The investigation into who is leaking privileged information from executive sessions of the Battle Ground City Council has begun and the cost has now climbed to more than $28,000.

Various council members expressed their displeasure about the big price tag for the investigation at their meeting Tuesday night but agreed the probe needs to continue.

“I think this is very expensive, but we’ve started down a path we can’t return from,” Mayor Michael Ciraulo said.

The investigation, which will include interviews of council members and some city employees, should be complete by the end of the month. The council will hold a special meeting during the first week of March to discuss the findings.

The city council initially approved spending $10,000 for the investigation and $5,200 for the cost of obtaining a special city attorney. The city’s regular attorney, Brian Wolfe, attends the executive sessions and, therefore, requested the council obtain an outside attorney during the investigation.

Late last week, Wolfe said he learned the group conducting the investigation, Public Safety Testing Inc., already spent the initial $10,000 and needed another $3,000 to conclude the investigation. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, the investigators told Wolfe they needed an additional $10,000.

The city council begrudgingly approved the additional expenditure at its meeting Tuesday night. The vote was unanimous.

“We’ve pulled the trigger, and we can’t stop,” Ciraulo said.

Abandoning the investigation now may give the public the perception the council is guilty and trying to hide information, Ciraulo said.

“I think the truth needs to be revealed,” he said.

Councilman Alex Reinhold asked the council to approve the investigation last month. He became concerned that information discussed during closed-door sessions was being leaked when he started receiving e-mails from people in the community after City Manager Dennis Osborn fired popular police Chief James McDaniel on Dec. 17.

The executive sessions are only attended by city council members, the city manager, city attorney and, rarely, a city employee providing information. But the e-mails Reinhold received from community members included privileged information discussed during multiple executive sessions of the council, Reinhold said.

If the investigation does pinpoint who is leaking information, Ciraulo and Councilman Chris Regan said they want the guilty party held responsible for the cost of the investigation.

Acting City Manager John Williams said the city’s tight budget may require staff to cancel programs or the council to make policy changes in order to cover the cost of the investigation.

Councilman Bill Ganley said cuts need to be made to the council’s budget in order to cover as much of the cost as possible. Services to the community should not be cut because of the probe, he said.

Ganley suggested the council discuss possible sources of funding for the investigation at its next meeting.

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