Kris Swanson’s transition to Battle Ground came after her sudden dismissal from the city of Longview in March of 2024

James Doyle
The Reflector Newspaper

Another late night Battle Ground City Council meeting ended Wednesday with a 4-3 vote to terminate without cause the contract of City Manager Kris Swanson. Swanson began her time with the city of Battle Ground in April of 2024 when she was appointed as the interim city manager.

Swanson’s transition to Battle Ground came after her sudden dismissal from the city of Longview in March of 2024. Swanson was terminated without cause as Longview’s city manager in a 4-3 council vote and her dismissal led to the city of Longview settling an Open Public Meetings Act lawsuit in July of 2026.

The city of Battle Ground announced the short notice special meeting for Aug. 5 with the lone business item Resolution 26-06 to move to terminate the employment contract of Swanson without cause.

At the 7 p.m. commencing of the meeting, Battle Ground Mayor Eric Overholser called for an executive session that was not a part of the special meeting agenda, later pointed out by Councilor Shane Bowman. The executive session met for approximately one hour before opening up for public discussion. All seven of the City Council members were present for the meeting.

Public comment was nearly a complete majority for the 16 community members who spoke, voicing their feelings of the rushed and unexplained decision. Mayor Overholser proceeded onto the only agenda item for the evening and opened the floor to council discussion after his motion that was seconded by Councilor Brian Munson. Both Bowman and Councilor Troy McCoy voiced their strong opposition to the decision.

“I was told there was a letter. My concern was, how do you call a meeting to fire someone without cause, without including four other council members to call that meeting? I’ve been a mayor, I’ve been on a council for 15 years. Never would I have thought ‘I’m just going to call a meeting to fire the city manager without cause tonight, and see if I can get three other votes,’” said Bowman, who went on to explain a phone call between him and Mayor Overholser on his drive back from central Washington for the meeting.

“So I was told there was a letter. I said why don’t we have the letter?’’ Bowman said. “We weren’t privileged to get the letter. I want the letter. You’re not getting the letter. It’s what I was told. So, I said, Okay, then we’ll talk about it. Um, I said if there was a letter, then it wouldn’t be without cause and it should be something that we discuss in executive session, which we had not scheduled in the executive session, which magically got scheduled after my conversation with the mayor this morning.”

Bowman continued that they went into the executive session to discuss his concern that there is no cause. Bowman concluded that their recent evaluation of Swanson granted her a 3.56 out of 5.0 and how hard it will be for the city to find a new manager after this. McCoy would also add that the mayor should be the one fired, not the city manager.

Following this, the City Council proceeded with their vote. The three no votes came from Councilors McCoy, Bowman, and Jeanie Kuypers. The vote was met with an audible clap from sitting Longview City Council Member Kalei LaFave, who was seen in the audience alongside former Longview Mayor Spencer Boudreau.

In a Thursday interview with The Reflector, Mayor Overholser stated it wasn’t an easy decision and that he wants to “give it the due process it deserves.” Overholser would further state that Swanson has a 30-day response period to the resolution for termination and he doesn’t know if he will ever be able to speak fully to the things out of respect for Swanson and the city.

Overholser acknowledged that there were former and current officials in the crowd from the city of Longview and voiced frustration to hear them emotionally responding to the proceedings. Speculation had been raised on possible connections between members involved with the city of Longview’s termination of Swanson and now Battle Ground’s, which Overholser strongly denied

When pressed, Overholser went on to acknowledge the “letter” in question.

“I’ve got to be careful of what I speak on right now,’’ Overholser said. “The letter is at City Hall right now. It’s being reviewed by our legal team. There are public records requests requesting the letter because it was mentioned. I think I should be careful to say where the letter was from.” However, Overholser affirmed it was not from Longview.

Overholser then disclosed for the first time that there are actually two letters. When pressed on if the letters had anything to do with Swanson’s June 2026 investigation report from Sound Workplace Investigations, he stated he “could not comment on that at this time.”

Sound Workplace Investigations specializes in objective, independent third-party workplace investigations and climate assessments for public and private sector employers in Washington state. Sound Workplaces’ lead investigator, Paige Dietrich, wrote that the origin of the investigation came when she was hired in April 2026 to investigate a complaint about improper government action in the city of Battle Ground arising from Swanson’s comments in that March 2026 city management meeting. She would write:

“More specifically, the employees reported to the chief [of police] that a specific property owner was being inequitably targeted for code enforcement; that the city manager, Kris Swanson, used the code violations as a means to influence the property owner’s willingness to sell the property to the city; and that in a city management meeting on March 3, 2026, the city manager said something similar to, ‘If they [the owners of the property] don’t want to sell it to us, we’ll just lien the property so they don’t have choice.’’’

The property at issue is located at 14 NE 2nd Avenue in Battle Ground and is owned by Alkesh Patel.

