PORT ANGELES — Opinions were evenly divided in a battle of comments at a state Conservation Commission hearing Wednesday night that focused on whether Mike Wiley Jr. should be seated on the Clallam Conservation District board of supervisors.
About 90 people packed into the Port Angeles City Council Chambers, with 32 weighing in with comments to state Commission Chairwoman Lynn Bahrych, Vice Chairman Fred Colvin, Executive Director Mark Clark and Policy and Intergovernmental Relations Director Ron Schultz.
Commission members and staff did not take questions.
They will decide if Wiley should be seated when they gather for a full commission meeting from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 21 at Oxford Suites, 2550 NW Silverdale Way in Silverdale to certify conservation district elections held throughout Washington state.
Wiley, a 19-year-old Peninsula College student, defeated incumbent Don Hatler, 72, a Sequim resident who owns donkeys, in a Feb. 19 election.
A requirement for the seat is that the district supervisor be a landowner or a farm operator.
Wiley did not own land until after the balloting, when his parents deeded him 1 percent of their property.
The debate centers on whether Wiley is qualified to sit on the board and if he should have fulfilled those qualifications at the time he filed for the position or when the election is certified.
The commission’s staff is recommending that he not be seated.
Wiley filed as a write-in candidate three days before balloting, did not go public with his candidacy and relied in large part on quietly marshalled support from the Republican Party of Clallam County, leaders of which urged him to run.
Hatler, 72, did not know he had an opponent until he discovered Wiley defeated him 107-60.
The previous tally of 114-60 was incorrect, Clallam District Manager Joe Holtrop said Wednesday.
Seven votes were disqualified for being incorrectly filled out, mostly for not putting Jr. after Wiley’s name, Holtrop said.
Refining rules
When commission members meet in three weeks, they also will discuss refining conservation district election rules to bring them more in line with general election rules to avoid the controversy that has arisen as the result of Wiley’s election, Bahrych said before the meeting.
“This election definitely, and other [conservation district] elections in the state, are on the radar screen,” she said. “Rule making has already started.”
So many showed up Wednesday night that an intended half-hour meet-and-greet with commission members and staff turned into a sign-up sheet for those speaking and for participants to sign lists showing they attended.
Participants also wrote upon and signed comment cards and can continue to register opinions at www.scc.wa.gov.
An unofficial count of those for and against Wiley being seated showed 20 against, 19 for and three who did not state an opinion but spoke generally about conservation district history or urged a change in election rules.
The need to refine those rules threaded through arguments on both sides of the issue, but after that, those for seating Wiley and those for seating Hatler diverted, many times in emotion-laden presentations.
Those speaking for seating Wiley included Dick Pilling, Bob and Sue Forde and Kaj Ahlburg.
Those speaking against seating Wiley included Vicci Rudin, Bob Caldwell and Paul Hansen.
After he outpolled Hatler, Wiley said his “home hobby garden” of about 100 square feet and the fact he sold eggs from chickens he raised made him a farm operator. He also said he sold wood he harvested from his parents’ Joyce property.
Then on March 18, Wiley’s parents, Mike and Lana, transferred 1 percent of their property to him, a portion equal to $3,338 of their $335,795 parcel, and Wiley contended that made him a landowner.
Conservation district elections operate under state laws separate from general election laws, but are unclear on the question of when write-in candidates must fulfill the qualifications for the position of supervisor.
When that occurs, the Conservation Commission relies on general election laws.
AG opinion
The state Attorney General’s Office provided an opinion citing general election state law that Wiley must “at the time of filing be a registered voter and possess the qualifications specified by the law for a person who may be elected to the office.”
At the hearing, those for seating Wiley said, absent any specific requirements about qualifications, that it was unfair to retroactively apply new rules to an election that already took place.
Those against seating him said Wiley conducted a “stealth” campaign that did not give all voters the chance to examine his qualifications or his opinions.
Conservation district boards approve funding for natural resource conservation projects. They also award grants to farmers that encourage stream protection and other measures that protect the environment. The Clallam Conservation District board manages a $2.1 million 2009 budget that includes five employees.
“A non-political, nonpartisan election was taken over by a local political party,” Hatler said at the hearing, adding that Wiley should have fulfilled the qualifications for the position at the time he filed for the position.
“I’m a blue-collar guy who has an interest in the land,” Wiley said. “I’d like to see projects carried 30, 40, 50 years into the future.”
Two speakers with legal backgrounds also took opposite sides.
“On the date of the election, there was nothing in any law or regulation relating to the Conservation Commission that would have told the candidate or anyone who voted for him that he would not be able to be seated if he satisfied the eligibility requirements before the election result is certified,” said Ahlburg, a former attorney.
“Your own form that a candidate has to fill out to determine his eligibility asks him to certify on the date he signs the form ‘I am a landowner,’ and not ‘I was a landowner on the date of the election.'”
But retired lawyer Thomas Montgomery of Sequim said the state Legislature intended, and logic demanded, that voters cast ballots for candidates as though they were qualified to take office the very day of the election.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
