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Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Ombudsman hired to hear rural citizens' complaints
David Spohr, the deputy property rights ombudsman for the state of Utah, was chosen as King County's rural ombudsman, charged with investigating rural citizens' complaints about zoning, land-use and related issues.
The County Council voted Monday to hire Spohr, a former Justice Department trial lawyer in Seattle with the department's Environmental and Natural Resources Division.
The County Council voted last year to add the position to the county ombudsman's office to give residents of outlying areas an impartial channel to investigate and mediate property-related complaints. Councilmen Bob Ferguson, D-Seattle, and Reagan Dunn, R-Bellevue, sponsored the legislation.
Spohr holds one of only a few rural ombudsman positions in state and local governments across the country. From his Salt Lake City office he investigates, mediates and arbitrates land-use disputes between property owners and government agencies.
He was a Justice Department trial attorney in Seattle and Washington, D.C., from 1999 to 2005. While in Washington, D.C., he was a court-appointed mediator and frequently negotiated resolutions to complex cases, including crafting a $32.2 million settlement.
Spohr's wife has maintained their home in Seattle since he took the Utah job last year.
One of the 42 unsuccessful applicants for the new position was Steve Hammond, a conservative property-rights activist from Enumclaw and a former county councilman. Dunn defeated him in the 2005 Republican primary election in largely rural District 9.
A group of property-rights activists had lobbied council members to give the position to Hammond, but some members, including Ferguson, believed the job called for an impartial mediator, not a property-rights advocate.
The position was funded in the 2006 county budget adopted by the council last fall amid suggestions by some courthouse insiders that it was created with Hammond in mind.
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