Alternative 4 or its planning assumptions until minutes before public hearings and meetings on the matter, giving the public no time to review and adequately comment. On at least one occasion, this caused a public hearing to be continued, inconveniencing many citizens who had taken the time to attend the hearing.

·         On two occasions, Councilor Madore directed county Planning staff to use higher rural population growth rate assumptions that he claimed were based on the adopted 1994 Plan which were not true.

·         On at least two occasions, in December 2015 and May 2016, Councilor Madore through his public Facebook page publicized and encourage his constituents to use anonymous web-surfing media to obtain the Columbian without paying for it.

Charge #2: Councilor Madore has defamed county staff as well as citizens of Clark County several times during his term in office, especially during 2016. He is not promoting decorum or civility, and shows an amazing lack of respect for those who disagree with his opinion or don’t do his bidding.

Relevant Ethics Code #2: Councilors should promote decorum, respect for others and civility in all relationships.

 

·         Starting in February 2016 and continuing until today, Councilor Madore has falsely accused county Community Planning Director Oliver Orjiako of misleading the comprehensive planning process, claiming a model didn’t exist the Madore claims did (in fact, the model doesn’t exist, it’s a spreadsheet) and creating increased rural population growth projections. These accusations were proven false not only by independent special investigator Rebecca Dean, but a separate citizen investigation by Chuck Green.

·         Starting in February 2016 and continuing until today, Councilor Madore has falsely accused county deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Chris Horne and Chris Cook of misleading the comprehensive planning process by supporting and defending Dr. Orjiako. These accusations were proven false not only by independent special investigator Rebecca Dean, but a separate citizen investigation by Chuck Green.

·         Councilor Madore has several times called members of the group Clark County Citizens for Good Governance a “hate group” simply because they continue to monitor, disagree with and challenge Councilor Madore’s decisions and actions.

·         Councilor Madore has banned hundreds of citizens from his public Facebook page, and continues to ignore and not respond to emails, requests for comments, and phone messages from the media and Clark County citizens. He continues to show favoritism toward two special interest groups, Clark County Citizens United and Chuck Miller's "Washington Citizens for Responsible Government".

·         Councilor Madore has continue to take actions to incite people against those with whom he disagrees, including county staff, resulting in a hostile environment not only for county employees, but also citizens. A group of citizens attending the Hockinson Alternative 4 open house were openly called “communist” by an attendee of that forum shortly after Councilor Madore spoke against the process and county staff and those who disagreed with his Alternative 4.

·         Councilor Madore has openly defamed and help with contempt three of his fellow Councilors, all of whom were fairly and properly elected and represent Clark County citizens, often calling them the “liberal trio” or implying that they are breaking the law.

·         Councilor Madore wrongly accused Councilor Jeanne Stewart of casting a vote at a meeting she did not even attend.  While he has apologized, the accusatory post remains on his public Facebook page.

·         Councilor Madore continues to publicly express his contempt and disdain for the Growing Healthier Report and the County’s Aging Readiness Report, both of which were adopted by Clark County Commissioners, at the encouragement of Carol Levanen and Susan Rasmussen of Clark County Citizens United, accusing them of “advancing Agenda 21”.  Both of these reports were developed with substantial community input and with input from experts in the health, food quality, and aging community.

 

Charge #3: Councilor Madore has worked to sever relationships with most of Clark County’s partner or stakeholder entities, often using conspiracy theories to do so.  This has caused irreparable harm to the reputation of Clark County government and led to reluctance in the willingness of former partner agencies to conduct business with Clark County.

Relevant Ethics Code #2: Councilors should promote decorum, respect for others and civility in all relationships.

 

·         Councilor Madore has launched accusations or has nitpicked contracts and policy relationships with: Humane Society of Southwest Washington; Columbia River Economic Development Council; Regional Transportation Council; C-TRAN; Cities of Vancouver, Camas, Ridgefield, Washougal, La Center and Battle Ground; and most entities on the Oregon side of the river who are part of the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area.

