SEQUIM — The Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has asked a judge to decide if the wording of a petition to place a measure supporting the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center blocks it from being placed on the Aug. 4 ballot.
On April 29, a citizens’ committee for the recreation center known as SARC turned in to the county Auditor’s Office 4,467 signatures on a petition for a metropolitan park district measure to fund the facility at 610 N. Fifth Ave.
Personnel at the facility — which has exercise equipment and the city’s only public pool — expect to run out of money in December 2016.
The lawsuit for a declaratory judgment, filed Friday in Clallam County Superior Court, asks the court whether language in the petition allows county Auditor Shoona Riggs to go forward with placing the measure on the ballot.
“Law prescribes that there shall be a particular warning statement that is actually drafted and contained in a statute under state law,” said county Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols.
“The warning statement that is prescribed by state law does not appear verbatim on the petitions that were circulated.”
The lawsuit is intended to determine if the petition is sufficient without the exact language in the statute, Nichols said.
“A great many people have participated in the process,” he said.
“The auditor is very interested in not disenfranchising voters, but also in following the law. And so, this is a vehicle through which we can have the courts sound in.”
Virginia O’Neil, spokeswoman for Citizens for SARC, said the group has retained the Seattle law firm K&L Gates as co-counsel, along with its attorney, Craig Miller.
The Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has asked the court to hold a hearing on this matter no later than May 15.
The metropolitan park district for SARC is one of two such proposals in the works for registered voters in the area defined by the Sequim School District.
The second, supported by the city of Sequim, would be a broad-based park district to fund various parks and recreation activities, if the city pursues it for February.
