Opinion ID: 3053416
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Kilkelly’s acts and enforcement by the State

Text: employees CarePartners operated three boarding homes in the State of Washington: Meridian Hills (“Meridian”), Alderwood Assisted Living (“Alderwood”) and Wenatchee Assisted Living (“Wenatchee”). Alderwood and Wenatchee did not have sprinkler systems in place at the time of enforcement. This lawsuit is based on a series of acts through which Kilkelly exercised his rights of speech and petition, which CarePartners alleges led to the State employees’ retaliatory enforcement with respect to the Alderwood and Wenatchee facilities. 1 In 2002, the state fire marshal adopted the 1997 Uniform Fire Code, Wash. Admin. Code § 212-12-030(4) (2003), which mandates: “Existing licensed occupancies previously approved by the state fire marshal as in conformance with the standards then in effect shall have their existing use or occupancy continued, provided such continued use is not dangerous to life and is acceptable to the local fire and building officials having jurisdiction.” Wash. Admin. Code § 212-12-010(4)(c) (2003). CAREPARTNERS v. LASHWAY 13629 1. Kilkelly’s administrative appeal of the fine against Meridian In 2002, the Meridian facility received an annual survey by RCS. Dissatisfied with that survey and an associated fine of $300, Kilkelly and CarePartners filed an administrative appeal in early 2003 to challenge the conclusions and results of the survey. CarePartners was critical of DSHS’s assessment of the Meridian facility. Administrative hearings took place in January and February of 2003, and the State of Washington Department of Social and Health Services Board of Appeals eventually affirmed most of the administrative decision in DSHS’s favor. 2. Kilkelly’s lobbying activity In early February 2003, CarePartners entered into a letter agreement to lease a boarding home in Lakewood, Washington, from owners who had allowed their license to lapse. The lease was contingent on CarePartners’s acquisition of a license from DSHS. Kilkelly engaged in an administrative letter campaign with DSHS, and specifically defendants Lashway and Nancy Tyson, over whether to treat CarePartners’s application for a license as one related to an existing facility or as an initial facility application, in other words “grandfathering” the facility in under the old code. Concurrently, Kilkelly began lobbying state politicians for assistance in trying to acquire a license on favorable terms so that CarePartners could meet its stated goal of serving low to medium income residents. He contacted several state senators and met with a state representative’s aide to discuss his licensing issue and to criticize DSHS. For example, an e-mail to state senators was entitled “Example of DSHS inflexibility in applying the existing rules — choosing control over whats [sic] best for public policy[.]”2 2 Kilkelly’s affidavit also asserts that when one of CarePartners’s facilities was shut down by DSHS and the leasehold transferred to another les13630 CAREPARTNERS v. LASHWAY 3. The State employees’ enforcement action against Wenatchee and Alderwood On February 2, 2003, a deputy fire marshal inspected Wenatchee and cited it for having too many semi- and nonambulatory residents in a facility without fire sprinklers. Kilkelly contested those violations by letter. In February 2003, RCS conducted an inspection of Alderwood and found deficiencies related to the number of semi- and non-ambulatory residents present in the facility. A June 2, 2003 e-mail indicates that DSHS was “planning to take action against Wenatchee” (and possibly Alderwood), and that DSHS wanted to get all concerned “ ‘on board’ and ‘all our ducks alined’ [sic].” However, internal e-mails sent between June 3, 2003 and June 5, 2003 indicate that the agencies had not yet reached agreement as to how the CarePartners facilities were to be treated under the relevant statutes and regulations with respect to fire sprinkler system requirements and ambulatory issues. One e-mail referred to the issue as “a curve ball.” Another read, in part: “OK guys - I found an ‘Ah Shit’ in the pile.” Unannounced follow-up inspections at Alderwood and Wenatchee were conducted on June 23 and 24, 2003, noting several violations. On June 27, 2003, DSHS imposed immediate conditions on Wenatchee’s and Alderwood’s boarding home licenses. DSHS’s order required both facilities to: (1) discharge all but two semi-ambulatory residents within 30 days; (2) hire staff within 24 hours who would be dedicated to conducting “fire watches 24 hours, 