Verner open to rehiring RPS attorney

Mayoral candidate Mary Verner said she would consider seeking advice from a Seattle attorney who once represented the city in its battles over River Park Square if city legal staff thought it would be helpful.

Verner, who has said several times during the campaign that she doesn’t want to reopen the controversy, said Thursday she would consider consulting with O. Yale Lewis, the city’s original special counsel on River Park Square, but only if she and City Attorney Jim Craven agreed it would be constructive.

“I’m really reluctant to scrape open a healing wound,” Verner said Thursday. “It would have to be for something productive, that would be beneficial to the taxpayers.”

Incumbent Mayor Dennis Hession said Thursday he doesn’t know very much about Lewis but doubted that consulting with him would be necessary.

“I have a lot of faith and confidence in my city attorney, Jim Craven,” Hession said.

Throughout the campaign, Hession and Verner have had essentially the same stance on River Park Square – that the city made some bad decisions in getting into the project in the years before they were on the council and has learned some lessons. Both voted for settlements of the federal securities lawsuit in 2004 and 2005.

Verner was asked about using Lewis as a consultant during an appearance on the Mark Fuhrman radio show earlier in the week and said she would consider it. On Thursday she expanded on her comments to say it was something she’d do only if city legal staff agreed.

Lewis was hired by the City Council headed by Mayor John Talbott in 2000, when it first balked at paying money from the city’s parking meter fund to a garage that was running deficits. He took an aggressive stance in challenging the mall’s owner, development firms connected with Cowles Publishing Co., which owns The Spokesman-Review. Lewis was ultimately replaced by Spokane attorney Laurel Siddoway after Talbott lost the 2000 election to John Powers.

Verner said she has no reason to believe Siddoway isn’t doing a good job in handling a few appeal matters that remain from the tangle of litigation. She would be willing to talk to Lewis about any civil matters that are still timely. But if any criminal matters exist, they should be left to the U.S. Department of Justice that is investigating information provided by former Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers and journalist Tim Connor, she said.