(The Center Square) – A 2024 settlement over water contamination at the Special Commitment Center for sex offenders on McNeil Island left the state of Washington footing a $7.325 million judgment in a class-action lawsuit brought by hundreds of residents of the center.
Washington state Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, said the latest payout by the state is justification for legislation he and other Republican senators filed that would provide legislative oversight and force state agencies to explain themselves when their mismanagement results in a payout of $1 million or more.
“I’ve been talking about tort liability as it relates to the state budget for months now and I dropped a bill prior to session that says the legislature should have oversight on some of these tort payouts,” Gildon said in a Friday interview with The Center Square. “In looking over the last two years alone, we see the state paying out a little over $500 million. That’s a half billion because of bad behavior by state employees.”
According to the Tacoma News Tribune, the settlement was announced in March 2024 and involved payouts to nearly 200 current and former residents who were eligible to file paperwork to get their share of the settlement over dirty water. The payouts amounted to $263 per month they were on McNeil Island.
“When we filed the bill, we hadn’t even heard of this ‘brown water’ case involving the Special Commitment Center and McNeil Island, but now there are 7.3 million more reasons to take action,” Gildon said.
The Center Square asked Gildon’s office why it took 10 months to be notified about the settlement and received the following response via email: “The letter to Senator Gildon didn’t arrive sooner because even though the settlement was reached last spring, the payments were not made until now/recently because the members of the class had to submit paperwork (e.g. tax forms, etc.) to get paid.”
The Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island is where courts civilly commit sex offenders who have already served a criminal sentence but whom the state deems too dangerous to release. Residents there filed their federal lawsuit in 2016.
Gildon, who is Senate Republican budget leader, says this type of liability represents one of the largest projected increases in the upcoming budget.
“Clearly, it’s time to hold these agencies accountable by making them provide an explanation to the Legislature for their bad behavior. At a minimum, we can try to determine where things are going wrong and make changes to practices and procedures in order to prevent future harm while also saving taxpayer dollars,” said Gildon.
Gildon said he believes it is the responsibility of the legislative branch of government to have oversight on these massive tort payouts at taxpayer expense.
“We need to monitor state agencies and hold them accountable,” said Gildon. “If the Senate can see if one of these agency leads isn’t doing their job, the Senate can remove them from their job.”
He noted burdening Washington taxpayers with added costs when state agencies fail is unacceptable.
“It’s wrong, it shouldn’t happen, and we can do better,” said Gildon. “It looks like the trial lawyers are putting in a lot more oversight to state agencies and government workers conduct than the state legislature is.”
An emailed press release from Gildon’s office detailed payouts from the past four years that would meet the $1 million threshold in his legislation:
Department of Children, Youth and Families: 151Department of Social and Health Services: 14Department of Transportation: 10Department of Corrections: 9Washington State Patrol: 3Department of Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation Commission, Washington State University: 2 apieceOffice of the Attorney General, Centralia College, Seattle Central College: 1 apiece
SB 5144 has been referred to the Senate Law and Justice Committee, which will decide whether to hold a public hearing on the proposal.
