LYNNWOOD—Diodato Boucsieguez, spokesman for the Committee to Recall Joshua Binda, announced he filed an ethics compliant on January 12 against Councilman Josh Binda with the city of Lynnwood citing a breach of a May 8, 2023, settlement agreement which the councilman agreed to misusing public facilities for personal gain.
The complaint alleges that Councilman Binda violated the term of the Agreement last year during Lynnwood City Council Meetings on November 12 and on December 9 by speaking about his ethics case of misusing public funds for personal use during a public proceeding.
The complaint reads: “At the November 12, 2024, City Council meeting, Binda violated the terms of his agreement by discussing how he violated the Ethics Code by filming a video for his personal gain and profit in the City Council chambers. This constitutes a clear violation of the Ethics Complaint Settlement Agreement. This violation happened at the 2:34:00 mark of the City Council Meeting video available online.
“Lastly, at the December 9, 2024, City Council Meeting, Binda again violated the terms of the Ethics Complaint Settlement Agreement multiple times by accusing the Council of coming after him with the Board of Ethics. Binda later accused the City Council of “bullying” him. These clear violations of the Ethics Complaint Settlement Agreement happened at 1:33:00 and 1:33:16 of the meeting video available online.”
In a settlement agreement issued from the Ethics Attorney investigating misuse of public facilities for personal gain by Lynnwood Councilman Binda, it identified to two types of Ethics Violations by the councilman. Each count had multiple instances of a violation that include “recording promotional videos in council chambers for his monetized speaking tour” and “using city servers and email tools to advertise and promote his monetized speaking tour.”
Councilman Joshua Binda used city facilities to make a promotional video for his Love Conquers All Tour on December 19, 2022, in which he profited approximately $14,000. Binda was accompanied by an unidentified male—allegedly King County Fire Commissioner Steve Hickey who recently resigned during a corruption investigation—who was acting as a cameraman to take video in the lobby, before moving to the Lynnwood Council Chambers.
Binda then gave the cameraman, allegedly Hickey, his City of Lynnwood ID badge so that the unidentified cameraman could go in and out of the building unaccompanied. Councilman Binda stayed in the council chambers while the cameraman went in and out, according to a Lynnwood city employee who watched the video surveillance.
As a result, Binda lost access to council chambers and subsequently lost access to his email when he did not complete IT Security training. Investigations found that Binda was also using council email servers to solicit his tour to schools around the region.
This is at least the sixth ethics complaint filed with the city of Lynnwood related to Councilman Binda since taking office.
Author: Mario Lotmore
3 Responses
Diodato my man, you look like Dr. Loveless from WWW. Do everyone a favor and shave that, you might get a couple votes if you do…
Harassment is obviously what is happening here.. Tell Diodato Boucsieguez to stop it with the political lynching of a young black man and do his job.. Stop wasting time and help his community.. He acts like Benda ran through his wife or something..
Diodato,
How petty.
I’ve got a suggestion:
Focus on your duties in counsel as a public servant. You’re getting way off track.