Voters drop challenge to MLSD school bond

MOSES LAKE — A group of Moses Lake voters who contested last year’s Moses Lake School District construction bond have decided not to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Which means that the $135.4 million bond to build a second high school and a new elementary school, and refurbish the existing high school, has finally, well and truly, passed.

By two votes. And two court rulings.

“They decided not to appeal further,” said George Ahrend, a Moses Lake attorney representing six district voters who challenged the certification of the Feb. 14, 2017 election.

The six voters — Fred Meise, Doug Bierman, Pat Hochstatter, Mike Counsell, Jason Melcher and Jared Pope — claimed the Grant County Auditor Michelle Jaderlund failed to follow the law when she did not contact by phone roughly 30 voters whose ballot signatures were missing or did not match those on file.

Last March, Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz ruled last year that Jaderlund was in “substantial compliance” with the law, a ruling upheld by the Washington State Third District Court of Appeals in early March.

Ahrend gave no reason for the decision not to appeal, saying only he did not believe he was authorized by his clients to say.

According to Jerry Moberg, an attorney who filed an amicus brief on behalf of a group supporting the bond, the deadline for filing a petition to appeal passed on April 8. An appeal would not have been automatic, Moberg added, as the Supreme Court chooses which cases it will hear.

Right now, the auditor and the district are waiting for a document from the appellate court that its ruling stands, Moberg said. After that, the district will be clear to sell the bonds.

“Then they can market the bonds,” Moberg said. “There is some complication with that; some of the school board members are having second thoughts.”

Superintendent Josh Meek said it would take some time for district to be in a position to sell the construction bonds, as the board is currently looking at other alternatives to construction of a second high school at this time, even as the district is struggling with overcrowding.

However, the school district has the authority to issue the bonds — debt instruments backed up by the district’s taxing power.

“The board has already passed the authority for bond sales,” Meek said.

The Moses Lake School Board is set to meet at 7 p.m. tonight in the district’s meeting room, 940 E. Yonezawa Blvd., behind the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center.

Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story that appeared online incorrectly stated that Jerry Moberg represented the Moses Lake School District.