West fought idea of gay district

Spokane Mayor Jim West voiced strong opposition to a gay business district proposed for Spokane, according to e-mails released Wednesday in the ongoing abuse of power controversy at City Hall.

“We don’t support this and have nothing to do with it,” West said in an April 27 e-mail to Everette Elliot Webb, a British Petroleum worker who said he moved his family to Spokane from Alaska in 1989.

“If I had know something like this would happen here I would never have moved my family. … I met you a long time ago when you were with BSA (Boy Scouts of America),” Webb said in the e-mail message to West.

“My family and I voted for you because of what we believed you are for family values … Not in the gay life style and everything it brings up. … I would really like to know how you feel about this problem,” Webb said.

Webb’s e-mail was written a week before The Spokesman-Review revealed that West has led a dual life as a powerful Republican politician who sponsored anti-gay legislation in Olympia and later, as mayor, engaged in closeted relationships with young men he met on the Gay.com Web site.

On Jan. 3, as West began his second year as Spokane mayor, anti-pornography, anti-gay activist Penny Lancaster also asked West for his reaction to the downtown Gay Business District proposed by the Inland Northwest Business Alliance, a group that supports gay and gay-friendly businesses.

“I didn’t send her a reply and don’t intend to. The city has no involvement in the Gay Business District and won’t as long as I’m Mayor,” West told his administrative assistant, Melissa Murphy, in an e-mail. He instructed Murphy not to call Lancaster on his behalf.

But later that evening, West replied to Lancaster, saying “The City of Spokane has no involvement in this and will not.”

On May 2, West told Marvin Newcomb in an e-mail that he intended to veto an ordinance passed by the Spokane City Council that would grant city benefits to unmarried domestic partners.

On May 6, the day after the newspaper stories sparked a firestorm of controversy and calls for West’s resignation, he replied to an e-mail from Jeanell Malone, who wrote: “It would be helpful to have more information to dispel what is untrue and to allow you whatever private life you choose.”

Allegations by two men that West had abused them as boys “are untrue as I stated in my statement,” West replied. “I have chatted in gay Internet chat rooms in the last few years,” he added.

“The story about me visiting a gay Internet chat room and having a relationship with an 18-year-old man is true,” West said on May 5 in a response to Mel Silva of the South Perry Business Association. “I have 1150 days left in office and will do everything in my power to see that the city with your help … will thrive in every neighborhood,” West replied.

The city attorney’s office, in response to media requests, has now released nearly 70 percent of West’s estimated 12,000 e-mails, and promises to release more next week.

City Attorney Mike Connelly has refused, however, to release some of West’s e-mails, which he has deemed “personal,” including messages between the mayor and his brother John West immediately after the Spokesman-Review stories were published in early May and e-mails to KXLY personality Debra Wilde on Feb. 25 and Feb. 28.

“Neither e-mail relates to the conduct of a governmental proprietary function and we have concluded the e-mails are not public records subject to disclosure,” Connelly said in a letter to The Spokesman-Review.

But several other e-mails Connelly released, including one dated March 8, showed he and West were using a computer spread sheet at City Hall to compare their respective weight loss from January to mid-April.

The city’s February 2002 e-mail policy says electronic records, including e-mail messages generated on city computers, are public records; “Such data should be considered information available to the public.”

The new batch of e-mails released this week also includes a query from Rev. Joe Weitensteiner, the executive director of Morning Star Boys’ Ranch, who is now embroiled in a controversy over whether he used excessive force to discipline boys at the ranch.

On April 29, West’s administrative assistant Murphy e-mailed the mayor. “Fr. (Father) Joe would like to know if you would be the honorary chairman on a new 1½-year campaign for the ranch?” Murphy asked in her e-mail.

“Sure. Whatever Fr. Joe wants – Fr. Joe gets,” West replied.

West, who had served on the Morning Star board since 1993, resigned May 6 – the day after the newspaper’s stories appeared. On May 8, Brian Barbour, the ranch’s program director, e-mailed West and said, “My thoughts and prayers are with you through this difficult time.”

The e-mails released so far are silent on the assertion by West that he has encouraged many young people to apply for internships at City Hall.

The only e-mail exchanges regarding internships made public to date are those with “Moto-Brock,” a computer forensic expert who West believed was an 18-year-old high school senior. The newspaper hired the expert to verify West’s presence and activities on Gay.com.

In a series of online chats with Moto-Brock, West approached the young man, raised the topic of sex and offered him a chance to apply for an internship at City Hall.

In a chat with West on April 9, Moto-Brock questioned whether he’d be competitive for the internship. West, using the computer screen name Jmselton, replied, “Oh, you were going to get it. Don’t worry about that.”