Saw this on the Yakima Herald-Republic in Washington:
Yakima County reporter Phil Ferolito talks about the race for county clerk with host Mike Faulk on this week’s Open Mike.
One candidate, Sarah Matheny, is expected to lose her job with the Yakima Municipal Court after allegedly using her position to access court records on her political opponents.
So… is that it? She’ll just lose her job?
I googled the situation and found previous coverage on Metheny’s alleged misconduct, also in the Yakima Herald-Republic:
Yakima County clerk candidate Sarah Matheny will be fired next month as Municipal Court clerk for using her workstation to conduct background checks on all her opponents in the race, according to the Yakima city manager.
Late last month, Matheny lost 40 hours of vacation for using her workstation to look up the driving record of opponent Steve Driscoll, who works in Yakima County’s probation office. After looking into the matter further, the city learned that Matheny had also conducted background checks on the three other candidates: Janelle Riddle, Kathleen Carter and Jose Trevino.
Matheny was placed on paid administrative leave Monday and the city is moving to fire her — not only because she repeatedly violated the court’s policy prohibiting the use of city property for personal reasons, but because she lied to the news media.
Read more on the Yakima Herald. It’s somewhat stunning that she was actually negotiating with the city about resignation vs. firing. Are there no criminal charges possible for misuse of the database? Is there only policy?