Dammeier’s attack on whistleblower reveals unstable side of Pierce County Exec
The optics are bad.
What they reveal feels far more telling.
There’s a lot not to like with the way Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier has handled the departure of former senior justice counsel Carol Mitchell, who was fired on July 23. But Dammeier’s bizarre public reaction to a county personnel matter is certainly the most obvious.
Mitchell, who is Black, was ousted from Dammeier’s executive team just nine days after submitting a summary judgment filing in her active whistleblower case against the county. She had worked for Dammeier since January 2017, and, until her firing, was the only Black woman on his 8-person executive team.
All of this came to public light last week.
On Aug. 24, Mitchell filed a claim for damages against the county, rightfully noting she was fired while she had an active and pending whistleblower complaint. The claim — which asks for between $3 million and $5 million in damages — described Mitchell’s firing as “unlawful retaliation.”
Citing the substance of Mitchell’s whistleblower complaint, the claim argues her firing constituted “further evidence of the County’s discrimination, harassment, and misconduct against Ms. Mitchell due to her race, gender, and her advocacy for Pierce County minorities.”
Two days later, for reasons he has declined to discuss with The News Tribune, Dammeier responded publicly.
Taking to exclusively his personal and campaign-related social media accounts, Dammeier launched a misguided attack against Mitchell.
In an Aug. 26 campaign statement posted to Twitter that failed to specifically name Mitchell, Dammeier managed to leave little doubt who he was talking about, zeroing in on a “former staffer of mine covering criminal justice issues.”
Without providing evidence, Dammeier suggested that this “former staffer” had “her own political agenda,” and supported his political opponent, Democrat Larry Seaquist, who the executive said “wants to defund our police.”
It was a statement Dammeier campaign spokesperson Beki Shoemaker stood by via email on Thursday, while declining to add anything further.
Admittedly, there’s plenty to digest there.
One thing is clear, however:
Dammeier often portrays himself as a moderate, reasonable leader, but preemptively lashing out on Twitter against a Black woman with an open whistleblower complaint against the county — and weakly attempting to link her to the partisan national debate over police funding — contradicts any such image.
It was stupid, paranoid and unstable — the kind of reaction we expect out of Donald Trump, not a man who often benefits from a reputation casting him as a Republican alternative.
Regardless of her political leanings or her differences with Dammeier, Mitchell simply didn’t deserve to be publicly dragged like this.
“To me, it seems like he is attempting to do this almost publicity stunt of pivoting from (Mitchell’s) tort claim — which he knows is going to make his office look bad — to something that is on his campaign talking point list,” said Mitchell’s attorney, Meaghan Driscoll (no relation).
“It’s problematic, morally, ethically and politically,” Driscoll added.
Deflection and distraction
Make no mistake, Mitchell’s whistleblower allegations are concerning enough without Dammeier’s social media attacks.
In the recently filed brief — which is tied to the whistleblower complaint Mitchell originally filed in February related to the county’s efforts to hire a new medical examiner — she described a “discriminatory and hostile culture within Pierce County.” The brief claimed that this dysfunction was a result of “politically-aligned, highly-compensated white men hired or retained by (Executive Bruce) Dammeier.”
Mitchell went on to describe the leadership team as “The Boys Club.”
According to Driscoll, the situation is straightforward. The allegations got her client fired, she said.
As The News Tribune has reported, it’s a claim the county staunchly denies.
In a statement emailed to the paper, Pierce County spokesperson Libby Catalinich reiterated on Thursday that, “Ms. Mitchell was dismissed lawfully.”
Previously, Catalinich told reporter Josephine Peterson that many of the allegations included in Mitchell’s claim had been vetted in a 2019 independent investigation, which found no evidence to substantiate them.
Reasonable people, of course, can make of this what they will. So can lawyers, and perhaps even judges.
But clearly — for some, including Dammeier and his campaign — political patience and a more dignified high road wasn’t an option.
Deflection and distraction became too enticing.
First, they point to a June 11 Facebook post, in which Seaquist did voice his support for police “disinvestment,” though it’s a statement he has now backtracked on.
Then, they push to question Mitchell’s politics, and the distinct possibility she does support Seaquist’s candidacy (particularly given the allegations she’s lodged against Dammeier).
The truth, however, is that all of that is noise at this juncture, and deep down Dammeier knows it. None of it matters.
Mitchell’s whistleblower case and her file for damages against the county will play out and eventually there will be a resolution to both. We have systems to handle that.
What does matter, at least for the time being?
Even if we generously (and temporarily) ignore the potential validity of Mitchell’s claims and grant the county executive discretion to hire and fire who he chooses, a simple fact remains:
Faced with a whistleblower complaint filed by a former staffer, instead of letting the system do its job, Dammeier chose to knowingly politicize the issue and drag a woman through the mud in the process.
That was a mistake unbecoming of an elected leader, whatever happens from here.
“I would say that constitutes continuing harm against (Mitchell),” Driscoll assessed, noting, among other things, the potential impact of Dammeier’s social media slams on her client’s reputation and future job prospects.
It’s going to be a charge that’s hard for Dammeier to argue against.
In Superior Court, or the court of public opinion.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
