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SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Spokane Mayor James E. West used his city computer to check out online profiles of gay men while traveling on official business, The Spokesman-Review reported Saturday.
The history of the embattled mayor’s computer use was found in files buried deep within a compact disc that City Hall attorneys released to the newspaper this past week. The paper said the information contradicted West’s repeated claims that he did not access gay Web sites during workdays.
Attorneys for West, who faces a Dec. 6 recall election, defended him in a statement released Friday afternoon. They said Web sites the mayor visited while traveling in Washington, D.C., on March 22 and April 5, and in Philadelphia on May 2 were made “after regular business hours, Eastern Standard Time.”
“Mayor West has been up front from the very beginning,” attorneys Bill Etter and Susan Troppmann wrote in a statement e-mailed to the Spokesman-Review.
“On May 5, 2005, the mayor stated he visited Web sites but not on city time or at City Hall,” the statement said. “Mayor West was told, which is consistent with city policy, that he could use the city computer for personal uses when he traveled.”
The city’s Internet access policy allows employees “limited use” of the Internet, but says it should not be used to access or transmit obscene, profane, pornographic, abusive, harassing, discriminatory or threatening information, pictures or representations.
Supporters of the recall effort allege that West offered help in obtaining a city internship to an online correspondent that the mayor thought was an 18-year-old high school student.
It also says he sent that person a photograph of himself and “raised issues of sex, discussed dating, and urged the person to keep Mayor West’s identity a secret.”
The 18-year-old was actually a computer expert hired by The Spokesman-Review to verify rumors that West was a closeted homosexual who was using his office for personal gain. The newspaper began publishing a series of articles in May about the mayor’s secret life.
West, a longtime Republican state Senate leader and opponent of gay rights, has acknowledged making “errors” in his private life, but said he has been an effective leader for Spokane who should remain in office.
On Friday, the Spokesman-Review reported that West used his city computer to access information about a gay man in Fresno, Calif., while he was there on April 15 for a government-paid trip.
Further review of the CD shows West also used his laptop to access Gay.com at 11:49 a.m. PDT on April 25 while he was in Denver, en route to Washington, D.C., and at 11:57 a.m. PDT on May 2, while he was in Philadelphia, the paper reported Saturday.
Computer records show that West, 54, checked out 82 profiles of gay men, most of them in their 20s, while in Philadelphia.
The Internet addresses leading to profiles of the gay men are contained on a CD City Hall attorneys released to The Spokesman-Review on Thursday.
West and his private attorneys did not object to the release of the CD, which contains only a portion of the material from the mayor’s city-owned computer, seized in early May.
West is pressing a court fight to prevent release of a second CD, which West’s lawyers have said contains offensive material.
In court last Wednesday, West’s attorneys told Adams County Superior Court Judge Richard Miller that the second CD’s contents include the identities and photos of hundreds to thousands of men whose privacy West wants to protect.
City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers, one of West’s harshest critics, said evidence from the mayor’s computer confirmed “outrageous conduct.”
“Anyone in most jobs who used their business computer for such conduct would be fired immediately,” Rodgers said.
The new evidence recovered from West’s computer makes it clear, Rodgers said, that a private investigator hired by the Spokane City Council “will have to conclude” the mayor violated city computer-use policies.
“He was using City Hall equipment, and he was doing some of it on City Hall time,” Rodgers said. “For people who have been sitting on the fence, wanting to see more solid evidence, this is it.”
The history of the embattled mayor’s computer use was found in files buried deep within a compact disc that City Hall attorneys released to the newspaper this past week. The paper said the information contradicted West’s repeated claims that he did not access gay Web sites during workdays.
Attorneys for West, who faces a Dec. 6 recall election, defended him in a statement released Friday afternoon. They said Web sites the mayor visited while traveling in Washington, D.C., on March 22 and April 5, and in Philadelphia on May 2 were made “after regular business hours, Eastern Standard Time.”
“Mayor West has been up front from the very beginning,” attorneys Bill Etter and Susan Troppmann wrote in a statement e-mailed to the Spokesman-Review.
“On May 5, 2005, the mayor stated he visited Web sites but not on city time or at City Hall,” the statement said. “Mayor West was told, which is consistent with city policy, that he could use the city computer for personal uses when he traveled.”
The city’s Internet access policy allows employees “limited use” of the Internet, but says it should not be used to access or transmit obscene, profane, pornographic, abusive, harassing, discriminatory or threatening information, pictures or representations.
Supporters of the recall effort allege that West offered help in obtaining a city internship to an online correspondent that the mayor thought was an 18-year-old high school student.
It also says he sent that person a photograph of himself and “raised issues of sex, discussed dating, and urged the person to keep Mayor West’s identity a secret.”
The 18-year-old was actually a computer expert hired by The Spokesman-Review to verify rumors that West was a closeted homosexual who was using his office for personal gain. The newspaper began publishing a series of articles in May about the mayor’s secret life.
West, a longtime Republican state Senate leader and opponent of gay rights, has acknowledged making “errors” in his private life, but said he has been an effective leader for Spokane who should remain in office.
On Friday, the Spokesman-Review reported that West used his city computer to access information about a gay man in Fresno, Calif., while he was there on April 15 for a government-paid trip.
Further review of the CD shows West also used his laptop to access Gay.com at 11:49 a.m. PDT on April 25 while he was in Denver, en route to Washington, D.C., and at 11:57 a.m. PDT on May 2, while he was in Philadelphia, the paper reported Saturday.
Computer records show that West, 54, checked out 82 profiles of gay men, most of them in their 20s, while in Philadelphia.
The Internet addresses leading to profiles of the gay men are contained on a CD City Hall attorneys released to The Spokesman-Review on Thursday.
West and his private attorneys did not object to the release of the CD, which contains only a portion of the material from the mayor’s city-owned computer, seized in early May.
West is pressing a court fight to prevent release of a second CD, which West’s lawyers have said contains offensive material.
In court last Wednesday, West’s attorneys told Adams County Superior Court Judge Richard Miller that the second CD’s contents include the identities and photos of hundreds to thousands of men whose privacy West wants to protect.
City Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers, one of West’s harshest critics, said evidence from the mayor’s computer confirmed “outrageous conduct.”
“Anyone in most jobs who used their business computer for such conduct would be fired immediately,” Rodgers said.
The new evidence recovered from West’s computer makes it clear, Rodgers said, that a private investigator hired by the Spokane City Council “will have to conclude” the mayor violated city computer-use policies.
“He was using City Hall equipment, and he was doing some of it on City Hall time,” Rodgers said. “For people who have been sitting on the fence, wanting to see more solid evidence, this is it.”
