Category: Thurston County (Page 10 of 16)

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Thanks to this, I can safely say that the intent of Amendment 52 (through Senate Joint Resolution 24) to our state’s constitution absolutely gives the governor the authority to appoint a new county commissioner, if the a new one can’t be chosen through the local level.

A twitter angel pointed me to the collection of voters pamphlets on the Secretary of State’s website. And, if you look at the pamphlet from 1968, you find a clear description of SJR 24:

Pages From Voters Pamphlet 1968 Kingco 2007 000806

Nice.

Was Amendment 52 a minor edit? No, I don’t think so. It overturned Munro v. Todd. Either way, the county commission took care of business yesterday.

Was Karen V’s appointment legal?
Trying to explain why Karen Valenzuela was legally appointed

Via email:

Hi all – Gov. Gregoire has appointed Karen Valenzuela to Bob
MacLeod’s seat. pb

Sweet.

Ken Camp for background.

Apparently, she was interview earlier today, with an actual announcement early next week. So, right now is earlier than that.

We did all of this so far (hat tip, 1889 Washington Constitutional Convention):

That the person appointed to fill the vacancy must be from the same legislative district, county, or county commissioner or council district and the same political party as the legislator or partisan county elective officer whose office has been vacated, and shall be one of three persons who shall be nominated by the county central committee of that party,

Now, we’re in for this (apparently):

and in case a majority of the members of the county legislative authority do not agree upon the appointment within sixty days after the vacancy occurs, the governor shall within thirty days thereafter, and from the list of nominees provided for herein, appoint a person who shall be from the same legislative district, county, or county commissioner or council district and of the same political party as the legislator or partisan county elective officer whose office has been vacated,

So, the governor has to choose from the list the PCOs prepared two nights ago and she has 90 days from the beginning of January.

Now, I’m thinking that its raining outside, there’s going to be state emergencies declared, legislative sessions starts next week and the state budget is not in good shape, to say the least.

I mean, can’t the governor spare a few minutes to make a decision for us?

I think Ken hits the nail on the head:

I find it hard to believe that just 24 hours after getting the names from Jim Cooper, that the commissioners are at an impasse. This whole thing looks preordained to me; arguably an abdication of responsibility, given the lack of time given to reflect on the vote by the PCOs. Part of politics is being able to compromise, but it looks like minds were made up before the PCOs voted.

I would never argue that just because the PCOs are PCOs they would obviously make the right decision. I happen to think otherwise, but in this case I think they might the best choice. Not going through the process of interviewing the three candidates, but just immediately throwing up hands just seems really weird.

This also reminds me of the last time a local government gave up the ghose on choosing some replacements. The Olympia School Board at least put up a huge fight trying to pick a name, but they eventually kicked it up to a higher power as well. Jim Anderson did some great blogging on that process here. This is a particularly good post.

Maybe commissioners Romero and Wolfe don’t have the fight in them, but it would have been nice to at least see them try.

The PCOs voted tonight and the ranked list we’re sending to the county commissioners is:

1. Karen Valenzuela (Tumwater city council member) 164 points
2. Susan Bogni (current commissioner’s assistant, who endorsed her) 109 points
3. Walt Jorgenson (former Tumwater city council member) 87 points.

The PCOs were allowed to rank three of the applicants, with six points to divide among their first second or third choices.

Don’t worry Mark, I respect your opinion, despite your non-PCO status:

I would not vote for Susan Bogni. At the forum on Saturday, she struck me as one who felt she was due the appointment by virtue of employment for the current commissioner. The only other political adroitness she seemed to possess was the ability to say Barack Obama’s name, and if I remember correctly, she said she wanted to implement his vision in our corner of the worthld.

When did central planning become the mantra of our political age? She may be the most qualified candidate (though I didn’t take that from the forum), but she fails to grasp a very simple concept in a representative democracy, that the country doesn’t belong to its leaders, be they Barack Obama or Susan Bogni. I hate the concept of benevolent overlords, and I hate it when politicians (even more so, aspiring politicians) embrace it. Obama’s tagline certainly did not aspire to such lunacy look to the right of Joe Biden and read what it says.

From Jackie Barrett Sharar (via email) supporting Susan Bogni for the ye ol’open county commission seat:

Susan has never ever come across the table at colleagues or attempt to put them in choke holds nor does she have a short fuse and doesn’t engage in demagoguery. We’ve disagreed but I have never ever found Susan to be disagreeable. She is always respectful and always kind. As Obama says we need leaders that can disagree without being disagreeable. We need unity so we can all move on with our progressive agenda.

Who put someone in a chokehold? If one of Susan’s qualifications is that she’s never physically assaulted someone, then I guess I feel… safe?

Operation full court Bogni is in full effect. In addition to the above email (which was much longer), my wife took a phone call for me at home from “Nancy” reminding me about tonight’s meeting and hoping that Susan has my vote.

Well, only if I can be 100 perent sure she’s never kicked a co-worker in the shins, ok?