Bloglander

Spokane Mayor David Condon and City Council President Ben Stuckart have asked the city’s Ethics Commission to determine if Rachel Dolezal violated Spokane’s Ethics Code by representing herself as mixed-race on her application to the Police Ombudsman Commission.

Last week, the parents of Dolezal, a local civil rights leader who serves as chair of the Police Ombudsman Commission, created a media firestorm when they told the Coeur d’Alene Press that she has misrepresented herself as black.

On her application to the commission, Dolezal indicates that she is white, black and American Indian. Her application states that she was encouraged to apply for the position, noting her history of working on civil rights issues in the Inland Northwest.

“As a community developer, mentor, educator and concerned citizen, I have consistently modeled standards of honesty, integrity and equity,” she wrote on her application.

Here is the full statement from Condon and Stuckart:

“We are disappointed that questions have been raised about the truthfulness of the chair of the independent citizen Police Ombudsman Commission. We are committed as a city to being transparent in our work, and the alleged misrepresentation by one of our citizen volunteers detracts from that effort. We have referred the matter to the City’s Ethics Commission for a determination as to whether the answers she gave on her application for the volunteer position violated the City’s Code of Ethics.

Much has been made about ethnicity, but our concerns are focused squarely on the expectation that our volunteers adhere to the standards of truthfulness, transparency and integrity they agree to when they apply for and join a board or commission. The discussion has been a distraction from the work of those who strive every day to make Spokane a great place to live.”