Charter Amendment No. 41 and No. 42 support concept of political fairness

The Pierce County Charter, our county’s constitution, was established by Pierce County voters in 1980 following the previous racketeering scandal.

A change in government supported by 62 percent of the voters. The preamble of our charter states, “We claim the right of initiative and referendum, encourage citizen participation, in accordance with the Washington State Constitution.”

Note the words, “in accordance with the Washington State Constitution.”

We have recently seen how exercising direct democracy rights have led to a variety of community petitions giving voters more voice in local government decisions. Your 21 elected Charter Review Commissioners — including a former county executive, former county auditor, former county council members, former state legislators, Lakewood’s mayor, school board members, previous Charter Commission members and other community leaders —saw that the rights to initiative and referendum needed to be reviewed after seeing the struggles citizens experienced while trying to exercise their rights.

Following six months of discussion and due diligence, including hours of testimony by the public and elected officials, 20 of the 21 of your bipartisan elected Charter Review Commissioners approved placing Charter Amendments No. 41 and No. 42 on your general election ballot.

During the months of meetings, Commissioners heard how difficult and expensive the process has become. How it’s hard to find locations to gather signatures and now how lawsuits against initiatives and referendums further complicate and deter citizen-direct democracy efforts by asking courts to stop signature gathering, which many saw as a form of voter suppression.

As a matter of fairness to the citizens of Pierce County, Charter Amendments No. 41 and No. 42 will align the signature validation requirements of our charter to match the requirements of the Washington State Constitution. Commissioners heard how the adoption of these two amendments will not make the process any easier for a group that wants to file an initiative or referendum and that the growth in Pierce County population keeps the validation rate high enough to deter any frivolous filings of either initiatives or referendums.

At the end of the Charter Review process, 20 of the 21 elected commissioners wanted to send a message that a diverse and bipartisan committee from all seven districts of Pierce County overwhelming supported the concept of political fairness and voted in support of these two amendments going to the ballot.

We hope voters of Pierce County will join the Commissioners in their support of Charter Amendments No. 41 and No. 42 with your “Yes” vote.

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Charter Amendment No. 41 and No. 42 support concept of political fairness."