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One of the many bedrooms available for use in the back of Club Sesso in downtown Portland. An assistant fire marshal was reprimanded for tipping off the club.

(Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian/OregonLive/File)

Portland's fire chief has issued a letter of reprimand to Assistant Fire Marshal Doug Jones for tipping off the manager of a downtown swinger's club that no fire inspectors would be working the night of an unpermitted anniversary party there.

"It was stupid, and I think he owned up as much,'' said Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Portland Fire Bureau.

Saltzman signed off on the written reprimand. "He made some mistakes, but he also has a 34-year record of no discipline in the past," the commissioner said.

The relatively light discipline followed an investigation by the city's Bureau of Human Resources of Jones' dealings with Club Sesso.

The city released a redacted copy of the Jan. 29 investigative findings at 4:27 p.m. Friday in response to a Feb. 4 public records request by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The allegations were first reported by Willamette Week.

According to the report, Jones "made serious judgment errors in handling the Club Sesso'' permit issue in June, and had raised concerns that city inspectors have given preferential treatment to certain businesses.

The Fire Marshal's Office on June 27 had denied the club a special-events permit for a party scheduled the next night. By day's end, the club filed a notice of intent to sue the city for the denial.

Jones spoke with club manager Paul Smith the night of June 27 and tipped him off that no inspectors would be working the following night.

Jones admitted he made these statements to Smith:

"Paul, I'm going to tell you what I know. I'm going to be very careful here and I have some other things to say, but first of all I'm going to tell you what I know about tomorrow night okay?"

"So, I'm doing this so you can take whatever information may be useful to you as you make your decision in those three choices."

"Here is what I know, right now and I don't think anything is going to change ... I'm just telling you general the way my office is running, I do not believe I have any night inspectors out tomorrow night which is Saturday night. Um, it is kind of a down weekend for us because of the next weekend."

"Um, so, now I'm going to move on. I'm just telling you some things that I know about what we are doing this weekend that may or may not be helpful to you."

"I'm going to move on past that, you can do whatever you want with that, that you think is right."

"So, if that affects your decision, so be it. I'm throwing it out there for that reason, to maybe help you figure out your decision."

The club held the party June 28, and to Jones' surprise, another fire inspector showed up at the club. The other inspector found the club had no permit to use the second and third floors, which had no visible exit signs. About 140 people were in the club.

Jones later said he shouldn't have had the conversation with Smith.

"That was an error. That was a mistake. I never should have said that, and I would never say that again, and to tell you right now, to try to justify it and tell you why, you know, when you make an error, how do you justify an error. I'm telling you it was a tactical error, a mistake,'' he told investigators.

Jones ultimately was sent to inspect Club Sesso that night, but his report was inaccurate and omitted what occurred that night, according to others present, the city investigation found.

"HR investigators find that Doug Jones was less than truthful in his reporting of events and documentation surrounding the events at Club Sesso on June 28, 2014,'' the city's report said.

There's no further discussion in the city report about Jones being "less than truthful'' -- a finding that has led to the termination of other city employees, particularly police.

Allegations also arose that Jones had accepted bribes from the club, but the human resource investigators "did not receive any information that provided a credible basis to follow-up on the bribery allegation,'' their report says.

Investigators did find that Jones wrote an unsupported letter to another club representative, misrepresenting that club's compliance history.

Maria Toth of the club Refuge PDX had asked Jones for a letter on Fire Bureau letterhead that said her club was "adhering to safety and capacity'' regulations. Toth planned to present it to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Jones ended up writing the letter, although the Fire Bureau had been working to get Toth and the club to comply "for more than seven years'' to fire code regulations, the city's report says.

Jones characterized the letter as customer service, saying "no harm, no foul,'' city investigators wrote.

Investigators said the letter disturbed Fire Bureau officials and other city agency officials. Jones acknowledged he knew that it had "very negatively" affected his relationship with other city bureaus and Fire Bureau staff and yet he did nothing to repair that damage, the city report says.

Investigators further noted that the fire marshal's staff "have a certain latitude to make exceptions for businesses.''

--Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212; @maxoregonian