Two Roy City Council members are suing the city based on allegations that records of city finances and investigations have been improperly withheld, the contents of which, their attorney says, could reveal problems that threaten the small municipality’s existence.
The council members, Yvonne and William Starks, a married couple who have lived in Roy since 1997, claim that Mayor Kimber Ivy directly ordered that some records not be released and has retaliated against them and others on the council with defamatory remarks and other actions.
The public records lawsuit, filed Sept. 18 in Pierce County Superior Court, comes after the Washington State Auditor’s Office found this month that frequent disagreements among city leaders had contributed to Roy’s inability to adequately control financial operations, putting public resources at risk of loss or misuse.
A number of controversies in recent years have beset Roy, a historic lumber town in southern Pierce County with about 800 residents. A police officer whose shooting of two residents driving drunk in an off-road vehicle led to a multi-million dollar jury award and settlement was reinstated this year as a reserve officer. The Starks’ lawsuit claims the reinstatement of Chris Johnson was unilaterally undertaken by Ivy, and among the records they are seeking are investigations of Johnson and city officials.
Ivy, who is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment. She was appointed to her position after former Mayor Rawlin “Anthony” McDaniel resigned in 2023. The Nisqually Valley News reported that Yvonne Starks uncovered a $40,000 deficit and other issues after McDaniel’s resignation. The city later said the allegation was unfounded.
During a vote at one meeting in July last year, William Starks raised his arm at a sharp 45-degree angle with his palm down, which Ivy condemned in statements to news media as a “Nazi salute.” At least one other council member and several residents similarly denounced the gesture, with the latter group calling for both William Starks and Ivy to resign amid the dysfunction. The Starks’ lawsuit describes the accusation as defamatory and said the gesture occurred after Ivy had repeatedly demanded that William Starks raise his arm higher.
The Starks accuse Ivy of appearing to coordinate “unsupported and defamatory accusations” with a city employee against William Starks by alleging he falsified city water-quality reports. In another instance of alleged retaliation, the lawsuit states Ivy directed a costly abatement of a Council member Jim Rotondo’s property after he voted against one of Ivy’s initiatives.
Despite all the quarreling, the Starks’ attorney, Douglas Cloud, told The News Tribune on Monday that what is most concerning to his clients is following up on the potential financial problems and potential mismanagement uncovered by the Auditor’s Office and issues related to what he called “major expenditures” within the city, including the Police Department’s budget.
“There’s a lot of documents that we believe should have been produced by the city by now, and they haven’t been produced,” Cloud said. “And so therefore my clients filed a lawsuit trying to obtain those records directly from the city, as is required by state law.”
Between 2022 and 2025, Roy’s general-fund balance has declined by 23.7 percent from $511,940 to $227,907, according to the audit. It also said the city had been unable to provide reliable financial reports from 2024 or 2025.
The Starks’ lawsuit asks for a declaratory judgment stating that Roy violated the state’s Public Records Act by failing to perform record searches, providing inadequate or delayed responses and improperly withholding records. It also asks for an order compelling the records’ release and to impose penalties of $100 for each record per day from the date of each records request, which date back to July 8, 2024.
That request was for records of “any investigation done on councilmembers [sic] and staff in 2023 and 2024 and findings.” The lawsuit claims the city has acknowledged investigations occurred and paid for them with city resources, but only one record was produced that allegedly contained improper redactions.
Several other public-disclosure requests have not resulted in any records being released, according to the lawsuit. Those include requests for a written statement read by Ivy at the July 2024 council meeting where William Starks allegedly performed the Nazi salute, security-system recordings and audio made by staff Aug. 13, 2024 and payroll records of a former city clerk/treasurer.
A more comprehensive records request asked for “mayoral communications, contracts, financial ledgers, human resources files, public works, social media, and other categories.” No records have been released, according to the lawsuit, and the records requests haven’t been closed.
“The issues are important,” Cloud said. “Potential financial problems for the City of Roy could threaten the existence of the city itself, the city government. So that’s why my clients are so adamant about getting to the bottom of what’s going on, and how can it be fixed.”