A Port Angeles judge has ordered both sides back into court on Friday morning to begin debating the merits of a lawsuit over a pair of labor-reform ballot measures in Sequim.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Erik Rohrer ruled Tuesday morning that “genuine issues of material fact” need to be “resolved at trial” as he denied the plaintiff’s request to immediately order the initiatives be placed on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.
Volunteer activists from the Sequim community worked all summer to obtain the 650 signed petitions needed to put the measures on the November ballot. But when the Sequim City Council on Sept. 5 declined to send the initiatives to the voters as the law demands, Sequim resident Susan Brautigam took the city to court.
“We’re disappointed by the continuing delays and attempts to keep the voters from deciding these simple, common-sense issues,” said Scott Roberts, Citizen Action Network director for the Olympia-based Freedom Foundation, which has provided support and guidance for the initiative sponsors. “We’re prepared to help make the case to Judge Rohrer and, if necessary, appeal an adverse ruling. We’ll stand by the people of Sequim even after the city has abandoned them.”
The two ballot measures are bitterly opposed by organized labor. Proposition 1 would require that contract negotiations between the city of Sequim and the union representing its 42 municipal employees be open to the public. Proposition 2 would stop unions from forcing city employees to pay dues against their will.
Brautigam’s representative, Olympia attorney Shawn Newman, told Rohrer her case involved only the question of timing. The signed petitions were verified by the Sequim city clerk on Aug. 8, he said, and the city then had 20 days to either pass the initiatives into law or send them to the voters.
Instead, the council waited until Sept. 5 to announce it had concerns about the validity of the measures and would take no action at all.
“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 argued at last week’s hearing. “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.”
With his ruling on Tuesday, Rohrer signaled he did, indeed, want to explore the merits of the city’s objections before sending the measures on to the voters—which almost certainly won’t happen in November.
A trial date for Brautigam’s suit will be set during a hearing at 8:45 a.m. Friday in Clallam County Superior Court.
“The judge’s decision yesterday merely delayed the proceedings,” said Freedom Foundation General Counsel James Abernathy. “It’s appalling that he decided to reward the city council for stalling and breaking the law in order to keep propositions with which they disagreed off the November ballot.
“However,” he added, “we’re confident the initiatives will inevitably make their way to the ballot and pass—furthering choice and transparency in Sequim.”
The Freedom Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think and action tank that promotes individual liberty and smaller, more transparent, government.
