Perfect Example of Need for Home Rule

An article in the Yakima Herald titled, “Government must do its job at trailer park” is a perfect example of county government not doing its job to represent the people.

The article highlights a trailer park on non-tribal land south of White Swan, calling the living conditions a “living nightmare”. Despite rotting floors and the Indian Health Service declaring the park “unlivable and in violation of electrical and life safety codes”, the county has refused to step in.  The trailer park has been an ongoing problem with many agencies recognizing the terrifying conditions. Without any enforcement authority or permission from the county, agencies have not been able to act. Meanwhile the county code enforcement calls the situation a non priority, and county commissioner Kevin Bouchey seems heartless with this report from the paper:

Meanwhile, county commissioner Kevin Bouchey states that tenants have the right to move if they don’t like it, without advising how the impoverished residents in a small, relatively isolated community could find both another place to live and the resources to make the move.

If you believe, as we do, that county government’s job is to enforce laws and be accountable to the people they are supposed to represent, then join us this weekend.

Many Yakima residents are holding on to their ballots, which means we still have time for conversations with them. Hop on the phones with us to call voters to encourage them to vote Yes on Prop 1, Yes for Home Rule. Simply email us at yakimahomerule@gmail.com or call us at 509-823-5062 to sign up for a shift.

Home Rule TV Appearances

Catch Home Rule on YPAC this week:

• Watch Don Hinman debate Bruce Smith at the F.Y.I. Home Rule Forum. Find air times here.

Yakima County Voter Pamphlet

• YPAC is also broadcasting the League of Women Voters October 7th Forum on Home Rule. Click here for air times.

• YPAC is also broadcasting interviews with freeholder candidates separated into districts 1, 2, and 3. These interviews can also be viewed online.

If you want to learn more about the freeholders, you can also visit the Yakima Herald’s freeholder profiles as well as the Yakima County voter pamphlet. As a quick reminder, voters from each district elect 5 freeholders to represent them in the Home Rule process.

League of Women Voters Endorses Home Rule

The League of Women Voters, well-known promoters of good government, endorsed Prop 1 yesterday. In a letter to the campaign, the League cited increased checks and balances and responsiveness to the people as reasons for their endorsement.

The League also cited these benefits of Home Rule:

1. Allow counties the authority to determine organization, procedures and powers of their own government;
2. Deliver a maximum of freedom for control by either the state legislature or state administrative offices;
3. Allow true local government with freedom of choice in establishing a form of county government;
4. Provide the county the power to meet the needs of their citizens; and
5. Prevent legislative interference in matters relating only to county affairs.

You can read more about the League here.

Herald Highlights Home Rule & How It Provides Accountability

“Home rule is, as the name suggests, a chance to establish ground rules for how county government operates.”

The Yakima Herald highlighted Home Rule this weekend with a 3 page spread. It not only described the process of establishing a Home Rule Charter, but also highlighted how Home Rule can increase local government accountability.

David Lester, the article’s author, interviewed Steve Lundin, a renowned expert on local governments. Lundin, retired chief counsel for the state House of Representatives and author on local government described Home Rule as the following:

“It is the ability of the people to frame their county government that suits the local needs. It’s the constitution for a county.”

INCREASING ACCOUNTABILITY

Six counties in Washington state shucked the commission form of government originally handed down by the state and drafted their own county charters. Both San Juan and Whatcom county freeholders weighed in on their experiences increasing local accountability.

“Perhaps the most important change in the home rule form of government is the ability for residents to petition the council through initiative or referendum. Some cities, including Yakima, have that authority now. Counties that have the commission form do not.

‘If you want to give citizens access to your government and want them to be able to say yes or no on issues, you should have that capability. You can only do that with a charter.’ said Richard Fralick, original freeholder for San Juan County’s charter.

With an initiative, citizens petition the county council to enact an ordinance by a public vote by the public. With referendums, citizens petition to have voters amend or remove an existing ordinance.”

According to Joe Elenbaas, original freeholder to Whatcom County’s charter, drafters of the charter can also include local performance audits of county government offices or as the paper reported, “Home rule also offers the possibility of creating an ethics commission to look over the shoulders of public officials.”

Freeholders will have options on what to include in the drafting of the Charter. November’s vote on Prop 1 simply starts the two-year process of freeholders reviewing the current form of government and suggesting changes with the drafting of a Home Rule Charter. After the charter is drafted, voters will get final say on whether to adopt the new charter or keep the current commission form of government.

WHY CHANGE THE CURRENT SYSTEM?

Yakima's needs have changed since the 1800s

As the Herald noted, “none of those elements (above) were contemplated when the state Constitution formalized the commissioner form of government, a format that had preceded the state.” Commission forms of government were put in place over 100 years ago.

The state realized the commission system was outdated and amended the state constitution in 1948 to allow for counties to create home rule.

As Lundin says,

“Population in some counties was growing rapidly and pushing out into rural areas, creating issues for counties that needed more flexibility to deal with them. The most creative ferment of government thinking in the state was just after World War II. Home rule is a progeny of that,” he said. “There was a desire to break away from the (commissioner form); how to provide government on a logical, quasi-regional basis, and how to provide a uniform set of authorities and services for people.”

Yakima is a perfect example of a county whose needs have changed. Our population is five times what it was when we were handed the commission form of government  and is now half of the population of Wyoming. It’s high time we reviewed whether our government is meeting the needs of its residents. Votes YES on Prop 1.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Voters for Home Rule for Yakima County is  holding a community meeting tonight and subsequent Mondays to answer all your questions!

