Attorney’S New Cause Has Effect Bridge Is Eugster’S Latest Crusade

Stephen Eugster went outside early Tuesday to grab his newspaper - the edition quoting a city official who called him an extortionist - and found a $100 check on top.

The money was from a neighbor who apparently agrees with Eugster that local government is careening out of control.

The 50-year-old Spokane attorney, president and founder of the citizens watchdog group Spokane Research & Defense Fund, wants to be a traffic cop for what he sees as reckless government.

But Eugster concedes his group is underfunded and undermanned and that, at times, his fights against City Hall appear more like personal crusades.

The Spokane Research & Defense Fund has a five-member board of directors but no members, only unknown numbers of supporters who come and go depending on the issue Eugster is targeting at the moment.

His pressing cause now is blocking construction of the Lincoln Street Bridge.

He has filed two lawsuits against the city, claiming the 80-foot-long span would despoil Spokane River parks and constitute an illegal use of federal money pledged to the $21.6 million project.

Federal money can only be used to replace existing bridges, not build new ones, Eugster contends.

Eugster said he tried to settle his lawsuits with the city. One demand suggested the city pay him $250 in legal fees and $25,000 to the defense fund.

City Councilman Joel Crosby called the demand “extortion.” Eugster calls it reasonable because the defense fund is a nonprofit group that works in the public’s interest.

The $25,000 would have been used to defer document copying costs, court reporter fees for depositions and other administrative chores.

“We have the tendency to let concentrations of power exist - plutocracies,” Eugster said Tuesday. “If people think I’m an evil person, then fine. But I’m not not. I’m just not afraid to stand up and fight.”

Eugster will not disclose the identities of donors to his organization on the grounds it would violate their free speech rights.

Asking him to do otherwise is a double-standard, he said, adding that city officials never ask who a developer’s shareholders are before pushing a project.

“He’s a thorn in everybody’s side, but he’s a good thorn,” said Susan Whaley, who recently joined the defense fund’s board of directors. She’s waiting for her first board meeting.

Whaley, who runs Litigation Graphics, a firm that designs courtroom visual aids, was asked by Eugster to serve on the board.

“Steve is an important entity,” she said. “I support very much his efforts to wake this town up.”

Aside from Eugster, the fund’s other directors are Eastern Washington University professors Robert Herold and George Durrie, who could not be reached for comment. Neither could director Kristine Wolbach, a certified public accountant who is vacationing this week.

Eugster incorporated the group in January 1991 with the Washington Secretary of State’s Office. He contributes 1,300 hours of legal work a year to the organization, he said.

The other half of his professional time is spent in private practice planning estates and trusts and finalizing real estate transactions.

His public causes have included an unsightly billboard at 29th and Hatch, a developer’s effort to build a hotel above a public transit center and what Eugster considers the city’s reluctance to force the cleanup of a downtown underground oil spill.

“Without constant vigilance, people have the tendency to become apathetic. We sort of lean toward where the power is,” Eugster said.

“If you’re engaged in a public interest activity, people suspect something evil is going on,” he said. “But there are people in this world who are genuinely concerned about the public interest.”