Spokane Mayor Tries to Block Release of Computer Files

[cal04]

Lawyers for embattled Spokane Mayor James E. West told a judge Wednesday that the contents of his City Hall laptop computer were not public records and should not be released. West's lawyers acknowledged that the mayor visited gay-oriented Web sites and that the computer contained about 1,800 files of photos and correspondence from West to people on sites such as gay.com.

But they said the files did not relate to city business and were not looked at on city time, and may have been stored in the laptop automatically by the Web sites. "How can the mayor be responsible for materials that through no volitional act are dumped onto his computer?" attorney Bill Etter asked Adams County Superior Court Judge Richard Miller, who is hearing the case.

Miller said he would examine the computer files and decide, possibly as early as late next week, whether the files should be made public.
Attorneys for The Spokesman-Review newspaper, who went to court to seek release of the files, said there is no question that West visited the Web sites.

The files directly relate to federal, state and local misconduct investigations involving West, they said, and clearly should be released under the state's Public Disclosure Act. "The mayor's hard drive is a record of the mayor's activities," said Duane Swinton, a lawyer for the newspaper. "It's a public record." Several young gay men told The Spokesman-Review they were offered perks, trips or City Hall jobs and appointments by West, who has said he did nothing illegal. The FBI is investigating whether those offers constituted an abuse of public office. West faces a recall election Dec. 6 over the allegations.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBHYGTGQEE.html

[fortyfeetunder]

1. Sorry Mayor, it's public property

Pardon the pun, but had he kept his "pubic" stuff on a "private" computer network, his dalliances on the computer would have been a non-issue.

[Roland99]

14. Spokane Internet and Email usage policies >>>>

Internet usage
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/jimwest/documents/050605_city_internet_policy.pdf

Email usage
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/jimwest/documents/050605_city_email_policy.pdf

[philosophie_en_rose]

2. Mayor West should take the hint.

He's going to be recalled, unless he resigns now. I don't particularly care about the gay website cruising, but his cronyism and lies are unacceptable.

If he doesn't want these files released, he should resign and save the residents of Spokane from holding a special election to toss him anyway.

[warrens]

5. I dunno, I'm sorta hoping for a long, dragged-out public humiliation

Make sure those idiots don't vote for some homophobic nazi ever again.

[philosophie_en_rose]

10. Oh, they'll probably vote for a homophobe again.

I think that they aren't concerned that their candidates hate gays, only that they aren't gay.

[HuffleClaw]

3. he's delaying the inevitable.

i can't see him getting away with this. also, he's in the middle of RAISING MONEY for the recall election so that is probably a factor.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. gee. you think he may have something to hide?

using a city hall hook up, to a city computer, automatically downloading illegal porn of young boys AND using the same machine to e-mail job offers to young men willing to sleep with him?

duh. You have to log on to GET those images, Etter. You can always log off.

Why do i have images of the LA Catholic Church at the moment?

[jayctravis]

6. A mayor should have his own personal computer for surfing porn.

[sendero]

7. Isn't it funny...

... that the fact he is Republican isn't mentioned anywhere in the article?

[readmylips]

9. that's what I was looking for...mama of this baby...

no mention of R after his name. I don't want the guy to resign, I want him to be convicted and thrown in jail.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. Note to James E. West: get WindowWasher, set wash to bleach.

:rofl:

Fucking Bobo's world...

[PageOneQ]

11. DANGEROUS

This may seem fun as it takes down West....

We must however consider how many lives may be destroyed....if their emails and pics are put out in the public sphere... While West deserves to be outed.... the many people he chatted with should not be exposed with him. It will serve NO purpose./

[Richard Steele]

12. So who has suggested any such thing? STRAWMAN arguement!

NOTHING on that PC would become public
unless it directly impacted the case,
and was eventually used as evidence in the trial.

NO ONE is gonna be putting those other folks'
info "out in the public sphere", as you claim to fear.

Your concerns are hypothetical, and rather silly.

[salin]

13. not sure how FOIA would work were a newspaper to

try to access these records. In many states, FOIA laws would cover emails and electronic files created on public machines. I would think, however, that names would be blacked out - especially where the correspondants did not know that they were responding to a govt official on a public machine that would be subject to FOIA requests.