Now for a tale of governmental arrogance, corruption and contempt for both the law and the public that surprised even the jaded cynics here at the Shark Blog. Although the specifics involve King County and Washington State, I now wonder how often this kind of stuff happens elsewhere in the country. (Quite a lot, I imagine).
It all started back in 1996-1997 when Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen proposed to purchase the Seattle Seahawks, on the condition that Washington voters would approve a public financing measure to replace the Kingdome with a new stadium. Local officials, including Governor Gary Locke and King County Executive Ron Sims, campaigned for the ballot measure, reassuring the voters that outside studies supported the reconstruction and financing plan.
Voters approved the package in a special election in 1997 and the new stadium was completed in 2002 at a total cost to the public of about a billion dollars, including construction costs, infrastructure improvements and bond interest.
Back in 1997 a Seattle hotel owner named Armen Yousoufian petitioned King County under the state's Public Disclosure Act for related documents, such as the "outside studies" that Sims and Locke cited to lobby the voters to support the stadium. But instead of delivering the documents as required by law, the County has engaged Yousoufian in a years-long battle of stonewalling, foot-dragging and lawsuits. In 2001, a judge ordered King County to pay Yousoufian over $100,000 in fines and attorney fees, the state's largest award ever for violations of the Public Records Act. The county continues to stonewall requests for additional documents. Legal appeals are in process.
I heard Yousoufian give a talk the other day. His story was astonishing both for the documents that county officials have tried to hide from the public and for the lengths they have gone to obstruct Yousoufian's access to public records. For example, various "outside studies" that supported less costly alternatives to the $400 million new construction were buried and redone until one report finally gave the answer that Paul Allen and the county officials were looking for. It took years for Yousoufian to get hold of the documents that even confirmed the existence of the buried studies, let alone the studies themselves.
What emerges is a picture of, in essence, a large-scale fraud and cover-up. If Sims and Locke had not lied to the voters before the 1997 election, the costly stadium measure may well have failed. I don't believe there is any evidence of outright kickbacks to elected officials. But at least one senior aide to Gary Locke who served as a liaison to Paul Allen took a job on Allen's payroll shortly after finishing up the public's end of the business. Equally unsettling, a local newspaper reporter who softballed his coverage of the stadium deal went on to work for Allen's PR firm. It's not exactly clear why Locke and Sims were so motivated to pull a fast one on the taxpayers. I suspect it was mainly about (1) not wanting to "lose the Seahawks" on their watch; (2) the hundreds of millions of dollars in patronage and construction jobs they got to hand out. Meanwhile, most of us taxpayers get hosed.
There are other troublings aspects. In spite of the Public Records Act, as Yousoufian discovered
What a county councilman told us off the record ... is when the county has documents it doesn't want you to see or can lead to damages, the unwritten policy is don't release them...Usually... the requester just goes away. If not, the county will take its chances with a public disclosure lawsuit, which can be costly for a citizen to wage.Creepy, no?
Meanwhile, there are more large-scale public work projects underway that also have an appearance of fraud: The Seattle Monorail, the light-rail system and Paul Allen's plan for a "biotech hub" that for some reason is said to require a public "investment" of $500 million.
To learn more, go read the collection of articles at Armen Yousoufian's website. If you live in the area, try to catch one of Yousoufian's occasional public talks about his lawsuit. And pay close attention the next time a public official asks for hundreds of millions of dollars to build something. Especially when Ron Sims or Paul Allen are involved.
UPDATE To contact Yousoufian directly for more information or notices of his upcoming public appearances: ayousoufian .At. comcast.net
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 14, 2003 07:00 AMAnd while we're at it, Sound Transit's light rail is another occasion where the public was gulled into approving a route for a price - and is now being stiffed on a second vote when faced with a truncated route, less stations and much larger real-world price. Mr. Sims has no shame nor democratic principles.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on November 14, 2003 08:27 AMThe comparisons to the Bush administration are too great to let this one go buy. They've turned denying Freedom of Information Act requests into official policy (10/12/01 memo from AG Ashcroft). They've withheld documents from congress (Energy task force, 9/11 intelligence). They've replaced industry regulators with industry insiders wherever possible (EPA, SEC, MHSA), and (surpise!) all manner of corporate miscreants are finding themselves with legal and/or economic windfalls as a result. All at the expense of the health, safety, and money of the general public.
Posted by: Simon on November 14, 2003 10:01 AMArmen's story is just as noteworthy today as it was a year ago, but local media treat it as passe, water under the bridge.
He's still fighting it though. Did you know he won a judgment for $150,000 which didn't even cover his legal costs?
Posted by: bleeding heart conservative on November 14, 2003 11:41 AMI want to thank the previous posting for noting that legal costs exceeded the award, in a lawsuit I supposedly won, under a law that seems to require the offending agency to make the prevailing party/document requestor whole! In the interests of accuracy (after all, my lawsuit is about FULL disclosure, not just REASONABLE disclosure, which was the standard the trial judge used and which was upheld by the Court of Appeals and which I have appealed to the Washington Supreme Court), I want to clarify the award amount versus the legal costs versus what the last posting mentioned. The lower court award was approximately $114,000, versus legal expenses of approximately $150,000. The award itself was not $150,000, but the legal expenses were. Though the award was a record amount in state history and over twice the previous highest award, it was well short of my legal expenses (mostly legal fees, but also approximately $10K just in deposition and transcript fees, photocopies, multiple filing fees for such things as motions to compel King County to produce, dozens of courier fees, etc.). Armen Yousoufian (email: ayousoufian@comcast.net)
Posted by: Armen Yousoufian on November 14, 2003 02:20 PM Of course the Seattle Times was all over this story. Not!
The Times doesn't do stories on city or state corruption because that would be "divisive".
FYI, my next scheduled presentation on my lawsuit and the revelations contained in the documents obtained so far and that is open to the public will be Thursday evening, January 22, 2004, in Kent, at the Round Table Pizza for the 47th Legislative District Republican Party monthly meeting. Anyone is welcome. Buy yourself some food and beverage and socialize from 6:30PM, meeting starts at 7, I start at approximately 7:20 to 7:30 and go for 40 to 60 minutes. It would be a good idea to reconfirm a few days before to be sure nothing has changed. Armen Yousoufian (ayousoufian@comcast.net) 206 634 0100 ext. #160
Posted by: Armen Yousoufian on November 14, 2003 03:04 PMStefan, Thanks for covering this mess. And thanks, Armen, for pursuing it.
I was upset about Paul Allen's sweet stadium deal even before the election he bought. By the conventional definition of ownership, Allen owns the Seahawks stadium that the taxpayers paid for. He receives all the benefits of ownership. Conveniently he has this PSA that "owns" it, since public money can't go to a private concern according to our state Constitution. Though the Washington Supreme Court never finds that it applies to powerful, connected people.
Keep it up.
Posted by: Ron Hebron on November 15, 2003 05:34 PMWant information on unethical, immoral, and illegal behavior by a professor at Seattle University and the attempt by the Catholic institution to cover it up? Details at www.purplepew.org/witnessblog/
Posted by: Carey on October 4, 2004 07:30 PM