 | Wednesday, November 19, 2008 |
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Background: The River Park Square mall redevelopment was a complicated public-private partnership between the city of Spokane and the malls owners, the development companies run by what is now Cowles Co. The mall's expanded garage lost money after it re-opened in 1999 and was unable to cover bond payments and other expenses. A series of lawsuits followed, and eventually bond investors sued the city, the mall owners and almost everyone else involved with the project for securities fraud. Cowles Co., through various subsidiaries and affiliates, also owns The Spokesman-Review, KHQ-TV and the Journal of Business 
Links
• Ask The Editors blog
• River Park Square Coverage Review blog
• Special report: "Paying to Park" (Mar-Apr 2004) Washington News Council
• Post-audit report of RPS coverage, including responses from publisher and editors.
• Agreement with the Washington News Council RPS coverage audit
• Washington News Council home page Audio
• Justice Department briefing on federal investigation (Sept. 5, 2008) Much of RPS coverage occurred before The Spokesman-Review began making digital documents. Here are the ones available, arranged by date. (PDF unless otherwise specified) 2008
• Indexed page of documents related to city's former RPS attorney (11/14/2008)
• Justice Department letter to U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt finding no wrongdoing (7/24/2008, 2 pages)
• Packet sent to mayor by Spokane's former RPS attorney (6/05/2008, 196 pages)
• Letter from disciplinary counsel about Cowles attorney Duane Swinton (4/24/2008, 3 pages)
• Letter from James Craven to Bob Apple and Steve Corker (2/08/2008, 3 pages)
• Memorandum from Ninth Circuit court of appeals (1/15/2008, 7 pages)
• Order removing confidentiality of depositions (1/10/2008, 4 pages)
• Letters to Center for Justice releasing depositions, exhibits (1/10/2008, 2 pages)
• Deposition of Gavin Cooley (139 pages)
• Gavin Cooley deposition exhibits 1-10 (1/10/2008, ZIP file of PDFs, 164 pages)
• Deposition of Steven R. Rector (1/10/2008, 210 pages)
• Steven R. Rector deposition exhibits 1-5 (1/10/2008, 19 pages)
8/21/2007 Document set
• Documents delivered to the U.S. Attorney's office to determine whether fraud was committed (ZIP), submitted from former councilwoman Cherie Rodgers and reporter Tim Connor. This ZIP folder also includes exhibits and supporting materials. A description of the documents is here.
2007
• Final report from the News Council 2004
• IRS final determination re: whether bond interest is tax-exempt (7/1/2004)
• RPS II financial statements (9/30/2004)
• Memorandum for discussion of settlement (12/1/2004)
• Loan transfer authorization (12/1/2004) |
11/15/2008 | The attorney who originally handled the city's litigation over River Park Square wanted to accuse a former Spokane mayor and two City Council members of being part of a conspiracy to inflate the price of the mall's garage. 11/15/2008 | Spokane city officials on Thursday turned over a packet of River Park Square documents they had previously labeled confidential.
9/11/2008 | The office that investigates possible misconduct by U.S. attorneys has cleared Eastern Washington's federal prosecutor of allegations leveled against him last year surrounding River Park Square.
7/4/2008 | Mayor Mary Verner said a proposed ordinance aimed at preventing financial ordeals similar to the River Park Square deal should put an end to official city discussion of the controversial real estate project.
6/7/2008 | The Seattle attorney who originally represented the city of Spokane in the contentious River Park Square issue is accusing his successor of misleading council members with a failed legal strategy that's costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
4/24/2008 | An attorney for the owners of River Park Square did not violate bar association rules against conflicts of interests when he represented the mall and the company that publishes The Spokesman-Review, an investigator for the Washignton State Bar Association said.
1/11/2008 | The company that owns The Spokesman-Review fought last year against the release of hundreds of pages of documents generated in the lead-up to the River Park Square lawsuit settlement.
12/20/2007 | The IRS and a law firm for two Northwest attorneys involved in the River Park Square garage bonds have settled an investigation into the sale of bonds.
8/31/2007 | Cowles Co. development firms have paid a $6.5 million judgment, plus 12 percent interest, to satisfy a 2004 ruling obtained by the former manager of River Park Square, court documents show. 8/21/2007 | An outside attorney from the U.S. Justice Department will be asked to investigate whether anyone involved in the River Park Square development project broke federal corruption laws.
