PORT ANGELES — The state Attorney General’s Office will take no legal action against former Port Angeles Mayor Karen Rogers for allegedly violating state law while Rogers was on the City Council, the office said this week.
The state Auditor’s Office said it had determined in an April 14 report that Rogers violated state law by not disclosing her “remote interest” with Capacity Provisioning Inc. when she voted in 2007 on the company’s fiber optics contract with the city.
Under state law, Rogers was required to disclose that CPI was paying her for “property management services” at the time and abstain from voting on the contract, Kim Hurley, special investigations manager with the state Auditor’s Office, has said.
Rogers was on the City Council from 2002 through 2009 and served as the council-appointed mayor in 2006 and 2007.
“It is the practice of the Attorney General’s Office to consider initiating action on a local ethics matter only if requested to so by the state Auditor’s Office, and no such request has been made,” Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman Kristin Alexander said Wednesday in an email to Peninsula Daily News.
The Auditor’s Office, which had forwarded the information about the audit to the Attorney General’s Office and the state Public Disclosure Commission, did not make any recommendation for further action, according the Attorney General’s Office.
Rogers could have been fined $500 if the Attorney General’s office had decided to pursue the matter in court, and was successful, according to state law.
The city has paid CPI about $5,000 a month for use of the fiber-optic network since it went live in 2003.
Rogers has not returned any calls from the Peninsula Daily News seeking comment from her about the case.
