SPOKANE – Shannon Sullivan spent months getting a movement to recall Spokane Mayor James West on the ballot, and West spent $85,000 in legal fees in an unsuccessful bid to derail her effort.
On Monday, the two finally met for the first time, and Sullivan asked West for an appointment to the city’s Human Rights Commission. The mayor, who is involved in a sex scandal, said he would consider it.
The two adversaries met by chance outside West’s office at City Hall.
Sullivan, a political novice and single mother, was there to fill out an application for the unpaid human rights position. She was in the reception area when West walked up behind her. Sullivan turned and was startled for a moment, according to a West staffer.
“He was really very nice and very cordial and not at all condescending,” Sullivan said. “And I would never be condescending to him because he is still the mayor.”
West said he told Sullivan he thought she had been used by his political enemies, and Sullivan told him the recall wasn’t personal.
Sullivan expressed concern that the mayor might refuse to take her application, but West said he would accept it. Sullivan said she didn’t have a college degree. The mayor told her that wasn’t a prerequisite, but he would not appoint her if she were pursuing a political agenda. He also told her she has proved she is capable of organizing people.
“We’ll consider her,” West said Tuesday. The mayor makes appointments to the commission, subject to City Council confirmation.
City voters will decide Dec. 6 if West will remain in office.
The Human Rights Commission currently has at least four vacancies, including one when former vice chairman Mike Kress resigned in protest over the handling of a sexual harassment complaint against West stemming from the mayor’s appointment of a young gay man to the commission at the same time the mayor was allegedly pressuring him for sex.
In September, the commission ruled that West behaved inappropriately and violated community mores in his dealings with former commissioner Ryan Oelrich.
The recall against West accuses him of using his office for personal benefit in seeking a relationship with another man he believed to be 18 at the time.
The Spokesman-Review newspaper in May broke stories contending that West trolled a gay online chat room, offering young men city jobs in exchange for sex. Several young gay men told the newspaper they were offered perks, trips or City Hall jobs and appointments by West, who has said he did nothing illegal.
The FBI is investigating whether those offers and appointments constituted an abuse of public office.
West, 55, has said he plans to sue the newspaper for violation of privacy.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
