REPORT: Former SeaTac city manager tried to map Muslims

SEATAC, Wash. -- The city of SeaTac is trying to damage control with its minority populations, after its city manager asked whether they could map where all the Muslims lived. That manager has now resigned his position.

“It’s unfortunate that this is casting SeaTac in a bad light,” says former SeaTac Mayor Rick Forschler.

In April, an investigator was hired by the city to look into complaints against city manager James “Donny” Payne. Payne had allegedly asked a staff member “whether the city had the technological capability, using U.S. Census data, to map where residents of certain religions lived.”

SeaTac has a large community of East African immigrants, many of them Muslim. According to the investigator’s report, Payne was aware of conflicts between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and “wanted the information in case he needed to go into the neighborhoods to “make the peace.”

The investigator also found “Mr. Payne’s concerns about Muslims committing acts of terrorism seem to be the main motivation for his mapping request.”

Payne, who resigned a few days after the report came out, declined Q13 News’ request for an interview tonight. But Forschler says the city has to know where people live to qualify for certain federal grants.

“They require us to map areas of poverty and ethnic minority,” he says.

He thinks Payne’s request for that information may have been misunderstood.

“They're making it sound like it was some sort of racial motive, that's not the case at all.”

A few people in the Muslim community have heard about the controversy with the former city manager, but they didn’t want to talk about it directly. They say the good thing about SeaTac is its diversity.

“Whatever religion, whatever different countries, whether it’s Asian, White Americans, Native Americans, Somali Americans, all people are good people,” says Aden Karani.

“The report stands on its own,” SeaTac Senior Assistant City Attorney Mark Johnsen first told our partner The Seattle Times and later confirmed to Q13 News. “We’ve accepted it, Mr. Payne no longer works here and we’re moving forward.”