I just don’t understand all this drama over the creation of freeholder sub-districts. The Washington state Constitution states, in part “the legislative authority of the county shall apportion the number of freeholders to be elected in accordance with either the legislative districts or the county commissioner districts, if any, within said county .... .”
The key word is “shall.” Webster’s Dictionary defines shall “as used in laws, regulations or directives to express what is mandatory.” Simply put, the Lewis County Board of Commissioners willfully violated the Washington state Constitution as they do not have the power to subdivide the commissioner districts within the county for freeholder elections.
This subdivision is just another example of just how self-serving the current board of county commissioners are. The longer they delay and disrupt the freeholder process the longer they maintain their jobs and salaries.
For some reason, aspersions were cast upon the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce and/or One Lewis County for filing a lawsuit over this. Instead they should have been congratulated for their diligence in research prior to their filing of said lawsuit.
This whole freeholder mess is just another example, of which there have been a few, of the lack of integrity of the current Lewis County commissioners.
Stevan W. Connors
Adna
