City Redacts Entire Durpos Report

Lake Stevens and its former Public Works Director parted ways, but the City blacked out an entire investigatory report detailing Durpos' conduct.

Thumbnails of the redacted Durpos investigation report provided by the city. Photo by J425

The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created. - Preamble to the Washington State Public Records Act, 42.56.RCW

According to a separation agreement signed February 3, 2022, last Thursday was Eric Durpos’ final day as the City of Lake Stevens Public Works Director. But to date, the city has wrapped a black shroud around the details surrounding the city’s decision to part ways with Durpos.

Last week, the city made public a bare-bones separation agreement with Durpos and a 60-page investigative report conducted by an outside legal firm. The report apparently centers on an October 14 incident at a grievance hearing involving Durpos and a crew member that placed both men on leave pending the investigation’s results.

However, the extensive investigative report was released to the media with all contents redacted, hidden beneath black boxes.

The report likely substantiated the city’s decision to part ways with Durpos, who agreed to a separation agreement that was devoid of severance and prohibits him from rehire. Since placing Durpos on leave, both the mayor and city adminstrator repeatedly declined to comment on the Durpos matter, deferring to the external investigation and stating that the results of the report would dictate their actions.

The first page of the redacted Durpos investigation report. Photo by the J425.

The report is of great interest to citizens of Lake Stevens as it comes at the end of a torrent of incidents involving Durpos that ran the gamut from permitting issues, numerous run-ins with employees, a write-up for rudeness and incivility, documented reports of a toxic workplace culture and retaliation, a state investigation that turned up numerous serious safety issues and a drunk driving conviction that occurred as Durpos left Aquafest.

The Herald requested the report via the state Public Records Act, and in a story published last Thursday, revealed that the City had fulfilled the request with a completely redacted version of the report, citing RCW 42.56.290 as the reason for the redactions - an exemption related to pre-trial discovery in pending legal matters. (You can view the redacted 60-page report, Durpos severance agreement and the caselaw cited here at the end of this article.)