Chamber Board President Todd Chaput and Executive Director Alicia Bull, representatives of the political action committee One Lewis County, turn in over 2,000 signatures to the auditor’s office in early January.
With 32 signatures to spare, One Lewis County has met the threshold required to put the home rule charter and the election of freeholders on the November general election ballot, the Lewis County Auditor’s Office announced Wednesday.
Just before 5 p.m. Wednesday, county elections superintendent Heather Boyer sent out a press release confirming the total valid signature count at 1,721.
“We are very excited to be able to say step one is accomplished, and that we are now giving the citizens of Lewis County the opportunity to continue to communicate regarding the much needed change in our County Government,” said Alicia Bull, executive director of the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce, in a statement. “We have seen an impressive momentum from the community to be involved in helping our county move in a positive direction regarding a possible change in how our government is set up. This allows us to keep talking and hopefully sends a message that our community is holding our electeds responsible for their actions.”
The group came up 131 signatures short of the required 1,689 signatures — or 10 percent of voter turnout in the county’s previous general election — when representatives dropped off their first batch of petitions last month. Signatures are valid for six months.
On Wednesday, the group delivered another 17 pages of signatures to the Lewis County Auditor’s Office, Boyer told The Chronicle.
The Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce formed One Lewis County last year as a political action committee, or PAC, and began collecting signatures in August for a petition to put the issue on the November 2018 ballot. The group cited poor fiscal management, continued lawsuits, lack of leadership vision and “incompetent management” as its reasons for the pursuit. The group began meeting in early January 2017.
The home rule charter process gives counties an opportunity to form their own style of government.
Now that enough signatures have been collected, county residents will have an opportunity to vote in November to begin the home rule charter process and to elect freeholders, or 15 county residents tasked with drafting the county’s constitution and future form of government. Voters would later be asked to approve their recommendation.
The Chamber of Commerce is holding a freeholder information session at its regularly scheduled forum Monday at 11:30 a.m. at O’Blarneys at the Gibson House in Centralia.
The group believes the county commission should be expanded from three commissioners to five part-time councilors and should hire a county manager to oversee day-to-day operations. The actual proposal that goes before voters would be up to the freeholders, though.
The Board of Lewis County Commissioners have pledged to hire a county manager as recommended by a task force convened on the subject last year, but One Lewis County believes the county should go further to codify the position into the county’s laws.
In preparation for the home rule charter process, the Board of County Commissioners have recently held meetings with staff to discuss a draft policy on electing freeholders, since the county has never had to have such a policy in the past.
“I think we said simple, user friendly, so people can understand it,” said commission chair Edna Fund at a Jan. 29 meeting with staff.
Eric Eisenberg of the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office presented the draft policy to the commission at that meeting. The commissioners discussed the policy again briefly Tuesday.
Eisenberg suggested separating freeholders by existing commission districts for simplicity’s sake. Therefore, five candidates would be elected from each district to make 15 freeholders.
Voters in each district could vote for their top five choices. The draft policy accounts for procedures in the event of a tie. Freeholders would be subject to the same requirements for public disclosure and campaign finance, and would have the same deadlines and requirements for filing for office as other elected officials.
The draft policy suggests freeholder candidates must have lived in Lewis County for five years preceding the election date, must be at least 18 years old and must be registered to vote in the district in which they are seeking to be elected.
The draft policy also outlines the process for appointing replacement freeholders if elected members resign or are otherwise unable to continue serving.
“This is preliminary,” Eisenberg said at the Jan. 29 meeting.
Commissioner Edna Fund asked if sitting county commissioners could also serve as freeholders.
“In my opinion, no, you can’t do that, because you cannot hold two offices in conflict,” Eisenberg said. “The commissioner and freeholder, unlike other offices, are probably legally in conflict … I mean that when one position has a supervisory role over the other, they are in conflict.”
The county commissioners would not have control over the freeholders, but can provide suggestions and guidance to the group.
The positions would not have a salary under the draft plan, but on Tuesday commissioner Gary Stamper suggested having some kind of compensation, at least for mileage.
As the commissioner representing East Lewis County, he said it would be hard to attract freeholders from as far away as Randle or Packwood to make a regular commute to Chehalis without any compensation.
The commissioners have not yet approved the draft policy.
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Natalie Johnson is assistant editor of The Chronicle. She can be reached at njohnson@chronline.com.
