February 14, 2007 article in Vashon Beachcomber

In its Wednesday, February 14, 2007 edition, my hometown weekly newspaper had the following article by its editor, Leslie Brown (for the record, I find the county's response typical, disingenuous, and the usual spin control. E.g. the county had designated Public Disclosure Officers for each department I dealt with already, back in 1997, when I originally made my request.):

Islander Armen Yousoufian scored another legal victory last week in his long-running battle against King County over its failure to release hundreds of pages of documents nearly a decade ago.

The state Court of Appeals, in a unanimous decision issued on Feb. 5, ruled that the lower court erred when it ordered King County to pay Yousoufian $15 a day — or $123,000 altogether — for its failure to comply with the state Public Disclosure Act. The Court of Appeals sent the case back to King County Superior Court to determine a new penalty.

The decision is the latest twist in a battle that began 10 years ago, when Yousoufian first asked the county to provide him with documents having to do with the public financing of a new football stadium. Yousoufian sued County Executive Ron Sims in 2000.

The latest ruling is the second one handed down by the Court of Appeals and the third issued by an appellate court (the case also went to the state Supreme Court). In all three of those instances, the courts have ruled in Yousoufian’s favor and ordered the trial judge to increase the county’s fine.

It’s also a case that has made Yousoufian — a Seattle businessman and self-described open-government activist — something of a cause celebre in media circles and among other crusaders for strong public disclosure laws.

News stories about his latest victory have run in at least three daily newspapers. The “Seattle Post-Intelligencer” wrote an editorial supporting his case. Several blogs have carried stories. And last week Yousoufian spent an hour on a radio show hosted by KIRO talk show host Dori Monson, whose show — often a tirade against King County and government in general — is one of the region’s highest-rated shows.

Yousoufian said he was pleased by the appellate court’s decision but added that “it’s not clear how much of a victory it is” — since the court remanded the case instead of issuing what Yousoufian called “a hefty, daily penalty that the facts in my case clearly seem to justify.”

“Clearly, it improves the eventual outcome. But we don’t know what the eventual outcome will be. (King County Superior Court Judge Michael) Hayden may give me another $10 to $25 dollars a day. That’s nowhere near the deterrent necessary to make sure government agencies comply with the law,” he said.

The county hasn’t decided if it will appeal the decision, said Carolyn Duncan, Sims’ communications director.

Duncan added that the county has made significant strides in how it handles public disclosure requests in recent years, both because of Yousoufian’s suit and because of a significant increase in requests for government documents. The county, for instance, now has an enhanced and permanent training program in place for employees who need to know about public disclosure laws and has hired a public disclosure officer, Duncan said.

“There’s much more oversight for any given request, and we’re coordinating with the prosecutor in a way that we’ve never done before,” she said.