Washington Supreme Court favorable opinions in my case; articles that followed

As August 19 approaches for the next courtroom round (#4) in my ongoing litigation against Ron Sims/King County (see details re: August 19 court date at: http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2005/08/update-on-my-public-disclosure-act.html ), I thought some might find it useful to have a link to the Washington state Supreme Court's September 30, 2005 majority opinion, as well as Justice Sanders' minority opinion, in my case. Both opinions were in my favor, in varying degrees. I've also included below the link at www.tvw.org to the audio of the Feburary 19, 2004 oral argument in my case (slightly over one hour).

In addition, I've included below links to a few of the many Seattle Times, P-I, Associated Press, Tacoma News Tribune, etc., articles that appeared following my Supreme Court victory.

If you'd like to read the majority opinion (which 6 of the 9 justices signed), and Richard Sanders partial dissent, in which he argued that I should have been awarded more or less all I argued for, here are the links:

Majority opinion:

http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/?fa=opinions.opindisp&docid=737631MAJ

Justice Sanders dissent:

http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/?fa=opinions.opindisp&docid=737631IP2

If you would like to listen to the audio of the "oral argument" before the Supreme Court, on February 19, 2004, the exact link at the www.tvw.org website should be: http://www.tvw.org/search/eventResults.cfm?StartPage=12&CFID=1975728&CFTOKEN=93304565 (It should be the second case listed on that page. If this link appears on two lines, you may have to copy and paste the second portion into your browser's address field for it to work. Alternatively, you can go to www.tvw.org , and work your way through the "archives" or Supreme Court links to the Supreme Court date of February 19, 2004, and look for "Yousoufian vs. Ron Sims, et al".)

Seattle Times article of October 1, 2004, by Maureen O'Hagan " Court decision on public records is mixed ":

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002051013_pda01m.html

Article in the P-I " Civics lesson costs King County thousands of dollars ". Link immediately below.

"King County likely will have to pay thousands of dollars more to a Vashon Island businessman ... "

Link to article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/193289_disclosure01.html

Evergreen Freedom Foundation Press Release on Supreme Court decision:

http://www.effwa.org/press_releases/2004_09_30.php

Blog commentary by Stefan Sharkansky at the "Sound Politics" site on Thursday, September 30, 2004. See: http://www.soundpolitics.com/archives/002798.html

Editorial critical of the Supreme Court decison in Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Link is: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/193372_pdaed.html

Editorial in the Tacoma News Tribune Monday, October 4, 2004:

Ruling weakens public disclosure law

THE NEWS TRIBUNE

The state Supreme Court seems to have forgotten the original intent behind the landmark Public Disclosure Act. In 1972, Washington voters approved Initiative 276, which established the act. The goal was to make government accountable and transparent by giving the public access to state and local government records.

The law is supposed to be liberally interpreted in favor of disclosure. Penalties for government agencies that fail to comply with the law are supposed to hurt.

But the Supreme Court has taken some of the sting out of penalties, reducing an incentive for governments to comply in a timely manner with information requests. In a 6-3 ruling last week, the majority allowed King County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Learned to reduce some of the fines to be imposed on King County.

The bottom line is that citizens shouldn't have to sue to get government agencies to follow the law. But that's what Armen Yousoufian, a Vashon Island businessman, had to do to get King County records relevant to the 1997 proposal to use public funds to build Seahawks Stadium. Yousoufian was asking for penalties for each day each of the 228 records was wrongly withheld. Under the law, penalties range from $5 to $100 per day. The total could have been as high as $30 million.

Disappointingly, state Attorney General Christine Gregoire filed a legal brief siding with the county, not with the public's right to have the law vigorously enforced.

Judge Learned refused to use the number of individual records to calculate the amount of the penalty. Instead, she "bundled" the records into 10 groups based partly on subject matter — and sharply reduced the amount of money the county was obligated to pay. Learned concluded that the larger penalty would have been "out of proportion to the county's negligence."

Maybe so. But the prospect of facing stiff fines deters government agencies from ignoring the law. Knowing that the courts will vigorously enforce the act and assess costly penalties is the surest way to keep the public disclosure law from becoming a shadow of its former self.
(Published 2:12AM, October 3rd, 2004)

Article in Monday, October 4, 2004 Tacoma News Tribune:

Stadium critic wins ruling in state high court

The Associated Press

The state Supreme Court has ordered stiffer penalties for King County for resisting requests for documents related to the decisions to build Safeco Field and Seahawks Stadium.

The high court on Thursday sent Armen Yousoufian's case back to King County Superior Court, where the businessman has already been awarded more than $100,000 for attorney fees and fines.

The high court, agreeing with the Court of Appeals, ruled that a fine of $5 per day for every day Yousoufian had to wait was insufficient in light of the county's "grossly negligent" handling of Yousoufian's requests.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices also overruled the Court of Appeals and the trial court on another issue, agreeing with Yousoufian's contention that he was denied the documents for more time than the trial court found. However, it rejected his argument that a separate fine should be levied for each document.

Yousoufian said he was disappointed that the court didn't come down harder on the county and Executive Ron Sims or overturn the lower courts' finding that the county had eventually turned over the documents.

"The biggest disappointment for the public and for journalism is that I still don't have all the documents," he said. "We know there are still more documents that we believe are smoking guns."

A new penalty could be as much as $1 million, he said. The original fine was more than $25,000 - $5 per day for each of the 5,090 days the court ruled the county delayed in providing all the documents Yousoufian requested.

King County voters in 1995 rejected a proposal to raise the local sales tax to pay for a new baseball stadium. But state lawmakers and then-Gov. Mike Lowry later met in emergency session and approved a different funding proposal to get the stadium built.

In May 1997, Yousoufian filed a formal request, citing the Public Records Act, for documents related to the demolition of the Kingdome and construction of Safeco Field and the new Seahawks Stadium.

Passed from department to department, Yousoufian wrote numerous requests and letters and received some information, but not all he sought.

In March 2000, he filed suit against King County. King County Superior Court Judge J. Kathleen Learned said Yousoufian's original request was broad but not ambiguous. The judge pointed out that the request had been passed along to county employees who had not been adequately trained to handle public disclosure requests and didn't take the trouble to learn. Learned said the county was negligent in responding on time and gave incorrect and incomplete information.

(Published 1:42AM, October 2nd, 2004

I'll end for now by thanking so many of you who have supported me all these years with thoughtful/encouraging/kind comments, speaking invitations, etc. And speaking of speaking, if you have a group (Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, whatever...) to whom you'd like me to speak, I'd be pleased to be invited to do so.

Armen Yousoufian