The Troutdale City Council released a

Wednesday that portrays Mayor

as a petty tyrant who bullies and manipulates city workers to get his way, including obtaining permits to turn what he initially called a shed into a 2,032-square-foot structure that looks a lot like a house.

The report documents results of an eight-month, $48,000 investigation into a structure Kight built on his property. Kight has a history of intimidating and manipulating Troutdale employees, and he used similar tactics to push through city permitting procedures, concludes investigator Bev Russell after conducting 42 interviews and reviewing 262 documents.

Kight says the structure is fully permitted and legal. The basement is a crawlspace, he said, and what councilors call a house is office space.

Regardless, Russell concluded he used deceptive practices and improper influence to build the structure and noted office space isn't allowed on a plot zoned residential.

Last November, the City Council, Kight included, voted to hire an independent investigator to look into the structure, which councilors suspected violated city code. They also believed Kight may have improperly influenced city workers.

Seven employees, from the City Hall receptionist to the chief of police, told Russell that Kight overstepped his bounds. They said he is pushy, argumentative, intimidating and creates stressful, uncomfortable and awkward working conditions.

The receptionist said Kight assigned her tasks such as stamping and mailing his personal letters and moving his car, parked outside City Hall, if necessary. She said he pushes past the front counter to city department offices, though he's not supposed to.

Park workers said he ordered them to pick up garbage and branches, including on his street.

The police chief contacted the then-city manager about Kight's unwanted involvement in the police department. He said Kight used to call him almost daily and tried to circumvent his refusal to give Kight police officers' home phone numbers.

In response to the complaints, Kight calls employees uncooperative or unreasonable, and he calls allegations "bizarre" or "total fabrications." The chief said Kight has contacted the police less often since the council started discussing the potential illegality of the structure on his property.

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Kight, who is running for re-election, has called the investigation process a “debacle” driven by “personal political” agendas. Council president Doug Daoust is running against him for mayor. Kight insists he did not improperly influence city employees.

Since Kight took the mayor's office in 2009, the council has taken several formal steps to establish boundaries on his position. In 2010, voters approved a charter amendment to prevent the mayor from getting involved in city operations, and the council changed a city ordinance to prevent Kight from being reimbursed for unauthorized expenditures. In 2011, the council - and Kight - censured the mayor for his behavior toward employees and hired Russell to look into Kight's possibly illegal structure. Earlier this year the

The council on Tuesday added a last-minute agenda item, voting to defy attorney recommendations and make public the full investigation report.

According to Russell's report, Kight used his status as mayor, his knowledge as a city official, and city personnel he was friendly with to build a structure that violates city code. He used "inaccurate information," "had plans for Shed B to have several rooms long before informing the city," "used improper influence" and "misstated information," the report said.

Kight said in an email - using all capitals, underlined and bold - that the structure is not residential, though the city issued a residential certificate of occupancy on May 11, 2011, according to the investigation.

He said the structure was intended as office space from the start.

According to the first flood hazard permit he filed in August 2007, the structure was going to be an addition to his home. A senior planner reportedly told Kight that in order to build an addition, his current home, built out of compliance with flood rules in 1989, would have to be brought into compliance.

A month later, he filed a flood hazard permit with the city for a 768-square-foot garden shed.

Meanwhile, the investigation found, he had the contractor taking bids for home-like amenities such as bath fans, microwave and dishwasher circuits, washer and drier circuits, and water and sewer plumbing.

Plans the contractor provided to Russell showed labels of "bedroom" and "kitchen," but those filed with the city were labeled "work room."

Kight said the original contractors are "hostile witnesses" because of a dispute over their final payment. During the investigation, Russell found city staff could not locate a number of original permit approval documents, including the February 2008 plan approval that gave the go-ahead for the oversized structure with a basement, which isn't allowed on a flood plain.

According to the investigation, City Manager Craig Ward "said in his opinion, the only way Mr. Mayor got a permit to build Shed B was by being deceitful and calling it something other than a residence."