Ward submits resignation letter, cites health reasons for stepping down

Published 2:39 pm Wednesday, December 10, 2014

David Ward submitted his resignation letter to the city Wednesday.

In it, the former Central Ward councilman made no mention of the public records lawsuit and settlement that forced his departure from the city council. Instead, he cited “health reasons” for quitting his post on the council.

In the letter, dated Dec. 9, Ward wrote:

“Dear Council Members:

I need to memorialize my resignation to city council. To this point, it has just been conveyed to you verbally. Effective immediately, I am resigning my position on the council for health reasons. While I have enjoyed serving the citizens of the Island, I need to give my full attention to my recovery.”

Ward, who was three years into a four-year term, was forced to step down as part of a settlement agreement that ended a public records lawsuit against the city.

Bainbridge agreed last week to pay a settlement totaling $487,790 to Althea Paulson and Bob Fortner, who filed a public records lawsuit against the city last year after the city failed to provide emails that were sent between council members Ward, Councilman Steve Bonkowski and then-councilwoman Debbi Lester that focused on city business.

A Superior Court judge ruled in May that the city did not do an adequate job of searching for the public records that were requested, and the decision including a scathing rebuke of Ward and Bonkowski for deleting emails from their personal email accounts that were public records. The judge also said the personal email accounts of Ward and Bonkowski could be searched for missing records, along with the hard drives of their personal computers.

The city reached a settlement agreement with Paulson and Fortner early last week after an 11-hour marathon mediation meeting in Seattle.

In the agreement, Ward agreed to step down while Bonkowski was spared from having to turn over his computer and email account for further inspection.

Before the agreement was signed, Ward also admitted that evidence in the court case had been destroyed. His attorney said the computer that he had been using for his personal email account was owned by his employer, and the laptop had been returned upon his retirement and had since been wiped clean.

His lawyer also noted that Ward had given false information while under oath in the court case about his search for missing records.

The settlement came after the court decision against the city and a recent decision by the Court of Appeals not to review the case. Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Jeannette Dalton had also already ruled that the city was obliged to cover most of Paulson and Fortner’s legal fees — an amount totaling $109,345.

Even so, the settlement was a long time coming.

Paulson and her attorney, Dan Mallove, met with the city July 17, 2013 to warn city officials that a public records lawsuit was imminent if the city did not provide the records that had been requested.

Soon after the lawsuit was filed, Mallove met with city officials and offered to settle the case if Bonkowski, Ward and Lester agreed to turn over the hard drives of their personal computers to the city for an independent, third-party inspection for emails that should have been released.

The lawsuit would be dismissed, Mallove told the city attorney at that meeting, if the city then released any emails on city business that were discovered on the computers.

The only money sought in that settlement offer was $710, the filing costs for the lawsuit and service fees.

The city refused and the court battle continued.

On Tuesday, the case came to a close. City officials signed the settlement agreement, and Ward tendered his resignation.

City officials said Wednesday that the city has spent $264,837 on legal fees for the lawsuit, not including additional payments for legal work completed in December or the costs of the settlement.

The city’s total cost of the lawsuit in legal fees and the settlement is $752,627. That amount does not include staff time at city hall and other internal costs for the court case.

The settlement is expected to be paid early next year and will not be covered by the city’s insurance.

The settlement payment is also expected to require a budget amendment that must be approved by the city council.

Paulson again said Wednesday that she and Fortner are not planning to keep the settlement money.

“We intend to give the proceeds to island nonprofits,” Paulson said.