Bainbridge Island has the green light to hold a special election on May 19 on the question of whether the city should change its government structure.
Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a bill Wednesday that alters state law to allow ballots on change-of-government measures to go before voters in any month. Previously, they were only allowed during November general elections.
In Bainbridge’s case, the bill allows voters to decide whether the city should do away with its elected mayor position in favor of a city manager hired by the City Council.
The bill, granted emergency status last month, was quickly passed by the state House and spent just more than a week in the Senate. Rep. Christine Rolfes and Sen. Phil Rockefeller, both Bainbridge Democrats, sponsored the bill in their respective houses.
Bainbridge City Councilwoman Debbie Vancil said Wednesday the bill would be important to all municipalities to help them govern their own affairs. She said the Legislature and the governor recognized Bainbridge Island’s immediate need for the bill and gave it an emergency status, which means it took effect the moment the governor signed it.
Otherwise, the bill would have had to wait 90 days until after the 2009 legislative session for it to become valid.
“Legislators get how politics work,” Rolfes said. “They’ve all run for office, so they get that this makes a lot of sense.”
The next step on the island is for the City Council to get a change-of-government proposal on a ballot.
“The City Council has an obligation to fulfill its responsibility to the folks that came forward with the legal petition,” Vancil said. “We have to put that on the ballot the next opportunity.”
Rockefeller said that without the bill, the city’s ability to meet the requirements of a citizen-initiated petition drive to change the form of government would have been complicated.
“If we hadn’t made this change, that decision of whether to change the form of government would have depended up on a vote at the general election at the same time as a vote on who would be the next mayor. So you can see the conflict,” he said.
Without the bill, an islander could have run for mayor and won in November, but that election would have been moot. That, said Vancil, is expensive for candidates and for the city.
Vancil said the council has directed the city attorney to prepare a resolution to get the change of government proposal on the May 19 ballot.
Whoopee !! BI taxpayers now get the $80,000 election bill to vote on what could have been voted on election day in November. Ms. Vancil stated: “Without the bill, an islander could have run for mayor and won in November, but that election would have been moot. That, said Vancil, is expensive for candidates and for the city.” So, Ms. Vancil, let me get this straight, now the Mayoral candidates still have the cost of running for office when voters say no to the change and the taxpayers get bilked for this special election.
The problem is not the office of the Mayor but rather the woman in that office and a Council that was asleep at the wheel for many years.
Call to Recall: see http://www.YouTube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz-e3n68VT8&feature=related.
$80,000 in taxpayer money would fill quite a few potholes and other efforts to provide core COBI functions.
The photo-op picture of Governor Christine and the movers of this bill is very telling.