SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane City Councilmember Al Merkel was found to have violated social media use policies after an investigation by the city.
The City of Spokane Valley hired an independent investigator after a complaint was filed that Merkel was not complying with Washington State Public Records Act.
Councilmember Jessica Yaeger filed the complaint on June 11 with specific attention to
The investigator reported that Merkel violated the Governance Manual Social Media Policy by sharing content on his personal account related to the conduct of city government on the platform.
At the time, Merkel denied these allegations and said that the content on his personal account is not city business nor public records.
The investigation found that Merkel’s posts were public record using the “more likely than not” basis.
Topics that the investigation found that violated the policies included:
Discussions about City Council debatesComplaints about other Councilmember’s actions and positions on city businessCity investigations into formal allegations against MerkelMerkel’s opinions and positions on a variety of issues before the CouncilMerkel’s promise to address some followers’ questions about a specific city issueRequests for followers to send an email to his city email addressSurveys about city projects and the city budget
Merkel will now have seven business days to appeal the findings to a hearing examiner.
NonStop Local has reached out to Merkel for comment but have not heard back yet.
