Pierce Co. city with dueling ethics complaints is ‘a circus.’ The mayor is done
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Council postponed ethics complaint vote against mayoral candidate Moore to Nov. 5
- Mayor Penner withdrew staff from meetings, citing repeated hostile behavior
- Moore and Koenig filed ethics complaints amid accusations tied to $10M tort claim
Orting is feeling the ripple effects of two ethics complaints, heated city council meetings and a mayoral race that is less than two months away.
During the Sept. 10 meeting, the council discussed an ethics complaint that deputy mayor Melodi Koenig filed against Christopher Moore, a council member who is running for mayor.
“Wednesday night’s Orting city council was a circus,” current mayor Josh Penner wrote in a Facebook post on Sept 11. “... What should have been a straightforward motion discussion under the council’s rules of procedure and ethics policy instead descended into another round of Councilmember Moore attacking staff, speaking over colleagues, impugning motives, attacking the chair for being the chair, and disregarding rules of order.”
The meeting was two hours and 14 minutes long – but about 90 minutes was dedicated to talking about the ethics complaint, which accuses Moore of using his power to influence the city’s former capital project manager, John Bielka. The complaint argues that Moore’s actions led to Bielka filing a $10 million wrongful termination claim against the city. The News Tribune reached out to Koenig for comment about the complaint, but did not get a response before deadline.
Moore had an intense back-and-forth with Penner and city attorney Kendra Rosenburg during the Sept. 10 meeting.
Moore told The News Tribune he believed the city was violating its own ethics code by making the complaint public before the meeting, and that he was asking simple policy questions. Penner told The News Tribune that he believed Moore’s questions about Bielka’s wrongful termination claim and other matters were unrelated to the motion, which was supposed to be a vote about whether the council should send the ethics complaint against Moore to the city’s hearing examiner for investigation.
“My line of question was pertaining to the procedural matters within the motion that was on the floor,” Moore told The News Tribune. “If the procedure establishes that it is valid or invalid, then we should vote on it. But we should establish first whether the claim is valid.”
The council ended the meeting with a decision to delay any action on the complaint until Nov. 5, a day after the Nov. 4 mayoral election.
After the meeting, Penner posted on Facebook that he would be withdrawing his staff from future meetings – which includes the city administrator, the clerk and the city attorney – until council “demonstrates the tools they will use to stop the repeated attacks on staff.”
“Until this matter is addressed, I will attend only to operate an audio recorder so the Clerk can produce minutes. Until this matter is addressed, I will not chair the councils’ meetings; the council must select a chair from their own process for conducing meetings when the Mayor is unable to do so,” Penner wrote in the post. “Until this matter is addressed, I will not participate in debate, answer questions, or provide commentary beyond taking notes.”
Council held a special meeting on Sept. 16 to address the mayor’s concerns, but Penner said the meeting did not fulfill his requirements and that he will continue to keep staff out of meetings.
Moore and his competitor – former city council member Scott Drennen – are both vying for Penner’s seat this November. In the August primary election, Moore was the frontrunner with 436 votes (36.18%) to Drennen’s 370 (30.71%). The rest of the votes were divided between three other candidates who didn’t advance to the general election. Penner is leaving his role as mayor in January to focus on his other job representing District 31 in the state House of Representatives.
What happened at the Sept. 10 Orting council meeting?
Moore asked Rosenburg several questions over the course of the meeting, including:
- If Bielka’s wrongful termination claim, which the ethics complaint against Moore mentions, is considered open or closed.
- If conversations that happened in an executive session will be released to the public.
- If the contents of the Bielka case are public record.
He asked the same several questions repeatedly, rephrasing them in different ways during his back-and-forth with Rosenburg.
Rosenburg repeatedly said that she didn’t represent the city in the Bielka matter and couldn’t give specific answers. Penner, who was chairing the meeting, interjected several times by asking Moore to keep his questions related to whether or not the city should send the ethics complaint against Moore to the hearing examiner for an independent investigation.
“Legal advice can be sought from the city attorney at any point before or after this meeting, even during the meeting,” Penner said. “But the question before the council is whether or not to move this item to a hearings examiner for further investigation and the question you are asking is not pertinent to the matter.”
