King County to pay monster-sized damages for another public records violation
Posted by Scott "The Piper" St. Clair - April 25, 2009Like Jacob Marley haunted Scrooge, the ghost of the 2004 election continues to haunt King County Executive Ron Sims, newly appointed by President Obama to be the #2 guy at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The now-online Seattle P-I reports that the county has agreed to pay noted conservative blogger and very good muck raker, Stefan Sharkansky, $225 thousand to settle legal claims made by Sharkansky over the Sims-led county's failure to respond to public records requests made in connection with the election.
Props to a feisty friend who linked the P-I story on my Blackberry while I was sitting in a Heritage Foundation Resource Bank session in Los Angeles on blogging, journalism, and linking-up via new media - talk about your perfect example!
"The lawsuit stemmed from my December 2004 request for a list of all voters who voted in the November 2004 election. The county did not satisfy my request in full until January 2007.
The documents that they eventually provided to me revealed that county election officials unlawfully counted hundreds of ineligible ballots in the 2004 election: a multiple of Christine Gregoire's 133-vote "margin of victory" over Dino Rossi in the contested gubernatorial race. Documentation of these illegal votes was withheld from discovery in the election contest trial and not released to me until months after the trial. Consequently, the trial was conducted in ignorance of these potentially outcome-changing illegal votes.
Additional documents that were released last month in discovery for my case confirmed that county officials both knew more about the illegal vote counting than they had previously acknowledged, and also knowingly withheld responsive documents from me during 2005 and 2006.The exceptionally large (for records cases) settlement, which King County offered before trial, clearly recognizes the county's culpability in this matter."
What makes this doubly ironic is that the hefty settlement comes on the heals of King County getting spanked by the Washington State Supreme Court for a similar refusal to follow the state Public Disclosure Act. In that case, followed closely by EFF on its Washington Supreme Court Blog as well as on Liberty Live, King County, again under the leadership of Sims, stonewalled citizen-activist Armen Yousoufian for several years after he requested public documents relating to the construction of Qwest Field. The clearly irritated Supreme Court held that an award to Yousoufian of $124 thousand for repeated and egregious violations was chump change. It sent the case back down with direction that something on the high end of the penalty range - perhaps as much as $825 thousand - was more like it.
And King County is cutting essential public health and safety services because it's strapped for cash? Well, I guess we now know why - forking over all these damages for its own violations of the law does get expensive, doesn't it?
As noted, Ron Sims has been nominated for a senior-level position in the Obama Administration. Our good friend Toby Nixon, in a comment on Shark's blog post, wondered how Sims' record on public records tracks with President Obama's very first executive order issued after his inaguration
that calls for "unprecedented level of openness in Government."
In Sims' case, that must mean an openness in government's checkbook to pay claims for violating the rights of citizens to see what it is that their government is up to. A fish rots from the head down.
While many are questioning whether the Sims nomination will survive, the good news for King County taxpayers is that if it does, they'll see the backside of him and, hopefully, any more monumental bills for breaking the law.
See ya, Ron - in that scofflaw brood of vipers in D.C., you'll fit right in!
The Piper
Thoughts? Add Comment -
Reality said on Apr 25 2009 at 1:41pm
Unfortunately, corruption in King County is systemic. No one rises to positions of authority unless they are corrupt, or corruptible, and so goes this government. Even with Sims gone, the machine built by Gary Locke and perfected by Sims will continue on.
Elaine said on Apr 27 2009 at 10:15am
Obama has been very consistent in who his nominees are for high positions in his adminstration.
Who has he nominated? The corrupt and the criminal.
Kind of makes sense when you consider his background.