7 days per week”; (3) contact the fire marshal within 24 hours to discuss evacuation plans; and (4) train staff and residents on evacuation plans see, DSHS accommodated the transfer of the license as an existing license, not an initial application for a license. CarePartners contends that this is contrary to how his application for the Lakewood facility was treated by DSHS. CAREPARTNERS v. LASHWAY 13631 within seven days. On July 3, 2003, Alderwood appealed the decision to the Office of Administrative Hearings. In or around early July 2003, CarePartners’s attorney, Robin Dale, contacted the Attorney General’s office and spoke with Assistant Attorney General Cobb, who represented DSHS and Lashway. In Dale’s affidavit, she noted that Cobb “gave [her] the distinct impression that Mr. Kilkelly was not one of the Department’s favorite people,” and that “Mr. Kilkelly was ‘known’ to the department,” a comment Dale remarked was delivered with “negative connotations.” Dale further declared that in the following days she called Assistant Attorney General Hoover, who was purportedly involved with Kilkelly’s licencing issues. According to Dale, Hoover indicated that “ ‘Pat (Lashway) is quickly losing patience with Joe [Kilkelly].” Dale arranged meetings on July 10 and 11, 2003 between Kilkelly, his attorney of record, RCS personnel, and the Assistant Attorney General to discuss the Wenatchee and Alderwood facilities. Kilkelly presented his plans of correction for both facilities on July 10th and 11th. According to Kilkelly’s affidavit, this included installation of a sprinkler system at Alderwood. He had concluded “that the meeting had been very positive and that [they] were working towards a resolution” that would prevent Alderwood from closing. Notably, the record indicates that during this entire period Kilkelly and his attorney were trying to contact DSHS and fire marshal officials to negotiate or discuss installation of fire sprinklers, but that those officials either refused to talk or would not engage in talks. For example, one internal Washington State Patrol e-mail, dated July 3, 2003, stated: I took a call from Mr. Kilkelly . . . . While the call went on for awhile [with me dancing like a trained bear to keep from saying anything], his main point was that he would be more than willing to negotiate 13632 CAREPARTNERS v. LASHWAY a time frame within which he would guarantee the installation of a sprinkler system[s]. . . . He did spend some time letting me know how absolutely rotten he and his staff were treated by Mike . . . which I apologized for . . . . Another internal Washington State Patrol e-mail, dated July 14, 2003, stated: [Kilkelly’s attorney] just short of begged for a return call. He can’t get anyone from DSHS to call him back...... [sic] same story I got from Kilkelly. These folks are MORE than ready to install a sprinkler system, and they can’t seem to get anyone to talk about that. . . . I’d hate like hell to see the system bust someone who is indicating they want to “make it right” . . . . On July 11, 2003, Lashway summarily suspended Alderwood’s license, stating that the “residents are in imminent threat of harm.” The DSHS order also permanently revoked Alderwood’s license and halted admissions of new residents in that facility. That same day, a minority interest owner in CarePartners, Tom Tennent, contacted the news media and began generating negative news media about DSHS. Alderwood immediately filed an administrative appeal of the order and sought an immediate stay of the order in Washington Superior Court. The Superior Court granted a temporary stay of the suspension, but that stay was eventually lifted by the Superior Court and the Washington Court of Appeals. While the stay was in place, in July 2003, Kilkelly and his attorneys met with representatives of DSHS, the fire marshal’s office and Assistant Attorney General Hoover. According to Dale’s and Kilkelly’s affidavits, the State was unwilling to negotiate unless Kilkelly agreed to new conditions, includCAREPARTNERS v. LASHWAY 13633 ing the allegedly cost-prohibitive condition of hiring firefighters as 24-hour fire watchers. The administrative appeal process continued while CarePartners pursued the present case in the district court and concluded after the district court denied the State employees’ motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity in this case, which is discussed below. CarePartners withdrew its administrative appeal in May 2007, and the Superior Court entered an order dismissing that appeal with prejudice and deeming DSHS’s licensing actions final.