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.
One Lewis County, a political action committee that aims to change the structure of Lewis County government to include a county manager, has collected enough signatures to place an initiative that would kick off the home rule charter process on the November 2018 ballot, as long as the validation process confirms the signatures collected are valid.
The Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce launched One Lewis County earlier this year. The group cited several perceived problems with the Board of Lewis County Commissioners, including poor fiscal management, continued lawsuits, lack of leadership vision and incompetent management, as the reasons to begin the home rule charter process, which allows elected citizen freeholders to come together to propose changes to county government that would then go before voters for approval.
A Facebook post dated Dec. 5 stated One Lewis County had reached the 1,900 signature mark. Alicia Bull, executive director of the chamber, said on Friday that they had collected even more than that.
“We have been gathering signatures for a few months now and have over a few thousand signatures,” Bull said in an emailed statement. “… We only need a total of 1,688 valid signatures, so this is a slam dunk at this point.”
In order to get the initiative on the ballot, the amount of signatures collected need to equal 10 percent of the county’s voter turnout in the previous general election.
According to numbers provided by Heather Boyer, elections supervisor for the county, there were 16,688 ballots cast in the Nov. 7 election.
One Lewis County is currently working with a company that is conducting pre-validation work to ensure there are no duplicate signatures, Bull said. The company is also checking the signatures to make sure the individuals are registered voters in the county. Once the process is completed, One Lewis County “will be excitedly submitting the signatures with the petition to move forward with getting the initiative on the ballot for next November’s election,” Bull said.
Bull stated the signatures would be turned in after Jan. 1.
The Lewis County Auditor’s Office will also need to validate the signatures that are turned in, per the state’s constitution, Boyer said.
If the initiative to start the home rule charter process is approved and validated, there will be an election for 15 to 21 citizens — otherwise known as freeholders — who will meet to work on a proposed restructuring of Lewis County’s government.
The charter proposition would go before the voters in the November 2018 general election, and at the same time the freeholders would be placed on the ballot for election, Boyer stated.
The freeholders could restructure the way the county commission is set up, and can also institutionalize a full time professional manager if they so choose.
Both of those items have been the major reason the home rule charter process has been pursued by the chamber.
One Lewis County would like to see the current three-county commission expanded to include five part-time individuals that are paid drastically less. Current commissioners each make more than $110,000 each year in salaries and benefits. Instead of focusing on full-time, day-to-day operations as the current commissioners do, the commission would instead work on policy decisions and direct the county manager or executive.
Although, that’s the ideal outcome for One Lewis County, once freeholders are put in place, those ideas are just recommendations.
“It is important to remind people that the initiative basically gives voters the opportunity to continue the discussion on how we can improve the structure of our county government,” Bull said.
Once the freeholders establish a plan, it would be presented to the voters of Lewis County who would decide with another vote if the change is what they would like to see.
The Home Rule Charter process was most recently undertaken in Clark County.
“This is a pretty exciting time because the opportunity sits in front of all of us to help our county,” Bull said. “The support has been overwhelming and the discussions have been fruitful and promising for our future.”
One Lewis County began collecting signatures in September. According to Boyer, the signatures are only valid for six months.
Prior to being placed on the ballot, the Board of Lewis County Commissioners will have to determine the number of freeholders based on a proportion of population in accordance with the legislative or commissioner districts, Boyer said.
