A four-point ethics complaint filed against Port Townsend Mayor David Faber on July 15 alleges that Faber has used his position for personal financial benefit, provided legal services as a special privilege and deliberately violated the state’s open meeting laws and individuals’ rights to due process.

The complaint, filed by Reverend Crystal Cox of the Universal Church of Light, details the allegations over 18-pages and takes aim initially at Faber’s alleged involvement in rezoning city property near the city golf course for his own financial gain and for supporting the city pool project which she alleges is close to Faber’s personal property. The complaint argues that Faber and his associates stand to benefit financially from both.

“It’s without merit, either factually or legally,” Faber said. “This is one of a string of complaints that Crystal Cox has leveled against numerous people for years, with a dubious factual and legal basis. I anticipate that the ethics complaint will be summarily dismissed, and if not, the findings will be ‘no ethical issues.’”

Cox is controversial figure who has filed multiple complaints in recent years against various local officials. Cox has submitted 48 records requests with the city since Jan. 1, 2024.

Procedurally, the complaint went first to Phil Olbrechts, the city’s hearing examiner. As the city’s hearing examiner, Olbrechts is tasked with reviewing ethics complaints, among other items. The city of Port Townsend Municipal Code outlines Olbrechts’ initial duties and requires that the complaint be shared with the person named and allows the hearing examiner to conduct an initial review. The code also allows the person named time to respond with any written arguments. Faber has until 5 p.m. on July 26, to do so. If Faber chooses to respond, Cox has until Aug. 2 to provide a response of her own, according to Olbrechts.

“Since this is a quasi-judicial proceeding,” Olbrechts wrote in an email to Faber, “I serve as an adjudicator and not an investigator.  It is the responsibility of the parties to prove their respective positions with witnesses and/or documentary evidence.”

Olbrechts said input from the two parties is optional and he will make an assessment with or without comments from Faber or Cox. Olbrechts said if any part of the complaint is found “sufficient” under the Port Townsend Municipal Code, he would then “circulate a draft prehearing order that sets deadlines for prehearing motions, witness and exhibit lists, hearing format and a hearing date.”

Cox’s complaint alleges that in pushing for a rezone of the city’s golf course property and Faber’s support of a $40 million city pool Faber violated RCW 42.23.070(1), which states, “No municipal officer may use his or her position to secure special privileges or exemptions for himself, herself, or others.”

Cox uses the same statute to frame subsequent allegations.

In regard to the allegation of “upzoning,” the complaint details Faber’s connection to, and involvement in, recent city zoning decisions and a variety of businesses linked to development and affordable housing, including Smart Urbanism LLC, Homeward Bound, Olympic Housing Trust and Technically Ethical LLC. Those business, their principals and Faber, the complaint argues, stand to gain from Faber’s involvement in zoning changes in and around the golf course area. The complaint lists the principals of each company, their relationship or connection to Faber, Faber’s personal and investment properties and their relationships and proximities to the city pool complex and the golf course.

At least one of the allegations includes a detail that appears false on its face. She says Faber owns property or lives two blocks from the pool complex. The property in question is about 10 blocks, or about a half-mile away.

Faber owns several properties.  According to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, Faber owns a property at 800 Polk Street in Port Townsend, another at 433 Calhoun Street and two city lots at 1538 13th Street. One of those 13th Street parcels lists Faber as the owner but a mailing address of Theodore ‘Ted’ Howard at 433 Calhoun Street.

According to the Washington State Department of Revenue, Howard is listed as a principal with a Faber-owned property holding company called Smart Urbanism, LLC. Howard is also the president of Olympic Housing Trust, the same agency Faber suggested in a letter to the editor on July 3, should “build and control” future housing in the rezoned area of the golf course.

The latter pages also allege that Faber kept people he “did not like” out of an Aug. 15, 2022 city council meeting and provided legal services “as a special privilege” to two people following their involvement in an August 2022 counter-protest.

The complaint includes screenshots of one person’s assault charges and references the other person as also committing an assault. Both individuals received assistance from Feinson and Faber Law Firm.

The complaint alleges that the first person listed could have received indigent defense and that Faber provided him with “high-quality legal assistance.” The complaint also alleges that Faber’s law firm was acting in Faber’s interests, as those it defended shared his side of the conflict.

Faber works full time at his law firm. 

Port Townsend is a city manager form of government, where the manager handles day-to-day operations as overseen by council. The mayor is appointed by the council. This year, councilmembers are being paid $725 and the mayor is paid $1,075 per month. In 2026, it will go up to $775, and $1,125.

The fourth allegation says Faber violated open meetings laws by preventing “anti-trans” protesters from attending a city council meeting in which he read a proclamation about violence against trans people and trans rights as human rights.