Freeholders to be elected by sub-districts

Kincaid asks to skip voter approval of process

EPHRATA — Grant County voters are not changing their government by saying 'yes' to the freeholder process on their general election ballots this fall.

They're giving 21 of their fellow voters a chance to examine the current system of county government, and recommend changes.

Saying 'no' to the freeholder process, means no review, no changes.

Voters will decide two questions during the upcoming general election:

First, should there be an examination of county government, the freeholder process?

Second, who should be a freeholder?

If voters reject the first question, it doesn't matter who wins the 21 freeholder positions.

Election officials, using the state Constitution, define a freeholder candidate as a registered voter, who has lived in Grant County for the last five years.

If voters approve the process, the freeholders, who are not paid, could spend up to two years studying the current county government. They may determine changes are necessary, but voters must approve them.

A committee of Grant County residents, calling themselves Voters for Council-Manager Form of Grant County Government, led by Moses Lake real estate agent Ralph Kincaid, orchestrated a successful petition effort in August to have the freeholder elections in November. To qualify, they collected signatures from more than 10 percent of the people who voted in the last general election.

Initial signature counts of the committee's petition showed they were short. But last week, the group was told they had surpassed the minimum — by three signatures.

On Wednesday, in a 2-1 vote, the Board of Grant County Commissioners decided the 21 freeholders would now be elected from seven sub-districts within each of the three commissioner districts.

The sub-districts will be made up of two or more voter precincts and represent about 3,000 people, using 2000 U.S. Census Bureau population data.

Grant County Auditor Bill Varney said the commission's decision guarantees the entire county will enjoy equal representation, from both urban and rural areas.

Kincaid, who was invited to comment prior to the commission vote, disagreed with the commissioners' eventual decision. He pushed for seven at-large freeholder positions from each commissioner district.

He predicted some sub-districts would be loaded with many of the most qualified freeholder candidates.

"It runs the risk of having some good, qualified people not being elected," Kincaid told the commissioners.

Meanwhile, some sub-districts may not have a freeholder candidate file for election, said George Ahrend, the committee's Moses Lake attorney.

"I'm more interested in this being equitable, than anything else," said Commission Chairman Richard Stevens. He wanted freeholder candidates elected from every area of Grant County.

"I think there's a lot of pride coming out of these smaller districts, and the larger ones," Stevens said.

Kincaid, who had earlier asked the county commissioners to place the freeholder election on the ballot so his committee could skip the petition process, has now asked the commissioners to skip the voting process.

In a Sept. 5 letter to the commissioners, Kincaid asked the board to approve the freeholder process, bypassing voters. That proposal means voters would only answer one question in November: Who will the freeholders be?

"It would be a shame to expend all the effort to elect freeholders while at the same time voting down the freeholder election," Kincaid wrote.

"We feel that the auditor's delay in getting started on this process makes this request reasonable," he said. "No one should be afraid of a citizen audit of our county government."

Commissioner Deborah Moore, who earlier favored skipping the petition process, but was outvoted by the commission majority, does not support Kincaid's latest proposal.

"If we want the public engaged and involved, they need to vote on the issues," Moore said.

The commissioners did not act on the proposal.

A special filing period for freeholder candidates is set for Sept. 15-21. Prospective candidates file at the Grant County courthouse, in the elections office.