Thurston Commissioner Asked for Candidate's Private Information From County HR Department

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Thurston County Commissioner Gary Edwards, who's currently running for re-election, has confirmed he asked county Human Resources for at least part of the Social Security number of Carolina Mejia, a candidate for another seat on the commission.

He made the request last month, amid allegations questioning Mejia's U.S. citizenship.

Mejia, a Democrat who handily won the District 1 primary, works as a judicial assistant at Thurston County Superior Court. The HR department did not provide Edwards with her private information, according to Edwards.

Edwards, who's running as an Independent to keep his District 2 seat, said the request was not politically motivated and that he made the request only after County Manager Ramiro Chavez asked him to serve on the county Canvassing Board in his seatmates' stead.

He thought he'd put the issue to rest, he said.

"Otherwise, I'm trying to stay as far away from this controversy as I can stay," Edwards said. "Obviously, that didn't work very well."

Mejia told The Olympian that, when she found out Edwards had made the request, she found it "really disappointing," especially since she'd already turned in documents verifying her citizenship to county Auditor Mary Hall.

"I am disappointed that Commissioner Edwards resorted to this," Mejia said. "Like any other employee of Thurston County, I expect that sensitive information be protected and that elected officials do not violate this confidence. Identity theft is a serious crime, and as a former law enforcement officer, Commissioner Edwards -- he's aware of this."

Both of his fellow commissioners say they would not have made the same request, and that it doesn't align with the role of the Canvassing Board. Auditor Hall confirmed the topic would not have been discussed at the Canvassing Board meeting Edwards is referring to.

Now, the county manager is drafting a policy that will address the broader context around requests like this.

What led to Edwards' request

The allegations against Mejia were launched the week of Aug. 16, in a letter resident Jon Pettit emailed to the Canvassing Board.

Pettit, a supporter of third-place District 1 candidate Bud Blake and frequent participant in local government affairs, alleged Mejia was not a U.S. citizen and ineligible to run for office, based on an investigative report he's said he commissioned from Lacey-based Cicero Intel through an unnamed third party.

He questioned the validity of Mejia's Social Security number as part of his allegations. Blake has said he wasn't aware of Pettit's allegations at the time, and Pettit has told The Olympian he also supports Republican C Davis, who finished second in District 1 and has since been embroiled in his own set of controversies.

Local and state Democrats immediately condemned Pettit's accusations as racist and an example of "birtherism," and Auditor Hall said Mejia had sent her documentation showing she's a naturalized citizen and holds a U.S. passport.

Results for the August primary election were certified the same week, on Aug. 18, starting a two-day countdown for candidates to request a recount.

Bud Blake, who came in 165 votes behind second-place Davis in final results, was considering making such a request. If he had, the Canvassing Board would've had to meet Friday, Aug. 21, to set a meeting for the following week to conduct the recount, according to Auditor Hall.

The county Canvassing Board certifies elections and recounts, rules on voter registration challenges, and addresses questions regarding voter eligibility for voter challenges. It's made up of the county auditor, county prosecutor, and chair of the Board of Commissioners or their designees.

Commissioner Tye Menser had been sitting on the board, and Commissioner John Hutchings has served on the board in the past. But, according to County Manager Ramiro Chavez, Menser was scheduled to be out of the office the week of Aug. 24, when the recount would take place. And the recount was in the district where Hutchings ran for re-election, so he couldn't sit in.

Menser told The Olympian he could've connected to a Zoom meeting remotely -- like he did for a work session Aug. 25 -- but he asked for Edwards to fill in as a courtesy, so he could spend time with his family during his week off.

Chavez said he asked Edwards Aug. 19 to serve on the board.

Blake ultimately did not ask for a recount ahead of the Aug. 20 deadline, so the Canvassing Board did not meet.

Pettit has since brought his allegations to court as a ballot challenge. A judge recently dismissed it and required Pettit to pay Mejia's attorney's fees and costs.

'My whole career has been gathering facts'

Edwards told The Olympian he couldn't remember how he learned of the allegations against Mejia, but that it was likely from an Olympian article, talking to Pettit at a commission meeting, or information Pettit provided the county. The Olympian published its first article about the allegations online the morning of Aug. 20, but Edwards said he doesn't read the paper online.

This would've been his first time sitting on the Canvassing Board, he said, and it "came about in a rush."

He thought the number would've been a simple way to show the allegations were "malarkey," he said. He also planned to check with HR that they would know if something was off with an employee's Social Security number.

