$6 million bill the county didn’t want made public

By Keri Brenner | The Olympian • Published March 11, 2007

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Legal fees and court costs to defend Thurston County in a sex bias lawsuit brought by three former county prosecutors are approaching $6 million, according to an analysis of newly released public records obtained by The Olympian.

“I think it’s way out of line,” said Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney Ed Holm, whose office was the target of the suit brought by three former county prosecutors who worked for him from 2000 to 2002. “It just wasn’t handled very well.”

The cost information, obtained through a state Public Records Act request filed by The Olympian on Nov. 24, was in the form of an itemized list of $2.3 million in legal fees and other costs paid on behalf of Thurston County by the Washington Counties Risk Pool, an insurance entity representing 28 counties in the state, from 2002 to the present. The risk pool contracts with private insurance companies to cover legal liability and other claims filed against public agencies.

Other costs include:

• $250,000 paid under the county insurance deductible.

• $1.45 million awarded in plaintiff attorney fees.

• $1.52 million jury award to plaintiffs.

• $50,000 estimated cost of appeal.

• $50,000 estimated cost of independent investigator and 2002 public records dispute.

• $200,000 in salary and benefits paid to plaintiff Audrey Broyles when she was reinstated in her job but not allowed to return to work.

The payout is not expected to be a direct hit on Thurston County taxpayers. However, Thurston County’s annual $556,253 premium paid to the risk pool includes an 8.1 percent surcharge assessed as a result of the lawsuit, according to risk pool executive director Vryle Hill. Hill said the sex bias case was charged to the risk pool’s 2002 accounts, and so has already been factored into the insurance calculations by risk pool providers at that time — Swiss ReAmerica of New York and CV Starr of Seattle.

“That’s what we buy insurance for,” said Thurston County Commissioner Diane Oberquell, who said the only direct county taxpayer expense was the first $250,000 paid under the county’s liability insurance policy deductible.