By Bill Lucia | Editor
Before the leader of Washington’s newest juvenile detention center was fired earlier this year, he was investigated over allegations that he sexually harassed an employee at the facility. Kendrick Rochelle was hired as the first superintendent of Harbor Heights, a facility in Aberdeen opened last year to relieve overcrowding at another youth prison. The ex-staffer reported the accusations against Rochelle after she’d been fired. Rochelle, who is Black, denies the allegations and said in an interview with the Standard that they may have been motivated by his race.
Also in today’s edition…
Striking workers will need to show they’re looking for other jobs to access unemployment benefits.
Perspective on how leaders in the region might step up to address the rising pressure on the Northwest’s electric grid.
And, U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse will skip making an endorsement in the race to replace him in Congress.
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Kendrick Rochelle was fired as superintendent at the juvenile detention center Harbor Heights after being accused of sexual harassment. He’s now living in a hotel in Lacey and looking for work. (Photo courtesy of the state Department of Children, Youth and Families)
By Jake Goldstein-Street
Among the allegations the former employee made against Rochelle are that he suggested he could have someone held at the facility “take out” the father of the woman’s child and that he reportedly told her, “I have a feeling that you were a bad girl in high school.” She described other comments and interactions that made her uncomfortable.
Rochelle was new to Washington when he took the job. He started his career as a correctional officer before moving into criminal justice leadership roles in Ohio, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. Growing up without a father, he has said, he felt he could relate to the incarcerated young people he oversaw.
He said he feels the allegations against him were retaliatory after the accuser was fired.
The sexual harassment accusations were not the formal reason for Rochelle’s termination, he said. The Department of Children, Youth and Families reportedly cited “poor performance,” and his supervisor later told him the job “wasn’t a good fit.” He’s considering filing a lawsuit for wrongful termination against the state.
Workers at Hilton’s Embassy Suites in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood went on strike in June. Some could be affected by a rule change concerning striking workers who seek unemployment benefits. (Photo courtesy of UNITE HERE Local 8)
By Jerry Cornfield
Beginning Jan. 1, the state opened unemployment insurance to striking workers. Most people receiving the benefits need to show they’re looking for work. But the state’s Employment Security Department waived this requirement for striking workers because it deemed them “attached to an employer.” Now, faced with pressure from the federal government, the department has changed course, and striking workers will need to seek work and record their efforts to do so to be eligible. The change took effect Sunday. Workers on strike can receive up to six weeks of benefits. Typical unemployment insurance is offered for up to 26 weeks. The U.S Department of Labor told the state that waiving the job search requirement did not conform with federal law.
COMMENTARY
By Jim Luce
Electricity demand is rising rapidly in the Northwest and the region is not adding power generation or transmission line capacity fast enough to keep up. Rather than confronting this reality, much of the public debate has focused on scapegoats — data centers and other large electricity users, writes former Bonneville Power Administration attorney Jim Luce in this op-ed. Luce says BPA’s new leader, Travis Kavulla, has an opportunity to step up and return the agency to the leadership role it once played. He notes, among other things, that while BPA received $10 billion of borrowing authority in the 2021 federal infrastructure law, it isn’t doing enough to put that money to work.
By Orion Donovan Smith, The Spokesman-Review
Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse, who is retiring after 12 years representing central Washington’s reliably red 4th Congressional District, says he doesn’t intend to endorse a candidate in the general election. Amanda McKinney, a Republican and Yakima County commissioner, is favored to win against Democrat John Duresky. McKinney kicked off her campaign by saying she had a yearslong plan to “retire” Newhouse. “I have not been asked for an endorsement and have no plans to do so,” Newhouse said.
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