The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center (CJTC) provides training for all Washington state certified peace officers. The Chronicle has previously reported on concerns regarding Winlock Mayor Brandon Svenson’s attempts to become a reserve officer as well as multiple letters on City of Toledo letterhead to the CJTC regarding concerns of Mr. Svenson’s background check during that process.
On Feb. 9, 2023, the City of Toledo sent the CJTC a memorandum of clarification wherein the city council, attempting to correct previous letter from the mayor, signed their own letter stating, "To the best of our knowledge there was no issue with Mr. Svenson's criminal background check that would have prevented him from serving as a reserve officer."
The CJTC subsequently investigated some of these concerns. On Feb. 23, 2023, a CJTC investigator spoke with former Toledo chief Sam Patrick, who now works in McCleary, and the summary report of that call states: “He remembers meeting with Mayor Dobosh and the city clerk to discuss the outcome of the background investigation and decide if Svenson should be hired. They all decided despite Svenson's background, he would be hired as a reserve officer. Chief Patrick did mention that he would not have hired Svenson for a full-time officer position as he had a lot to prove due to his background and an arrest from when Svenson was young."
The key word in former chief Patrick’s statement to this investigator is “despite.” They all decided — despite — Svenson’s background that he would be hired anyway.
According to Patrick, at least Dobosh and one other person, as well as Patrick himself, had knowledge of Svenson’s background concerns and proceeded with hiring him despite it. In fact, Patrick and Dobosh both attended and were photographed with Svenson at his graduation ceremony.
In the last Chronicle reporting on this subject it was written “in a previous phone call with a Chronicle reporter, Dobosh said he had received his information about the Svenson’s background check from local activist Kyle Wheeler but was unable to independently confirm whether or not the background check had been completed.”
In addition to this statement clearly contradicting Patrick’s version of events as he stated to investigators, I wish to clarify that I have never once spoken with or met Dobosh about any of this or any other matter.
It should be deeply concerning to all citizens that the City of Toledo, as a council and the mayor as an individual, released multiple inaccurate statements to a state oversight commission as well as local media attempting to absolve themselves from a liability concern they either had knowledge of and proceeded with anyways or failed to communicate with the persons on their staff and council who had that knowledge.
The mayor, and likely others, knew about concerns with Svenson’s background check, hired him despite them and then claimed they didn’t have any records or recollection afterward.
Kyle Wheeler
Toledo
