City worker files ethics complaint against Rock Springs council member

Rock Springs City Councilman Rick Milonas is facing a formal ethics complaint, five months after the council adopted a code of ethics that he alone opposed. The complaint, filed by city Urban Renewal Agency Director Chad Banks, alleges that Milonas was abusive and created a hostile work environment for city employees.

In the complaint, Banks addresses a video Milonas shared on social media on Friday that references Banks’ sexual orientation. According to the complaint, Banks said the video “falsely attributes the selection of the city’s updated branding colors to me, implying I was advancing a ‘gay agenda.'” Banks stated that he had no role in selecting the city’s branding colors and that Milonas continues to make statements asserting otherwise. “This is not a misunderstanding — it is a knowingly false representation of my role as a City employee,” the complaint says.

In his Friday video, Milonas said the day after he was called into an interview at the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office last week concerning alleged corruption at City Hall, police arrived at his door with a formal complaint from a city employee. Milonas said the complaint was a response to another video he posted March 30 blasting the city’s new logo, which he said “says I was abusive, hurt his feelings and created a hostile work environment.”

In the March 30 video, Milonas showed photos of some of the city’s previous logos and noted that the downtown colors had changed to red, green, yellow and blue — “the colors of the rainbow,” he said. “Everybody knows the head of the URA is gay,” he said. “It’s no secret, and I have no problem with it. But as soon as Max was elected mayor, he started replacing the professionally designed logo with the yellow-green-blue logo from the URA. Tell us why you’re changing the logo, Max. This isn’t San Francisco or Seattle. This is Wyoming.”

Rock Springs City Attorney Richard Beckwith told Cowboy State Daily that Milonas has made numerous allegations of corruption at the city “during his short tenure, all without any supporting facts or evidence.” Mayor Max Mickelson deflected Milonas’ threat to file his own complaint, saying, “In elected service, people — especially people with intent to run for the same position — will say all sorts of things. I remain focused on the work of serving our city, not engaging in noise.”

The council will hold an evidentiary hearing to consider the complaint, which hasn’t yet been scheduled. Milonas has 20 days from the date the complaint was issued to file a written response. The ordinance allows for a public evidentiary hearing conducted by the governing body, and the accused official has the right to be represented by counsel, present evidence and witnesses, and cross-examine adverse witnesses. While the ordinance does not allow for the official to be removed from office, the council can impose sanctions with a two-thirds majority vote, including a formal written warning, mandated training, loss of committee roles or public censure. In this case, Milonas would not vote as he is the subject of the complaint.