MARYSVILLE — A recall campaign against Marysville School Board members Helen Mount and Ron Young will remain in the courts at least a few weeks longer after the incumbents on Wednesday appealed a judge’s earlier ruling.
Superior Court Judge George Bowden ruled on Jan. 6 that there were sufficient legal grounds to allow the recall election process to go forward, based on a school board decision last year to schedule a makeup day on Feb. 14 even though it was a non-school day under the board’s agreements with the teachers union.
"It needs to be appealed, because if it was left to stand it would set a real bad precedent," Young said.
He said the school board relied on its attorney’s advice in making the decision, and a recall could have a chilling effect on other elected officials’ ability to make decisions based on legal counsel.
By state law, it was not up to the judge to decide if the allegations were true or not. Rather, he had to decide if the actions constituted misfeasance, malfeasance or a violation of the board members’ oaths of office. It would be up to voters to recall the board members.
Mount could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Had the appeals not been filed by Wednesday afternoon, recall backers could have started gathering voter signatures today to try to place the recall measure on the ballot.
While dismissing several other allegations in the original recall petition, Bowden found there were sufficient factual and legal grounds to allow the signature gathering to proceed on the sole issue of the makeup day.
The board decision to schedule the makeup day for Feb. 14 was reached after teachers participated in a statewide rally in Olympia one month earlier, on a day that had been scheduled for classes. Most teachers didn’t show up for school on Feb. 14, and the district hired substitutes and entertainers, such as a juggler and snake expert, to occupy the students’ time.
An arbiter sided with the 650-member Marysville Education Association, saying the district needed to pay the teachers for the lost day. It cost the district $42,569 in attorney fees, $17,728 for vendors and $14,159 for substitutes, according to papers filed with the recall petition.
Doug Wartelle, an Everett lawyer representing the recall backers, said he received the notice of appeal on Wednesday afternoon. A copy of the appeal notice was not immediately available at the Snohomish County Superior Court clerk’s office, but Young said it was his understanding that it had been filed.
Bringing forward the recall petitions were Marysville residents Lisa Griffith, Shannon Bartlett and Deborah Vincelette.
Griffith said Wednesday she was confident recall backers would be able to gather the required signatures, if given the chance. They had been waiting to hear if the case would be appealed before setting up a meeting with Snohomish County Auditor Bob Terwilliger to make sure their petition format and wording meet legal requirements.
"I think it’s an attempt to prolong the inevitable," Griffith said of the appeal.
Exactly how long the appeal process will take was not immediately clear Wednesday. If the appeal is rejected in Superior Court, it could eventually end up in the state Supreme Court, said Lorrie Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the Courts in Olympia.
The Supreme Court appeal on recall motions is a relatively quick process, Wartelle said.
Even so, recall backers acknowledge that it might be fall before they can get their measure on the ballot, should they win in court.
If the court decision stands, recall backers would have 180 days to gather enough signatures to place the measure on the ballot. For Young, that will be about 4,340 signatures; for Mount, 3,500.
The recall campaign follows a 49-day strike in Marysville last fall that angered much of the community. Three other incumbents were defeated at the polls in November.
If the recall campaign succeeds at the polls, it would be up to the Marysville School Board to decide who would replace Mount and Young for the remainder of their terms, which expire after the November 2005 general election.
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