Crisis in the city

How I.F. officials reacted in three high-profile cases

By anyone's definition, a prosecutor charged with stealing from a police department evidence room could be called a crisis for the city that employs him.

That same word might also apply to an administrator accused of "financial irregularities" and a division director facing a sexual harassment claim.

All three are crises the city of Idaho Falls has grappled with in recent years.

Longtime City Prosecutor Kimball Mason is in prison for stealing guns and other police evidence and falsifying public documents.

Former Library Director Nancy Donahoo resigned shortly after an internal memo said she broke no laws when she co-mingled personal and city money but accused her of lying to cover up several violations of city policies.

And Airport Director Mike Humberd remains on the job after an internal investigation found no evidence that he sexually harassed an unidentified woman.

These three instances, different in nature, have two things in common. City officials conducted internal investigations first. And they told the public nothing until information in all three cases was leaked to local media.

Dissecting Mason

In May 2005, Mason asked Idaho Falls police if he could take a Suburban seized in a drug case. Six months later, City Attorney Dale Storer asked the Idaho Attorney General's Office to investigate the longtime prosecutor.

According to the state's 1,500-page report, Police Chief J. Kent Livsey and Storer met several times to discuss Mason's activities. Municipal Services Director Craig Lords was also privy to what amounted to an internal investigation. Bonneville County Prosecutor Dane Watkins Jr. was consulted in late September.

City officials knew by early September that Mason took the Suburban after being told not to. They knew that he had been claiming 25 percent of all drug case forfeitures, though his contract did not address the issue.

But for Storer and Livsey, no silver bullet emerged until Nov. 15, when they learned that Mason had actually sold the Suburban, then retrieved it after being ordered to return it.

That, both men say, proved Mason was converting public goods for personal gain.

So who was in charge of oversight?

The Idaho Falls City Council approves Mason's contract.

Records show that Idaho Falls pays considerably less than other Idaho cities of similar size do for their legal work.

Mason

Council President Ida Hardcastle said the desire to save taxpayer money combined with the fact that most thought Mason was doing a good job led to the former prosecutor acting with almost complete autonomy.

"We are at fault, we really are," Hardcastle said.

And Mason wasn't about to ask for help. This was an atmosphere in which he called the shots -- and was able to manipulate the system.

"That's all the community knew for 20 years," Mayor Jared Fuhriman said. "Everyone had an implicit trust in him."

But there's another issue here: disclosure.

Mason remained on the job even after Storer asked the Attorney General to investigate. Former Mayor Linda Milam placed Mason on leave only after the story broke in the local media. Mason resigned days after Fuhriman confronted him with the situation.

For Storer, several factors were at play.

First, he said, going public could have compromised an ongoing investigation. That's why he said he told state investigator Mike Dillon on Dec. 5 that Mason would remain on the job, even though his contract had not been submitted for renewal.

Photo Illustrations by STEVE FISCHBACH / POST REGISTER

It expired Oct. 30, 2005.

Storer said the city took a "controllable risk" in leaving Mason in place.

Mason, he said, was barred from the evidence room after he and Livsey suspected he was crooked.

And all through this investigation, Storer said he was dealing with something else: a feeling of otherworldliness. Nobody believed -- or wanted to believe -- that Mason was dirty.

"The whole thing is incredible," Storer said. "You're dealing with something that is beyond imagination."

All of which leads to this cynical question: Did city officials postpone the Mason investigation until after November's mayoral election?

Fuhriman, a former police officer, was widely viewed as the insider City Hall candidate and City Councilman Bill Shurtleff the outsider.

Storer said the fact that he and Livsey turned to Watkins for advice Sept. 22 belies this. And Livsey said that it would have been very easy to cover up Mason's indiscretions, had that been the intent of the powers-to-be.

"The good-old-boy network could have covered this up easily," Livsey said. "I mean easily."

The library mess

In 2003, Milam asked Storer and Lords to investigate Library Director Nancy Donahoo.

Among the charges being tossed around by former library employees were that Donahoo bounced personal checks to the library and that she co-mingled private and public funds. There were potentially criminal charges, and yet the city kept the investigation in-house.

Storer said city policy is to determine whether a crime has been committed. If that's the case, he said, the case would then be turned over law enforcement.

Bonneville County handles things differently.

"We're just the opposite," Bonneville County Commission Chairman Roger Christensen said. "We're not equipped to make that call, in my opinion."

Christensen said charges of theft involving property go first to the county prosecutor and then to the sheriff. From there it could be farmed out to law enforcement from another county, if necessary.

"That's automatic," Christensen said. "In fact, that's in the no-brainer category."

Christensen said handling potentially criminal charges in-house could lead to the tainting of evidence. Watkins agrees.

An amateur in charge of an investigation, Watkins said, might give something away to a potential suspect. Being a lawyer or a division head does not make one a trained investigator.

"You want to be able to get out in front of everything and everyone," Watkins said.

Storer and Lords cleared Donahoo of any criminal wrongdoing in a Dec. 17 memo. Livsey said he was never brought onto the case but his department would have investigated if asked.

Donahoo resigned in early January. The investigation went public only after Councilman Larry Lyon leaked the memo to the Post Register and on the now-defunct Trish & Halli radio show.

In retrospect, Storer said, it might have been better to tell the public about the investigation.

"I think that's fair, that could be done," he said.

The airport director

In early May, a woman accused Humberd of sexual harassment. Fuhriman met with the woman and assigned Lords to investigate the charges.

In early June, Lyon told the press about the investigation. Three weeks later, Lords cleared Humberd of any wrongdoing.

"I'm satisfied it was thoroughly investigated," Fuhriman said.

Christensen said the county turns sexual harassment charges, if job-related, over to law enforcement.

The woman who made the charges said Lords' decision doesn't mean much because he and Humberd receive their paychecks from the same source.

"Would a judge and jury have said what they said?" said the woman, speaking on a condition of anonymity. "Probably not."

She also thought it unfair that Humberd got to respond to her charges, but that she never had the chance to respond to what he said.

"They never called me back," she said.

The woman has remedies, should she choose to pursue her charges. She could, of course, sue the city. Or she could turn to the Idaho Commission on Human Rights.

Director Leslie Goddard said if a complaint were filed, her office would send a copy to the city, which would have 30 days to respond.

Goddard said the department would then try to mediate the dispute. If that failed, an investigation would be launched and the ICHR commissioners would determine whether harassment occurred.

Looking back, Fuhriman acknowledges the city has been slow to inform the public on some important issues. He insists that things are going to change.

Fuhriman pointed to Mason's departure as evidence that he's not going to be a placeholder. Days after he was sworn in as mayor, Mason resigned.

"It couldn't have been any quicker," Fuhriman said. "I took office, and he was gone."

Government reporter Corey Taule can be reached at 542-6754.

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