To make a short story long, every time I see a resume anymore it’s a trigger to get out the phone book, fire up our trusty friend the Internet and do a little fact checking. On Friday I did a little of that checking out the information on the resume of soon-to-be new Bremerton Assistant City Attorney Mark Koontz.
The whole breakdown of former Bainbridge Island Code Enforcement Officer Will Peddy’s career started with a call (by a reporter from an online publication) to verify some of the information he had on his resume when he ran for mayor. (Here is a list of Will Peddy stories in case you need a refresher. Start from the bottom.) Peddy’s situation was one in which the more we checked into what he said was his past, the more differences we found between his reality and everyone else’s. At first his campaign manager characterized the resume discrepancy as “a mistake.” But then while the city was investigating the issue and refusing to say anything public, I was able to get my hands on a “smoking gun” document that revealed it was no mistake. It was a lie, unless there is some truth to his claim of having a double identity.
The Peddy incident showed how important it is to check out information people provide. So when Mark Koontz’ name was put before the Bremerton City Council in December, the agenda packet included his resume. Friday I made some calls and the good news for Bremerton is everything I checked into was verified.