Moore and Penner went back-and-forth, with Moore asking Penner to cite where in the council’s rules he was not allowed to ask Rosenburg questions.
“Otherwise, explain to me why you are stopping me from asking a very simple policy question,” Moore said to Penner.
Later, Moore asked Rosenburg if deposition testimony in an open case is “protected,” or allowed to be released to the public.
“I’m sorry, I can’t answer an incomplete hypothetical with exact legal preciseness,” Rosenburg replied.
A few minutes later, Moore asked why she was there.
“I am asking you a very clear policy question and if you can’t answer that, my question to you is: what are we paying you for?” Moore asked.
After a few seconds of silence, Moore asked Penner why the city was paying Rosenburg to be at the meeting.
“That question is not related to the question at hand,” Penner replied. People in the crowd reacted by shaking their heads and voicing their discontent.
“I don’t think I have to respond to that, I think the crowd did,” Moore responded.
Moore said he has filed a complaint against Koenig and that he would like both complaints to be heard by a hearing examiner at the same time. Penner said Moore’s complaint would be discussed at the next council meeting “with the same analysis that this one was.”
At the end of the meeting, Moore suggested postponing the vote on whether to send the ethics complaint against him to the hearing examiner until Nov. 5. The council then voted on whether or not to postpone, and the amended motion passed 5-2, with council members Greg Hogan and Stanley Holland voting “no.” Moore, Koenig, and council members Tod Gunther, Don Tracy and Jeff Sproul voted “yes.”
On Sept. 11, the day after the meeting, Penner announced that he would not allow himself or his staff to participate in council meetings due to Moore’s behavior toward Rosenburg. He said that in order for him to reverse his decision, council has to:
- Acknowledge that it will “follow its own Ethics Policy and rules of procedures.”
- Acknowledge that “it is not acceptable that one member can hold the entire business of the community hostage.”
- Acknowledge in writing that “personal attacks on staff motives and integrity are unacceptable in a professional setting.”
“This is not a one-off. It is part of a long-standing pattern that has now led to an outright staff exodus. I have now requested this behavior be addressed for nearly a year, and I will take action now,” Penner wrote in his post.
In the post, Penner said the city had “lost or are in the process of losing” two city attorneys because of hostile treatment during council meetings.
In a follow-up interview with The News Tribune, Penner said that his decision to remove staff was because of conduct, but that he also disagreed with the council’s verdict. He called it “clear as mud” and said he doesn’t understand why the council would delay following up on an ethics complaint for two months.
“I will point out that, during all of this, nobody has brought up whether or not it is more likely or not that council member Moore did those things that are asserted in the ethics complaint,” Penner said. “Council is aware of very serious ethics violations and is choosing not to move forward with investigating it. I’m not even saying guilty or innocent – I’m saying investigate the serious ethics violations because the person who is at the center of those ethical violations is in the middle of an election.”
Moore pointed out that Koenig, the member who filed the complaint, was one of the council members who voted to postpone the complaint until November.
Then, he alleged the city violated its own ethics code by including Koenig’s complaint in the Sept. 10 council meeting agenda packet. He said this is because the complaint contained information about the Bielka case, which had not been closed yet – and that when the city included that information in the packet, it made confidential information public.
“The reasons for my comment in the meeting and trying to push so hard for the city attorney to acknowledge the matter is open – they certainly know it is,” Moore told The News Tribune. “They’re at risk of violating [the ethics] policy just by putting that out in the public square.”
Moore said that he filed his complaint against Koenig, Penner and city administrator Scott Larson on Sept. 9 at 7:19 p.m., the night before the council meeting — but that only Koenig’s complaint was included in the agenda.
The News Tribune reached out to Kim Agfalvi, the city clerk, to ask if there is a cut-off date or time for materials to be included in a meeting agenda packet. Agfalvi said all agenda items must be submitted on or before the Thursday before the meeting. The Sept. 10 meeting agenda says Koenig submitted her complaint on Sept. 4, which met the cut-off period.
Moore also said that he doesn’t want Orting’s hearing examiner to review the ethics complaints; he would prefer an independent hearing examiner at the county level.
What happened at the Sept. 16 special meeting?
