Franklin commissioner tries to fire top employee rather than agree to $130k severance

Franklin County’s top employee was set to leave the county on good terms, paid out through the end of the year plus some, but then a county commissioner tried to fire him outright.

The Franklin County board of commissioners voted Wednesday to hold off on approving a nearly $133,000 separation agreement with County Administrator Mike Gonzalez, that would have seen both parties enter into a non-disparagement agreement and Gonzalez agree not to sue the county.

After an executive session with the county’s legal advisors, instead of moving to approve or deny the agreement, Commissioner Clint Didier tried to have Gonzalez fired.

“I move to terminate Mike Gonzalez for cause as administrator of Franklin County,” Didier said.

His motion failed to gain a second, but Commissioner Stephen Bauman put forth a separate motion to place Gonzalez on paid administrative leave for two weeks while the county considers working out a severance agreement. Gonzalez had been taking personal paid time off since the move was announced last week.

Chairman Rocky Mullen seconded the motion and voted to approve it. Didier voted no.

Since January, Gonzalez has been the target of several elected officials, who are currently under criminal investigation on suspicion of official misconduct, witness tampering, criminal conspiracy and making false statements to law enforcement officials.

The investigation stems from an alleged attempt to manipulate a payment to the HAPO Center’s former management group and subsequent attempts to pressure Gonzalez to write a letter they hoped would kill the investigation.

Two of the three commissioners, Mullen and Didier, are under investigation. The third elected official being investigated is auditor Matt Beaton.

Bauman is not under investigation.

An attorney with the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s office, in Everett, Wash., is currently reviewing the investigation but has not yet made any decisions about charges.

Terms of the agreement

Under the agreement presented to commissioners, Gonzalez would have received almost $133,000. Of that total, $86,875 is his salary for the rest of the year, about $36,000 is accrued health benefits and paid time off and receive an additional month’s pay for committing to the agreement. His regular salary is $150,000 plus an opportunity for bonuses. He declined the most recent bonus.

While Gonzalez would be agreeing not to sue the county, he can still cooperate with any criminal investigations or respond to subpoenas in lawsuits. He would also agree not to say anything that could negatively impact people’s perception of the county, and the county will agree to keep employees from doing the same. That clause also states that elected officials cannot direct employees to do so either.

Breaches of the agreement could result in fees of up to $5,000. They would also agree to handle any disputes through arbitration. The agreement will be finalized eight days after being signed.

Gonzalez is currently a finalist for the City of Yakima’s open city manager position. He’ll be joining other candidates for a meet and greet and interviews with the Yakima City Council next week.

Investigation

The criminal investigation began in January over a dispute centered on whether to pay Simmons Venue Management $12,500 for their last month of work during the transition to a new management group at the HAPO Center. The Simmons family is best known for their restaurant, Country Gentleman. They stepped in to help manage the HAPO Center when the county’s entire management team for the venue left in the span of a month.

Gonzalez was initially going to pay the invoice, but received pushback when he attempted to gauge where the commissioners stood on the issue, according to investigative material obtained by the Herald through a Washington State Public Records request.

Didier and Mullen were against the payment, and Mullen allegedly laid into Gonzalez for trying to settle a dispute between the sheriff’s office and auditor’s office in 2023, claiming he was taking the sheriff’s side, according to recorded interviews with county employees who were present.

After speaking with Mullen, who Gonzalez said changed his mind about paying the Simmons, Gonzalez moved to stop the payment.

At this point Beaton allegedly called the HAPO Center’s new management group, Harris-White Leasure group, and told them to push the payment through. Beaton later said in a secretly recorded meeting that he was acting at Didier’s direction when he allegedly called Larry Leasure and Wes Harris to have the payment processed.

“(Didier) said, ‘Well call (HWL) and, and you know, stop it.’ ...” Beaton said in the recording. “And I’ll tell you exactly what I told Wes. I told him ‘Business as usual’ and approve it if you would approve it. And he said to me, ‘I don’t support it.’”

Beaton also later admitted that he made a statement about the payment potentially, but claimed it wasn’t meant that way.

“I said, ‘If he approves it, the commissioners may learn more about him than they want to know, but I don’t believe they will,’” Beaton said in the recording.

Harris was uncomfortable with the conversation and elected officials involving his company in county politics, so he reached out to Gonzalez to let him know what had happened, according to interviews with Harris and Gonzalez.

In both meetings, Beaton claimed unspecific audits may show SVM actually owed the county money.

Gonzalez said he ran the events by a county prosecutor to ensure no laws were being broken, which led to a criminal investigation being opened. The investigation is being overseen by Undersheriff Monty Huber and investigators from both the Benton and Franklin County sheriff’s offices.

After the investigation began, Mullen attempted to set up a meeting with Gonzalez and Beaton to discuss the issue. Investigators, concerned that it could potentially turn into witness tampering, say Mullen was warned not to, but still went ahead with the meeting. Gonzalez told investigators he recorded the meeting because he was concerned he was going to be asked to commit a crime.

He told investigators he never planned to release the recording, but came forward after Mullen was interviewed and implied Gonzalez was lying.

During the meeting Mullen and Beaton tried to convince Gonzalez to write a letter to investigators saying he had misunderstood what happened, and end the investigation.

Gonzalez did not write a letter after the meeting, and Mullen continued to attempt to convince him he needed to, according to text messages obtained by the Herald.

Later, Didier attempted to get Gonzalez and Office of Public Defense Manager Larry Ziegler to fire the lead investigators wife, who worked for Ziegler. Her attorney sent the county and Didier a cease and desist letter on April 30.

Since the investigation began the courthouse has been plagued by reports of concerning behavior by elected officials, including shouting matches and attempts to undermine the investigation.

Last week Franklin County Sheriff Jim Raymond publicly warned elected officials that it’s illegal to conceal carry a gun in the courthouse or change locks on their offices. He also wrote that an elected official had been taking calls in the parking lot, attempting to convince others to allow him to conduct a forensic audit on a HAPO Center related business.