As Ron Sims moves to a position of high authority in the Obama administration, the Seattle P-I reflects on his legacy in Sims oversaw huge public-records fines.
The man President Barack Obama selected to be his top deputy at the Department of Housing and Urban Development is leaving his last public job with a huge legal bill for violating Washington’s open government laws, in a case tied to Seattle’s taxpayer-financed NFL stadium and its biggest booster, billionaire Paul Allen.
Obama has pledged a new era of government transparency. But his nominee for No. 2 job at HUD, Ron Sims, ultimately was responsible as the elected chief executive of Washington state’s largest county for a saga of delays and denials that judges have deemed an inexcusable breach of open government laws.
The case is Yousoufian v. Office of Ron Sims.