At the Sept. 16 special meeting, the council members discussed the mayor’s decision to pull staff.
“It’ll be a fine day tomorrow [Sept. 17] when we have a study session and there’s no administration people there. And yet, we’re supposed to be asked to work on a budget, pass a budget without administrative people,” council member Jeffrey Sproul said in the meeting. “To me, that’s the mayor sort of limiting what we can do.”
Koenig said she found some moments during the Sept. 10 meeting — such as Moore pandering to the crowd or asking Rosenburg, “What are we paying you for?” — to be inappropriate, but that she didn’t find Moore’s overall behavior to be out of line.
“I think the expectation [from the mayor] is for us to admonish the behavior and move on, but I’m not convinced that this particular incidence on the 10th of September amounts to that,” Koenig said at the meeting.
Councilmember Tod Gunther said he would ask all council members to read the code of conduct during the next regular meeting. Moore repeatedly declined to comment when the chair, Hogan, gave him the opportunity to.
The council passed a motion, 6-0, to “work with good order and decorum in all branches.” Holland was not at the meeting.
Penner shared a letter he wrote to council on Sept. 17 with The News Tribune. In it, he said council did not meet his requirements for bringing staff back.
“As you are aware, my conditions for the return of staff were (clear) and itemized for your convenience. They are also, I believe, reasonable and, without much effort or consternation or debate, doable safeguards,” Penner wrote. “... Largely, during the meeting, these requirements were not discussed. What I heard instead was a lot of discussion about blame, fault, and perceptions.”
Penner said Moore’s behavior on Sept. 10 lines up with other incidents where council treated staff in a “hostile” manner.
“Staff have left, staff are leaving, and unless the council conducts changes or there’s a structural change to the way we interact, staff will continue to leave,” Penner wrote. “Moreover, what I saw last week was consistent with other incidents where staff are treated like hostile witnesses to be cross-examined, rather than respected as professionals providing knowledge and input.”
Penner then pushed back on claims that he was “removing” staff, saying that he will allow staff to be available during working hours. He then said he is directing department heads to set up “two set hours” each week where council members can drop in or call to “ask questions and receive advice.”
He then reiterated that there would be no staff at the Sept. 17 study session.
Koenig’s complaint against Moore
In her ethics complaint, Koenig alleged that Moore used his power to influence the city’s former capital projects manager, John Bielka.
The city fired Bielka in June 2024, prompting Bielka to file a $10 million tort claim against the city, claiming he was wrongfully terminated after bringing attention to alleged trouble with the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
“Mr. Bielka was placed on administrative leave after he documented that there were ongoing concerns with the wastewater treatment plant, the proposed design of the plant, and constant leaching of wastewater into the aquifer surrounding the wastewater treatment plant that has continued unabated for over a year,” the tort claim alleged.
The News Tribune reached out to Bielka’s attorney, Richard Wooster, who said the city has settled the case for $525,000. He also said there’s language in the settlement that the city has “no admission of liability.”
In her ethics complaint, Koenig accused Moore of ordering Bielka to fire the city’s main engineering partner from the project.
“City Council positions are political positions, and all staff must remain non-political to effectively run the government. Councilmember Moore overstepped those boundaries by attempting to direct the previous capital projects manager John Bielka, fire the city’s main engineering partner Parametrix, disclosing executive privileged information in two cases to the Plaintiffs before the city council, and threatening staff,” the complaint says.
Koenig said Moore’s actions resulted in using taxpayers dollars to pay for a $1.6 million redesign of the city’s wastewater treatment plant and a settlement in Bielka’s wrongful termination case.
“[His actions also caused] the resignation of our previous attorney (increasing our costs for attorney fees and insurance rates) and complaints of many staff members,” Koenig wrote.
In her complaint, Koenig alleged that Moore:
- Told a public works employee that he would “get rid of” Parametrix on the project and that the employee “would be sorry” if he went against him.
- Convinced Bielka that the lagoons at the wastewater plant were overflowing, causing the wells to be contaminated. Bielka then allegedly used these concerns to create a whistleblower complaint. Koenig said Moore violated council rules by not communicating his concerns with the city before notifying the public.