6/29/2007 | The River Park Square parking garage was exempt from property taxes while it was operated by a city-created agency, a Washington state appeals court panel agreed this week. 6/17/2007 | The Spokane City Council soon will consider making downtown parking more expensive partly to help pay off bonds for the River Park Square parking garage.
10/3/2006 | The city of Spokane apologized Monday for illegally withholding nearly 90 public documents related to a failed River Park Square parking garage deal in the 1990s. 10/2/2006 | Spokane City Council members today are expected to consider a $299,000 settlement with Tim Connor, Camas Magazine and its publishers for failure to disclose public documents related to a failed River Park Square parking garage deal in the 1990s.
8/20/2006 | The city of Spokane faces the potential loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars for its refusal years ago to release public records associated with its failed involvement in River Park Square's expansion in the late 1990s.
4/29/2006 | The city of Spokane received notice this week that a lawsuit has been filed seeking documents that were used by city leaders to determine how much financial concession River Park Square developers should receive in the settlement of the bitter legal dispute. 4/7/2006 | River Park Square issues are headed back to court. Spokane County commissioners voted Thursday to appeal a recent decision from a Whitman County Superior Court judge that said property taxes did not have to be paid on the downtown parking garage. 4/4/2006 | The legal battle over the city's failed involvement in River Park Square's downtown parking garage returned to City Hall on Monday, one year after the city settled a trial in the matter.
2/17/2006 | The city of Spokane will appeal a ruling that kept it from collecting money from one of the participants in the River Park Square parking garage project.
12/1/2005 | The River Park Square parking garage did not have to pay property taxes during the years it was part of a contentious public-private partnership with the city of Spokane, a judge ruled Wednesday.
9/27/2005 | The owners of River Park Square owe former City Councilman Steve Eugster $38,090 in attorney fees for work he did defending himself and his wife against claims filed by the mall's owners, a judge has ruled. 9/14/2005 | The last financial connections between the city of Spokane and the owners of River Park Square are being severed through a refinancing of a $22.65 million community development loan made in 1999 for expansion of the downtown shopping mall.
8/12/2005 | OLYMPIA The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday said that Spokane judges wrongly threw out journalist Tim Connor's claim that the city illegally denied him documents related to River Park Square.
5/1/2005 | The main lawsuit over the River Park Square garage ended last week with a fizzle, not a bang, as the Spokane City Council accepted a $4.25 million settlement offer.
4/28/2005 | The Spokane City Council approved a truce Wednesday to end the long-running legal war over the River Park Square garage by accepting a $4.25 million settlement from its former bond counsel. 4/28/2005 | The approval of a settlement in the federal River Park Square lawsuit clears up most, but not all, of the litigation over the downtown mall and its garage. 4/27/2005 | The city of Spokane and its former legal advisers tentatively agreed to a $4.25 million settlement to end the federal trial over the River Park Square garage. 4/26/2005 | RICHLAND The downtown garage that was sold for $26. 5 million in 1999 to help pay for the River Park Square renovation might be worth as little as $3. 4/23/2005 | RICHLAND Responsibility for paying off the multimillion-dollar legal mess spawned by the River Park Square garage may hinge on which theory a federal jury believes of what went wrong. 4/22/2005 | RICHLAND A jury of five men and four women from central Washington was sworn in Thursday to decide whether the city of Spokane got bad legal advice in the River Park Square garage deal. 4/21/2005 | Almost four years to the day after investors sued the city of Spokane and nearly everyone else connected with River Park Square redevelopment, a trial is set to start over the mall's financially troubled garage. 4/9/2005 | The city of Spokane received a victory Friday in the long-running legal battle over the River Park Square garage. A federal judge ruled the city can ask a jury to consider some $40 million in damages for any judgment it might get in an upcoming trial. 4/8/2005 | The River Park Square mall has been losing between $3. 7 million and $4. 2 million a year since 2000, and bankruptcy by the companies that owned it was "the most likely course of action" if a lawsuit over its garage wasn't settled, city officials were told late last year.
3/24/2005 | The federal lawsuit over the River Park Square parking garage started more than three years ago as a many-sided legal brawl. Wednesday it was reduced to a head-to-head fight between the city of Spokane and its former bond counsel. 3/11/2005 | The city of Spokane's legal team went back to federal court Thursday seeking to reduce losses to taxpayers in the failed 1997 River Park Square parking garage deal.
