The Pierce County Council will meet Tuesday to appoint a new county auditor, amid protests from local Democrats about the process.
The debate has increasingly focused around partisan politics over the past few weeks, as the appointment deadline approaches.
Nathe Lawver, chair of the Pierce County Democrats, believes the Republican-majority council is “making up the rules to fit their agenda” by filling the seat left vacant by outgoing auditor Pat McCarthy, who was elected county executive in November. County Council Chair Terry Lee, R-Gig Harbor, thinks the council is doing its best to handle a complicated and unprecedented situation.
The debate over filling the auditor position, which coordinates all elections in the county, was prompted by McCarthy’s victory. A two-term Democrat, she was elected to the auditor’s seat in 2002 and 2006.
The county charter says the county council fills vacant elected offices. When those offices are partisan, the council is required to choose from three nominees submitted by the party of the person leaving the office.
But filling McCarthy’s seat isn’t so cut-and-dry: Last year, Pierce County voters approved charter amendments which made the offices of auditor, assessor-treasurer and sheriff non-partisan.
The county charter currently lacks rules for filling non-partisan offices.
“We’ve never had to do it before. We’ve never had a non-partisan position in Pierce County,” Lee said. “This is new, and that’s why the (county) charter doesn’t address it clearly.”
At a meeting in early December, the council approved a new process for replacing the auditor: Candidates will apply directly to the council, and a five-member committee appointed by Lee will review applications for the position.
The council will narrow the candidates to a select few at a meeting Wednesday and plans to name McCarthy’s replacement at its regular meeting on Jan. 13.
The Pierce County Democrats believe they should get to nominate McCarthy’s successor, so they sent three candidates for the position to the council last week. But if one of those candidates isn’t chosen, Lawver said the party will consider filing a lawsuit to stop the appointment until it could be legally decided by the courts.
“The change to the charter ... takes place at the next time the office is elected. That’s pretty much it,” Lawver said. “There’s not a provision that says just because the office is non-partisan, that Pat McCarthy would automatically become non-partisan, too.”
Lawver wants a Democrat to fill the seat until November, when a special election would be held and the seat would officially become non-partisan. In 2010, when McCarthy’s term would have expired, another election would be held, and the winner would begin a four-year term.
The idea of incumbency has been a particular polarizing one between the council and the Democrats. Both Lee and Lawver agree the candidate appointed next week has a better chance of winning in November and again in 2010.
“Incumbents have an advantage,” Lee said. “I think that’s where this debate falls into. The people who are applying, I believe, would hope to serve more than just one year.”
That this appointment is even up for debate is surprising to Lawver. When McCarthy was elected, he said he assumed her replacement would be chosen the same way it’s always been.
Lee said the council didn’t anticipate the problem, either. The council had briefly discussed the potential consequences of McCarthy’s win before the election, but Lee said “there was a pretty good chance we wouldn’t have to deal with this.”
McCarthy was one of four candidates for the executive position in the first year of the county’s new ranked-choice voting system.
The impetus for the 2007 charter amendment to make the auditor’s seat non-partisan stemmed from debate over how the auditor, sheriff and assessor-treasurer positions should be regarded. Lee and the council saw the offices as “elected administrators outside the partisan atmosphere.”
The majority of voters felt the same, and the amendment passed.
Lawver, however, thinks the council “is treating (the appointment) as an employment, as if they’re hiring a candidate” — an attitude he believes stems from seat’s new non-partisan label. Lawver admits he would prefer it if the auditor had remained a partisan seat all along.
For Lee, making sure the auditor position is filled in an non-partisan manner is about fulfilling voters’ intent. If the seat were filled in partisan manner now, he speculates voters “are going feel that their vote back in 2007 wasn’t even considered.”
The outcome depends on Tuesday’s council meeting. Lee said the Democratic nominees will be considered along with all other submitted applications.
Right now, about 20 candidates have submitted applications for the Pierce County Auditor position, although the county council has not released those names.
Three candidates have been submitted by the Pierce County Democratic Party. They are:
Katie Blinn, assistant director of elections for the Washington Secretary of State’s Office.
Julie Anderson, a Tacoma City Council member.
Beckie Summers, former vice chair of the county Democrats and member of the Tacoma Library Board of Trustees.
The Pierce County Council will appoint a new auditor at its regular meeting at 3 p.m. Tuesday at 930 Tacoma Avenue S. in Tacoma.
Print
E-Mail