Allegations by women led to an investigation of Canyon County’s clerk and his resignation

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Canyon County commissioners requested in January that longtime County Clerk Chris Yamamoto resign from his elected post in response to allegations by women in the clerk’s Elections Office that he mistreated them, records obtained by the Idaho Statesman show.

Yamamoto, who was first elected in 2010 and was 70 years old, obliged and stepped down. But the county allowed him to keep working part time for $250 a week and retain his health benefits through May.

The part-time work was part of a written separation agreement, which is highly unusual for an elected county officer to sign. A separation agreement is a contract that sets the terms of an employee’s departure.

“I can’t think of any reason why a county would offer an elected official a separation agreement unless the county commissioners wanted the person to resign for some reason like there’s a scandal or there’s some kind of possible horrendous lawsuit that might happen because of something that person did,” said Grant Loebs, prosecuting attorney of Twin Falls County, by phone.

What exactly Yamamoto may have done has been hidden from public view by county officials. In part, they say it is a confidential personnel matter. But documents the Statesman obtained in response to public records requests show that county leaders were worried that Yamamoto was indeed putting Canyon County at risk of a lawsuit.

One letter offers a list of characterizations of Yamamoto’s behavior. The letter, written by a deputy Idaho attorney general, says Yamamoto was alleged to have “exhibited actions and behaviors to cause a hostile work environment, sexual harassment, bullying, intimidation with a firearm, favoritism, unhealthy work environment and retaliation.” The letter said Yamamoto also was accused of “inappropriate contact with a female employee and inappropriate joking regarding a handgun.”

Yamamoto did not respond to phone calls and text messages from the Statesman seeking comment.

County official finds fault with investigator’s report

The allegations led to an investigation of Yamamoto by an outside attorney. But Greg Rast, the county’s chief operating officer, who works for the three county commissioners, told them in a Dec. 15 memo that the investigator’s report “was poorly written and provided (an) inaccurate and limited summary of findings.”

Rast also said the investigator, Kirt Naylor, a partner in the Boise law firm Naylor and Hales, told the employees who complained that “there isn’t anything to be done because the clerk is an elected official.”

Rast said County Prosecutor Bryan Taylor’s chief civil prosecutor, Carlton Ericson, said the same thing to the county commissioners and the county’s human resources director at the time, Kate Rice.

That conclusion was unacceptable, Rast said.

“This kind of approach does not give our employees the impression that investigations are fair and an unbiased process,” Rast wrote.

Taylor told the Statesman that Ericson was not involved in the investigation except to identify that the prosecutor’s office would have a conflict of interest in investigating Yamamoto’s office, which the prosecutor’s office represents. Ericson recommended that the county hire an outside investigator.

In an email, Taylor said Naylor’s investigation was “done according to regular practice in response to allegations of personnel complaints against elected officials.” He added that Naylor “is a widely respected attorney with decades of experience handling public employment law matters.”

“Mr. Rast’s letter appears in my opinion to deliberately mischaracterize the counsel given and the report, as well as misstate the authority of the Board of County Commissioners,” Taylor said.

He added that after Naylor submitted his investigative report to the commissioners, they “completely cut off communication with my deputies on the topic.”

Taylor said he doesn’t know what happened between the commissioners and Yamamoto. He said his office had not seen the settlement agreement until the Statesman’s public records request.

“It seems apparent that outside counsel were brought in to assist the board in some capacity on this matter, but our attempts to even secure a complete billing record of such transactions have been unsuccessful,” Taylor said.

The county denied the Statesman’s request for the investigative report. Naylor did not immediately return a call Friday seeking comment.

COO suggested 2 options: resignation or state investigation

Rast suggested two options to Commissioners Leslie Van Beek, Brad Holton and Zach Brooks:

• Raise the investigation to the Idaho Attorney General’s Office and issue a news release explaining that an investigation was taking place.

• Ask Yamamoto to resign his position to avoid that investigation.

The commissioners approved both steps, which meant that Yamamoto’s resignation did not forestall the state investigation. But the investigation did not lead to prosecution.

