Feb 6, 2007: Seattle Post-Intelligencer Article on latest court ruling

Link to article in today's Seattle Post Intelligencer (you can leave a comment following the article if you click on the link below). Text of article further below:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/302535_settlement06.html

Tuesday, February 6, 2007
County may pay more in lawsuitCourt orders award raised
By GREGORY ROBERTSP-I REPORTER
Another legal assault on King County, another victory in court for Armen Yousoufian.
The state Court of Appeals said Monday that the nearly $300,000 that the county was ordered to pay Yousoufian in his long-running battle over public records wasn't enough -- and ordered a lower court to increase the amount.
The 2005 award, which was itself a court-ordered increase of the original penalty in the case, already stood as the largest in a Washington state public records dispute, Yousoufian said.
"The saga goes on," he said Monday.
It began in 1997, when Yousoufian heard County Executive Ron Sims on the radio talking up the economic benefits of a new stadium for the Seattle Seahawks professional football team. That was before a statewide vote on a $325 million stadium tax package, which was approved that June.
Skeptical of Sims' claims, Yousoufian asked the county for a look at the economic-impact studies mentioned by Sims as well as information on how they were paid for. But the county was slow to respond, and after four years of intermittent releases, Yousoufian sued, claiming the county had violated state laws requiring prompt compliance.
In 2001, a King County Superior Court judge agreed. But the violation, the judge said, was the result of incompetence, or "gross negligence," and didn't involve a deliberate attempt to conceal the information. The judge gave Yousoufian the minimum award of $5 for each day of delay, assessed on several categories of requests.
Yousoufian appealed the decision, arguing that the penalty was too light. The state Supreme Court ultimately agreed and instructed the Superior Court to reconsider. In 2005, a different Superior Court judge upped the amount to $15 a day, for a total penalty of $123,780, plus $171,100 from the county for Yousoufian's lawyer.
Yousoufian said then he was disgusted by the revised penalty -- the maximum is $100 per day per violation -- and he again appealed. The appeals court Monday agreed with him and sent the case back to Superior Court.
The appeals court did not specify a penalty.
Yousoufian said he would review the ruling before deciding on his next step. A Sims spokeswoman said the county has corrected the shortcomings that gave rise to the case. As for the latest ruling, she said, "It's just the legal process at work."
P-I reporter Gregory Roberts can be reached at 206-448-8022 or gregoryroberts@seattlepi.com.
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