PORT ANGELES — City Council members have turned back an anti-fluoridation group’s petition effort to ask voters to change the city’s form of government through a Nov. 8 ballot measure.
Faced with an Aug. 2 deadline to put the measure on the ballot, the council opted Tuesday to instead ask voters if they want to change from a code city to second-class city on a ballot measure that will be on the Nov. 7, 2017 election ballot.
Our Water, Our Choice!, upset at the council’s continued split support for municipal water fluoridation, had gathered enough petitions signatures to ask voters to approve the change in status.
The vote was to occur in the November 2017 election, as required under state law governing the petition-form for making the change.
The goal, as stated in the petition: to elect an entirely new City Council, four of whom will be up for election at that same 2017 election.
At their Tuesday night meeting, council members considered a request by OWOC! that the same council that favors fluoridation pass a resolution that proposes that change in classification.
The council also would have asked the Clallam County Auditor’s Office to put the government-change proposal on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Council members decided there was not enough time to meet the state-mandated Aug. 2 deadline to notify the Auditor’s Office of the ballot measure.
They did not vote, agreeing to abide by state law that requires the petition-created ballot measure to be on the 2017 ballot.
But there was no support for a Nov. 8 ballot measure.
Council members said the proposal needed to be discussed more and said they did not favor a Nov. 8 measure to change to second-class-city status, under which the city would lose home-rule-charter and initiative and referendum powers, according to the Municipal Research and Service Center.
“It is really a huge change,” said Councilwoman Sissi Bruch, who voted Dec. 15 to discontinue fluoridation.
“I don’t think we have enough time to really understand the implications.
“This is probably the most important decision we will make in our tenure.
“We do not need to rush it.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