- “Created a conflict of interest” by participating in the Bielka vs. City of Orting matter “for the plaintiff.”
Koenig said Moore should be censured for these violations and removed from all of his committees.
“He inappropriately engaged with staff violating city and state ethics codes and laws, and should be removed from the public works committee, and all committees where he represents the city,” Koenig wrote. “For violating breach of public trust and conflict of interest, and disclosing executive privilege information ... he should be excluded from all executive sessions – no exceptions.”
In an email to The News Tribune, Penner said there was an independent investigation before they fired Bielka.
“The independent investigation found evidence that Bielka and Moore coordinated to meet with vendors outside of executive or legislative purview – as well as coordinating to terminate a vendor contract without the knowledge of the executive branch – or the legislative branch - despite Bielka being an employee of the executive and Moore being a councilmember,” Penner wrote.
Moore’s complaint against Koenig, Penner and Larson
In a public Facebook post, Moore posted pictures from his ethics complaint that he filed against Koenig, Penner and city administrator Larson. Moore told The News Tribune he filed the complaint on Sept. 9, one day before the city council meeting.
“The most important thing to know is that the allegations contained within the complaint [against me] are false, are without merit,” Moore told The News Tribune.
Moore said that since he is chair of the public works committee, he requested a tour of the wastewater facility and raised concerns about the equipment before Bielka was hired. Then, when Bielka joined the city in 2022, he became concerned on his own, he said.
“Once John started looking at the different systems within the public works setting, he started to advise the administration that he had a lot of concerns and, in my independent evaluation prior to John being hired, he was fighting items that were very similar to mine,” Moore told The News Tribune. “I conveyed to the administration that I felt that John’s concerns had merit and these were things that we really needed to dig into, and those concerns were significantly downplayed at the time.”
Moore said that after the city fired Bielka and the wrongful termination claim was filed, he was subpoenaed.
“I stated to the council and the administration that I had a position that was counter to the city’s position in the claim,” Moore said. “The city’s position in the claim was that they had done no wrong and everything was fine. My position was, ‘I had seen things that indicate your version of the story doesn’t add up and the version of [Bielka’s] story does add up.’ So at that point, we have attorneys that are telling me that I am prohibited from speaking to anybody about this. I am prohibited from speaking to my own independent attorney.”
Moore said he then asked the city for conflict counsel — an attorney that represents a client when a conflict of interest prevents the original attorney from doing so — but the city refused to provide that for him.
“I was threatened with, if I spoke to anybody about the case, I would be censured,” Moore said.
Moore’s complaint also alleges:
- He did not inappropriately provide documents to Bielka. When he testified, he was asked how he knew specific details, and provided “meeting minutes, internal memos and other documents.” The attorneys for the city’s insurance company provided the documents to Bielka as part of the settlement process.
- He spoke with Penner and public works director Marshall Mauer about his concern for the city’s wells before he spoke to city council members and the public.
Moore said he believes the complaint against him is politically motivated.
“They’ve had a year to make this motion and nobody’s done it and now all of a sudden the timing seems peculiar that it’s only happening after I won the primary, so the appearance is this is politically motivated,” Moore said. “So now, it’s just turning into political theater.”
Penner argued that postponing the complaint until the day after the election seems politically motivated.
“It takes all of the council’s rules of ethics and throws them out the door for the sake of an election,” Penner said.
Where does everything stand now?
There weren’t any administrative staff at the Sept. 17 study session and staff won’t be at any future council meetings for the foreseeable future.
Larson told The News Tribune that the Water Resource Recovery Facility — a project that will upgrade Orting’s wastewater treatment plant — is currently in the design phase. While Parametrix originally worked on the design, the city ended up changing design firms, with Wilson Engineering currently doing that work.
“Probably by the end of the year we will have that design complete, then bid on it by the end of the year or early 2026,” Larson said.
Construction will follow after the bid, Larson said. The cost is estimated to be $36 million, and he said they’re looking for ways to reduce that.
The Orting mayoral race between Moore and Drennen will be on Nov. 4. To learn more about the upcoming election, visit piercecountywa.gov/Elections.
Orting’s new mayor will take office in January.
This story was originally published September 18, 2025 at 1:30 PM.