·         Councilor Madore intervened in and interfered with the RTC’s 10-Year Transportation Project Priorities list, attempting to move his pet project, the I-5 at 179th Street interchange, ahead of all other regional projects in priority for no reason other than he wanted to.

·         Councilor Madore continues to launch conspiracy theories about “resurrection of the failed CRC project” with anything related to priority projects for which the City of Vancouver, Port of Vancouver and CREDC desire to implement, including the I-5 at Mill Plain interchange reconstruction project and the Mill Plain corridor improvements from I-5 to the Port of Vancouver.

·         Councilor Madore has accused Identity Clark County, Clark County Transportation Alliance, and Governor Jay Inslee of a secret CRC conspiracy because these entities have all identified the I-5 corridor crossing the Columbia River as a regional transportation priority.

 

 

Charge #4: Councilor Madore continues to push for actions and decisions that have cost Clark County taxpayers millions of dollars that will never be recovered, as well as driving the county toward budget deficits.

 

Relevant Ethics Code #3: Councilors should actively practice stewardship of the county’s human, fiscal and material resources.

 

·         The-commissioner Madore along with then-Commissioner Tom Mielke pressed Clark County Administrator Bill Barron to hire Don Benton as Director of Environmental Services, a position for which he was totally unqualified, instead of seeking out a qualified person through proper Human Resources channels. The resultant settlement of a lawsuit cost the county $250,000.

·         Councilor Madore continues to accuse the county manager of wrongdoing for his dissolution of the Department of Environmental Services, even though the Home Rule Charter gives the county manager that authority.

·         Councilor Madore continues to attempt to insert himself into the Human Resources hiring process, including promoting Lisa Ross for county manager, a position in which she is fully unqualified.

·         Councilor Madore hand-picked planning consultant RW Thorpe to critique Councilor Madore’s own planning assumptions supporting his own hand-developed Alternative 4, costing Clark County taxpayers $40,000. The consultant ruled much of Madore’s assumptions to be invalid.

·         Councilor Madore’s baseless and false accusations against county staff have cost taxpayers over $100,000 in attorney costs for normal business operations, a special investigation based on accusations that he made against county staff, and legal counsel for the comprehensive planning process.

·         Madore continues to push, and in fact during his term in office expanded, the Job Creator Fee Waiver program which has given away $15 million in permit and traffic impact fee waivers. A 2014 audit as well as county staff and expert citizen groups have all reviewed and audited the program, which have determine the program cannot be responsible for job growth (an improving economy is responsible) and has achieved growth rates no better than Clark County’s cities which do not have giveaway fee waiver programs. The Fee Waiver program has not been shown to meet any of its ambiguous goals and is reducing fund balances to levels where the county cannot match grant funds or will have to delay transportation improvement projects for lack of funding.

·         The Fee Waiver program has resulted in subsidies to the Development Review program from residential developers as well as taxpayers.

 

Charge #5: Councilor Madore continues to violate his Oath of Office by catering to a special interest group and conducting business and decision-making in a biased manner.

 

Relevant Ethics Code #5: Councilors should perform the duties of public office with fairness and impartiality so to enhance the public confidence in county government.

 

 

·         As noted above, Councilor Madore continues to favor two special interest groups, Clark County Citizens United and "Washington Citizens for Responsible Government", purposely ignoring citizens and media representatives who may not agree with his decisions, positions or actions.

·         Councilor Madore continues to call the Columbian, the County’s Newspaper of Record, a “cancer on society” and repeatedly instructs people how to use anonymous web-surfing sites to get the Columbian “without paying for it”.

·         Councilor Madore has several times made it clear how he tends to vote on policy matters, including Alternative 4, prior to the public being able to comment and prior to public hearings in which the decisions are being made, showing that he is not conducting office in an impartial manner.