In a so-called smear campaign recently waged against Councilman Bob Sternoff, a group of his constituents are questioning his character for alleged ethics violations.

Their mission: Vote Sternoff out of office.

But the dust-up between the political action committee – Concerned Citizens of Kirkland – and Sternoff has garnered attention from many of the councilman’s supporters. In fact, more than 100 Kirkland citizens, including a dozen former mayors and council members, have signed a letter supporting Sternoff.

Sternoff is running again for his Position 2 seat against newcomer Jason Gardiner.

The political group put out signs around the city last week that urge voters to “Reject Bob Sternoff for Ethics Violations.” Most of the signage was placed next to Sternoff’s campaign signage on Oct. 10.

Concerned Citizens of Kirkland filed Aug. 16 with the Public Disclosure Commission, which lists Michael H. Beaton as campaign manager and Kenneth L. Albinger as treasurer. The group also launched a Web site, www.concernedcitizensofkirkland.com.

“We’re a number of people who have been watching what goes on in Kirkland,” said Albinger, the group’s spokesman. “We’re concerned that most citizens don’t know about Bob’s behavior and the ramifications it has.”

The alleged violations deal with hundreds of emails that Sternoff sent to his girlfriend during council meetings via city email in 2009. Several of the private emails were of a sexually explicit nature, while others were characterized as threatening towards other council members and citizens.

The council voted to investigate the emails during a Sept. 1, 2009 meeting. The vote came on the heels of a blog post by Scott St. Clair of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation that accused the councilman of inappropriate use of the city’s email system.

The council authorized the city to spend $5,000 for an independent investigator to review the legal circumstances behind the emails and to determine if the emails violated city or state laws.

However, the council subsequently discontinued action against Sternoff on Jan. 19, 2010 and made public the Sherman Report, which examined the email communications.

The report outlined several city and state codes that Sternoff allegedly violated. However, Sternoff’s attorney with Livengood, Fitzgerald & Alskog determined he did not violate and codes or laws.

The action also triggered Sternoff to drop his litigation against the report and e-mail investigation.

Meanwhile, Sternoff’s girlfriend filed a claim against the city for $750,000 in damages for mental and emotional distress for making the report public. The claim is still pending.

Although the email scandal happened a couple of years ago, Albinger said the group is raising the issue again because they felt it would not get adequately raised during the election.

“And so I decided there needs to be some people who have the courage to stand up against people who are already in office and challenge them on their behavior,” he said.

The group is also bringing the issue to the campaign forefront due to Sternoff’s attempts to “put the matter under wraps” at the time, said Albinger.

An attorney sent a letter on Sternoff’s behalf in January 2010 to four individuals who requested the Sherman Report. The attorney accused the individuals of being “co-conspirators” and advised them to keep the emails private or they would be subject to the lawsuit and other claims.

“The temporary restraining order lasted through the last election and a number of months into the following year so that it had a chance to blow over before the actual information was released to most people,” Albinger added. “That’s why I’ve raised the issue now so that voters have an opportunity to look at it carefully and say is this the kind of guy that I want to represent me?”

He urges voters to look deeper at the issue.

“That takes a fair amount of time to write 452 emails over six council sessions, even though they’re a number of hours long,” Albinger said of the council sessions, noting that the council was discussing annexation during some of those meetings. “That means for hours at a time he wasn’t paying attention.”

But it’s the content of the emails that “will irritate people the most,” he added.

“The thing that really shows in these emails that he thought he was doing privately, even though he was using the city’s system, is he regularly demeans and makes fun of people and he even uses threats and intimidation,” he said. “That’s more than a lapse of good judgment – that shows poor judgment and that’s something that people need to see. Do we want to reelect a representative who shows poor judgment in the way he treats his constituents?”

It all comes down to Sternoff’s character, he added.

“I think that character is really important. Representing the city on one of many committees is a good thing but many people can do that,” he said of the various committees that Sternoff is active in on behalf of the city. “Your own personal integrity and personal character is very important.”

However, Sternoff disagrees.

“I’ll certainly put my character up against anybody who would try and in fact implement a smear campaign,” said Sternoff, noting his involvement in the community and in regional matters. “I hope that the work I’ve done far out-shadows whatever other people conceive as negative.”

He also said at the time of the emails, he chose to “accept whatever blame there was, to apologize immediately, I didn’t screw around, I allowed the personal emails to be released. I figured that would show much better character than trying to hide something.”

Sternoff noticed the political group’s signage displayed next to many of his signs when he was on a Walk Your Child to School event on Oct. 10. He describes the group’s campaign tactics as “dishonest.”

He also reminded voters that he did not break any laws or city codes.

“There’s an assumption that they (Concerned Citizens) make that the Sherman Report was somehow legitimate and that Sherman was acting as judge, jury and executioner and that’s not what he was doing and that’s not the result and that’s not what happened,” said Sternoff, a developer. “So their premise to start with that they’re hanging their hat on is shaky at best.”

However, Albinger says Sternoff’s apology is not the problem.

“His apology is fine. I don’t have a problem with his apology. It’s just that the council is going to let him off with an apology for breaking state laws and city codes? That doesn’t seem right or fair,” said Albinger, an electrical engineer who has lived in Kirkland since 1987. “The city council did nothing – and that’s a real question why the council didn’t do a darn thing. I have my guess of why it was because Bob’s supporters want a resounding victory at the polls and he didn’t have anything to worry about. So he got away with these violations of law and I think an egregious violation of the public trust with an apology.”

He continued, “And frankly, you can’t properly discipline a person with poor judgement and bad character anyway. The best you can do is let them go.”

Challenger Jason Gardiner said he does not know who the Concerned Citizens group. Their campaigning has also not affected his own campaign much, “other than people thinking that I’m the one doing it,” Gardiner said of the signs.

He added, “I wish they would have gone a different route to support me and I hope they get me elected because I’m Jason Gardiner and not because I’m not Bob Sternoff.”

Despite the Concerned Citizens of Kirkland’s campaigning, Sternoff says he has a positive outlook about things.

“Fortunately, we’ve got a tremendous amount of friends and this has reenergized an already-energized group of people who support me,” said Sternoff. “People are upset. The first thing they’ve made loud and clear is that they value what I do for the city and they value me, which is very heartwarming. I keep doing what I do and hopefully what people want me to go do and at the end of the day, the voters will make the decision.”