06/20/2007: "Will Council Try & Stop Referendum Vote?"

The certification of the first referendum in San Juan County may come under attack by a legal challenge if the Council decides to take it to Superior Court. The Council was told by John Cain, Deputy Prosecutor for SJC, that the referendum may not stand up to a legal challenge if it can be shown that the underlying issue is a Growth Management land use issue, as opposed to a funding issue. Cain asked if the Council wanted to pursue the matter.

During the following discussion, Councilman Rosenfeld said that strormwater management was required by GMA, so it seemed to him that fact showed the referendum was not legal. Councilman Peterson said that as he understood it, the referendum was about the funding of the strormwater ordinance, and did not address the requirement that there be a stormwater ordinance.

Peterson asked if the council could simply let the election go forward without going to court, and let the voters decide. Depending on how the election turned out, he said, there may be no reason to have gone to court. Peterson suggested that the council could also address the concerns of those who signed the petition, and “fix the problem” by re-structuring how we fund the stormwater ordinance.

Cain said he would do research on the various questions the council raised, and would return in a week.