Tacoma OK’D over $14M in settlements this year. How did we get here? | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Tacoma approved over $14 million in legal settlements through late 2025.
- Payouts stemmed from harassment claims, street safety negligence suits and encounters with police.
- City absorbs costs under $5M per case, drawing from budget despite insurance coverage.
It’s been an expensive year for the City of Tacoma. By the end of July, Tacoma’s government paid more than $12 million in legal settlements, according to the city. In the months since, the council has voted to approve over $2 million more in settlements.
While this number already eclipses last year‘s total of more than $9 million, that’s not the only kind of payout the city has made. In April, former Police Chief Avery Moore also walked away with nearly $480,000 in exchange for resigning.
The claims avoided court judgments, and the city agreed to pay the plaintiffs without acknowledging any wrongdoing.
It’s understandable to avoid the risk of a huge jury payout, and I’ll get to that. But the city has to do better.
It’s demoralizing for the public to watch millions in taxpayer dollars go out the door at a time when the city faces a budget deficit. And it’s a blow to Tacomans’ confidence in our local government when the city isn’t admitting fault but pays up anyway.
In a statement, city spokesperson Maria Lee said Tacoma “is fundamentally committed to public safety and the prudent stewardship of public resources.”
“To this end, we maintain a comprehensive risk management framework that guides our efforts in employee training, policy development, and the management of municipal operations,” she went on. “Our approach emphasizes continuous improvement, and we regularly review our practices to best serve and protect our community.”
That’s good, because we have to do more than set aside money in the budget to pay for inevitable settlements. The city can’t comment on any ongoing legal matters or settlements it’s already agreed to. But it would go a long way to show us what it’s doing to prevent future claims when these big numbers become public.
Why claims result in payouts
The claims were filed over a period of several years, and they varied in their allegations. Payouts ranged from around $200,000 to $6 million.
Some claimed workplace discrimination, others negligence and another defamation. At least two claims were filed by former Tacoma Police Department employees, one against the department itself, and another against city leaders.
In other suits, residents levied allegations against the police department, most notably in the case of the family of Manny Ellis. And in yet more claims, residents complained of unsafe intersections that led to serious injuries.
I spoke with Ann Bennett, executive director of Washington Cities Insurance Authority, about how municipalities in our state deal with legal claims. She told me that cities face immense pressure to settle claims because of the risk of extremely high legal judgments.
Bennett gave the example of Cle Elum. The tiny city filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in June after a dispute with a property developer resulted in a judgment of $22 million, which is many times more than the city’s annual budget.
According to Lee, Tacoma paid a premium over over $5.1 million for “excess liability” insurance this year. The insurance kicks in for legal costs of more than $5 million per case. The $6 million given to Ellis’ family is the only settlement I’ve found from this year that will be partly covered by the city’s insurance.
It’s worrying that, apparently, Tacoma this year has paid its insurer more than $5 million and only received something in the neighborhood of $1 million in coverage. On the flip side, there’s a limit to how much insurance would pay once costs in a single case go over $5 million.
That puts perspective on cases like a defamation suit filed by former Tacoma Police Department officer Timothy Rankine against the city. It sought damages of $47 million, and Tacoma City Council voted to approve a $600,000 settlement over the claims. In doing so, the city avoided the risk of having to pay millions of dollars beyond the city’s insurance coverage if the city lost the case.
The city also doesn’t have to be the only responsible party to wind up on the hook for a huge payout. Under Washington state law, a jury might find only 1% of the fault lies with Tacoma, but the city may still have to pay 100% of the damages if the other parties named don’t have deep enough pockets to pay.
That describes a suit filed against Tacoma for negligence in its street design. Two girls were seriously injured by a reckless driver in Tacoma in 2018. Their mother filed a suit against both the city and the driver, who was uninsured and ultimately received a prison sentence. That put Tacoma at risk of paying all damages awarded. The city ultimately settled for $2.3 million.
Show us you’re trying to make it better
A series of high-value settlements doesn’t always mean that a city has internal problems, Bennett said, but it might.
“That’s something that I would say most cities look at – do we have a trend?” she said. “And can we fix it?”
With cases so different, there’s no one thing to point to that the City of Tacoma must fix here. The cases that arose from Ellis’ death in particular were part of a larger political upheaval, and they’ve already led to many difficult and ongoing conversations about police conduct and oversight.
But I’d argue there are other, simpler issues the government can tackle to limit legal risks.
First, there’s workplace discrimination and harassment in the police department. It’s a mystery to the public what happened under Moore’s leadership, but we do know there were multiple complaints against his deputy chief Paul Junger.
None of these complaints made it to a jury, but external investigators substantiated claims from an officer who complained to HR.
Tacoma’s next police chief, as well as the current interim chief, needs to set an example from the top. There can be zero tolerance for discriminatory or harassing behavior in the workplace. It’s corrosive to the functioning of any public agency, and the city can’t afford it.
Finally, there’s the issue of unsafe intersections. In addition to the $2.3 million settlement over the two girls struck by a reckless driver, Tacoma agreed to pay out nearly $5 million to a married couple struck in a hit and run in east Tacoma. Both lawsuits alleged that the injuries were made more likely because Tacoma failed to install clearly marked crosswalks.
The city has set a goal of zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2035. I believe that’s morally the right stance, even if it’s an unrealistic number.
More and better crosswalks are a key part of improving street safety. Installing them also happens to be the most financially prudent stance. In a world where death or serious injury to pedestrians is almost guaranteed to result in a payout from the city, the best thing to do is invest in making streets safer.
It’s just one way that the city can proactively prevent lawsuit settlements. It must find as many of these ways as possible. Otherwise, it will be no surprise if we pay out even more of our city’s budget on settlements in years to come.
This story was originally published September 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
