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.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Feb 5, 2007 Seattle Weekly post on latest ruling

I just discovered that The Seattle Weekly was the first to post anything about the Monday, February 5, 2007 ruling. They did so that same day - at 2:39 PM. Link to article at the Weekly's website, and full text of the article below:

http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/blogs/dailyweekly/2007/02/more_money_ron.php


More Money, Ron

Posted Feb. 5 at 2:39 pm by Rick Anderson

Ron Sims' long irrational nightmare is NOT over: The state Court of Appeals today decided the record $380,000 awarded to Armen Yousoufian for the county executive's failure to cough up all the hidden background documents on the building of the Seahawks' stadium just wasn't satisfying enough. Get serious and pay the real penalty, said the court. "The purpose of Washington's Public Disclosure Act is best served by basing penalties principally on the degree of the offending agency's culpability," the court concluded. "Because King County's conduct in this case was grossly negligent, a penalty at the low end of the statutory range is unsustainable. We thus reverse and remand to the trial court for a determination of an appropriate penalty that is consistent with this opinion." By the way, almost ten years after he first requested the public record on how Paul Allen was able to get taxpayers to build him a stadium for almost nothing, Yousoufian still doesn't have all the documents he asked for. Earlier stories here and here.

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What will this cost the taxpayers when it's done - a million dollars...more? Imagine, if the county had turned over public information to the public like it's supposed to, what a million could do, starting with a new retraining program for the sheriff's dept.!
Posted Feb. 6 at 9:33 am by Clare

posted by Armen Yousoufian | 3:58 PM

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