A Vancouver city councilor is defending herself from an ethics complaint brought against her just weeks ahead of the November general election.

Councilor Kim Harless is the subject of an ethics complaint filed Aug. 29 by Brad Erhart. The Vancouver resident alleged that Harless didn’t disclose a relationship with her then-boyfriend John Park when she served on a board that oversaw tourism grants in the city.

As executive director of Vancouver Arena, Park helped organize the Vancouver GoFest over the past three years, a scavenger hunt-type event themed around Pokémon Go, in which fans search for the fictional characters in the real world using mobile devices. Vancouver Arena received $29,750 in grants from the city of Vancouver to organize GoFest while Harless was the chair of the city’s Lodging Tax Advisory Committee.

“As Chair of LTAC and a member of the City Council, Harless participated in the review, deliberation, and approval processes for these grants without disclosing her relationship with Park and without recusing herself from the proceedings,” reads a complaint letter from Erhart.

The city’s legal council dismissed three of Erhart’s four allegations earlier this month, and Harless said she routinely checked with the city attorney if there was ever a question about recusing herself from votes. The fourth complaint that is now being investigated asks whether Harless created the “appearance of impropriety” when serving on a city board that awarded grants to an organization where her then-boyfriend, Park, worked.

During a Monday night City Council meeting, Vancouver City Attorney Nina Cook said an investigation into the remaining council policy would be delayed because of scheduling conflicts until after the Nov. 4 election, in which Harless will be on the ballot.

“It’s obviously a shot at trying to drag my name through the mud in order to steal votes and confuse the public,” Harless said. “It’s not a coincidence.”

Erhart was not immediately reachable for comment.

Harless is defending her council seat against Pooneh Gray in the November election. Gray took to her own campaign Facebook page on Oct. 10 to call the accusations involving Harless “self-dealing and corruption.”

Harless first took office on the City Council in 2022. Besides serving in city government, she’s the community engagement and policy director for the Native American Youth and Family Center.

The City Council’s ethics code itself is problematic, according to Harless, who said the policy is vague and subjective, and that an appearance of impropriety could easily be used against councilors who are active in Vancouver’s business and civic life.

Harless held the chair position on the city’s nine-member Lodging and Tax Advisory Committee until Erhart’s recent allegations. During the past three years that the ethics accusations span, the LTAC unanimously approved grant awards to Park’s organization.

Still, the Vancouver City Council is taking the ethics complaint seriously. During Monday’s meeting, the council approved Brenda Bannon from the Seattle law firm Ogletree Deakins to investigate the ethics complaint. Cook said she would try to have the investigation resolved before the council’s Dec. 8 meeting.

Harless and Park are now engaged. She said it’s been disheartening to have to explain her personal life during public meetings to dispel the “weaponization” of a subjective policy.

“I’m having people reach out to me and say things like, ‘You know I always thought about running for office,’” she said. “‘And after this, there’s no way.’”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/15/kim-harless-vancouver-ethics-complaint/