"I believe all public policy decisions should be based on the most information you can get," he said.

He asked HR staff whether there was any reason he couldn't see "at least a portion of Carolina's Social Security number," he said. When staff said the information was protected, he asked if they could call the county prosecutor's office for legal advice, according to Edwards, since he'd need it the next morning to "clear this issue up."

He doesn't remember the date, but it was likely Aug. 20, the day of the deadline for recount requests and the day before the potential Canvassing Board meeting.

There was never an answer from the prosecuting attorney's office about the protected status, he said, and he was told later the same day the Canvassing Board wasn't convening anyway.



"I'm OK with that, and now I know that those issues are protected," Edwards said. "I didn't know that until I went and asked."

It was a "simple conversation," he said, and he didn't try to hide having it.

When asked why he felt he needed the information, after Auditor Hall had already said Mejia sent her documents verifying citizenship, he said he's not sure when he became aware of what Hall had seen. If he did know, he might've still made the request so he could put the Social Security number issue to rest.

"My whole career has been gathering facts" and deliberating based on those facts, he said in another phone interview.

Auditor Hall told The Olympian that Canvassing Board meetings are considered special meetings, meaning only items on the agenda can be discussed. The only items on the hypothetical agenda for this meeting would've related to the recount.

But Edwards said, having never sat on the Canvassing Board, he's not familiar with the issues that come up. He thought it was up to the Canvassing Board to verify "everything is on the up and up," he said.

Commissioners Hutchings, an Independent, and Menser, a Democrat, both said they would not have requested Mejia's information nor would they have assumed the Canvassing Board would discuss the issue.

"Absolutely not would I ever have delved into that, because that's not the purpose of sitting on the Canvassing Board," Hutchings said. "You're certifying the election, not certifying whether the people are qualified to run for election. That's not my job."

When he found out about Edwards' request, Hutchings said, he was "appalled."

Hutchings has also strongly condemned Pettit's actions in an interview with The Olympian and endorsed Mejia to take his District 1 seat.

Asked his proactive response to the predictable accusation that his actions went hand-in-hand with racist allegations against Mejia, Edwards said that's "certainly not" the case.

"I thought 'Well, I'll just go ask and that takes care of that piece of it,'" Edwards said. "It'll be gone. One less thing to worry about. I've got nothing against this young lady. I'm certainly not racist."

In phone calls with The Olympian, Edwards began voicing suspicion, questioning why he was asked to be on the Canvassing Board in the first place, in light of what happened at the next commission work session.

A county policy in the works

Commissioner Menser said he heard from "more than one source" that Edwards had sought Mejia's information from HR within days of it happening. He assumed it was connected to Pettit's allegations and didn't think it was appropriate.

The news prompted him to bring up the issue, albeit abstractly, at the Aug. 25 agenda-setting work session.

At the end of the meeting, when commissioners are free to bring up any topic they want to discuss, Menser asked whether the county has a policy covering this sort of situation.

"I would like to know whether we have a county policy that would cover a commissioner seeking to obtain personal information of a county employee to further a political investigation," Menser said. "If we do, I would like that policy to be reviewed with the board so that we're all crystal clear about it."

"And if we don't, I'd like to make a motion that we develop an appropriate policy that would protect our employees' personal information and then have that brought back to the board for discussion and consideration."

He told The Olympian he wasn't trying to be inflammatory and was "just concerned about something like that happening."

County Manager Chavez said there wasn't a policy he was aware of, then Menser made a motion for him to draft a policy. Edwards quickly seconded that motion.

In a phone interview, Edwards said he wasn't sure if Menser was referring to him, but that he knows "there's some people" that don't want him in office, and "maybe they're looking for something to cause me trouble."

Chavez said Thursday that he's working on a draft policy that addresses the broader context around what Menser requested. He had been working on such a policy for awhile, he said, and this conversation expedited a draft.

"What I'm doing is developing a policy that helps clarify the roles of the County Manager and the roles of the county commissioners," he told The Olympian.

For example, the policy would clarify that commissioners can't direct staff to create work, he said -- that's the county manager's role.

It doesn't address any possible political aspect of the issue Menser posed, and that wouldn't be under Chavez's purview. Chavez said he already sends emails before primary and general elections each year to all county employees regarding electioneering and political matters under state law.

As to whether any state law may have been violated in this case, Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Elizabeth Petrich told The Olympian she hasn't looked into it and hasn't been asked to.

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