King County to face bigger fine for delaying release of documents about Qwest Field financing

The state Supreme Court has ruled that a $124,000 fine paid by King County for blatant violations of the state Public Records Act isn't nearly enough, and has sent the case back to Superior Court with a recommendation to increase the penalty.

The nine justices issued five opinions on the matter Thursday, reflecting that the case has been to the Supreme Court before on many of the same issues.

Then, as now, the justices sent it back to the trial court with orders to increase the fine to be paid to retired businessman Armen Yousoufian, who sued the county after it delayed the release of documents pertaining to the public financing of Qwest Field.

Justice Richard Sanders even sounded a bit exasperated in his majority opinion: "We are asked once again to determine the appropriate application" of the section of the Public Disclosure Act that provides penalties for agencies that don't comply with the intent or the letter of the law, he wrote.

Six of the nine justices said they did not believe the $123,780 awarded to Yousoufian, along with $87,000 in lawyers' fees, was enough.

The disputes in their opinions turned mostly on the discretion of trial judges in imposing the penalties and whether it was appropriate to suggest how big a fine to impose. Justices Susan Owens and Barbara Madsen were joined by pro tem Justice Karen Seinfeld in the dissent.

Yousoufian, 61, of Vashon Island, who has waged a 12-year legal battle with the King County over its public-disclosure practices, said that the justices "have, at long, long last, given us a strong ruling in favor of public disclosure with some real teeth in it."

In 1997, Yousoufian asked the office of County Executive Ron Sims for copies of studies pertaining to the impact of the proposed $300 million Seahawks stadium. County residents were about to vote on a referendum to pay for Qwest Field.

King County delayed release of the information for nearly four years, denying Yousoufian the information before the vote.

"The unchallenged findings of fact demonstrate King County repeatedly deceived and misinformed Yousoufian for years," Sanders wrote.

Yousoufian sued in 2000 and when he won, the court awarded him the minimum $5 a day for each violation. He appealed and the case was sent back with orders to give him more.

The trial judge tripled the fine to $15 a day, but Yousoufian appealed again.

Sims spokeswoman Carolyn Duncan said she would not discuss the lawsuit, but gave assurances the county "takes the Public Disclosure Act very seriously."

Yousoufian's attorney, Michael Brannan, said he'll ask the trial court to impose the maximum penalty: $825,200. That would equal $100 a day for each of the 8,252 days the trial court said the county violated the law.

The court arrived at that number using a formula that considered hundreds of instances when the county illegally denied Yousoufian's requests or appeals more than once in a single day.

"High end" fine

Five of the justices found King County's actions so egregious to warrant a fine at the "high end" of the act's $5 to $100 penalty range. Two justices, Sanders and Justices James Johnson, said it should "approach, if not reach" the maximum.

The Supreme Court found that fines should be large enough to get the agency's attention, especially in cases like this one when the violations were so blatant.

A fine of $124,000 to an agency with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars apparently isn't what the justices had in mind, said Michele Earl-Hubbard, a media attorney who filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington.

"Every message the court is sending here is that the penalties actually have to deter," she said.