Since the termination of Battle Ground’s police chief, there’s been a lot of finger-pointing from community members and city employees. And now, seven more fingers are looking for a target.

Somebody appears to be leaking privileged information discussed during executive sessions of the Battle Ground City Council, leading the seven council members to cast suspicious eyes on one another.

“There’s a leak,” Councilwoman Lisa Walters said. “There’s no doubt about it.”

The fear of a leak prompted the council to launch an investigation. But because a limited number of people are permitted in the executive sessions — council members, City Manager Dennis Osborn, City Attorney Brian Wolfe and, rarely, a city employee providing information — the pool of potentially guilty parties is rather small.

“I know it’s not me, so it’s one of the other ones, one of eight,” said Councilman Alex Reinhold, who pushed for the investigation.

Reinhold asked fellow council members to approve the investigation when he started receiving e-mails from people in the community after Osborn fired police Chief James McDaniel on Dec. 17.

“After the firing of the chief, there’s a very vocal group of people that wants Dennis Osborn fired now,” he said. “And they’re dropping information of reasons why, and it’s things that have come up in executive session.”

The e-mails have included snippets of information from multiple executive sessions, Reinhold said.

“It could all be a strange coincidence, and I’m wrong,” he said. “But I doubt it.”

Trust betrayed

Walters said she hasn’t received any e-mails that made her suspicious, but she has heard people in the community talking about privileged information.

“There seems to be an awful lot of citizens who have information that shouldn’t be out there,” Walters said.

The leaking of such information could cost the taxpayers, Reinhold said. For example, if the council was discussing how to approach union contracts and those organizations learned about the strategy, they could have an advantage, he said.

The issue has frustrated Walters, who said she will no longer attend executive sessions.

“It certainly places me in the position of not trusting anybody right now,” Walters said. “And it’s really sad.”

The council unanimously decided to investigate the issue at its Dec. 21 meeting. Wolfe asked local lawyer Scott Anders, who is a former district court judge and former deputy prosecutor, to conduct the investigation. As of Friday, Wolfe was still waiting to receive the investigation proposal and cost estimate from Anders.

Walters said it could be difficult to pinpoint who released information, but she hopes the investigation yields some answers.

“We’ve gotta figure out what’s going on, whose saying what, what’s privileged, what’s not,” she said.

Reinhold wants whoever is responsible removed from their position and punished to the greatest extent of the law.

“I hope whoever’s doing this has enough decency to resign, so we don’t have to throw them out, because that’s what we’ll do,” he said. “That’s just 100 percent unacceptable.”

Marissa Harshman: 360-735-4546 or marissa.harshman@columbian.com.

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