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.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Update: next public talk: Jan 12, 7 PM, North Bellevue Community Center

After not having posted to this blog, nor given any public talks for awhile, I am back! Two quick comments:

1. My next public appearance on my ongoing Public Disclosure Act lititigation:

I'll be speaking in Bellevue Thursday night, 7 PM, at the North Bellevue Community Center, 4063 148th Ave. NE, Bellevue. Go to the link below for more details, a map, link to a more detailed map, etc.

http://www.kingcountyyr.org/#January

2. The litigation is not over! After due consideration, my lawyers and I, with terrific support from many other organizations (the newspapers, Washington Coalition for Open Government, Evergreen Freedom Foundation, and others) decided to appeal (again!) to the appellate courts. The only issue now is the amount of the daily fines that were assessed against King County. We feel the $15 a day that came out of the "remand" proceedings this past summer (see earlier blog postings) was too low. I'll be posting the appellate brief to my website (www.ArmenYousoufian.com) and updating the website as soon as I get a chance. The appellate brief is easy reading and will fill you in on our reasoning as to why the daily fine should have been much higher on the $5 to $100 a day scale. Even King County had stated in their brief in the remand proceeding that the entire scale should be used, and that cases involving sufficiently bad facts and circumstances and conduct merited fines toward the top of the range. Wouldn't the facts and conduct in my case have fit that bill?

Stay tuned for an announcement of the "oral argument" date before the Court of Appeals, once the court issues a date.

Armen Yousoufian

posted by Armen Yousoufian | 11:24 AM

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