Offer in Hawkins suit still awaits reply

Almost a month has passed since the attorney for a citizen group suing Whitman County offered to drop a portion of the suit, and the county has yet to respond to the offer.

Timothy Esser, the Pullman attorney for the Organization to Void Illegal Conduct or OVIC, said his clients will drop a charge that commissioners violated the state’s open public meetings act if the county’s legal bills were paid by the developer for whom the county has pledged to build $15 million worth of infrastructure.

The open meetings violation is one of three arguments Esser outlined in the suit which asks the court to order the county from pursuing the agreement.

“I thought it was a pretty good offer, a reasonable offer,” Esser said Tuesday. “It’s what the judge proposed, and my clients think it makes sense for the county.”

OVIC sued the county in the wake of a Jan. 3 agreement signed by commissioners that commits the county to pay for up to $15 million worth of infrastructure for a 714,000-square-foot shopping center proposed by Boise-based Hawkins Companies on the Washington side of state line.

OVIC’s injunction suit charges the county pledged to use public money to build private infrastructure, contracted with Hawkins despite the company not being a licensed contractor in Washington, and that commissioners Pat O’Neill and Greg Partch held illegal meetings to discuss the deal.

Deciding Prosecutor Denis Tracy’s public opposition to the contract would jeopardize his ability to provide them adequate representation, O’Neill and Partch voted earlier this month to hire a private attorney to defend the county. Commissioner Michael Largent voted against the attorney contract, and the Jan. 3 funding agreement.

“You know, I’m not driving the bus on this,” said Largent. “Given that I was not in favor of getting an outside lawyer, I would be more than happy to have the Hawkins group pay for an attorney to defend their development.”

“Then again, why would they expend money they’re not contractually obligated to do,” he added.

Jeff DeVoe, project manager for Hawkins, told the Gazette last week he had not been told of Esser’s proposal and could not comment on what his firm would do.

Commissioners, too, said as of Tuesday they had not officially heard the OVIC proposal.

“Denis never shared that with us,” said Partch. “I read it in the paper, but that’s nothing that has ever come across my desk.”

Partch said he would tell Spokane Attorney Milton Rowland, who has been signed to represent the county, to ask Tracy about OVIC’s proposal.

Commissioner O’Neill also said he had not officially heard the proposal. He said Partch was heading discussions with Rowland on the suit.

Superior Court Judge David Frazier initially rejected the county’s proposal to hire an outside attorney, saying the initial contract proposal was unnecessarily costly and lacked a cap.

The judge subsequently approved a revised contract which lowered Rowland’s fee from $300 an hour to $225 and capped expenses at $10,000.

In his written ruling, Judge Frazier pointed out that, without the open meetings contention against the county, the suit would center around the Hawkins/county relationship which would minimize the county’s role in the defense.

Esser submitted the OVIC offer to Tracy after the judge’s ruling.

Judge Frazier recused himself from hearing the lawsuit in February. Lincoln County Judge John Strohmaier has been appointed to the case.

The county’s first payment to Hawkins is due when 10 percent of construction at the site is finished.

Hawkins estimated that first payment at $4,651,048, with six- and seven-digit payments due each month through September 2014.