Mayor David Faber distributed a motion for summary judgement in the ethics case against him on May 18, making the case for its dismissal and alleging that evidence submitted by the complainant, Crystal Cox of the Universal Church of Light, had been manipulated to remove evidence in his favor.

“Cox appears to have edited John Mauro’s memo by deleting an entire paragraph with exculpatory evidence in my favor,” wrote Faber.

It appears there are two versions of the Mauro memo: one attached as part of Faber’s motion for summary judgement and a version Cox submitted in her original complaint. Specifically, Faber’s memo includes the subject line “Property at 13th Street,” and two paragraphs that are missing from the Cox submission.

Cox, when asked to reply to the allegation, sent The Leader the contents of an open records request that contained the memo in the same form. Further, her focus wasn’t the overall memo, but the last paragraph of it. In that final paragraph, Mauro concludes by admonishing Faber and another council member it was addressed to, to steer clear of voting on projects that are within three blocks of their property.

The city’s hearing examiner, Phil Olbrechts, used the Cox-submitted memo to issue a finding of sufficiency in the Faber ethics complaint case.

In the context of an ethics hearing or complaint, “sufficiency” does not mean that a violation occurred. A finding of sufficiency refers to a hearing officer’s determination that a complaint alleging a violation of ethics rules is detailed and supported enough to warrant further investigation and a potential hearing. In other words, this means the complaint presents enough evidence to move forward with a formal review of the alleged misconduct. 

Faber said Cox’s complaint is “frivolous,”and “knowingly dishonest.”

Faber described Cox as a “vexatious litigant” who has “consistently and repeatedly filed frivolous complaints with the hearing examiner that waste significant taxpayer resources and unreasonably undermine public trust in the government of the City of Port Townsend.”

Faber also requested that the Hearing Examiner take reasonable action to prevent further wasteful litigation involving or originating from Cox, to penalize Cox for deliberate dishonesty, and/or to otherwise provide the Port Townsend City Council with recommended changes to the ethics code and the hearings process to empower the hearing examiner to impose sanctions that would bar vexatious or dishonest parties from being able to file future complaints.

Cox’s complaint

Cox’s complaint against Faber focused on one allegation, which is that he failed to recuse himself on a vote accepting grant funding for public works improvements in the Uptown neighborhood that would increase the value of property he owns near the project area.

Faber, an attorney, has a law firm practice, Faber Feinson PLLC, located at 800 Polk Street. The office is located in the project zone, about one block north of Lawrence Street. Attorney Sam Feinson is also an owner of the practice.

Earlier, in September 2024, Cox filed a similar complaint, but lacked evidence to support her claim. According to Olbrechts, Cox submitted her most recent complaint with a city memo obtained via a records request. That memo, according to Olbrechts, shed new light on the issue.

“Reverend Cox has produced a memo from the city manager, cc’d to the city attorney, that she asserts advised Mayor Faber to recuse himself on some public works improvements that could potentially affect the value of property he owned,” Olbrechts wrote in his findings dated May 11. “The city manager memo serves as sufficient new evidence to warrant proceeding to a hearing or summary judgement on the current complaint filed by Reverend Cox.”

The memo advised that “[f]or any projects proposed by the City or that others propose the City undertake in the area within three blocks of your property…you should recuse yourself from discussion or voting on any transaction.”

The memo was written on Feb. 26, 2024. On Aug. 5, 2024 Mayor Faber voted to accept a $600,000 grant to fund street improvements within three blocks of real property in which he has an ownership interest.

In his motion for summary judgement, Faber writes that the memo did not pertain to his real property at 800 Polk Street, but rather to his property on 13th Street, which is about two miles from the project area.

“Even if the memo did apply to my 800 Polk Street property, all official actions that I took regarding the construction project after the date of the memo were implementation actions expressly allowed under the terms of the memo,”Faber wrote. “And all actions I took regarding the Construction Project were legislative in nature, were not taken for the purpose of improving the value of any property in which I own any interest, and had no demonstrable impact on the value of any such real property.”

Cox wrote in response to Faber’s motion for summary judgement that she objected to summary judgement happening without her having more discovery time, and the ability to gather witness statements, and then move toward a public hearing.

“The important next step to gathering material facts is to question all city council members, staff members in the memo email thread and City Manager Mauro as to what they believed the intention of the Memo was,”Cox said.

Separately, in the ethics complaint Cox filed against Council Member Amy Howard on March 2, Olbrechts dismissed three of the four allegations. According to Olbrechts’ sufficiency ruling, Cox has until May 30 to amend the fourth allegation.

The allegation claims that Howard used her city council position to gain special privileges in regard to contract negotiations. The complaint alleges that Howard used her council position to benefit the Homeward Bound project and that Howard used Homeward Bound to benefit friends and business associates financially.

Olbrechts writes that the allegation as written “doesn’t identify how Council Member Howard used her position to benefit those friends or business associates,” hence the request for additional information.