Associated Press coverage of latest ruling

The following Associated Press piece has appeared in various newspapers:

Bigger fine again ordered for King County public records delay

Published Tuesday, February 6th, 2007
The Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) - For the second time in the same case, a state appeals panel has directed that a King County Superior Court judge order a bigger fine for inexcusable delays in producing public records.

In a unanimous ruling Monday, the three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals found the nearly $300,000 assessed by Judge Michael C. Hayden in 2005 was inadequate and returned the case brought by Armen Yousoufian to Superior Court for "an appropriate penalty" but did not specify how much that should be.

It was unclear whether the county would appeal again. The case already has been before the state Supreme Court once. Yousoufian said Hayden's award was the largest in a public records dispute in Washington state.

"The saga goes on," the Seattle business operator and former hotel owner said Monday.

Yousoufian first sought economic impact studies on Qwest Field when the publicly financed football stadium for the Seahawks was being considered before a $325 million stadium tax package was approved in a statewide vote in June 1997.

He had heard County Executive Ron Sims refer to the studies on a radio show.

After years of getting dribs and drabs of information, Yousoufian sued the county on the basis of state laws that required prompt compliance with requests for public records.

In 2001 Superior Court Judge Kathleen Learned ruled that the delay resulted from incompetence, or "gross negligence," rather than a deliberate attempt to conceal the information, and awarded the minimum fine - $5 for each day of delay.

Even then, she noted, the fine would come to $1.5 million if the computation was for each day that each document was late, so she bundled the documents into groups and assessed $5 a day for each bundle.

Yousoufian appealed, arguing that the penalty was too light. The Court of Appeals and state Supreme Court agreed.

The case wound up with Hayden after Learned retired, and he boosted the assessment to $15 a day, computing the total penalty to be $123,780, plus $171,100 for Yousoufian's legal costs.

Noting that the maximum penalty is $100 a day, Yousoufian appealed again, resulting in the ruling Monday.

He said he would he would examine the appellate decision before deciding on his next step.

A Sims spokeswoman said the county has corrected the shortcomings that were cited in the case.