Article by Erik Smith. Published on Sunday, April 24, 2011 EST.

Former State Representative Tells His Hometown Paper Alcoholism was to Blame – But Nothing Will Come Back to Haunt Him

State Rep. Jim Jacks, D-Vancouver.

UPDATE, April 25: The Columbian has made its Sunday Jacks story available to non-subscribing readers online.

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, April 24.—Former state Rep. Jim Jacks, D-Vancouver, has broken the silence about his mysterious resignation March 25, telling his hometown newspaper that it was voluntary and that no misconduct was involved.

            “I resigned because I am an alcoholic,” he said.

            In a “print exclusive” story that appears in the Sunday print edition of The Columbian in Vancouver and is available online only to newspaper subscribers, Jacks said he resigned his seat in the middle of the 2011 legislative session in order to enter an alcohol rehab facility. The story makes the decision appear an impulse move. As for going public, it says “virtually everyone he spoke to advised him against it.”

            It is the first crack in the wall of silence that has surrounded the case since Jacks vanished from the statehouse that Friday morning. House Democratic officials announced that Jacks had resigned for personal reasons and would not elaborate. In response to public records act requests from reporters, the House office of the chief clerk has maintained that any records involving the case are shielded by exemptions in the law that apply to the Legislature and to no other public agency in the state.

            Rumors have swirled through the statehouse ever since, and the skimpy facts available to reporters suggest that it may not have been an impulse decision. Jacks’ legislative website had been taken down and his name expunged from the electronic voting machine in the House before the resignation was announced. Members were quoted in news stories as saying that the resignation had been discussed days in advance.

            Reports on file at the state Public Disclosure Commission indicate that Jacks transferred remaining campaign funds to the House Democratic Caucus campaign committee two days before the resignation. And the letter of resignation itself was faxed from a location in Oregon.

            An Exclusive Story

            In columns Saturday and Sunday, Columbian editor Lou Brancaccio laid out the sequence of events that led to the startling interview with Jacks himself. Like many in the press, Brancaccio had been frustrated with the silence surrounding the case. The Columbian itself has been criticized by many in the community for what seemed a double standard. The newspaper was aggressive in reporting on the resignation of state Rep. Richard Curtis in 2007, who was forced to step down amid a particularly sordid gay-sex extortion case.

            In his Saturday column, available online to non-subscribers, Brancaccio points out that there was a major difference in the Curtis affair. Numerous documents were available, including a police report filed by Curtis himself. Later, legislative documents provided to reporters under the state’s public records act showed that the taxpayers paid the bill for a gay-sex tryst at Spokane’s Davenport Towers hotel. In the Legislature, Republican leaders were frank about the case, calling for Curtis to resign.

            But the silence of all official sources on the Jacks story has put the press in a difficult position, Brancaccio wrote. Rumors can’t be reported without confirmation for reasons of libel law. And so the paper employed a tried-and-true journalistic technique, leaving messages at Jacks’ home, informing him that a story was going to run on Sunday and he might like to comment.

            On Friday, Jacks called back.

            Moment of Clarity

            In Brancaccio’s Sunday story, Jacks, 41, said he had a “moment of clarity” about a month ago concerning his heavy drinking. “Drinking became more important than my job and family,” Jacks said.

            After he sent his letter of resignation, the story says, Jacks got into the passenger seat of his car and had his wife Brenda drive him to rehab.

            “It’s hugely embarrassing for me,” Jacks said. “Very emotional… I felt like I was falling off a cliff. I had to do something.”

            There are two key questions in the case, as far as the public interest is concerned. The first is whether any on-the-job misconduct was involved. And if there was, did the Legislature respond appropriately?

            Denies Misconduct

            In the interview, Jacks denied that any official misconduct resulted from his drinking.

“I have no criminal record. I’ve gotten no DUIs. I’m sure I’ve driven when I should not have been driving. But I resigned because I had to fix my problem. I resigned because I am an alcoholic.”

            Brancaccio goes on: “Still, I pressed him further. Notwithstanding the drinking while driving, is it possible someone might show up later and say you did something inappropriate to them while you were drinking?

            “He said no.”

            Jacks also said he did not plan to continue a career in politics.

            His only plans involved staying on the wagon. “I enjoy being sober each day,” he said. “It’s been wonderful.”

            Cone of Silence

            Up to this point, there have been no answers about the case from the Legislature itself. Washington State Wire was among the media outlets that filed public records requests with the chief clerk’s office in the state House. But those requests have been rebuffed.

            Washington has a broad public records law that requires the disclosure of most records upon public request, but there are exemptions that apply specifically to the Legislature. The law essentially says that matters concerning the Legislature’s official proceedings are a matter of public record. It specifically exempts communications to and from legislators, when those documents are under the legislators’ personal control. The law is designed to protect confidential correspondence to and from constituents.

            The law says nothing about internal staff communications. The House chief clerk’s office takes the position that because they are not specifically named as public records under the law, the law does not require their disclosure. They were among the records named in Washington State Wire’s public records act request.

            It’s the Legislature’s Call

            Some media outlets including Washington State Wire have turned to the House Executive Rules Committee, which has the ability to disclose information if it chooses to do so. The chairman of the committee is House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle.

Other members are House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, state Rep. Eric Pettigrew, House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt, and Deputy Minority Leader Joel Kretz.

            The committee has not yet responded to a letter from Washington State Wire urging it to voluntarily disclose all records concerning the case, or to make a statement concerning the Legislature’s involvement in the situation.

            Tradition of Openness       

            The silence runs counter to the Legislature’s tradition of openness in similar cases involving the conduct of its own members.

In 2010, the parallel committee in the Senate, the Facilities and Operations committee, disclosed documents indicating that state Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, had been reprimanded for what was deemed abusive behavior toward staff. The committee decided that the release was a matter of “public interest.”

In 2007, House Republican leaders openly discussed the Curtis matter with reporters.

In another 2007 case, the House Republican Caucus stripped committee assignments from state Rep. Jim Dunn, R-Vancouver, after lawmakers said they heard him make improper comments to a female staffer in a Kennewick bar during an official legislative junket to the Tri-Cities. The House Executive Rules Committee followed up by denying Dunn his travel expenses, and House Republican leaders again discussed the situation. Although Dunn remained in his seat, he was defeated for reelection in 2008.

In 1992, the Senate made a great show of welcoming back staffer Rebecca Eliason, and legislative officials were frank in discussing the events that led up to her return. Eliason, a former legislative aide to state Sen. Stan Johnson, R-Lakewood, resigned her position in October 1989 after what she termed years of sexual harassment. Eliason also claimed Johnson had blackballed her from future state employment.
            The matter was disclosed in 1990 when Eliason filed a tort claim with the state Division of Risk Management. After the Morning News Tribune in Tacoma sued and forced the release of a deposition Johnson had given in the case, then-Senate Majority Leader Jeannette Hayner called for his resignation and Johnson stepped down. Ultimately Johnson paid $70,000 to settle the case, and the state Public Disclosure Commission disallowed Johnson’s request to use campaign funds for the settlement. The handful of 21-year-old news reports available online are unclear as to whether the state also had to pay.

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