A one-dollar coin used in a toss that determined who would fill the second commissioner position in an Onalaska water-sewer district sits on a Certificate of Election Friday morning in Chehalis.
Commissioner Edna Fund, right, watches as Deborah Hilliard, left, signs her Certificate of Election Friday morning in Chehalis.
Deborah Hilliard is handed her coin after being elected commissioner of Water/Sewer District 5 of Onalaska, Position 1, Friday morning in Chehalis.
Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund flips a coin to decide who is elected commissioner of Water-Sewer District 5, position 2, Friday morning at the Lewis County Courthouse in Chehalis.
Deborah Hilliard, left, is sworn into office by Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund, right, earlier this month at the Lewis County Courthouse in Chehalis.
The Lewis County Canvassing Board stands by as the votes are manually counted Friday morning at the Lewis County Courthouse in Chehalis.
After a manual recount of the votes cast for two commissioner positions on the ballot for Water-Sewer District 5 of Onalaska showed an even split of 11 votes for each of the four candidates, a pair of coin tosses determined who will now be on the board.
Deborah Hilliard won commissioner position 1 after the coin landed on tails. According to Lewis County election procedures, the person who first appears on the ballot is able to call heads or tails.
Current commissioner Dennis Eros was not present, but had indicated by email his preference.
Hilliard will finish out a two-year unexpired term that Eros was appointed to after commissioner Kristine Carter resigned.
As for commissioner position 2, Jimmy Hilliard called heads, and so ultimately Steven Nikolich was declared the winner for the role when the coin landed on tails.
“I’m pleased with the results,” Deborah Hilliard said following the coin tosses.
The race for both commissioner positions landed at a tie after initial ballot counts. Following a hand recount of the votes by the Lewis County Canvassing Board Friday, it was determined the results were still split at 11 votes for each candidate.
The Hilliards had hoped to both make it onto the board to bring transparency to the district’s meetings, they said.
Jimmy Hilliard said his wife’s victory is a step in the right direction.
“It’s opened the door, and that’s what our main purpose was,” he said. “It was to open the door to the truth, to see the records and determine what has been going on for all these years and make sure that from now on everything is open to the public.”
Jimmy Hilliard filed a lawsuit in Lewis County Superior Court in February alleging commissioners violated the Open Public Meetings Act.
He told The Chronicle that after the elections, there would be a decision as to what to do with the lawsuit, recognizing it is a conflict of interest.
Deborah Hilliard said the duo has not taken any steps yet, but they are working on it.
Jimmy Hilliard elaborated and said they had spoken to their attorney, but now his wife will need to speak to the district’s attorney before a decision is made on what to do with the lawsuit.
“The district’s attorney represents the commissioners and that’s something that we need to get done, or she needs to get done,” he said. “So before anything is decided, there will have to be some conversations.”
The Hilliards were the only candidates to show up to the coin tosses. Eros and Nikolich were not present.
The district is in the Birchfield complex, which was built to accommodate a business park, 2,700 residences, a 148-acre golf course and a 120-room hotel, according to previous reporting by The Chronicle, but it never became the sprawling subdivision that was originally envisioned.
The third commissioner is Virgil Fox, the developer and owner of Birchfield.
