Another Franklin employee quits. Says she was targeted by official being investigated

For the second time in a week, a Franklin County employee quit after saying she was targeted by elected officials who are under criminal investigation.

Whitney Conner, Franklin County’s coordinator in the Office of Public Defense, announced her resignation Tuesday in a public social media post.

The move comes two months after her attorney sent the county and Commissioner Clint Didier a cease-and-desist letter over alleged attempts to have her fired . Her husband, a Franklin County sheriff’s commander, is involved in the criminal investigation on Didier, Commission Chairman Rocky Mullen and Auditor Matt Beaton.

Marcus Conner is the lead investigator for Franklin County, and has been assisted in interviews by Commander Lee Cantu of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, as they looked into accusations of official misconduct , witness tampering, criminal conspiracy and making a false statement to a public servant.

A Snohomish County deputy prosecutor in Everett, Wash., has been assigned to review their investigation to determine whether any charges should be filed. No decision has been made.

Former County Administrator Mike Gonzalez left the county after reaching a severance agreement last week that will pay him through the end of his contract, for a total of about $133,000. He and the county agreed to enter a non-disparagement agreement and Gonzalez agreed not to sue.

When the severance agreement was first brought to commissioners by county attorneys a week before, Didier made a surprise motion to try and fire Gonzalez outright, but it failed. Gonzalez already had been granted whistleblower protections in January as part of the criminal investigation.

In a new development this week, Didier suggested the county didn’t need to hire a new administrator, saying the commissioners could just split the duties.

Gonzalez was the second administrator to leave in as many years, following Keith Johnson who left after failed attempts to fire him.

Caught in the crossfire

Multiple employees interviewed as part of the criminal investigation said they felt they were caught in the crossfire of the county commissioners, elected department heads and other employees and managers.

Whitney Conner expressed a similar sentiment in her resignation letter.

“Over the past several months, some in county leadership that have simply made it impossible for me to continue working for Franklin County,” Conner wrote. “The constant stress of being treated like an expendable pawn in political games has become too much.”

“This decision has not been made lightly but appears to be necessary so that some in county leadership can get back to serving the citizens like true public servants instead of looking for ways to undermine and disparage my character and work ethic,” she continued.

An April 30 email to all three commissioners and Gonzalez instructed them not to contact Conner and said she was considering filing a tort claim against the county. It’s unclear if that’s still her intent.

Conner, who also is the daughter of Franklin County Coroner Curtis McGary, has worked for the OPD since 2016, coming on board shortly after Benton and Franklin counties split their bi-county office of public defense.

Her responsibilities included organizing the office, handling administrative matters, budgeting, and recently led the office’s effort to respond to budget changes under new Washington state mandates that would impact the OPD.

“Since then, we have evolved into a professional, fully staffed office that has weathered many storms and still found a way to be fiscally responsible while providing the required constitutional right to counsel,” wrote Whitney Conner.

OPD Manager Larry Ziegler declined to comment on her decision to leave.

Cease and Desist

In April’s cease-and-desist letter, Conner’s attorney Daniel E. Thenell wrote that on multiple occasions Didier instructed Gonzalez and Ziegler to fire Conner.

Thennell said that Didier had stated something to the effect of, “The sheriff’s office or Commander Marcus Conner need to remember who is in charge.”

“This conduct is clearly in retaliation to law enforcement activity engaged in by (Commander) Conner and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office,” Thennell wrote.

The county’s attorney said at the time that to their knowledge Whitney Conner had not been fired or disciplined in any way. He instructed commissioners to retain any related documents, emails or text messages.

Conspiracy investigation

The criminal investigation began in January over a dispute on whether to pay Simmons Venue Management $12,500 for their last month of work during the transition to a new management group at the HAPO Center.

The Simmons family is best known for their restaurant, Country Gentleman. They stepped in to help manage the event venue when the county’s entire management team for the center left in the span of a month.

Gonzalez was initially going to pay the invoice, but received pushback when he attempted to gauge where the commissioners stood on the issue, according to investigative material obtained by the Herald through a Washington State Public Records request.

Didier and Beaton were against the payment, and Beaton allegedly laid into Gonzalez for trying to settle a dispute between the sheriff’s office and auditor’s office in 2023, claiming he was taking the sheriff’s side, according to recorded interviews with county employees who were present.

After speaking with Mullen, who Gonzalez said changed his mind about paying the Simmons, Gonzalez moved to stop the payment.

Beaton allegedly called the HAPO Center’s new management, Harris-White Leasure group, and told them to submit the request for payment anyway. Beaton later said in a meeting secretly recorded by Gonzalez that he was acting at Didier’s direction when he allegedly called Larry Leasure and Wes Harris to have the payment processed.

“(Didier) said, ‘Well call (HWL) and, and you know, stop it.’ ...” Beaton said in the recording. “And I’ll tell you exactly what I told Wes. I told him, ‘Business as usual,’ and approve it if you would approve it. And he said to me, ‘I don’t support it.’”

Beaton also later admitted that he made a statement about the payment potentially, but claimed it wasn’t meant that way.

“I said, ‘If he approves it, the commissioners may learn more about him than they want to know, but I don’t believe they will,’” Beaton said in the recording.

Harris was uncomfortable with the conversation and elected officials involving his company in county politics, so he reached out to Gonzalez to let him know what had happened, according to interviews with Harris and Gonzalez.

In both meetings, Beaton claimed unspecific audits may show SVM actually owed the county money.

Gonzalez said he ran the events by a county prosecutor to ensure no laws were being broken, which led to a criminal investigation being opened. The investigation is being overseen by Undersheriff Monty Huber and investigators from both the Benton and Franklin county sheriff’s offices.

After the investigation began, Mullen attempted to set up a meeting with Gonzalez and Beaton to discuss the issue. Investigators, concerned that it could potentially turn into witness tampering, say Mullen was warned not to, but still went ahead with the meeting. Gonzalez told investigators he recorded the meeting because he was concerned he was going to be asked to commit a crime.

He told investigators he never planned to release the recording, but came forward after Mullen was interviewed and implied Gonzalez was lying.

During the meeting Mullen and Beaton tried to convince Gonzalez to write a letter to investigators saying he had misunderstood what happened, and to end the investigation.

Gonzalez did not write a letter, and Mullen continued to attempt to convince him he needed to, according to text messages obtained by the Herald.

Since the investigation began, the courthouse has been plagued by reports of concerning behavior by elected officials, including shouting matches and attempts to undermine the investigation.

Last month, Franklin County Sheriff Jim Raymond publicly warned elected officials that it’s illegal to conceal carry a gun in the courthouse or change locks on their offices.

He also wrote that an elected official had been taking calls in the parking lot, attempting to convince others to allow him to conduct a forensic audit on a HAPO Center related business.