“I talked to Pam. How big of a problem do we have?”
“We will shut him down at the next Board Mtg. I will assemble the votes before then.”
Texts like these between Susan Meyer, the CEO of the Spokane Transit Authority (STA), and county commissioner Al French revealed how a public policy dispute between French and another board member led to private machinations between the agency’s senior leadership and the board’s current chair pro-tempore.
Those texts were sent in late February, when STA was discussing free and reduced fares to celebrate the launch of the City Line, a subject French and Spokane Council Member Zack Zappone were in disagreement on, and are part of a tranche of documents including texts, emails and documents covering August 2022 through May 2023, obtained by a private citizen’s public records request and provided to RANGE.
The 14-person, nine-voting-member STA board guides the high-level operations of STA, the organization in charge of providing public transportation services throughout the county. French is one of the voting members, is currently STA’s acting board chair, and is likely to be voted in as permanent board chair for the 2024 board term at tomorrow’s meeting.
The debate over free or reduced fares for low-income riders was covered in Nate Sanford’s article for the Inlander last week, but these texts provide new insight into the measures Meyer and French took to combat Zappone’s efforts to get the board to at least consider reduced fare policies. Zappone, also a voting member of the board, advocated for reduced fares to increase ridership and relieve the financial burden on low-income riders and also help local nonprofits who currently buy full-fare passes at a 50% discount for the people using their services. French was concerned such fares would put drivers at risk and make the “experience for fare-paying passengers less enjoyable.”
Zappone and French have been arguing the issue both in the media and at public meetings. The texts show that French had private conversations with Meyer to coordinate marshaling votes against Zappone’s efforts.
Other messages in the tranche of public records run the gamut from overtly political to personally insulting. In one exchange, French called Zappone “Kate Burke II 😩.” — a reference to former City Council Member Kate Burke. During her tenure, Burke often took positions that put her on the left-most edge of the City Council’s progressive majority, which frequently earned her the ire of Spokane’s establishment. Burke is also a former STA board member and, along with Zappone, the only other out bisexual city council member in Spokane’s history. Separate texts seem to indicate French and Meyer ran some of their plans past STA’s lawyer, Megan Clark.
Screenshots of texts between between Susan Meyer, the CEO of the Spokane Transit Authority (dark gray text bubbles), and county commissioner Al French (light gray text bubbles).
Among the other texts RANGE reviewed: French mocking Seattle’s liberal reputation and homelessness crisis, an apology to Meyer for a potentially offensive birthday message shared with Meyer and some of French’s other “closest friends,” and a transphobic joke about the price of milk going up because cows are “identifying as bulls.”
They didn’t just target Zappone.
Meyer and French also workshopped rhetoric to shut down then-Spokane City Council Member Betsy Wilkerson’s calls for a clear equity and inclusion plan at STA. “Betsy will not like my response to the diversity request,” French wrote. “I’ll expose both Betsy and Zack as hypocrites with their refusal to appoint someone from the [Northeast] part of town to STA.”
Wilkerson, who has served on the STA board for three years and was recently elected City Council President, said that she serves on a few other regional boards with French, and there is always a “clear power dynamic.”
Wilkerson had previously talked about the challenges of often being the only official of color in most of the rooms she enters. When RANGE showed her the texts and email she was mentioned in, she wasn’t entirely surprised. “It’s a continuation of what we’ve all coined ‘Spokane Nice,’” Wilkerson said. “In those public spaces, you get the lip service, but when folks peel off into their safe spaces, it’s not the same response.”
Swipe right for French’s greatest hits
Swipe right for more texts between between Susan Meyer, the CEO of the Spokane Transit Authority (dark gray text bubbles), and county commissioner Al French (light gray text bubbles).
Texts dating back to 2022 also included Meyer celebrating French’s election win against Maggie Yates and thanking her for her help.
Screenshots of texts between between Susan Meyer, the CEO of the Spokane Transit Authority (dark gray text bubbles), and county commissioner Al French (light gray text bubbles).
RANGE read Zappone some of the text messages this afternoon.
He wasn’t entirely surprised by the sentiments expressed privately by French, because according to Zappone, French had already called him, “an arrogant son of a bitch” at the convention center, after Mayor Nadine Woodward delivered her State of the City address in February. After that incident, Zappone said French apologized for calling him a son of a bitch, but not for calling him arrogant.
French wasn’t the only board member texting with Meyer. Pam Haley, the mayor of Spokane Valley, a voting board member of STA and one of French’s political allies (they donated to each other’s most recent campaigns), told Meyer over text during a board meeting, “I miss Kate [Burke],” presumably in reference to Zappone. Though Haley — who listed herself as a Republican in state campaign filings in 2017 — hasn’t had a campaign since being re-elected in 2021, Meyer also sent her information about text blasts the Democratic Party was using to recruit candidates in the Valley.
Screenshots of texts between between Susan Meyer, the CEO of the Spokane Transit Authority (dark gray text bubbles), and Spokane Valley Mayor Pam Haley (light gray text bubbles).
