PORT ANGELES — A decision on whether or not Sequim voters will be able to decide a pair of local labor-reform initiatives will have to wait at least another day or two, raising questions about whether there is still time for the measures to appear on the November general election ballot.

Clallam County Superior Court Judge Erik Rohrer announced at the outset of Thursday morning’s hearing on the matter that he hadn’t had time to sufficiently review the opposing briefs and that he’d listen to oral arguments and take the case under advisement but issue no immediate ruling.

“Timing in this matter is critical,” Shawn Newman, the attorney representing plaintiff Susan Brautigam, reminded Rohrer. “The city made a decision that challenges the principle of separation of powers. That’s why we’re here today.”

The debate concerns two separate ballot initiatives. The first would require that contract negotiations between the city of Sequim and the 42 public employees represented by Teamsters Local 589 be open to the public. The second measure would allow city employees the right to decline union membership without losing their job.

Volunteer activists spent the summer doorbelling their neighbors to obtain the 650 signed petitions needed to put both measures on the Sequim ballot, and the signatures were validated by the city clerk’s office on Aug. 8.

At that point, under state law, the Sequim City Council had 20 days to take one of two actions: It could either pass the measures directly into law or put them on the ballot and let the voters decide.

Instead, the council attempted to exercise a third option when the members voted during a Sept. 5 meeting—after the 20-day window had already closed—that the measures were invalid and wouldn’t be placed on the ballot at all.

By that time, however, Brautigam, a Sequim resident, had already filed her lawsuit demanding the city be forced to let the voters decide.

“If the city had problems with the initiatives, it had 20 days to make those concerns known,” said Scott Roberts, Citizen Action Network director for the Olympia-based Freedom Foundation, which is providing advice and support to the initiative backers. “The city did nothing. Now it wants to be rewarded for its indecisiveness.”

Moreover, Roberts pointed out that the council isn’t in a position to rule unilaterally on a ballot measure’s validity anyway.

“They have to go to a judge and ask for an official ruling to preemptively disqualify an initiative, and I don’t see anyone on the council wearing a black robe,” he said. “If all it takes to disqualify a citizen initiative is the city saying it has problems with it, what’s the point of having the right of initiative in the first place?”

Sequim City Attorney Craig Ritchie and Tom Leahy, attorney for Teamsters Local 589, argued on Thursday that the two initiatives exceed the scope of a legal ballot measure and would put the city at risk for an unfair labor practices lawsuit.

Newman, however, told Rohrer this isn’t the time to debate that question.

“All my client’s lawsuit addresses is the issue of whether or not the city acted in a timely fashion,” he said. “If not, the initiatives should now be sent to the voters.”

Ritchie insisted that military ballots had already been prepared and would be mailed out tomorrow. But Newman showed the judge an enlargement of a printing schedule obtained by the Freedom Foundation clearly indicating the city’s contract with the company that produces its ballots would allow for changes up until Sept. 26.

“The proper action for the court is to order the city to put the initiatives on the November ballot now while there’s still time,” Newman said. “If the city or the union wants to address the validity of the measures after that, there are numerous ways that can be done. But today isn’t about those questions.

“To expect the plaintiffs to go through all the time and trouble of getting the petitions signed, and then ask them to litigate before there’s even a vote on the measures puts a huge monkey on the back of the poor citizens,” he said. “It just seems pretty arrogant of the city to do that.”

The Freedom Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think and action tank that promotes individual liberty, free markets and open accountable government.