PORT ORCHARD — A Kitsap County Superior Court commissioner dismissed a temporary protection order against Chimacum School Board member Robert Bunker at the request of Bunker’s wife Thursday.
Chimacum School District officials said they remain convinced that Bunker should resign.
Bunker’s wife, who filed a petition for order for protection Oct. 24, told Superior Court Commissioner Matthew Clucas on Thursday that she felt safe without a protection order in place.
“I want it dropped,” she said.
Bunker was appointed to the Chimacum School Board position in 2013 before being elected to it in 2015.
The temporary protection order had prevented Bunker from being within 500 feet of the Chimacum School District’s main campus, where School Board meetings are held. The next meeting is 6 p.m. Wednesday.
It also led to Superintendent Rick Thompson and School Board Chair Mark Gould issuing a statement Tuesday publicly asking Bunker to resign.
They both said Thursday after the temporary protection order was dismissed that they stand by the statement.
“[I]nformation has arisen which demonstrates that Mr. Bunker’s private life has become significantly disruptive to the school district, the details of which compromise his ability to be part of the governing board of the school district,” they said in the joint statement Tuesday.
“We urge Mr. Bunker to [resign] immediately.”
Gould said that after he learned the order had been dropped, he again asked Bunker to resign.
In her petition, Bunker’s wife checked a box that said she is the victim of domestic violence and wrote that her husband made threats of violence, which Bunker has denied.
Bunker said that he had spoken to her about news coverage of the protection order Wednesday, the night before the order for protection was dismissed.
Bunker said after court Thursday he would “probably” resign despite the “unsubstantiated” allegations by his wife.
“Anyone can bring charges against someone even if it isn’t true,” he said. “I want to be exonerated the best I can.”
Bunker said he hired a private investigator to determine what his wife had been doing and described the last five months of his life as hell. He said he was attempting to save his marriage.
Included in her petition was a contract they both signed that said she would pay him $500 per month, would stay on the house title and gain equity and that she would “perform sexually for Robert as often as is possible, as requested, or desired, by both parties.”
As long as the contract was fulfilled, Robert Bunker would “not [expletive] up” a third person’s life, according to the document.
He refused to comment Tuesday about the contract, but on Thursday shared a recording of a conversation between him and his wife with the Peninsula Daily News that he said showed there was no coercion when they discussed the terms of the contract.
In the recording he told her “I’m not sure you want to put that on paper,” after she told him to add sex to the contract.
Gould said he would like to see a legislative change that would allow boards and commissioners to address the issue when an elected official is facing accusations that haven’t been investigated.
He said employers have the ability to suspend employees with or without pay until an investigation is complete, something that cannot be done with an elected official.
Gould said there are many lower-profile elected positions — such as positions on school boards or cemetery districts — in which candidates are not as thoroughly vetted as others during an election.
“There are certain positions that are on a ballot that a lot of times we’re just thankful for someone to fill them,” he said. “Wouldn’t it make sense if a … school board member is accused of something, there is a mechanism by which they could be suspended until an investigation is complete?”
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