Zappone felt that the comparisons to Burke made by Haley and French were rooted in the opinion that both he and Burke could be considered “disruptors.” In addition to her progressive legislative record, Burke is widely known for chaining herself outside City Hall in support of the original Camp Hope. Though at least French’s comment was seemingly intended as an insult (Haley said in the subsequent STA Board meeting that “Kate Burke’s sister is my niece’s best friend,” and “I know Kate really well. And I do miss her.”), Zappone did not disagree with the comparison, saying he wanted to bring new ideas and perspectives to the board that could benefit a diverse group of people, and that some members of the board may find that challenging.
RANGE called French, Haley and Meyer for comment. Our calls to French and Haley were not returned. Meyer responded through Carly Cortright, STA’s chief communications officer, and said her official position was that she had no comment.
The coordination between French, Haley and Meyer also extended to emails. Continually using the subject line “FYI,” STA CEO Meyer forwarded multiple emails, sometimes to both French and Haley, and sometimes just to French, updating them on meetings Zappone was having, discussing state legislation and how it could empower Zappone’s requests for reduced fare and materials sent to the board in support of Zappone’s proposals. In an email with the subject line “Zack” sent from Meyer to French, Haley and former Spokane City Council Member Lori Kinnear, who served as the chair of the STA board until November 16, Meyer updated the three board members on Zappone’s ideas for STA.
The emails, taken together, seem to show a political alliance with the intention of monitoring and thwarting Zappone’s ideas.
Because the texts and emails reviewed never included enough voting board members to reach a quorum, the communications probably do not violate Washington State’s Open Public meetings acts. Still, they raise ethical questions.
The texts could easily be written off as joking between friends and political allies, but, as voting members of the board, French and Haley are Meyer’s bosses, and along with the other voting members, have the power to hire and fire the CEO. The board also determines Meyer’s compensation rate.
On the topic of Meyer’s performance, Zappone had asked to see “employee survey results” to understand how satisfied the staff was with Meyer’s leadership as part of his board responsibilities to Meyer’s performance. The texts between Meyer and French about the request appear to show them working to stifle that request after consulting with STA’s lawyer, Megan Clark.
Zappone wondered if some of their communications ran afoul of the board’s bylaws: According to section 3.5, “No member shall speak or act for the Board without prior authorization of the Board, except as otherwise provided for in these Bylaws.”
Outgoing City Council Member Karen Stratton, who will also be taking her last votes as an STA Board Member at tomorrow’s meeting, hadn’t seen the text messages or emails. RANGE read her the exchange, and asked if a private plan between Meyer and French that was vetted by presumably Megan Clark, the attorney for STA, would violate the bylaws or other STA policies. Stratton couldn’t say if it was a direct violation, but stated, “If there is a plan, the board should know what that plan is. So, maybe that is information that should be shared with the board.”
Stratton worried more broadly about how the communications would reflect on the board as a whole. “If I read this and I’m a person that might want to serve on that board, I would think twice,” she said. “I mean, if that’s how they’re conducting business, I think it’s going to harm them in getting good board members to serve.” Wilkerson shared similar concerns about communication between a CEO and a board member “disparaging or negating another board member’s concerns.”
“I mean, if [French] felt that way, he should have said it in the meeting,” Wilkerson said. Lacking that, “how do you then have true dialogue? You don’t. And that could be the downfall of any organization.”
RANGE asked Cortright if STA or Meyer felt that strategizing messaging against Zappone’s policy efforts violated the bylaws or other STA policies. Cortright said she hadn’t seen all the messages and couldn’t comment on behalf of the organization.
On Thursday, the board will choose a chair, who will govern the body for the next year. The bylaws state that the position of chair rotates yearly between a representative of the towns and cities in the county, a representative from the City of Spokane, a representative from Spokane County and a representative from the City of Spokane Valley, in that order. Kinnear’s term as chair ended when her term at City Council did, and with the way rotation is outlined in the bylaws, a representative of the Board of County Commissioners is due to take the chair position in the new year. French and County Commissioner Josh Kerns are the current county representatives, and texts with Meyer after he won re-election to the county commission in 2022 show French intended to pursue the chair position after Kinnear’s term.
Should French become chair, Zappone was less concerned about the jokes that might be made behind his back, and more about whether French would potentially limit discussion on low and reduced fares, and how that might perpetuate inequities and shut off avenues of progress for STA.
“If you don’t have a way to get to your job, if you can’t afford to get to your job, you become homeless. This has a direct impact on some of our critical issues in the community,” Zappone said. “Homelessness starts in a lot of different ways. It starts with housing, substance abuse sometimes, transportation sometimes, job loss, family problems — there are lots of entries into homelessness and this is just one of those things that can help alleviate that.”
Wilkerson is more sanguine about the prospect of a French chairmanship: “being a chair does come with some additional powers, because you can drive the agenda, but it doesn’t outweigh the votes,” Wilkerson said, “And so currently, in my opinion, I think we have alignment with most of the STA board members around some new ideas — you know, free fares.”
A previous version of the story said French called Zappone a “son of a bitch” during an STA meeting. It was actually right after Woodward gave the annual State of the City address. We’ve also amended the article to include comments made from Haley after the original publication date that she earnestly misses Burke.
