Margo Frasier Under Review

Margo Frasier (Photo by Jana Birchum)

Retired Police Monitor Margo Frasier is the subject of a new complaint from the Office of the City Auditor. On Tuesday, chief investigator Nathan Wiebe filed paperwork to the city's Ethics Review Commission alleging that Frasier used city time and resources to handle some menial secondary employment tasks. Frasier, the former sheriff who served as Police Monitor for six years until retiring in February, said while PM that she worked 20 hours per week as a criminal justice consultant and expert witness, something former City Manager Marc Ott knew about but that hadn't been specifically disclosed to his interim successor, Elaine Hart. Wiebe's investigation revealed that between 2014 and 2016 Frasier had used her work computer to download a whopping seven non-city documents, including a legal brief, two affidavits, and two expert reports. Wiebe also found that between February and July 2016, Frasier visited 200 websites as part of her secondary employment, including 57 visits to her personal email account, the political charge du jour of these modern times. Those visits presumably came on occasions after Frasier directed potential clients who emailed her on her city account over to that personal account, via such time-intensive notes as "If you can fit it in on the 11th or 12th, I can do it," and "I welcome the opportunity. Since this appears to be more related to consulting practice and work as a corrections monitor, I would ask that you use my private email which is [redacted] …." Frasier's attorneys told the Statesman on Tuesday that the allegations appear to be "either de minimis in nature or in line with employment agreements and understandings she had as part of her employment as police monitor." A hearing is scheduled for the next meeting of the Ethics Review Commission, May 10 at 6pm, although it's not clear exactly what sort of punishment Frasier could incur as a retired employee.