October 10th, 17th, and 24th
6 – 7:30 pm
North First Street Conference Room
223 N 1st Street

RSVP by emailing yakimahomerule@gmail.com

or calling 509-823-5062

Our Forefathers Would Have Supported Home Rule

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”

Thomas Jefferson

“Government ought to be as much open to improvement as anything which appertains to man..”

Thomas Paine

“An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.”

James Madison

Voter Pamphlet Available

The Yakima County Voter Pamphlet is now available online. Included are the statements of the 41 candidates running for freeholders as well as the statements for and against Home Rule.

Home Rule is an opportunity for the people of Yakima to have a say in how their government should function. As witnessed in the candidate statements, people on all sides of the political spectrum agree that Yakima should start the Home Rule process. Each voter will have the opportunity to elect five volunteer freeholders from their district to represent them in the two-year Home Rule process.

Many candidates include what they plan to advocate for in a new charter, and voters will need to choose who will best represent their interests. Prop 1 itself simply starts the process of freeholders reviewing the current form of government and suggesting changes in the form of a Home Rule charter. The freeholders have two years to draft the charter and present it back to the voters who then have final say on whether to keep the current structure or adopt the charter.

Our Opponent’s Game: Lies & Misinformation

Don’t we expect elected officials to know the insides and outsides of government? Don’t we expect them to be the authority of laws and policies that govern us, the voters? Isn’t that their duty and the reason we elect them to represent us?

So it’s sad day when our County Commissioner either neglects to read the law or is intentional in his deceit.

Commissioner Rand Elliot’s misinformation was highlighted in a recent article in the Daily Sun. Elliot stated that Home Rule would do away with the current three commissioner system and the election of the county auditor, assessor, treasurer and sheriff positions, divide the county into nine districts each with its own county commissioner, create a new administrator position, and generally cost more.

The truth is that the WA State Constitution does not require any of the above in a Home Rule Charter. The truth is that the 15 volunteer, elected freeholders decide what to include in a Charter. The freeholders decide how much changing of the current government structure takes place. They could decide to keep the three commission system. They could opt for five part-time commissioners in the Home Rule Charter. They could decide to give the people more say in their government by allowing for the power of ballot measures and a regular review process.

What Elliot also neglects to mention is that the voters have final say in whether to adopt the Charter once it is written or keep the current commission system. That’s right, the PEOPLE GET TO DECIDE what’s best for them.

Is Elliot afraid of the people? Is his misinformation intentional? Is misinforming the public a common practice of Elliot’s? One does indeed have to wonder about his intentions.

Read the truth here in the WA State Constitution.

League of Women Voters Forum

The League of Women Voters is conducting a public forum on Home Rule Charter at noon, Friday, October 7, 2011 at the North 1st Street Conference Center.

Come learn more about Home Rule!

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to the League of Women Voters at doris.ayyoub@gmail.com or call 509-452-3419.

Speakers in favor of Home Rule will be Neil McClure and Larry Mattson. Speakers against Home Rule will be Charles Ross, Bruce Smith, or Mike Leita.

Come One, Come All

Have questions about Home Rule?  Wonder what the next two years will look like once Prop 1 passes in November?

We’ve got the answers!

Join us for a community meeting where we’ll answer all your questions

October 10th
6 – 7:30 pm
North First Street Conference Room
223 N 1st Street

RSVP by emailing yakimahomerule@gmail.com

or calling 509-823-5062

Home Rule Forum Televised on YPAC

The Yakima Chamber of Commerce invited Don Hinman and Bruce Smith to speak about Home Rule at a recent luncheon. Yakima Public Affairs Channel is showing the forum nearly every day. Click here to find their daily schedule.

Don spoke in favor of Home Rule focusing on three points:

• What is Home Rule?
• Can we do better than what we are doing now?
• Will Home Rule make Yakima County government better?

Don’s speech opened with how voters control every step of the process from the 9,700 people who signed the petition to place Home Rule on the ballot to the voters having the final say on whether to adopt a new charter once it is drafted.

He called for community members to “not draw lines in the sand” and to participate in a discussion on whether increased checks and balances like the power of ballot initiatives would improve County government.

Don also made comparisons between Yakima County and business and pointed to the County being run by only three commissioners, holding both legislative and executive powers:

“I spent hours looking at nearly a hundred companies with gross sales of fifty-four million or less listed on the various stock exchanges and over the counter.  Every company had a single person serving as CEO and a Board of Directors that is much larger than three members.”

Three Commissioners overseeing an area twice the size of Delaware and half the population of Wyoming is a lot to manage. Don pointed to several instances of mismanagement and resources wasted:

1. The County allowed a large concentration of housing to be built just west of the City of Yakima’s borders. Without urban sewer service, the ground became saturated. The City had to respond and residents of the City were left footing the bill.
2. The County allowed a large feedlot outside Sunnyside city limits. Flies and feedlot odor forced the city to buy the feedlot and shut it down.
3. The County purchased land near Toppenish to build a jail, but neglected to negotiate water rights with the Yakima Nation. Again, resources were wasted by poor decision making.

Is our County really working for us? During these hard economic times, can we afford lack of oversight and accountability? As Don said:

“I don’t know about you.  But in my business when times get tough that is when I do my best work.  I take a look at everything.  I find efficiencies I hadn’t noticed before, find new ways to do things and make the changes. The profits improve and the services we give to our customers improve.  There is no better time to review your operation than when your back is to the wall. The same holds true for county government.  It is time for the review Home rule can offer.”

You can read Don’s full speech here.