Rast filed a public corruption complaint against Yamamoto on the same day he sent his letter to the commissioners, according to the letter written by the deputy attorney general, Ken Robins.

Robins’ Feb. 12 letter, three weeks after Yamamoto resigned, said the attorney general does not have the authority to investigate the workplace harassment and misconduct complaints because the “allegations are not criminal in nature.”

He said the “facts and circumstances” of the allegations about inappropriate contact with a female employee and inappropriate joking regarding a handgun did not “constitute a prosecutable criminal offense.”

Commissioners rehire Yamamoto part time

Yamamoto resigned Jan. 24. The separation agreement obtained by the Statesman shows Rast signed it Jan. 26 and Yamamoto and the three commissioners signed it Jan. 29.

In the agreement, the commissioners rehired Yamamoto on a temporary basis to help with the transition to a new clerk. The redacted copy of the agreement the Statesman obtained said Yamamoto agreed to vacate the clerk’s position but to remain a contract employee making $500 per two-week paycheck until May 31.

It’s not clear whether Yamamoto has actually been collecting paychecks. His timecard through April 29 shows no hours worked with just one day of pay for a paid holiday on Feb. 19, Presidents Day.

His successor, County Clerk Rick Hogaboam, who was appointed in February after Yamamoto resigned, told the Statesman by phone that he had seen Yamamoto once since becoming clerk. That was to give him a box of his old items from the office in the county Administration Building’s parking lot.

Aaron Williams, the county spokesperson, said in an email that separation agreements for elected officials are “aberrant” in Canyon County.

Seth Griggs, executive director of the Idaho Association of Counties, told the Statesman in an email that he was “not aware of separation agreements for elected officials.”

A tumultuous time in Canyon politics

Yamamoto’s resignation came during a tumultuous period in Canyon County politics.

In 2022, Yamamoto clashed with Van Beek. Yamamoto told the Statesman at the time that the commissioner was “accusing me of hiding money and not telling the truth.”

Meanwhile, an email from Taylor in 2022 said Van Beek accused Yamamoto and other elected officials of criminal or unethical conduct.

Eight elected county officials in 2022 called on Van Beek to resign. They were Taylor, Yamamoto, Sheriff Kieran Donahue, Assessor Brian Stender, Treasurer Tracie Lloyd, Coroner Jennifer Crawford, and Van Beek’s two fellow commissioners, Keri Smith and Pam White. All eight, like Van Beek, are Republicans.

They said she was “digging up dirt” on them, disclosing confidential information, sharing personal information with the public and making false claims against her fellow elected officials. Van Beek denied all the claims.

And she did not resign. Far from it: She is seeking re-election in Tuesday’s Republican primary election.

Yamamoto and his wife have contributed $500 apiece to one of her opponents, Pam Blacker Wagoner. She is the wife of Zach Wagoner, the former county controller who worked under Yamamoto and resigned in February shortly after he did.

In an interview March 6 on KBOI radio, Van Beek said, “The former clerk was determined to keep the Board of County Commissioners in some level of chaos and turmoil.”

On that point, Rast’s December memo suggests that other officials shared Van Beek’s view. Rast said Yamamoto provided “no cooperation” when commissioners were setting the clerk’s budget. Rast cited a “lack of trust” between Yamamoto and department administrators.

He said Yamamoto neglected his elections duties, resulting in a failed logic-and-accuracy test of voting equipment, other equipment-security concerns and inefficiency.

The county conducts the logic tests before every election. It was not clear when the alleged test failure occurred. The elections office told the Statesman in response to a public records request that the county had never failed a logic-and-accuracy test of voting equipment from 2010 to now.

On KBOI, Van Beek said half of the elected leaders who urged her to quit two years ago have left office or will soon.

“I’m proud to say I’m still here … we’ve got No. 4 going to retire out in May,” Van Beek said.

It appears that “No. 4” was a reference to Taylor’s decision not to run in the May 21 primary for re-election. Smith, White and Yamamoto have left office. The other four letter signers — Donahue, Stender, Lloyd and Crawford — remain in office.

All three county commissioners and Rast declined to comment or answer questions for this story through Williams. Each commissioner and Rast was included in the email seeking answers to questions.

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