Engineer alleges discrimination by county staff

A Vancouver engineer is suing Clark County’s Community Development Department, alleging that county staff discriminated against her and forced her firm to jump through unnecessary hoops to gain approval of building plans.

Anne Anderson, principal engineer of Anderson Structural Engineering, alleges in her lawsuit that the firm lost money, time and resources due to county staff’s treatment of her and her firm over the course of several years.

The suit was filed Nov. 10 in Clark County Superior Court.

The suit, which names the county’s Lead Plans Examiner Lou Malattia and Chief Building Official James Muir among the defendants, charges the county with defamation, interfering with contractual relations and prospective business expectancy and violating the state civil rights act, according to court documents.

Anderson’s specific allegations include:

• Community Development discriminated against Anderson because she’s a woman.

• Community Development accused Anderson of “Playing God” with her engineering stamp on documents.

• The firm was required to add unnecessary framing to single-family homes before receiving county approval.

• The county held the firm to higher standards for their developments than building code requires.

• The county defamed Anderson by making “numerous written and oral statements” about her to people within the building community.

According to court documents, Anderson is suing for damages both financial and non-financial, a judgment prohibiting the defendants from continuing to discriminate against Anderson and a court order prohibiting community planning from acting in an “arbitrary or capricious” manner toward Anderson and her firm.

The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office did not return a request for comment Monday.