CHIMACUM — Lukewarm reaction to a proposal to change Jefferson County’s government from a constitutional to a charter system may mean the effort runs out of steam before the Aug. 1 signature deadline.
“Before the election, everyone I talked to was excited about this,” said Davis Steelquist of Quilcene, who is running a petition drive in support of a Jefferson County charter.
“But since then, there hasn’t been a lot happening, and I haven’t gotten the support that I expected.”
The success of the effort depends on charter delegates, or “freeholders,” who will shepherd the process.
Need people to step up
“In order for this to work, we need to find people who are familiar with the issues and will step up and get involved,” Bruce Cowan told Jefferson County Democratic Party members at their monthly meeting Tuesday.
“They will then have a role in writing the charter, if that’s how the ball bounces.”
Before that, several pieces would have to fall into place.
Cowan, along with attorney David Alvarez, presented objective information about the charter proposal at Tuesday’s meeting.
Alvarez, who serves as the civil prosecuting attorney for Jefferson County, said he was appearing “as a Democrat and a private citizen” in a capacity that had nothing to do with his position.
“This idea isn’t even on the radar at the courthouse,” he said.
In order for the proposal to be placed on a ballot, 1,774 valid signatures, or 10 percent of the 17,740 voters of the 2010 election, must be received by Aug. 1, which is one year after Steelquist gathered the first signature.
As in any petition drive, those gathering signatures hope to submit at least 10 percent more than what is required to compensate for the inevitable disqualifications.
Steelquist has gathered about 600 signatures, a number that has not shown a significant increase in the past two months.
Once the signatures were validated, the county commissioners would consider passing a resolution to place it on the November ballot and determine the number of freeholders who would write the charter.
State law requires a number between 15 and 25, with the number equally divided between commissioner districts.
Optimum number
Steelquist said the most effective configuration includes an odd number of freeholders from each district. Using this guideline, the optimum number for Jefferson County would be either 15 or 21.
The voters would then have two charter-related items on the November ballot: whether to begin the charter process and electing freeholders from each district.
If a majority voted against the first proposal, the second would be moot.
Of the 39 Washington state counties, six are charter counties. That includes Clallam, which adopted its charter in 1979 and which has amended it several times since.
Others are King (adopted in 1969), Pierce (1981), Snohomish (1980), Whatcom (1979) and San Juan (2005).
All except Clallam, which retained the three-member county commission, have adopted a council-executive form of government.
A county’s charter is reviewed every 10 years.
Direct election of commissioners
Steelquist said the impetus for his charter effort was to establish the direct election of commissioners by voters in their district.
Since presumably liberal Port Townsend votes for commissioners in presumably conservative District 1, voters do not have control over their own destiny, according to Steelquist.
The freeholders could decide to include countywide elections in the new charter, which would counter Steelquist’s reason for floating the idea in the first place, and he said he was aware that once the process began, there would be no guarantees of its direction.
Steelquist hasn’t given up on the idea, but if there isn’t a significant increase in the signatures gathered, he just may pull the plug.
“If people respond in the next few months, I’ll go all the way. Otherwise, I’ll give up,” he said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
