Clark County Tomorrow

When public officials campaign on integrity, fiscal responsibility, and community values, they ask voters to trust their character. What happens behind closed doors, however, often tells a completely different story.

Following admissions to his wife of an extramarital affair with fellow state lawmaker Stephanie McClintock, Washington State Representative Kevin Waters (17th Legislative District), his wife Jami, initiated divorce proceedings.

But what began as a private family dissolution has unraveled into an alarming, documented pattern of systemic abuse of power.

Facing court scrutiny and strict custody limits regarding the care of his two young daughters, Representative Waters turned to the weight of his office—leveraging political capital, state resources, and influential local connections in a coordinated effort to manipulate legal proceedings and intimidate his estranged spouse.

Recent public records, court exhibits, and internal communications confirm that Waters did not navigate his custody proceedings as an ordinary citizen. Instead, local school administrators were drawn into the family court battle. Stevenson-Carson School District Superintendent Ingrid Colvard stepped in as a key operative, using her official influence and private communications to aid Waters’ legal standing while the district pursued vital legislative funding.

An Unequal Playing Field

In May 2025, after evaluating evidence detailing Kevin Waters’ documented erratic behavior and prolonged absence, the court implemented an official temporary parenting plan granting primary residential custody of their daughters (ages 6 and 7) to Jami Waters.

Jami took routine, prudent steps to file the court-ordered parenting plan with school leadership to ensure safety protocols were enforced. In August 2025, the principal replied that the school “does not enforce parenting plans.”

Seeking safety assurances and clear guidance, Jami elevated her concerns directly to Superintendent Ingrid Colvard. On September 3, 2025, Jami met with Colvard in the district superintendent’s office:

• Breach of Initial Neutrality: Colvard admitted she had already reviewed the confidential, court-ordered parenting plan and knew Jami’s attorney.
• Disclosed Political Ties: Colvard repeatedly reminded Jami during the meeting that she “works closely with [Kevin Waters].”
• Induced Trust Under False Pretenses: As both district superintendent and an active Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW #SWI.LW.60398037), Colvard verbally promised strict confidentiality. Under this professional guarantee, Jami disclosed sensitive, vulnerable details regarding her marriage, safety concerns, and the ongoing divorce.

Appointments, Politics, and Backchannel Emails

The entanglement between the sitting lawmaker and the district superintendent deepened rapidly over the following months. Colvard and the school district brought Kevin Waters inside official operations, positioning him onto the Stevenson-Carson School District’s Levy Pro Committee. While overseeing public campaigns and budget advocacy, Waters simultaneously held legislative sway in Olympia as a member of the House Capital Budget Committee—directly influencing school funding mechanisms, timber revenue relief, and capital appropriations desperately needed by the rural district.

This political alliance transitioned directly into off-the-record judicial assistance. On November 17, 2025, at 8:36 PM, Superintendent Colvard bypassed district servers entirely, emailing Kevin Waters from her personal Gmail address (ilcolvard@gmail.com) to his private inbox (watersk401@gmail.com). The subject line was simply: “Letter.”

Colvard prepared a formal character reference supporting Kevin Waters’ parenting capacity—drafted despite having no personal knowledge of his family dynamic or day-to-day role as a father, and immediately following private disclosures extracted from the children’s mother.

The Paper Trail: The Unsigned Draft as Leverage

The timing of how that letter was deployed reveals the transactional core of their relationship:

The letter was drafted in mid-November 2025, but it sat unsigned and unfiled in private inboxes until after Kevin Waters was appointed to the district’s official committee and after critical legislative funding and budget commitments were secured for the district.

By dangling official court intervention while state appropriations and district levy campaigns moved forward, the dynamic operated as a quid pro quo:

1. The Lawmaker’s Clout: Rep. Waters provided the district with political access, levy endorsements, and capital budget advocacy in Olympia.
2. The Superintendent’s Reward: In return, Superintendent Colvard withheld her formal, executed signature on the court document until the district’s political and financial interests were protected—only then signing and submitting her declaration to aid Waters’ custody bid in court.

Ethical Violations and Legal Exposure

The documented conduct documented across these public records goes far beyond standard small-town politics, intersecting directly with state ethics laws and administrative licensing regulations:

• Breach of LCSW Professional Standards (RCW 18.225): Under Washington law, licensed social workers are strictly bound to protect client confidences and avoid predatory conflicts of interest. Extracting sensitive marital trauma from a mother under the guise of professional privacy, while secretly coordinating legal support for the opposing party, constitutes gross misconduct and grounds for administrative revocation.
• Misuse of Public Position & State Ethics (RCW 42.52 & RCW 42.23): State lawmakers and municipal officials cannot use official administrative standing to confer personal legal benefits. Drafting court declarations on behalf of an active legislator who sits on the committee controlling your school’s state funding represents an impermissible conflict of interest.
• Quid Pro Quo & Official Misconduct (RCW 9A.68): Conditioning official cooperation, committee appointments, and court declarations on state budget funding enters the territory of unlawful compensation and coercion under Washington criminal statutes.

A Call for Accountability

Representative Kevin Waters was entitled to resolve his marital dissolution through the ordinary rules of family court.

He was never entitled to use the power of the 17th Legislative District to lean on rural school administrators, orchestrate backroom character references, or undermine the legal protections granted to his children’s mother.

Likewise, Superintendent Ingrid Colvard broke her professional oath the moment she transformed a public school district into a political favor bank.

This is Part 1 of an ongoing investigative series. In our public records requests, we have found multiple instances of problematic behavior from Rep. Kevin Waters.

Stay Tuned!