2/24/2005 | A federal judge wrestled Wednesday with the sharply dropping values being placed on the River Park Square garage, wondering how a garage that sold for $26 million in 1998 could be worth about one-eighth of that just seven years later. 2/10/2005 | The city of Spokane will have to pay a fine of more than $21,000 to Camas Magazine for illegally withholding public documents on the River Park Square project requested by the magazine's reporter.
12/16/2004 | Some defendants in the federal lawsuit over the River Park Square garage may have objections to the settlement between the city and the mall's developer. 12/12/2004 | The Spokane City Council took a major step Saturday toward ending a four-year legal fight over the city's failed River Park Square parking garage deal. 12/10/2004 | The Spokane City Council has scheduled an unusual Saturday public meeting to discuss something even more unusual in recent years, a proposed settlement with the developer of the River Park Square mall. 12/9/2004 | The city of Spokane and the companies that developed the River Park Square Mall would trade assets, set aside cash and drop a wide range of legal claims against each other, according to a tentative settlement released Wednesday. 12/7/2004 | The Spokane City Council on Monday postponed a possible vote on a settlement in its legal battle over River Park Square, and instead scheduled an unusual Saturday session to consider the pact. 12/6/2004 | Details were still being ironed out Sunday in a possible settlement in the River Park Square legal dispute. City Council President Dennis Hession said he hoped a proposed agreement would go to the council for a vote during its regular meeting at 6 tonight in Council Chambers at City Hall. 12/5/2004 | There are many unknown numbers in a proposed settlement between the city of Spokane and the River Park Square developer that the City Council is expected to consider Monday. 12/4/2004 | The proposed settlement in Spokane's ongoing dispute over River Park Square could end a major threat to one of the key programs helping the city's low-income residents and poorer neighborhoods. 12/1/2004 | The Spokane City Council has approved a settlement with the former manager of the River Park Square mall in connection with a lawsuit over financing of the mall's parking garage. 11/17/2004 | The Spokane City Council has authorized a loan agreement making $7. 8 million in city parking meter revenue available to pay debts of an agency that had been operating the financially troubled River Park Square parking garage. 11/9/2004 | The Spokane City Council gave the go-ahead Monday to seek settlements with two parties in a federal lawsuit related to the River Park Square parking garage.
10/30/2004 | The Cowles Publishing Co. subsidiary that owns the vacant former J. C. Penney building in downtown Spokane filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Friday to free the property up for redevelopment. 10/8/2004 | Attorneys for the city of Spokane, River Park Square and others involved in a massive federal lawsuit over the mall's garage held talks Thursday that could head off a trial in January.
9/14/2004 | Parties involved in a federal securities lawsuit over the River Park Square parking garage have agreed to a new round of mediation this fall, city officials said Monday.
8/20/2004 | The developer of River Park Square on Thursday handed the city a $4. 7 million bill for unpaid expenses at the downtown mall's troubled parking garage.
7/30/2004 | The owners of River Park Square owe its former manager $6. 5 million for work he performed on the downtown mall's renovation, a Spokane Superior Court jury decided Thursday. 7/29/2004 | Lawyers for the owner of River Park Square and the mall's former manager each accused the other of greed before a Spokane County Superior Court jury began deliberating Wednesday afternoon in a civil trial. 7/27/2004 | The Spokane City Council voted 4-3 on Monday to loan money from its parking meter collections to bolster the ailing finances of the River Park Square parking garage. 7/10/2004 | Former City Councilman Steve Eugster filed a new lawsuit Friday seeking to block upcoming city actions on the River Park Square garage. Eugster, a long-standing opponent of the project, contends in the suit that a recent report by the Internal Revenue Service means the city cannot loan money from its parking meter fund to cover some of the unpaid debts of the financially struggling garage. 7/7/2004 | The foundation that sold nearly $31. 5 million in bonds to buy the River Park Square garage will appeal a recent Internal Revenue Service ruling that the bonds aren't tax exempt. 7/6/2004 | The Spokane City Council will talk about making a loan to cover River Park Square garage expenses this week, but the amount and the terms of the loan points that have generated court battles over the last four years are still uncertain. 7/2/2004 | The Internal Revenue Service has determined that a $31. 5 million sale of tax-exempt bonds used to finance the River Park Square mall renovation did not qualify as a public, tax-free enterprise. 7/2/2004 | Bonds sold to purchase the River Park Square garage are not tax-exempt because the groups involved in the deal did not follow federal law, paid an unreasonably high amount for the facility and gave too much money to the mall's private developer, an Internal Revenue Service report says.
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