PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County could be fined anywhere from $1,875 to more than $35,000 after a Kitsap County Superior Court judge ruled against the county in a lawsuit filed by Gardiner security services businessman Joe D’Amico.
D’Amico filed suit after phone numbers were redacted from county Commissioner David Sullivan’s records after D’Amico requested the phone records of all three county commissioners in mid-June 2008.
D’Amico arguedthat phone numbers redacted from the response to an open records request he made last year were public information.
Judge Sally Olsen agreed with him last week and will set the amount of the fine, as well as reasonable attorney fees, at a hearing that has not yet been scheduled.
The county is subject to a $5 to $100 fine each day the record was withheld from D’Amico, a total of 375 days.
If Olsen sets the fine at the minimum of $5 per day, Jefferson County’s fine could be $1,875. If she sets the fine at the maximum, the amount would be $37,500.
The fine also could be any amount in between.
David Alvarez, county civil deputy prosecutor, said Tuesday that the phone numbers were redacted because they were “personal calls that did not relate the public transaction of business.
“They could have been numbers to his sister, a friend or whatever.”
County won’t appeal
The county is unlikely to appeal the case at the state Appeals Court level.
“We just believe this is a decision that we are going to have to live with,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez did not know if the county’s expenses in the legal fight would be covered under the Washington Counties Risk Pool, and attempts to contact the risk pool attorney representing the county in the case, John Justice, were unsuccessful Tuesday.
The risk pool was created by counties to provide their now-28 members, including Jefferson, with joint programs such as legal services and insurance.
Alvarez said the phone records without redactions were made immediately available Monday to D’Amico’s Olympia attorney, Greg Overstreet.
Overstreet said he believed the judge made the right decision.
“The idea is that the public gets to know what the calls are that are being made on the phone system that their tax dollars are paying for,” Overstreet said.
No pizza exemption
Overstreet said Sullivan told D’Amico that the numbers were calls such as those made to Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza.
“I told the judge there was no pizza privacy exemption,” Overstreet said.
Sullivan said some of the calls were to Papa Murphy’s, while others were to his home, family or friends.
“I think private information should be private and public information should be public,” Sullivan said.
D’Amico on Tuesday said he had not had time to find out which numbers were redacted.
He said he sought county commissioners’ phone records to find out if they were related to his protracted legal battle with the county over his land uses at Security Services Northwest in Gardiner.
Ex parte communication?
“We wanted to see if there was any potential ex parte communication between any hearing examiner and the county commissioners,” D’Amico said.
Ex parte communication can harm the impartiality of a case.
In D’Amico’s case, ex parte describes a hearing examiner’s contact with a person represented by an attorney, outside the presence of his attorney.
D’Amico’s attorneys have alleged that former county Hearing Examiner Irv Berteig admitted in a deposition that he spoke with county staff during the case.
Berteig in 2006 and 2007 heard D’Amico’s arguments supporting expansion of his security company, which he calls Fort Discovery, on land owned by the Gunstone family.
D’Amico has proposed expanding his shooting ranges to train law officers and Department of Defense personnel, but county officials say he must obtain building permits on structures at Fort Discovery that were shut down.
D’Amico’s hearing two weeks ago on his case, which was remanded by a Kitsap County Superior Court Judge back to the county, lasted about five hours.
Hearing Examiner Steve Causseaux is expected to determine when D’Amico began training groups at Fort Discovery and if he can continue training outside his staff.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
