Fred Rider, former Chehalis mayor and city councilor, speaks in favor of the home rule charter process at an informational meeting in Chehalis last February.
Consultant Kelly Smith-Johnston speaks about the home rule charter process at an informational session Monday night in Chehalis.
When it comes to the home rule charter process in Lewis County, it’s the first time for everyone.
“It’s a learning process,” said Todd Chaput, past president of the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce and one of the founders of One Lewis County, the political action committee that circulated a successful petition to put the process on the November ballot.
“We’ve learned a lot through this and we’ll continue to learn a lot,” he said.
One Lewis County held two information sessions on the home rule charter and freeholder processes Monday — one at the chamber’s regular forum at noon in Centralia and a second at 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Express in Chehalis.
Chaput earlier told The Chronicle that the noon session would be more broad and the evening session would go into more details for potential freeholder candidates.
About 40 people, many of whom are familiar faces in Twin Cities government and organizations throughout the county, attended the evening session.
Consultant Kelly Smith-Johnston, of Clarity Consulting, is volunteering her time with One Lewis County. Smith-Johnston specializes in analyzing government organizations to make them function more effectively.
On Monday, she gave a detailed explanation of how the complicated and unfamiliar home rule charter process will progress.
“The language associated with this process is clunky,” she said.
The commission form of government, in place in Lewis County, was established when Washington was still a territory, she said. The home rule charter process allows a county to determine what form of government works best for them. One Lewis County has proposed a form of government similar to the Centralia and Chehalis city councils, which have managers to act at the will of elected councilors.
The group has completed the first step of the process — collecting enough signatures on a petition to get on the November ballot. The Lewis County Auditor’s Office confirmed the group met the threshold last week.
The next step is for residents to vote to elect 15 freeholders from throughout the county and vote to allow the freeholders to begin drafting the county’s charter, similar to a county constitution.
Freeholder candidates can register for the election the week of May 14 — election filing week.
“A ‘Yes’ vote is simply continuing the conversation,” Chaput said.
Once elected, freeholders have six months to draft the charter. When they’re done, they campaign for the passage of that charter. Residents will have another chance to vote to approve the charter, and if it passes, the charter is adopted.
While One Lewis County has proposed that the county’s charter would specify the creation of a county manager position and five part-time county commissioners, the elected freeholders will draft the final charter.
Freeholders could also choose to reorganize other county departments, changing whether office heads are elected or appointed, or partisan or non-partisan. The county prosecutor’s office and superior court, among some other offices, must remain as-is, according to the state constitution, Smith-Johnston said.
However, One Lewis County is advising that freeholders keep the scope of the changes to county government narrow, Chaput said.
Proponents of the charter process say Lewis County’s government in its current form is inefficient.
Chaput likened a county having three commissioners with equal authority to a person having three bosses, all giving different directions.
Smith-Johnston said she would not have gotten involved with the project if she believed it was based in an attack on the current commissioners.
“I think a lot of time government structure makes it hard for people in government to do a good job,” she said. “We think this is a structure issue, not a people issue.”
One Lewis County has cited financial mismanagement and lawsuits against the county as reasons to hire a county manager and restructure county government.
The Lewis County Board of Commissioners has expressed a desire to hire a manager, but One Lewis County believes the county should go further and codify the position into law with the charter process.
