Citizens committee recharges with new legal team, fundraiser

A citizens committee waging a legal battle against Seattle's two daily newspapers regrouped Wednesday, hiring a fundraiser and new lawyers and bolstering its board.

The moves were an indication the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town is not going away, despite some setbacks that included losing its lawyer and having ties severed from a key source of funding.

In fact, organizers say, the committee is looking to raise as much as $500,000 for its legal expenses.

It will solicit the money from "prominent people in the community that really care about Seattle," said committee Co-Chairwoman Anne Bremner, a well-known trial attorney.

The committee, a coalition of labor, civic and political groups and individuals, says it speaks for the public in trying to keep Seattle a city with two daily newspapers.

Bremner said the committee has hired Colby Underwood, a fundraising consultant who has worked on campaigns for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and Darcy Burner, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert this fall.

Underwood will be paid with a portion of the money he raises.

The committee considered raising money on its own, Bremner said, but decided it needed to solicit the help of a professional. Its goal is to raise $500,000, and Bremner said she has even toyed with the idea of asking the rock band Pearl Jam to perform at a fundraising event.

The committee on Wednesday also retained a four-person team to replace its former lawyer, Dmitri Iglitzin. The team is made up of attorneys Michael Goldfarb, Mickey Gendler, Kathy George and James Lobsenz. Bremner said court costs will increase as the committee hires expert witnesses and gets into "in-the-trenches litigation."

The committee is an intervenor in a court battle between The Seattle Times Co. and The Hearst Corp., which owns the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Representatives of both companies have been critical of some of the group's efforts in the past.

The companies are locked in a contractual dispute over a joint-operating agreement (JOA) between them that goes back some 23 years.

The Times has said its financial burden in the arrangement is so great that its survival is at stake. It has invoked an escape clause in the contract that could leading to ending the JOA, closing the P-I or both.

Hearst has said the survival of the P-I would be at risk were the JOA to end and is challenging the Times' loss claims — which enabled it to invoke the escape clause — in court. The dispute is headed into binding arbitration, with a decision by late spring next year.

The two-newspaper committee, which wasn't part of the decision to arbitrate, was successful in blocking the companies' effort to freeze all court proceedings until after the arbitration. That enabled the group to pursue claims including one that challenges the constitutionality of a 1999 amendment to the JOA.

The committee was largely underwritten by the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, a union representing employees at both newspapers. But the Guild voted in May to sever all ties with the group.

That vote came after a contingent of members from The Times complained the committee's legal maneuverings were harming Guild members and could undermine arbitration efforts.

The vote led Iglitzin, the Guild's lawyer, to resign from also representing the committee because of conflict of interest.

In addition to its new hires, the committee Wednesday added two people to its board, bringing the total membership to eight.

The new members, Nancy Amidei and Ref Lindmark, have been active in several community organizations and councils, Bremner said.

The group will continue to recruit board members, she added.

"We're feeling very heartened," she said. "We're up and ready and excited, and committed to keeping two newspapers in Seattle."

Kim Peterson: 206-464-2360 or kpeterson@seattletimes.com