Spokane mayor says he is at peace after recall

SPOKANE – Mayor James E. West said today he is proud of his work in two years as leader of Spokane, and plans to look for a job after voters recalled him from office over a sex scandal.

West, 54, also said he is at peace after nearly two-thirds of voters called for his ouster in mail-in votes that were counted and released Tuesday.

"I loved every minute of being mayor of Spokane," West said at a news conference, where he ticked off a list of his accomplishments.

"I have no regrets as far as being mayor the last two years. I have regrets in my personal life," West said. "I wish those things never occurred. I am embarrassed by them."

West said his health is good, even though he is receiving chemotherapy for a recurrence of colon cancer.

He said he intends to stay in Spokane and look for a job.

West also repeated that he intended to sue The Spokesman-Review, the city's only daily newspaper, whose reporting was the basis for allegations that he abused his political office by allegedly offering City Hall jobs and perks to young men he met in a gay Internet chat room. West declined to go into specifics on the lawsuit.

West plans to stay at City Hall to take care of unfinished business until Dec. 16, the day the special recall election results are certified and he must leave office.

He's the first Spokane elected chief executive to be ousted before his term expired.

Just over half of the 110,000 ballots mailed to city voters were counted in the first batch of results, released Tuesday night. Of those, 38,718, or 65 percent, voted to recall West, while 20,681, or 35 percent, voted to retain him.

Auditor Vicky Dalton said ballots postmarked by midnight Tuesday would continue to be counted until certification, but it did not appear there would be enough to change the outcome.

West, a Republican former state legislator who voted against gay-friendly bills, has spent 27 years in public office.

Shannon Sullivan, the Spokane mom who shepherded recall petitions through superior and state high court challenges, said she felt vindicated by the recall results.

"It's been a long, hard seven months," she said. "Elected officials need to be held to higher standards."

The recall petition contended West used his political office for personal benefit. The mayor, who has not been charged with any crime, acknowledged making mistakes in his personal life, but asked voters to give him a second chance.

The Spokesman-Review newspaper conducted an undercover investigation and reported in a series of articles beginning May 5 that West was a closeted homosexual who visited gay chat rooms on his city-owned computer and offered internships and other favors to young men he hoped to have sex with.

City Council President Dennis Hession, a lawyer first elected to the seven-member council in 2002, will become mayor pro tempore of this city of 200,000 until the council appoints a replacement to finish the remaining two years of West's term. Hession said he will apply for that appointment as well.

He said the controversy hampered the mayor's ability to run the city, despite West's best efforts to do his job.

"He was trying to be that leader," Hession said. "In light of the circumstances he was unable to do that."

West was elected mayor — which he described as his "dream job" — in 2003 after serving more than two decades as a state legislator.

The recall petition contended West used his office for personal benefit by offering a city internship to someone he thought was an 18-year-old man he'd met in a gay online chat room. The person, who West knew by the screen name "Moto-Brock," actually was a computer expert hired by the newspaper to track the mayor's activities in a Gay.com chat room.

The newspaper also printed allegations by two men with criminal records that West molested them when they were children and he was a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

West vehemently denied the molestation allegations, and no criminal probe was launched because the statute of limitations had long expired.

West, who described himself as the victim of a "brutal outing," has acknowledged having relationships with young men but denied doing anything illegal. West has said he plans to sue The Spokesman-Review.

Spokesman-Review Editor Steven Smith said the recall results were not a referendum on the newspaper's journalism, but of the public's sentiment.

"The margin suggests that this protracted process we've been enduring — the slow water torture of a recall — is the result of the mayor completely misreading the sentiment of this community," Smith said. "They wanted him out. My guess is they wanted him out five or six months ago, but I don't think he ever got it."

The FBI is conducting a public corruption investigation and has seized the hard drives of West's work and home computers. A lawyer hired by the Spokane City Council concluded the mayor violated state laws and city computer policies.