Yakima Valley College settles Public Records Act suit
The college pays a former employee $340,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging withholding key employment records
Yakima Valley College agreed to pay John Tappan Menard, a former history instructor at the college, $340,000 to settle a public records lawsuit filed by Menard in August 2024.
Yakima Valley College (photo courtesy Yakima Valley College, yvcc.edu)
Menard taught at Yakima Valley College from September 2019 to August 2023. In September 2023 he filed a public records request asking for records relating to his employment, including, among other things, the college’s decision to not renew his teaching contract. The lawsuit alleges the college dutifully produced responsive records until about January 2024, at which point it stopped responding. Menard alleges he sent, via his attorney, multiple follow-up emails asking the college for status updates over the course of several months, but all went unanswered by the college. According to Menard, he took no pleasure in commencing suit under Washington state’s Public Records Act, but he felt he had no choice due to the college’s refusal to so much as communicate with him or his attorney about the status of its search for and production of the remaining responsive records.
Menard filed suit in Yakima Superior Court in August 2024. According to Menard, only after the suit was filed did the college resume producing the requested records. To settle the lawsuit, the college agreed to pay Menard $340,000.
In June 2025, Menard commenced an employment lawsuit against Yakima Valley College, citing, in part, the records produced by the college after the Public Records Act lawsuit was filed, as evidence.
For additional information, contact Max Archer (mka@rnwlg.com) at Riverside NW Law Group, Spokane.
