Freeholder election set for November

EPHRATA — Grant County voters will decide in November whether the current form of county government should be examined for possible changes, following a successful petition bid by a committee of business leaders and municipal officials.

Twenty-one elected freeholders would conduct the examination if voters approve the ballot measure, set for November's general election.

The committee, dubbed Voters for Council-Manager form of Grant County Government, turned in 2,272 petition signatures in early August. They needed 1,965 of those signatures to be valid — 10 percent of the people who voted in the last general election.

The freeholders, who must be registered Grant County voters, have up to two years to evaluate the current system of county government, recommend any changes and draft a new charter. Any recommended changes, including possibly appointing some currently elected county officials and expanding the county commission's current three-member board, would then require final voter approval.

Earlier reports stated the committee failed to collect the required number of signatures to have the measure placed on the ballot, but the latest counts released by Grant County Auditor Bill Varney show they surpassed the minimum by three signatures.

Committee spokesman Ralph Kincaid, a Moses Lake real estate agent, said they overcame deliberate roadblocks placed by county officials, who have done everything within their power to keep the measure off the ballot. Kincaid called the current, three-signature margin "spin." County officials, he said, tried to portray the committee as "squeaking by."

Kincaid claims the committee surpassed the minimum by about 100 signatures.

"It's been frustrating to have elected officials say 'we think this is a healthy process, but we're against it,'" Kincaid said Friday. "It was obvious from what we had to go through that they were doing everything to keep it from happening. The commissioners and all the elected officials ought to be neutral on this and let the people decide what they want."

Kincaid hammered his point home last week in a four page letter to Varney, accusing the auditor of using a signature validation "process meant to exclude as many voters as possible for any possible reason."

Kincaid said Varney, the county's head election official, was personally opposed to allowing the freeholder election to proceed.

Initial counts showed the group was short by 111 signatures. The results were reversed after the Grant County prosecutor's office — following state Supreme Court precedent — decided many of the signatures invalidated earlier ought to be counted, if the signers were actually registered voters.

Twenty-three people's signatures were initially invalidated because they signed the petition multiple times. About 20 more were dropped because the signature did not match voter registration records. And 67 were invalidated because the signer provided a post office box number instead of the required residential address.

"You lean towards the rights of the signer," Varney said Thursday, after meeting with Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Hallstrom, who represents the county in civil matters.

Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey, a member of the committee, was upbeat the freeholder election would be going forward, but disappointed by the county's continued opposition. He accused county officials of standing in the way of a democratic process.

"This committee has been very tenacious in following up on what the auditor's office has provided because we did not feel they were counting votes properly," Covey said Friday.

Grant County Commission Chairman Richard Stevens said the commission majority has remained neutral throughout the process. Stevens said the committee threatened the county with legal action, before receiving the favorable ruling.

The commissioners and Varney are scheduled to meet today with the committee to determine how the 21 individual freeholders are to be divided up around the county.

Seven freeholders will likely be selected from each county commissioner district. Whether the freeholders are selected at-large from the district, or run for one of seven positions within the district, will be determined by the county commissioners.

A special filing period for the elected freeholders must also be established, Varney said.