Where is the Press? If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it still make a sound?

There was virtually no press coverage at these very unusual superior court proceedings as evidenced by the complete absence of reporters save one lone documentary videographer.

The result was and has been that no news coverage took place unless one counts press releases sourced from King County, regurgitated in the local press rags and news broadcasts, as actual genuine dyed-in-the-wool journalism containing teeth.

In a story riddled with the intrigue and misdirection rivaling that of a Grisham novel, the Brightwater Project - led by King County Executive Ron Sims, King County Waste Treatment Division (KCWTD), bolstered by KCWTD’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks AND armed with a battery of attorneys - has turned yet another corner legal manveuverings that should be front page news.

Local news could very possibility be counted amongst some the most accountable - by turning a blind eye – not doing their job - simply by keeping their community UNinformed about an issue that is dangerous, that will and does affect every man, woman and child, smacks of wrong doing and contains documentable misrepresentation.

Individuals involved have become so accustomed and so brazen that they are willing to commit dishonorable acts knowing full well a video camera is recording them.

Ron Sim's Brightwater - the ever moving target...

SEATTLE - UNINFORMED CONSENT – In what one would think would be a staggering blow to the County Executive’s Brightwater project, King County’s latest legal actions to avoid uncovering more  earthquake faults at the proposed Brightwater sewage treatment site fell short of target on March 3rd...but did it?

 

After a set of three fairly odd court hearings - where most of the time it was hard to keep one’s eye on the ball - Superior Court Judge Michael Hayden finally handed down the decision some critics say should have happened almost three months earlier at the first hearing in December.

On March 3rd Hayden found:

“the Hearing Examiner is the most qualified person to hear questions of adequacy of the FEIS (Final Environmental Impact Statement) or the SEIS (Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement).  The county council has made the determination that these matters are best heard by hearing examiner prior to issuance of permits.  It is this court’s determination that matter (trenching for more earthquake faults or not) will proceed to the hearing examiner for the remainder of the hearing and any appeal can follow after that.”

Attempting to circumvent its own county hearing examiner by bringing a legally nonsensical action in Superior court was the latest in legal conundrum by King County legal eagles Verna Bromley and Patrick Schneider.

Bromley is part of some 240 deputy prosecutors hailing from long-term King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng’s office.  Schneider is one of over 100 strong of one of Seattle’s oldest firms - Seattle, Foster, Pepper PLLC who were hired to augment the county prosecutor.

A desperate King County continues a legal strategy designed to short-circuit the legal process against its own citizens.   Delaying the administrative hearing with the county hearing examiner while they change the rules seems to be core to their tactic.

The current administrative action before the county hearing examiner, by all intentional purposes, has every appearance that it would demand King County trench every building footprint on the Brightwater site for dangerous faults and perform liquefaction/ground acceleration studies before they build any structures.

Not to be outdone, and in perhaps the most spectacular misuse of taxpayer resources to date, King County immediately responded to Hayden’s order by filing a motion to stay his decision while King County files an appeal in the court of appeals.   

On Friday,  March 24th, Hayden gave King County a 10 day stay while he continues to consider whether to award attorney fees to everyone King County has forced into their legal dodge ball.

Among King County raison d'être for this motion is that it “could prevent the unnecessary delay of the Brightwater project for another year, spare ratepayers at least $13,000,000 (million) in unnecessary construction costs…”