Armen Yousoufian's Blog

After 30 years in business/investment real estate, I added "citizen activist" to my resume in 1997 when I requested sports stadium documents of King County Executive Ron Sims. After being "stonewalled", I sued, winning more at every stage, up to the state Supreme Court. Documents disgorged by Sims (after 4 years denying they existed!) revealed rigged studies. Sims misled the public on the stadiums. Other issues found me (e.g. Critical Areas Ordinance). Google “Armen Yousoufian” for more.

About Me

Name:
Location: Vashon, Washington, United States

I was born and raised in New York City. I took classical violin lessons for 10 years and studied astronomy. I built telescopes, grinding the mirrors from scratch. I was a nerd! I considered a career in classical violin but chose astrophysics. I majored in Physics at Rutgers University for 2 years, then switched and graduated in mechanical engineering. I moved to Seattle in 1969 to work on missiles for Boeing, got an MBA from Seattle University, and became a business and real estate entrepreneur for over 30 years. In 1997 I became involved in open government activism when I asked King County Executive Ron Sims for sports stadium documents. I was stonewalled. I sued under the Open Records, or Public Disclosure, Act. I won the case in King County Superior Court, but still didn’t get all the documents, nor recovered my legal fees, which the law said I was entitled to be reimbursed. I appealed and won more in the Court of Appeals and the court of public opinion. But I still didn’t get all the documents! I appealed again and won yet more in the Washington State Supreme Court. But I still don’t have all the documents! While that fight goes on I have become involved in new issues.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Seattle Weekly today: "Open Government" - NOT!

FYI, comment by Rick Anderson in this week's Seattle Weekly, released today:

AY

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0535/050831_news_buzz.php

NEWS

August 31 - September 6, 2005

BUZZ
Open Government

He won and appealed. He won again, will he appeal again? No decision yet. Armen Yousoufian, the businessman turned documents diver, last week scored a $380,000 legal payoff from King County for its failure to turn over public records he requested. But he says he's disgusted and thinks the outcome is "a disaster" for future public-disclosure requests. He spent an estimated 4,000 hours of his own time, and his legal fees alone are $330,000, he says–something that may dissuade him from appealing again. (Eight years later, he still doesn't have all the documents he requested about the county's backroom deal to build a voter-approved public football stadium for billionaire Paul Allen. See "The Cost of Secrecy," Aug. 3.) The documents Yousoufian did get led to reports on the stadium deal in Seattle Weekly, and his records battle has been frequently chronicled in these pages. But as Yousoufian noted in an e-mail he sent to supporters this week, the groundbreaking fine got only belated back-page coverage in the daily papers. "I believe the voters were duped," Yousoufian writes, but while mainstream media "have given some coverage" to the documents lawsuit, "they have done virtually nothing to show what was revealed in the documents I did obtain. In my opinion, they have let us down." RICK ANDERSON

posted by Armen Yousoufian | 5:15 PM

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