Snohomish County NAACP calls for Charter Commission ethics review

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 13, 2026

EVERETT — The executive director of NAACP Snohomish County has requested an ethics review of Peter Condyles’ appointment as Charter Review Commission coordinator.

Director Janice Greene sent a letter to the review commission on behalf of One Voice Snohomish County, a coalition of community organizations, including NAACP Snohomish County, Snohomish County Indivisible, UNIDOS Snohomish County and the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County.

She also sent the letter to members of the Snohomish County Ethics Commission, who uphold the county’s code of ethics and resolve any possible ethics violations by Snohomish County employees.

The Charter Review Commission is an elected body that works independently, without approval from the County Council, to review the county’s laws, suggest possible changes and suggest efficiencies.

“Mr. Condyles is employed as Vice President of Toyer Strategic Advisors, a firm that actively lobbies on behalf of private developers in Snohomish County,” Greene said in the letter. “David Toyer, the firm’s founder and president, is a registered state lobbyist. Commissioner Rob Toyer is Mr. Toyer’s cousin and sits on the Charter Review Commission.”

Toyer Strategic Advisors is also a main financial contributor to Responsible Economic Growth In Our Neighborhoods Political Action Committee, the letter says.

REGION PAC endorsed 11 of the 15 charter review commissioners.

Condyles’ appointment had already raised questions of a possible conflict of interest from commissioners Demi Chatters and Robin McGee over his work as a paid lobbyist.

The commission discussed the concern during a meeting on Feb. 11. Afterward, commission chair Brett Gailey recommended Condyles’ appointment move forward.

“We only have so much time to get this done, which is why we selected a hiring committee and gave them the power to appoint whoever they felt was right for the position,” Gailey said in an interview at the time. “What Demi did set us back a week.”

Gailey is also the mayor of Lake Stevens.

Neither Gailey or Condyles responded to requests for comment.

As coordinator, Condyles is responsible for administrative management, research, communication management and clerking meetings.

After the meeting, Chatters sent a memorandum to the commission and The Daily Herald.

“Hiring a paid lobbyist, or lobbyist’s paid staffer, into a key strategic position on a public commission creates an obvious conflict of interest that undermines the public trust,” she wrote in the memorandum.

Condyles works for Toyer Strategic Advisors, an economic development and land-use consulting firm owned by David Toyer, a cousin to commissioner Rob Toyer.

Condyles is also a Marysville City Council member. He was registered as a lobbyist in 2021 and 2022, he said during the Feb. 11 meeting, but unregistered once he joined the Marysville City Council.

“It’s also important to note that those two years I was registered as a lobbyist, I did no lobbying work,” he said.

On Feb. 17, before the County Council approved funding for the coordinator position, council member Megan Dunn asked if an ethics review had taken place.

It had not, Council Chief of Staff Heidi Beazizo said at the time.

The council is responsible for authorizing funds whenever a position is filled.

Someone attending the Feb. 11 meeting brought the situation to Greene’s attention, she said during an interview Thursday.

She felt it was important to speak up because “when it comes to the charter, that’s going to shape the daily lives of the people of Snohomish County for the next 10 years,” she said.

“A person who is currently employed by a firm that lobbies county and city government on land use and development is in a position where their professional obligations and their public duties do not run in the same direction,” Greene wrote in her letter. “A charter review process that begins under a cloud of undisclosed connections will struggle to command public trust regardless of its conclusions.”

The letter was discussed during a Charter Review Commission meeting on Wednesday.

“That is evidence that we have several community organizations that are tracking this issue and that are very much in support of an amendment that would close that loophole,” Chatters said on Wednesday.

Chatters submitted a charter amendment to the commission that would prohibit county employees from engaging in paid lobbying or working for a paid lobbyist. The amendment is still under consideration.

During the Wednesday meeting, the Ethics Commission clerk, Debbie Eco, said Greene’s letter had been submitted and the “complaint has been dismissed.”

Eco provided the Order of Dismissal, written by Ethics Commission member Kyle Strand, to The Herald.

“The Complaint does not, on its face, state facts which, if proven to be true, constitute a violation of the Snohomish County Code of Ethics,” Strand wrote. “The Complaint fails to refer to a specific provision on the code of ethics, which is alleged to have been violated.”

That result was expected, Green said in the Thursday interview.

“I’ve said from the beginning, this is not about breaking the rules. It’s about the structure that was built to produce a result,” she said. “Sometimes something could be perfectly legal and completely wrong. The system looked at it as no violation. I’m looking at it and all of us, we’re looking at it as transparency for the voters, making sure that people’s voices are heard.”

“The rules need to change,” she added.

Taylor Scott Richmond: 425-339-3046; taylor.richmond@heraldnet.com; X: @BTayOkay