PORT ANGELES — City Council members tonight will consider an anti-fluoridation group’s request for a Nov. 8 ballot measure that could change city government from a code city with home-rule-charter powers to a second-class city without them.
Council members — the majority of whom favor fluoridation — will consider the request by Our Water, Our Choice! tonight at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
OWOC!, which far exceeded the 467 petition signatures needed to hold the election, wants the council to have the Clallam County Auditor’s Office include the measure on the Nov. 8 ballot by Aug. 2, the state deadline for submitting resolutions for the general election ballot.
The next regular council meeting is 6 p.m. Aug. 2, after the deadline because the Auditor’s Office will have closed.
November 2017
City Attorney Bill Bloor said that under state statute — and absent City Council action by Aug. 2 — the measure must still be on the November 2017 municipal general election ballot, when four of seven City Council seats will be up for grabs.
Council members interviewed over recent days expressed little enthusiasm for putting the measure on the Nov. 8 ballot.
“I absolutely do not support it,” said Mayor Patrick Downie, part of the four-person majority on the council who voted Dec. 15 to continue fluoridating the city’s water supply.
Downie also reiterated his opposition to making the change at all.
“We need to have a more thorough public discussion about the matter,” he said.
In separate interviews, Council members Dan Gase, Cherie Kidd and Brad Collins, all of whom voted for fluoridation, expressed similar concerns.
“I’m not doing anything to help support the city becoming a second-class city,” Collins said Monday.
Council member Lee Whetham, who voted against fluoridation, said that after talking to Bloor, he is concerned about the legality of a provision in the petition that calls for the re-election of an entirely new City Council.
“If this were to go to court, I’m not sure it would stand up,” Whetham said.
Michael Merideth would not comment Monday on his decision.
“I am against fluoridation,” he said.
“The rest of my reservations I’m going to save for the council meeting.”
Councilwoman Sissi Bruch, also opposed to fluoridation, also said Monday that she needs more information on the implications of the change.
“I’m willing to postpone it until the next election,” Bruch said.
OWOC! President Eloise Kailin of Sequim said Monday she does not know what to expect from the council tonight.
“I’ll just be sitting there waiting to see what happens,” she said.
Kailin found common ground in council members delaying a vote.
“I figure they would be giving me more time to make the case for a change in government,” Kailin said.
Unprecedented change
No city in the state has changed from a code city to a second-class city, according to the Municipal Research & Services Center, which also has said the city would lose home-rule charter powers if the change is adopted.
OWOC! attorney Gerald Steel of Olympia has said that a court might have to decide if the initiative and referendum powers under home rule could be retained under second-class status.
Steel has threatened, though, to take the city to court if Bloor asks for a Clallam County Superior Court summary judgment on whether the transformation would require new City Council elections.
Positions held by Whetham, Downie, Gase and Collins are up for election in November 2017, in the same election that voters would consider the change to second-class status.
Those same positions, and those held by Bruch, Merideth and Kidd, would be up for election in 2018 if voters approve the change.
Elections
Bloor said last week the OWOC! ballot measure won’t call for new City Council elections, saying state law does not require it despite the petition saying the change would be made “in order” to elect a new City Council.
“They may want to say they want to change the form of government to have chocolate milk at lunch,” Bloor said.
“I’m going to write a ballot title that says, ‘Do you want to change the form of government, yes or no?’ ”
Steel, insisting a new City Council is required, has threatened legal action against the city if Bloor seeks a declaratory judgment on new City Council elections.
Such action would “be frivolous and brought solely for purposes of delay,” Steel said in a March 4 letter to Bloor, county Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols and county Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brian Wendt.
Steel threatened to “seek sanctions” if any of them seek a declaratory judgement.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
