(The Center Square) – Spokane Valley Councilmember Al Merkel has been shrouded in controversy since before taking office. Despite this, he’s still attracting more followers and gaining publicity.
Supporters praise his unique ideas and willingness to engage the community and push back against the rest of the council, which frequently sidelines his proposals. Even those against Merkel call him a strong leader but say his ego is too big, with some even labeling him as a threat.
Earlier this year, Merkel faced an internal investigation that found no legal wrongdoing but questioned his character. The endeavor centered on Merkel’s interactions with other elected officials and city staff, finding he yelled, invaded personal space and intimidated them on multiple occasions.
Merkel called it a ploy to sway voters’ opinions and silence him on the dais; however, others within the city government say it was necessary to keep staff members safe and Merkel accountable.
Regardless, Merkel’s made a name for himself. Last week, he held a town hall meeting that brought in about 20 supporters despite less than 24 hours notice. Spokane Valley resident Darren Horner attended and said he, like others, wants to see a unified council on behalf of the Valley.
Horner applauded Merkel’s concerted effort to engage his constituency and advocate on their behalf. Horner said the rest of the council seems to only engage with its constituency while campaigning.
“It’s really hard to understand [the other council members’] attitudes until you see their facial expressions,” Horner said. “If somebody doesn’t believe that, you can put this in the article: feel free to go to the Spokane Valley City Council’s website and view the recordings.”
While Horner disagrees with Merkel on some topics, he said it’s about listening to the difference of opinions and working on a solution that benefits everyone instead of sidelining it altogether.
Spokane Valley resident Marvel Travis disagrees and made sure to tell Merkel at his recent town hall. She knew Merkel before he was elected and never thought he’d garner 65% of the vote to replace Arne Woodard, who sat on the council longer than anyone else in Valley history.
Travis thinks Merkel is burning bridges with his peers by not running his ideas by the council before turning to his supporters. However, Merkel attests that the council regularly shuts down his comments and questions, most recently over the matter of homelessness and the Supreme Court's Grants Pass decision. Still, Travis said his accusations and claims during meetings, often directed toward others, are ill-informed and don’t paint the whole picture.
She also questioned his use of the social media platform Nextdoor, which was the subject of controversy a few months ago. Travis said Merkel is trying to counteract the council with his social media activity, misconstruing things for his supporters.
“His followers started wearing orange armbands to identify themselves with Al,” she said. “which is very strange to me, odd, and I’m not going to say dangerous, but it’s just, what is he up to here?”
Contrary to what his supporters say, Travis said Merkel is the one who refuses to collaborate and that his combative approach and unwillingness to listen has caused the others to distance themselves.
She acknowledged that Merkel asks good questions at times, engages the constituency and is a strong leader, but regardless, Travis said there are too many accusations mounting against him.
From bullying and extortion to harassing women and now a private investigator apparently forwarding his evidence to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there’s too much to ignore, she said.
“I went and talked to the investigator, and he seems like the real deal,” Travis said. “He handed me a thing, and evidently, it’s still ongoing.”
Merkel said the investigator was harassing him and telling lies.
“This is an appalling and unacceptable attempt to intimidate and discredit me and my family,” Merkel wrote in a press release. “A continuation of the campaign to silence me, not through debate, but through continual 'investigations' meant to distract the public with lies and ad hominem attacks.”
Prior to the Valley’s internal investigation and the private investigator’s testimony , city staff cited Merkel as one of their biggest safety concerns, right below the possibility of an active shooter.
“The next greatest concern that the team identified as one of their top priorities to be addressed involves a recent elected official,” according to an internal document. “The team shared with me that they are very concerned from an employee safety perspective about a new male City of Spokane Valley councilmember.”
The document notes that city staff described Merkel as a “volatile internal threat” and that they felt “afraid” when he and his supporters were at city hall.
After wrapping up their investigation in the months following Merkel being labeled as a threat, the city forced him to work in an isolated part of city hall, which continues today, despite not finding any legal wrongdoing.
Louise Koep, another of Merkel’s supporters, thinks the rest of the Valley is painting a false narrative to misinterpret his character and use it against him. Koep, like Horner, noted the hostility from the rest of the council toward Merkel, adding that it needs to stop.
“Yes, he’s a big boy; yes, he has a big voice, but he’s not aggressive,” Koep said, “and people are using that against him.”
She raised an issue with the council rejecting Merkel’s ideas before taking the time to hear him out. Koep said that she and other constituents are interested in these proposals and would like to hear about them rather than push them off and call points of order.
“You don’t have to agree with me, but you have to listen to me, just like I’m listening to you,” Koep said regarding the council. “Why are you in this little building downtown? You never see them out; you never see them at the mom-and-pop restaurants. You never see them at events.”
Merkel is the only council member Koep regularly sees in the community. Koep, like Horner and Travis, also attended Merkel’s town hall last week. While Travis isn’t a supporter, all three called on the rest of the council to host similar events for everyone.
Ben Lund, who is adamantly against Merkel, takes a different stance. He said that Merkel’s record of violations has amounted to enormous distrust in him, not only from Lund himself but also from other constituents.
Lund took a particular issue with Merkel’s campaign signs, which the internal investigation also touched on. While campaigning, Merkel placed various signs around the community and, in some instances, allegedly violated the law, though he refuted this and cited Washington State Department of Transportation regulations .
He suggested that Merkel got elected only because of all the people who saw his illegally placed signs. Lund has contacted Merkel on several occasions over this and even placed an advertisement in a local media outlet about Merkel’s signs.
“His whole purpose, everything Merkel does, is about promoting Merkel,” Lund said, “because if he cared about us and the complaints that his first batch of signs raised, a common sense guy would go, ‘I get all these complaints, these people are going to talk to people, this is not good.’”
On several occasions, Lund sought out the signs himself so that he could contact officials to remove them; however, Merkel said that Lund also makes an effort to kick them over.
Lund also criticized Merkel for violating state law by failing to disclose campaign contributions in a timely manner. He noted that if the Valley can’t trust Merkel with his own money, it can’t trust him with the annual budget or other government affairs.
However, an independent citizen then reported Lund for violating state law because he failed to provide his identification in the ad he ran against Merkel. Lund said he wasn’t aware of this rule but that it doesn’t excuse Merkel’s past or current violations.
Still, both Merkel and Lund’s violations only resulted in a written warning. While the Public Disclosure Commission did find that Merkel failed to report the contributions in a timely manner, it also found that Merkel’s 2023 campaign only raised $610 despite taking the incumbent’s seat.
“It’s hard to have a truthful conversation with a delusional, lying people!” Lund wrote in a text to Merkel two weeks ago. “Who wasted their time today, if not you, your delusional minions, who put them [up] to [this] for you?”
Merkel and Lund have exchanged heated messages over text several times and have differing opinions on the context and nature of those correspondences. Lund said while he did send the message quoted above, it does not fully reflect him and his character.
“The thing that is unifying people more than anything is how the city and staff treat those who disagree with them,” Merkel wrote in a statement to The Center Square. “People who criticize the city are met with distrust, impatience, ridicule, indifference, and, at times, even inappropriate fear. That kind of disregard will always create a movement because government is supposed to listen to the people.”
“Despite these baseless ‘legal sounding’ claims, I remain on the city council,” Merkel continued. “Their smear attempts only waste city resources. No handcuffs, no charges, no convictions. That tells the whole story.”
The City of Spokane Valley and other city council members have said Merkel views do not reflect their own.
Most Popular
Comments / 0