The Lewis County Courthouse in Chehalis
One Lewis County is challenging the freeholder election process because this voter-initiated home-rule process must proceed lawfully. The sub-districting approach is not specified in the Washington State Constitution that prescribes the freeholder process.
To clarify that this process is legal, we sought legal counsel. Our attorneys, which include Gerry Alexander, an attorney who is also a retired Washington State Chief Supreme Court Justice, have advised us that the sub-districting used by the county seems to be a violation of the Washington State Constitution. Not addressing this could leave the entire home rule process open to question and legal challenges at a later date of the vote itself. With our knowledge of this violation, it is our responsibility to bring this forward to preserve the legality of the process.
We understand that the county feels it is acting appropriately and lawfully. We understand from The Chronicle article on September 6 that they say they want to provide better representation for constituents through sub-districts.
The problem is that good intent doesn’t supercede the law.
For too long, our county officials have done things their way with serious consequences for our community. Violating the state’s open public meeting law, failing to act in the face of hostile work environments and poor management practices have all resulted in costly lawsuits, drags on local government business and distraction from the important work of leading our county into a future of growth and prosperity.
No other county has used sub-districting for a Home Rule Charter vote, and the Constitution clearly states that the districts need to be set up in accordance to a commission or legislative district. Again, the County has attempted to create a process unique to Lewis County, and by doing so has opened the entire home rule process to legal challenge and questions.
This isn’t the first challenge the home rule process has seen. In May, an individual considering running for freeholder questioned the $100 filing fee. The filing fee was determined to be unreasonably high and was duly changed to half that cost. In the face of another problem, we asked the County via a letter from our attorney to similarly consider input that the process is unconstitutional and change it.
We have been asked why One Lewis County didn’t raise this concern sooner. It may appear to some to be an eleventh-hour action designed to put the county in a bad light. That is not the case. We’ve been working diligently behind the scenes to determine if this action is truly warranted for months. We wanted to protect the process and the County’s credibility by not stirring public concern unnecessarily.
Here are some of the things we’ve been doing since the sub-districting was announced:
• Determining if sub-districting is a viable, legal approach. To do this, we researched all other previous home rule efforts and sought legal counsel. Our research shows that no other county in Washington State has used sub-districting for their home rule elections. Our legal counselors are all of the opinion that the state Constitution allows freeholders be elected only on the basis of legislative districts or commissioner districts. (Washington State Constitution, Article XI, Section 4)
• Determining if the county sought outside legal counsel. If the county had sought outside legal counsel and received an opinion that sub-districts were constitutional, that would provide another legal opinion that could help us understand the viability of this approach. Under the Freedom of Information Act, we requested records related to this issue from Lewis County and the offices of the Washington State Attorney General and the Secretary of State. Both the Secretary of State and AG said they had not been in contact with anyone at Lewis County regarding this. The county has yet to provide us with any of these requested records. To our knowledge, the county did not request any outside counsel for support on this process. We question why they have not sought counsel as they guide this process after repeatedly stating that they have never done this before and are trying to figure out.
• Determining if there was any actual harm done by sub-districting. We needed to know if the process harmed anyone before moving forward. We spoke with people running for freeholder and with those who considered running and subsequently abandoned the idea. We found that some people were discouraged from running by the sub-districting – feeling that given other potential candidates in their now-smaller area where only one candidate would be elected, they could not mount a successful campaign. Others expressed concern that it appears to be trying to protect some candidates who are the sole filer in their subdistrict not having to run against the others within their commission district. There is argument that voters are being denied the opportunity to choose the most fit and qualified — under commissioner districts voters can select five freeholders from a larger pool to represent them. With sub-districting, they can only select one freeholder from a smaller pool. In modern day political language, this could be labeled as gerrymandering.
• Finally, we were securing the funds to continue this process. When the County does not conduct government business legally, it costs our community. Some of these costs are in legal fees and settlements that the county pays, as we have seen over and over again. There is an ongoing, hidden cost, however, of people and organizations that want to conduct business in the county who must pay legal fees to force the county to operate legally. This is money that could be invested in better ways to strengthen our community. In our case, the legal fees are not recoverable and we are not seeking money from the county. This is about doing it right. We know that there have been other times when citizens were concerned that the county was proceeding unlawfully but did not have the financial resources to challenge it, so we feel it is our duty to do what we can to ensure a legal process.
It is nonsensical to think that after our efforts to initiate and foster this process that we would want to now block it without a compelling reason. One Lewis County is dedicated to the Home Rule Process.
We are only pursuing this after an exhaustive review of the situation and our options. We do not take this action lightly. We are acting to preserve the integrity of the process so that the wishes and efforts of voters, and hopefully duly elected freeholders, can be fulfilled for good purpose and not exposed to future legal challenges due to the seemingly unconstitutional nature of the newly formed sub-districts.
There is a fairly simple solution: The county could remove the vote from the November ballot. The commissioners have the authority to put it on the February ballot (voter initiatives can only be considered in a general election, but Commissioners can put it on the ballot at any time), and have freeholders file and run within commissioner districts. This short delay is worth it in order to have a constitutionally correct process. Instead of exploring this option and responding to our letter, however, the County has chosen to ignore it and has essentially said, “We’ll see you in court.”
We haven’t abandoned the process, we haven’t abandoned the freeholders, it’s just to the contrary. We are trying to protect both and couldn’t put money and time into a November election when we were being told the sub-district filings were unconstitutional. We believe in our Washington State Constitution, and if we ignore its words then we are just as guilty as the county who decided to do it their own way. One Lewis County will hold an information session on this issue to keep voters informed as we move forward.
