RS mayor charged

Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo was charged with six misdemeanors last week related to alleged actions he took to win a municipal contract for JFC Engineers and Surveyors, a company he serves as the president of and holds a majority stake in.

The charges, which consist of five counts of official misconduct and one count of conflict of interest, carry with them fines of up to $5,000 each.

Kaumo has denied the allegations against him. In an email he sent to Rock Springs City Council representatives and city department heads Aug. 3, Kaumo admitted he had been served charging documents. In that email, he wrote he had called for the investigation and the documents claim he violated his duties as the city's mayor. Court documents state Sweetwater County Sheriff John Grossnickle had requested an outside investigation from the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation Aug. 19, 2020 and does not cite Kaumo calling for an investigation. Both the FBI and DCI investigated the situation for nearly two years.

"Obviously I will fight these claims but there is a good chance many of you will be interviewed by my legal team as well and called in as witnesses," Kaumo wrote in the email. "My apologies but I have never in my 12 yrs used my power as Mayor to secure work for anyone and I do intend to clear my name."

Kaumo has already announced he will not seek another term as the city's mayor, which has sparked a five-way race in the upcoming primary election. Prior to his current term as mayor, Kaumo was the city's mayor for two consecutive terms from 2003 to 2010.

The charges relate to actions Kaumo had allegedly undertaken to secure JFC a contract for work on the Bitter Creek Reconstruction Project, a capital project to improve the area surrounding the Bitter Creek within the city. According to court documents, the project was funded through $3.8 million in federal grant money provided by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's Abandoned Mine Lands division.

Between July 17, 2020 and Oct. 6, 2020, Kaumo is alleged to have sent emails to Council representatives in an attempt to sway their votes to favor JFC's bid to perform professional engineering services while criticizing the competing firms' ability to properly complete the job. Court documents further allege Kaumo had used his position to obtain bid documents and information submitted by competitors, as well as documents related to the city's internal evaluation process and consultant documents. He is also alleged to have sent the competitor bid documents to his JFC email account from his city email account, as well as sending them to engineering employees and executive leaders at JFC prior to the Rock Springs City Council's vote July 21, 2020. He allegedly admitted the documents were not public information in emails to Council representatives.

During the July 21, 2020 meeting, JFC was recommended to be awarded the contract, but Council representatives received questions about why the JFC proposal cost twice as much as the other firms' proposals. The Council opted to restart the process to allow the firms involved a chance to compete for the contract from a more even playing field. Kaumo abstained from that vote.

Following the second round of bids, the city's internal request for proposal committee recommended the contract be awarded to William H. Smith and Associates. During the Oct. 6, 2020 Council meeting, Kaumo allegedly disparaged the competing firms' proposals publicly and failed to abstain from voting by issuing a "no" vote on the bid award.

Sweetwater County Circuit Court Judges John Prokos and Craig Jones have recused themselves from presiding over court hearings regarding the charges. Circuit Court Judge Michael Greer of Uinta County was called to preside over the hearing set at 9 a.m. Aug. 31.