[Capr-announce] March 3rd Victory in Dow Constantine recall legal fees issue

[ayousoufian at comcast.net]

Saturday, March 5, 2005

Item: March 3rd Victory in Dow Constantine recall legal fees issue

Subject:  Legal victory Thursday, March 3 defending against James Dow ("Chairman Mao") Constantine's attempt to charge me with $25,000 in inflated legal fees for his defense (paid for by taxpayers) against my effort to recall him from office.

(Note: this is a condensed version of the full email sent to the CAPR Discussion list and also posted at my blog at: http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2005/03/victory-in-dow-constantine-recall.html , where you can post comments in reaction.  Please read directly at my blog right now by clicking on the link, instead of continuing to read it here, and then consider posting a comment when you're done.  And note that I have made comments at my blog referring folks new to all this to the www.proprights.org website to join our e-mailing lists, etc. This is part of my efforts to spread the word about our property rights efforts, our website, etc.)

Dear CAPR Colleagues and anyone else who might be interested,

As many know by now, my lawyer and I were back in King County Superior Court Thursday afternoon, March 3, on an issue related to my recent attempted recall of King County Councilmember James Dow ("Chairman Mao"* ) Constantine (see also February 13, 2005 posting at: http://yousoufian.blogspot.com/2005/02/constantine-recall-court-hearing.html).

The issue was Constantine's legal fees.

Constantine ran up a $20,000 bill, paid by taxpayers, defending himself against my recall effort, which he then pursued me for.  This effort was in spite of clear language in the state recall statute that says the process is to be: "without cost to any party" (RCWA.56.140 - see that section under the "Recall" statutes at: http://www.leg.wa.gov/RCW/index.cfm?fuseaction=chapterdigest&chapter=29A.56 ).  Additionally, state Supreme Court rulings in 1998 and 2000 seem clear that legal fees may only be awarded in extreme cases involving improper conduct which were not part of the court's findings in my recall effort. 

In the end, Constantine lost the case.

Yet it may not be over. Constantine's lawyer suggested they might appeal to the state Supreme Court (unnecessarily spending more taxpayer dollars) and/or pursue "CR11 sanctions" against my lawyer - i.e. fines and "sanctions". 

This all seemed like mean-spirited political retribution and intimidation designed to send a message to citizens that any effort to hold politicians accountable - in what is supposed to be a democracy - will be met with a counter-attack intended to make you regret doing so and to never think about doing it again. In my opinion, this is, once again, a sad state of affairs for a democracy and for anyone thinking about exercising the right of recall as provided for in our state Constitution and in our statutes.

Armen Yousoufian
website for Ron Sims PDA lawsuit: www.ArmenYousoufian.com

Footnote:

*Dow Constantine is chair of the King County Council's Growth Management and Unincorporated Areas Committee that passed the Critical Areas Ordinance. Mike Siegel of AM 770 radio KTTH refers to "Chairman Dow" as "Chairman Mao", due to the "land taking" nature of the Critical Areas Ordinance, comparing it to what Chairman Mao did to landowners in China.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.celestial.com/pipermail/capr-announce/attachments/20050305/46f2ffae/attachment.html