Kelly Smith-Johnston, of One Lewis County, speaks to members of the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce at the Chamber’s October Forum Monday as the meeting was live-streamed on Facebook.
Todd Chaput, of One Lewis County, speaks to members of the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce at the Chamber’s October forum Monday.
Former County Commissioner Ron Averill speaks Monday at the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce’s October Forum Monday about One Lewis County’s plans to ask for a home-rule charter.
Todd Chaput, left, and Kelly Smith-Johnston of One Lewis County, and Alicia Bull, right, Executive Director of the Lewis County Chamber of Commerce, talk about a petition to begin the home rule charter process in Lewis County Monday at the Chamber’s October forum.
The Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce’s October forum Monday at the Gibson House Event Center in Centralia focused on efforts to begin the home rule charter process through the political action committee One Lewis County, which could reshape county government.
However, those most affected by the proposed changes — the Board of Lewis County Commissioners — were not in attendance. Instead, they were meeting in Chehalis with members of the blue ribbon task force they created to explore the same topic.
“I’m really disappointed,” said Todd Chaput, president of the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce, which founded One Lewis County as a political action committee earlier this year. “I was really hoping at least the blue ribbon task force would be here.”
So far, One Lewis County has collected a few hundred signatures in favor of putting the home rule process on the ballot in November 2018. The Chamber soon plans to hire a company to go door to door in an effort to collect the estimated 3,500 signatures needed in the next few months. Chaput and others involved with the Chamber and One Lewis County plan to speak at Lewis County organizations to get the word out about the petition and the home rule charter process in the coming months.
Community members began meeting early this year about the home rule process, which allows counties to create their own government structure, but paused their efforts after county commissioners created a “blue ribbon” task force to study county government, the home rule process and the possibility of hiring a county manager.
After meeting for about two months, the task force recommended that the board hire a manager.
“We agreed with them,” Chaput said Monday. “We just felt it needed to go a step further.”
The Chamber formed One Lewis County as a political action committee, or PAC, and created a petition to put a proposal to begin the home rule charter process on the Nov. 18, 2018, ballot.
“If you sign the petition it means you think it’s good to start the process of changing county government,” said Kelly Smith-Johnston, of One Lewis County.
The group believes the county manager position should be more than just a recommendation, and should be codified into the county’s laws.
They also believe the commission should be expanded to have five part-time commissioners, rather than three full-time commissioners, though they stressed that their recommendations might be different than the final product proposed by elected freeholders.
If enough people sign the petition, the county’s November 2018 ballot will have one proposal asking voters if they approve of beginning the home rule process. Another section will allow them to elect “freeholders” to write the county’s new charter.
Residents would later have a chance to vote on approving the charter itself, but that’s not on the table now, Chaput said.
“The vote yes now is simply to engage in the conversation,” he said.
One Lewis County and the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce are in favor of beginning the home rule process for several reasons, including lawsuits filed against the county in recent years, what they describe as “incompetent management,” continued reliance on using reserves to balance the county budget and a lack of vision from current elected officials too busy supervising daily county operations.
“Very rarely in any organization do you see there is more than one primary leader,” Smith-Johnston said. “In this case we have three people leading the organization.”
She described the county manager as serving the same purpose as a CEO in a business — to serve as an intermediary between the board, who ultimately makes decisions, and the other department heads.
“I very strongly believe … even when I was a county commissioner, that we should hire a county manager,” Ron Averill said at Monday’s forum.
However, he also expressed a concern that freeholders might not create a charter that citizens would vote for.
“A lot of education needs to take place,” he said.
Former city of Chehalis councilor and mayor Fred Rider spoke in favor of a larger council.
“I really like the fact that we had seven councilors,” he said of his time on the Chehalis council. “I think this is a great idea.”
