Partial victory in suit against county

By Warren Cornwall

Herald Writer

The former head of Snohomish County’s planning division has won a partial victory in a suit over how the county handled his resignation.

A jury awarded Greg Williams roughly $51,000 after finding the county failed to fully meet its side of a 1993 deal paving the way for him to leave his post as county planning director.

But the judgment was a fraction of the $2 million that Williams initially sought. Earlier, a judge had dismissed most of William’s complaint.

Williams initially claimed he had been defamed and suffered emotional distress, and that the county broke its agreement and hurt his job chances. That came after Steve Holt, who was then head of the Department of Planning and Development Services, allegedly made references to Williams in several speeches.

Much of that claim, however, was dismissed by Superior Court Judge Ronald Castleberry.

That left the jury to decide whether the county had lived up to its promise to put Williams on a list of people to get priority for new county job openings and to help him find another job.

Williams’ attorney, Mitch Cogdill, said there is no indication his client wound up on the correct list, or that the county notified him of job openings during the two years when he was supposed to be alerted. The jury, he said, found the county had breached the contract with Williams.

"I’m really delighted to get before my peers with this issue, and delighted with the outcome," the 54-year-old Williams said.

Cogdill said Williams might appeal the dismissal of other parts of the claim and will seek to get the county to pay his attorney’s fees in the current case.

But Snohomish County attorney Tom Fitzpatrick, assistant chief of the county prosecutor’s civil division, said Williams never took the steps needed to get another county job.

"Our argument was he never expressed any interest in a job at the county. He never applied for a job at the county," he said.

He said the jury award was significantly less than the $500,000 or more that Williams sought in lost pay and pension benefits.

"He didn’t get anything like the damages he was asking for," Fitzpatrick said.

Williams, however, said the jury still found the county in the wrong.

"They (county officials) quickly jump over the fact that it seems to be permissible for the county to breach these contracts," he said.

In 1994 Williams ended a 20-year career with the county after clashing with Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel’s administration. Drewel took office in 1992.

You can call Herald Writer Warren Cornwall at 425-339-3463 or send e-mail to cornwall@heraldnet.com.

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