LYNNWOOD — Former Lynnwood councilman Ted Hikel is suing the city again, this time over a public records request.
Hikel’s lawsuit from last year, over the transportation benefit district, still is being sorted out in court. In Hikel’s new lawsuit, he is asking a judge to order the city to pay him $8,100 in penalties related to a records request.
In both suits, Hikel is represented by Don Gough, a longtime civil attorney who’s also the former mayor. Both Hikel and Gough have made clear they’re not happy with how the city’s being run without them. Hikel is a regular presence at City Council meetings. Last year he led an unsuccessful petition to overturn Lynnwood’s new fireworks ban. Gough in 2014 sent a number of barbed memos to city leaders, accusing them of running Lynnwood into the ground since he was ousted by voters at the end of 2013. Between them, Hikel and Gough sent the city more than two dozen public records requests in 2014.
Their public records lawsuit, filed Sept. 11, is over a records request Hikel filed in June. He was seeking nearly 18 months of emails between council President Loren Simmonds and council assistant Beth Morris.
Hikel reportedly was told to expect a first installment of records in August.
Hikel said he had not received any of the documents before filing his suit. Gough in court papers accused city leaders of withholding the records on purpose, calling it a “complete failure” under the law.
The city is inundated with records requests and “works diligently to ensure timely and appropriate responses,” spokeswoman Julie Moore said in a statement Monday.
The city is hoping to add staffing to deal with records requests, she said.
Hikel’s request requires the review of more than 27,000 emails for disclosure, Moore said.
Gough has asked for his attorney fees and costs to be paid by the city under a court order. A hearing on the case is set for mid-October.
The 2014 lawsuit by Hikel and Gough also is ongoing. In that case, they accused the city’s transportation benefit district of violating the state’s open meetings act for how officials discussed a tax proposal that failed to win voter approval in November.
The city is seeking dismissal of the case, maintaining that it did nothing wrong.
Council president Simmonds in May submitted a declaration calling the first lawsuit brought by Hikel and Gough “ill-founded” and “absurd.”
“This lawsuit does not appear to be seeking a remedy for any existing facts or circumstances,” Simmonds wrote.
Gough asked the court for a summary judgment in his favor. That motion was denied in June.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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