Wednesday marked a historic day in our corner of Southwest Washington.
One Lewis County, the political action committee formed by the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce, reached the threshold of signatures required to place home rule charter on the November ballot for the consideration of voters.
In layman’s terms, the process allows the people of Lewis County to form their own constitution. Many of your friends, neighbors and community leaders will be seeking to become freeholders, a name for the 15 temporarily elected leaders who will negotiate over the course of months to create a governmental framework to put before voters for approval in a subsequent election. Their names will also appear on the November ballot.
The chief goal of One Lewis County has been what The Chronicle Editorial Board has proposed for years. Lewis County’s elected commissioners need a professional, trained and experienced manager or executive to help them carry out the business of the people and manage an eight-figure budget and all the intricacies it entails.
The lack of such a position has in recent years led to well-documented upheaval in the commissioners’ office, including apparent violations of the Open Public Meetings Act, turmoil in the 911 Communications Center, the use of millions of dollars in reserves, claims of a hostile work environment that resulted in thousands of dollars in settlements and testy relationships with other local governments, among other problems.
There’s no need to once again dive into the specifics, especially since virtually all who have truly examined the issue — including the commissioners themselves — have arrived at the same conclusion: A county manager would be a benefit to county government.
A task force appointed by the commissioners reached that conclusion after hearing broad support for the position from county elected officials and department leaders. That task force was appointed after community leaders, prompted by The Chronicle’s reporting and commentary, began informal talks focused on the potential for a home rule charter.
The pressure from One Lewis County seems to have led to the commissioners’ decision to hire a county manager outside of the home rule charter process.
At this point, it’s worth celebrating that both sides — the commissioners and One Lewis County — see the need for a county manager, and we’re likely to get one.
As some critics will note, the home rule charter process has its potential setbacks. Once freeholders are elected, they — and only they — will have control over what proposal eventually goes before voters. This has, in other counties, led to some funky arrangements. In Clallam County, for instance, freeholders chose to make the community development director an elected position, the only such arrangement in the state and perhaps the country.
Still, the outright hiring of a manager by the commissioners under intense public pressure is more problematic. The commissioners could, as they have in the past, eliminate the position at any time, be it for political or hamfisted budgetary reasons, and then never fill it. With the home rule charter, the position could be codified into the county’s constitution, and future generations would benefit from professional management acting at the direction of commissioners who often lack any prior experience in government or management.
We believe additional improvements can be made to the structure of county government. The options are as endless as the ideas and experiences of those who take part in the process, and we have faith the people of Lewis County will present a promising proposal.
The months ahead will be incredibly important for the future of Lewis County. The Chronicle will do its part to educate residents on the home rule charter process every step of the way, but those who truly want to have a role in shaping government should work to educate themselves as well.
The Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce will focus on the home rule charter during its monthly forum at noon Monday at O’Blarney’s at the Gibson House in Centralia. Additionally, the chamber is launching a freeholder education class from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Holiday Inn Express in Chehalis.
There will be disagreements as we move ahead as a county, just as there have been in the past, but now is the time for those competing ideas and visions for county government to be heard and presented to the public.
No matter what happens, it’s in the hands of the people now, and residents are likely to emerge from this process more engaged and educated about county government than ever before.
