Langley hit with another public records lawsuit (SWR)
Jessie Stensland reports in the South Whidbey Record.
A South Whidbey man recently filed his fifth Public Records Act lawsuit against the city of Langley.
Eric Hood’s latest lawsuit describes — from his perspective — a history of his records requests with the city, focusing on actions by attorneys who represented the city through its insurance pool. He claims that the attorneys have acted as puppets of anti-transparency state officials, that they have provided bad advice to Langley officials and that they have improperly withheld legal files from the city. The claim arises from requests Hood made in 2020 and 2022.
The lawsuit states that Hood is not seeking monetary relief, though he is asking for attorney’s fees.
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They Said It
In a statement, Langley Mayor Scott Chaplin wrote that Hood’s new lawsuit “seems to be just a rehashing of prior unsuccessful arguments and it improperly seeks to challenge cases that the court already resolved.”
The insurance pool no longer provides attorneys to defend Public Records Act lawsuits, which means the city will have to pay legal costs.
“This expenditure will come directly from the city’s operating funds — so instead of helping fund badly needed projects, such as planning for safer streets, staff training, improvements to the Seawall or upgrading our accounting and public records software, we are spending money on lawyers,” Chaplin said. “While I am confident we will prevail, it is a shame that we will be requiring this expenditure of public funds to once again vindicate the city.”
Chaplin said he didn’t know yet if the city would pursue sanctions against Hood. Under a court rule, lawsuits must be well grounded in fact and should not be filed for an improper purpose, such as to harass.
“It is a sad day for our community that these lawsuits have spilled over into yet another year, wasting an exorbitant amount of everyone’s time and energy,” he said. “I decided to apply for the mayor’s position because I wanted to work on affordable housing, promotion of energy and water efficiency, renewable energy, social justice and other issues that local governments can play a substantial role in supporting; but instead, I have ended up spending more time on the his lawsuits than on all those issues combined.”
On the Ballot in November 2023
| CITY OF LANGLEY |
| City Council: Two of five council positions are on the ballot. Position 3: Thomas E. Gill The Whidbey News-Times reported on May 5, 2023 that Christopher Carlson, the chairperson of the Langley Finance and Personnel Commission, will run for this seat. On Tue., May 16, Kay Kenneweg filed to run for this seat as well. Position 4: Craig Cyr Councilman Cyr filed to run for re-election on Mon., May 15. Mayor Chaplin filed to run for this seat on Fri., May 19. |
| Mayor: Scott Chaplin. Mayor Chaplin was appointed after the resignation of Tim Callison. This election will be for the remainder of Chaplin’s term, which ends Dec. 31, 2023, and the succeeding four-year full term, which ends Dec. 31, 2027. In April 2023, Chaplin announced that he would not run to retain his seat. Councilman Thomas Gill filed his intention to run for mayor with the Public Disclosure Commission on May 6, 2023. Kennedy Horstman, a member of the city’s Dismantling Systemic Racism Advisory Group, announced her intention to run and filed with the PDC on May 12, 2023. |
