Snohomish County voters were approving five of six changes to the county charter, but were rejecting a change that would give the county executive more veto power.
Proposition 3 was failing in early returns. It proposed to give the county executive the ability to reject sections of ordinances approved by the County Council.
“I’m personally not surprised the veto is trailing,” said Eric Earling, who advocated all six amendments and was a member of the County Charter Review Commission.
“I thought it was the most controversial of the bunch. I think it would have been nice for the executive to have that authority, but it’s not the end of the world.”
Opponents argued the measure would give too much authority to the county executive and upset the balance of power with the council.
Propositions 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 were passing in initial results. Those proposals included a more independent salary commission, two-year county budgets, more public access to the council, updated elections rules and moving control of the county Performance Auditor to the council.
“None of them are tremendous structural changes,” Earling said.
Propositions 4 and 5 – public access to the council and updated election rules – had better than 80 percent support on election night. Earling said they were “sailing.”
The most important charter amendment to pass grants the county the ability to approve two-year budgets, he said.
“It could have the most substantive impact on the effectiveness of county operations,” Earling said.
Moving oversight of the county performance auditor to the County Council also will improve operations, he said.
The charter is reviewed for possible changes every 10 years. Voters elected a panel of 15 people in 2005 and the group reviewed dozens of ideas, including adding two people to the five-member County Council.
In the end, only six ideas made the cut.
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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