Pacific Mayor Cy Sun was arrested midday Thursday for trying to enter the locked city clerk’s office, city attorney Kenyon Luce said.
Sun has fired several department heads, and Pacific residents asked him to resign at a council meeting last month. He was elected via a write-in campaign last year, winning by 64 votes.
Sun arrived at the clerk’s office with a locksmith and was taken into custody by city police and later released, Luce said.
The Pacific Police Department declined to comment.
Pacific is east of Interstate 5 between Seattle and Tacoma, lying in both King and Pierce counties. It has about 6,500 residents, according to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data.
City records are under the Police Department’s custody while the clerk is on medical leave. Should Sun want to access city documents, he can do so in cooperation with the department, Luce said.
“I was arrested and incarcerated when I attempted to enter,” Sun wrote in a statement Thursday, adding that he will discuss the matter with legal counsel Friday.
The City Council asked the King County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday to do an “independent investigation on allegations of misconduct by employees or members of the city staff,” said sheriff’s spokesperson Cindi West.
Luce said that investigation is related to the alleged destruction of city records.
Pacific’s insurance carrier is concerned about the unavailability of department heads to serve the city and will not renew the city’s policy at the end of the year, Luce said.
“We can change that … but we have to start looking for another insurance policy,” he said. “Unless the mayor and the city come back and get the concerns of the insurance carrier solved, we’re terminated.”
Luce said there are about eight vacant city positions after some employees were fired and others resigned. About 20 people are listed in Pacific’s staff directory. The city’s chief of police was fired about two weeks ago, Luce said.
“We cannot afford a full-time Public Works director. We cannot afford a full-time engineer. Nor can we afford a full-time inspector because building is declining,” Sun told KING-5 in an interview last month.
The mayor sent Luce a notice of termination, but ending his contract requires the confirmation of the City Council, Luce said.
“Building inspections need to be made … all kinds of things like that,” he said. “The city is at a standstill.”
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