Dietrich would go on to list 10 subjects in her report that were interviewed in the investigation, to include Battle Ground Chief of Police Dennis Flynn and City Manager Kris Swanson. Dietrich would report that Swanson informed her code enforcement is “complaint-based.”

“Ms. Swanson said she did not recall why the code enforcement case was opened. When I told her a witness said that she directed the case be opened in February 2025, she said she did not remember why, and she later said she could not find any records of a complaint,” Dietrich writes.

Also questioned in the investigation was Community Development Director Kristin Lehto. Dietrich noted that Lehto had opened the case against the Patel property at Swanson’s direction and could not remember why. The chief would also state in his interview that the Community Services officers had “expressed concerns to him about the inequity, and that they had done a survey of similar properties.” The chief of police also reiterated that cases were only opened on the basis of complaints.

The report further lines out, “Every witness who spoke about code enforcement confirmed a historical practice of “complaint-driven” enforcement.”

Dietrich in her findings on this portion of the complaint concludes:

“I find it unlikely that the code enforcement case against the Patel property was intended to target the property in order to force a sale of the property to the city.

“Certainly, the initiation of this code enforcement case is unusual, because it was opened at the request of the city manager in February 2025, and the source of a complaint is not recorded. Witnesses consistently told me that the code enforcement work is complaint-driven, and that CSOs do not have the capacity or resources to pursue proactive code enforcement.”

Dietrich’s report would narrow its focus on a reported controversial comment made by Swanson in the March of 2026 management meeting.

Dietrich would go on to interview those present in said meeting and list her findings as:

“I find it more likely than not that Ms. Swanson made some type of reference to parking and acquiring property in the meeting on March 3rd, 2026. I do not find it likely that Ms. Swanson made an actual threat that the city would act to take the Patel property if Mr. Patel didn’t sell it to the city. The evidence shows the city council had given direction not to pursue acquiring the property, and the property owner had taken steps to comply with the code, making a taking based on code enforcement implausible. In addition, of the six people interviewed who were present at the meeting, only one recalled the comment and considered it serious; another did not remember the exact wording and did not think the comment was serious. Other witnesses denied hearing any comment similar to that alleged.”

The investigative report was concluded with the following investigator’s note:

“I encountered varying levels of anxiety when interviewing employees of the police department. Most were quite familiar with the case file and emphasized that they reported their concerns in good faith, because they honestly felt the treatment of Mr. Patel was inequitable. The witnesses expressed to me that they were worried about retaliation and harm to their professional integrity and job security.”

As the interview with Mayor Overholser concluded, he was asked again if the city would ever be in a position to share the letters, or if there were concerns over protecting possible whistleblowers.

Overholser confirmed that they are relying on their legal team to direct them on that matter.

“Anything that we can share is an open book, whether by media release — though I doubt that will happen — or through the mechanisms of public records requests,” Overholser said.

Overholser went on to express gratitude for Swanson’s service and time with the city, stating that he trusted how the process would unfold.

Shortly following the interview with Mayor Overholser on Thursday, Reflector staff were approached by one of the councilors who voted against Swanson’s dismissal. This council member disclosed the two letters in question. These documents have since been verified as the “letters” mentioned at the council meeting that were sent to Mayor Overholser from current Battle Ground employees who were subjects in the June 2026 internal investigation against Swanson.

According to the account of one employee recounted in the letter, Swanson called them to a meeting in July to talk “about the whistleblower report.” The employee was caught off guard by this statement, as the report had been released in early June and their involvement was minimal.

The employee said that as they sat at the desk in Swanson’s office, she allegedly slid the page detailing their involvement in the investigative report across the desk, claiming she was “disappointed.” The letter states that Swanson went on to claim that because she was a former auditor, she keeps very complete notes, implying that since she had no personal note of her alleged comment, it did not happen.

Based on the tone of the conversation, the employee asked if Swanson was accusing them of lying. The employee noted that he suggested if Swanson was accusing him of lying, then perhaps Human Resources (HR) needed to be involved. The employee further writes that Swanson responded that if it were an HR issue, a representative would be in the room with them.

The employee wrote that Swanson went on to voice her disappointment with them and described how hard the investigation had been on her emotionally. In the closing paragraphs of the letter, the employee said that he believed the meeting was inappropriate because the city manager, who was the subject of an independent investigation, was privately confronting him as a subordinate employee who had participated as a witness.

The second letter, authored by another witness, articulates fears of possible retaliation due to their larger role in the investigation. This employee also stated concerns regarding patterns in Swanson’s leadership, including decisions that dismiss legitimate operational constraints, place employees in untenable positions, and prioritize inflexible personal expectations over the needs of the department and community.

The Reflector has not obtained comments from these employees at the time of this report.

This report was first published by The Reflector Newspaper.