In this file photo, Alicia Bull, executive director of the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber, Todd Chaput, Chamber president, and Coralee Taylor, head of the government action committee, discuss the Chamber's campaign that looks to restructure the county's government through a home rule charter.
After a short delay, the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce’s effort to initiate the home rule charter process to restructure Lewis County government and add a manager or executive began on Tuesday after the petitions were approved by the county’s elections department.
The first signatures were gathered on Tuesday. One Lewis County now has six months to collect the 4,500 signatures needed to place a freeholder election on the November 2018 ballot.
If enough signatures are collected and freeholders are elected, they would have 180 days to draft a charter that would later be presented to the voters.
The Chamber’s goal is to gather the signatures in four months to ensure they have sufficient time to turn them in.
Alicia Bull, executive director of the Chamber, said people who are interested in joining the effort can check out petitions from the Chamber office and help gather signatures.
Now with the process underway, Bull said it’s time to educate people and have constructive dialogue on the home rule charter process.
“This will allow us to move forward with conversations,” Bull said.
Meetings are planned with local organizations, and the topic will be the main focus of the chamber’s luncheon on Oct. 9.
One Lewis County has put forth several recommendations, including proposals to increase the number of commissioners from three full-time positions to five part-time officials who would be paid $1,000 a month plus benefits. Currently, commissioners each make over $110,000 in salary and benefits.
The group wants to see a professional manager hired, and Bull said that is the main focus of the home rule charter process.
Online freeholders are elected, those recommendations are just that. Bull stressed that One Lewis County simply wants to launch a discussion, noting the freeholders will be welcome to make any decisions they choose when and if they meet.
“We’re excited to see those options and see what the freeholders discuss and come up with,” Bull said.
If the only change to come out of the home rule charter is institutionalizing a county manager, that in itself would be a success, Bull said.
The county has had a manager before, but the position was eliminated. If the role was written into the charter, then it would be there to stay, providing continuity and a base of institutional knowledge, she said.
The Board of Lewis County Commissioners has already received a recommendation to hire a county manager by the first of next year after a task force appointed by the commissioners evaluated adding someone to oversee day-to-day operations and also looked into the home rule charter process, which the group ultimately did not recommend. The commissioners have yet to make a decision on hiring a manager, but have placed $250,000 — the amount needed for salary and benefits, as well as other associated costs of adding a new position — on a list of requests as they form the 2018 budget.
Larry McGee, who served as chairman of the task force, told The Chronicle in a meeting on Wednesday that once the home rule charter process is initiated there’s no telling what will be proposed. Home rule charters throughout the nation have various setups — one of which even has an elected community development director. If the role of a county manager is written into the charter, that person can either be elected or appointed.
The task force opposes an elected manager.
“The home rule charter could be goofy or wonderful,” McGee said. “You just never know.”
Anil Puri, also with the task force, said that a manager would bring expertise, especially for new commissioners who are trying to grasp what the job entails.
That’s something One Lewis County agrees with as well.
“Consistency is really important for the future of the county,” Bull said.
One Lewis County plans to meet with the commissioners to discuss the process, Bull said. A home rule charter can be started by two different means. Either 10 percent of the voters in the last general election need to sign the petition to validate the measure or the commissioners can pass a resolution to place the measure on the ballot.
Bull said previously the effort is meant to counter poor fiscal management at the county, continued lawsuits, a lack of leadership vision and what One Lewis County describes as “incompetent management.”
