Rumor Has It: Mayor Does an 'About Face' To ' Save Face'

Last Friday, the City of Vancouver Mayor, Royce Pollard, sent off a certified letter to the Justice Department requesting a federal probe... only to make himself look good.

According to an e-article (Friday October 10, 2008, 5:13 PM) in The Oregonian by Holley Gilbert, the Mayor's letter asked to "review allegations regarding discriminatory actions that were directed at Mr. Sharma due to his ethnicity that allegedly contributed toward his termination," as well as allegations of "transgressions made during the internal investigations and disciplinary process."

Members of the community, the letter said, have charged that city employees engaged in "misconduct during the investigation and termination of Mr. Sharma" and did not tell the truth in pretrial statements.

"This is an issue of significant concern to our community," Mayor Royce E. Pollard said in a certified letter to the department's Seattle office.

"We're not afraid to do this. We don't think we have anything to hide," he said. "If there are legal issues, then it's in the right system."

(Read the complete article....)

Rumor has it ........

According to a BLOG Comment to the above article by RghtThing2Do on 10/11/08 at 12:38AM, the City made an unexpected strategic move by filing with the Department of Justice (DOJ) before the real 'victims' or 'interested parties' could actually file. This move by the City, was done with hopes of getting an unfair advantage, using reverse psychology, attempting to make the City 'look good' in the eyes of DOJ.

According to a Columbian (Saturday, October 11 5:05 a.m) e-article by Erik Robinson,

Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle, even said, “What is unusual is that the city is making this request,” she said. “In the usual course of events, we become aware of alleged civil rights violations from a victim or the victim’s advocates. Quite honestly, the FBI will open a preliminary civil rights violation simply based on news reports.”

(Read more of the Columbian's article.....)

Well, lucky for us all, DOJ planned on starting an investigation prior to the Mayor sending a certified letter on Friday. So the 'wolf in sheep's clothing' trick isn't going to work here.

There needs to be an immediate re-filing, or additional filing, requesting the scope of the investigation to include, but not limited to Conspiracy to Violate Civil Rights and Perjury to include as suspects, Mayor Royce Pollard, City Manager Pat McDonnell, City Attorney Ted Gathe, several other City Attorneys, VPD Asst Chief Mitch Barker, VPD Commander Nannette Kistler, and few other VPD Administrators. These 'city leaders' actions (collectively and individually) and recorded testimonies should be looked at very carefully, and if the DOJ deem that crimes occurred, then they each should be dealt with individually as potential criminals. Relief of Duty, Admin Leave, etc, should be done immediately after a finding of criminal activity, until the investigation is final.

It would be interesting to see how much 'influence' the city will have on this investigation.

I think it is very clear that the Mayor wanted to wash his own hands of any involvement and throw the rest of his posse under the proverbial bus. His letter was an attempt to make himself "look good" and give the appearance that it was his idea or will be done at his request. The Mayor took advantage of the citizens, and took their intelligence for granted, knowing the average citizen had no idea that a Federal probe was inevitable.

The Mayor's letter to DOJ, was a day late, and $1.65 million short.