Charlette vs Egan: Round 327

Charlette LeFevre, left is feuding with Egan Orion, right….AGAIN. Photos via Facebook.

Oh, my….it’s the feud that just keeps on giving us joy. It’s so delicious, TV producer Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story/Glee) needs to option it for “Feud 2: Charlette LeFevre vs Egan Orion”. I mean, even their names are made for a crazy TV melodrama. 

For those of you unaware, Charlette LeFevre is the co-founder/head of the Capitol Hill Pride group who produced the annual Capitol Hill Pride/Broadway street fair event on Pride Saturday for many years until it ran afoul of the city and lost permission to stage their event which was then taken over by Egan Orion’s PrideFest/One Degree Events team who put on the big Sunday PrideFest event at Seattle Center and the then much smaller Family Pride event at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill on Pride Saturday. The two groups had had a simmering rivalry for many years with Capitol Hill Pride not pleased that PrideFest was setting up camp on the edges of their event.

(Note: read more about our coverage of this long running feud, over HERE!)

The rivalry got more heated in 2017 when Capitol Hill Pride announced early in the year that they were producing Seattle’s version of the Washington D.C. LGBTQ Pride March followed by Orion announcing HE was also producing a similar march and it all got quite nasty when LeFevre’s group moved their Pride Festival to a new day earlier in the month of June to coincide with the march, which led to confusion and the city getting involved and then the city getting annoyed and eventually LeFevre’s group lost the right to produce the big Saturday Pride street event on Broadway (when they tried to move it back to the original day…yes, it’s confusing!) and Orion’s group took over at the last minute and has produced the event every year since then. LeFevre’s team rebounded with a smaller event in 2018 and 2019 that took place at Seattle Central College’s outdoor plaza just down the street (Broadway) from the big event they had originally created.

Hard Feelings apparently linger…especially from the LeFevre camp, who filed this complaint against Egan Orion, who is currently running for Seattle City Council’s District 3 seat which includes Capitol Hill. LeFevre filed an ethics violation against Orion for making “false and misleading statements to the public” with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission on July 14th.

From Capitol Hill Pride’s press release/Facebook page:

Capitol Hill Pride files ethics violation against D3 candidate Egan Orion

We can no longer sit by and watch a candidate make false and misleading statements to the public.

Capitol Hill Pride filed a formal complaint to Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission today against Egan Orion, candidate for District 3 in stating false and misleading information in his campaign, on his website and to media by saying he worked with organizations and “saved” the Capitol Hill Pride Festival in 2017.

The facts can better describe Orion’s actions as a hostile take over with the now defunct Chamber of Commerce of the Capitol Hill Pride Festival permit in 2017. Egan Orion never contacted, called or coordinated any aspect of the event with the current festival Directors nor made a single call either before or after the event.

The facts are Egan Orion never worked with the prior Directors of Capitol Hill Pride Festival in any manner and in fact received a cease and desist letter from the Capitol Hill Pride Festival directors in 2017 for using the name “Capitol Hill Pride” after repeated requests not to use the name in his banners and advertising of Pridefest.

Capitol Hill Pride adamently objects to Egan Orion making any such false misleading statements either directly or implying any working relationship to the non-profit Capitol Hill Pride or “saving” the festival and requests Orion immediately correct these false and misleading statements.

Additionally, Egan is also falsely claiming and implying on his website and in media his position as Executive Director of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce is active when in fact the chamber closed during his directorship due to lack of funds / bankruptcy in May of this year.

To not state the Capitol Hill Chamber is no longer active is misleading in his campaign.

Its deceptive and misleading to the public and voters and a violation of business ethics to give the perception of cooperation and “working with organizations” or developing a now defunct chamber when in fact the opposite is true.

We hope Seattle Ethics and Elections can investigate and Orion can correct misleading information so voters can receive fair and accurate information on candidates.

Capitol Hill Pride is an all volunteer non-profit and is not affiliated or connected to any other political organization.

Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson
Directors, Capitol Hill Pride
Founding Directors of the Capitol Hill Pride Festival

And, the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission wasted no time in reviewing and responding. By Thursday, July 18th Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported:

“We have reviewed your complaint and have determined that it does not merit any further investigation,” they (Seattle Ethics & Elections Commission) write. “Even taking your complaint on its face and the facts you allege as being accurate there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the conduct would constitute a violation of the Ethics Code.”

And, Orion responded to CHS:

“I have no response to this claim except to say the city asked us to step in to maintain the event after the previous organizer violated the terms of her permit,” Orion said of the dismissal. “We are proud of the work we’ve done on PrideFest Capitol Hill and thank Charlette for her many years of service to the community.”

And, so we await the next chapter in the LeFevre/Orion Tales.