$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.

Details of case: Broyles vs. Thurston County

•Distinction: At a cost of almost $6 million, it is the most expensive public employment case paid by the Washington Counties Risk Pool, an insurance entity that contracts with private insurance companies to cover legal liability for public agencies, since it was founded in 1988.

•Issues: Three former prosecutors who worked for Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney Ed Holm from 2000 to 2002 claimed sexual discrimination and retaliation in relation to job promotions, pay, job assignments, instances of verbal sexual innuendo or sexual slurs, and a hostile working environment.

•Counties involved: Thurston, Mason, Grays Harbor, Kitsap.

•Plaintiffs: Former deputy prosecuting attorneys Audrey Broyles, Susan Sackett-DanPullo and Vonda Sargent.

•Defendants: Originally four — Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney Ed Holm; senior deputy prosecuting attorneys Phil Harju and Jim Powers; and the county itself. Harju and Powers were dismissed early on; Holm was removed as a defendant when the case, originally filed in Thurston County, was refiled in 2004 in Mason County.

•Number of defense attorneys: Originally four, plus associates: Jack Kennedy of Gig Harbor, for Ed Holm; Jennifer Bucher of Garvey Schubert & Barer, Seattle, for Phil Harju; and Colleen Kinerk of Cable, Langenbach, Kinerk & Bauer, Seattle, for Jim Powers. Mike Patterson of the Seattle law firm Lee, Smart, Cook Martin and Patterson was hired by Washington Counties Risk Pool to defend Thurston County.

•Number of days of trial in Mason County: 22, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 21, 2006.

Costs from 2002 to present

•$1.52 million: Jury award to three former Thurston County prosecutors.

•$1.45 million: Trial judge award of plaintiffs’ attorney fees.

•$2.3 million: Legal defense fees and court costs paid by liability insurers under contract with Washington Counties Risk Pool on behalf of Thurston County.

•$250,000: Legal bills paid by Thurston County under liability insurance deductible.

•$50,000: Projected cost of pending appeal with state Court of Appeals in Tacoma.

•$200,000: Salary and benefits paid to Audrey Broyles from 2002 to 2004, when her job was reinstated but she was not allowed to return to work.

•$50,000: Approximate cost to hire independent investigator and then to resolve public records dispute with The Olympian in 2002, including The Olympian’s legal fees, over release of the investigator’s report.

•TOTAL: $5.82 million.

“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.

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