County hires temporary harassment investigator

EVERETT — Snohomish County has hired attorney Chris Katahira as a temporary Equal Employment Opportunity investigator during the search for a permanent hire.

Katahira replaces Mark Knudsen, who submitted his resignation in late February. Knudsen left his job before the release of a review that found he kept shoddy records of worker harassment and discrimination complaints that he investigated. He had been in the position 10 years.

Questions about Knudsen’s work arose after an internal investigation concluded that the county’s former planning director, Craig Ladiser, exposed himself to a woman who works as a building-industry lobbyist. Long before the report led to Ladiser’s firing last year, planning employees had made complaints to Knudsen about sexual harassment in the department Ladiser managed.

Katahira previously worked for MFR Law Group of Mill Creek. He started working for the county on April 2 will earn nearly $5,700 per month — only about two-thirds of Knudsen’s salary. He will report to human resources director Bridget Clawson instead of Deputy Executive Mark Soine, following a recommendation from the outside audit.