Suit delays shutdown of monorail agency

A lawsuit filed by an open records watchdog organization threatens to delay the end of Seattle's defunct monorail agency.

Abandoned by Seattle voters in 2005, Seattle Monorail Project executives have attempted to scuttle the agency since, said Beth Goldberg, chair of the monorail board.

But the authority can't close its doors -- or transfer about $500,000 in extra cash it continues to hold -- until all legal actions against it are resolved, Goldberg said. That includes two other cases awaiting final disposition in the state Supreme Court, and the public records suit filed in June by the Washington Coalition for Open Government.

"I'm looking forward to the end, but we're just not there yet," Goldberg said Friday. "We've got to let the process run its course."

In the lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court, the coalition argues the monorail authority violated state public records laws when it refused to release "the vast majority" of 1,007 documents requested by the coalition citing attorney-client privilege.

"The records being withheld ... are not confidential communications between a client and an attorney for the purpose of seeking or receiving legal advice," coalition attorney Shelley Hall said in court papers.

The Seattle P-I is one of several Washington media outlets that support the coalition.

P-I Associate Publisher Ken Bunting sits on the organization's board.

The documents at issue originally were requested by the Citizens Against the Monorail organization before the 2002 vote on the $1.75 billion project. They relate to discussions about putting the monorail initiative on the ballot.

Goldberg said the monorail authority plans to fight the suit because releasing the documents would erode governmental organizations' rights to attorney-client privilege.

"We do not believe it would be prudent to give up that privilege, because it would set precedent for other governmental entities in the state," she said.