Supposed ethics violation overblown

COLUMN

By Jared Hoffmann

Many residents of Parkville and other Platte County communities have probably learned by now — through this newspaper, other media or word of mouth — that former Parkville mayor Kathy Dusenbery is under investigation for allegedly violating the city’s ethics ordinance.

After reviewing the facts and speaking personally with the individuals involved, I think labeling her actions as an ethics violation is a gross overstatement.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the situation or have overheard broken versions of the story, allow me to recap.

The day before the April 8 election, mayoral candidate Gerry Richardson sent an e-mail to several residents in response to an opposition letter that was distributed by resident Gordon Cook the previous day within the Riss Lake community. Richardson’s e-mail aimed to refute accusations made in Cook’s letter regarding decisions made by the current city administration and to reaffirm his stance on other campaign issues. At the end of his e-mail, Richardson asked recipients to forward his message to any resident who may have received Cook’s letter. Dusenbery, who was a recipient of Richardson’s e-mail, then forwarded it to other residents with her name, contact information and mayoral title listed her e-mail’s automatic signature. That issue alone, the mention of her title, is the basis for this investigation.

A formal complaint was submitted to the Parkville Municipal Officials Ethics Commission by downtown resident David Williams, and the investigation ensued.

This scenario is an injustice for multiple reasons.

First, my initial fear is that it could potentially mislead voters who plan to cast a ballot during the County Commission election later this year. Voters should be able to choose their elected officials based on important criteria — such as a candidate’s experience, values and willingness to serve the community — not the forwarding of an e-mail that was, quite frankly, no where near controversial. This applies to Dusenbery or any other elected official who would find themselves in this situation, or any individual you would choose to support in an election.

The other issue at hand is the city’s ethics ordinance, which was adopted in 2005 after similar events occurred in the days before an election. The ordinance covers an array of topics and sets standards that every elected official and government employee should adhere to. However, I believe showing support for a candidate is simply a matter of free speech.

Other facts tied to the situation have led me to question the very nature of the complaint.

After speaking with resident Tom Hutsler, who was Richardson’s opponent in the April 8 election, I learned that he gathered a group of individuals to collectively nominate Williams as the individual who should submit the complaint.

I spoke with Williams the day following the ethics commission’s first meeting April 29 to learn more background on how all of this got started. My impression of him was positive, and he spoke plainly with me about filing the ethics complaint and discussed other issues he had had with city officials in the past. He admitted to me that he had not received a copy of Richardson’s e-mail, nor the opposition letter that prompted it. He was also not present during the ethics commission meeting last week where the issue was discussed, something I would have expected.

I would like to encourage all Platte County residents to be leery of any possible unfounded accusations and baseless credibility attacks that are sure to arise as the August and November election seasons approach. There are far too many important issues to be addressed in Platte County for voters to elect individuals based on misinformation.

Candidates need to earn the support of residents by running clean campaigns, and as voters we have a responsibility to choose our elected officials based on the facts. Let us all pay attention to the issues that truly matter.