As Tim Eyman challenges Initiative 18 with a lawsuit in King County Superior Court in a response to modifications made to the initiative by the County Council, Metro King County Council member Carolyn Edmonds asserts that the substance of the initiative has not changed.
The initiative has the potential to downsize the council by four members, from 13 to nine. Recent changes that will allot more time for the redistricting process prompted Eyman’s lawsuit.
“It is baffling to me; it is still on the ballot, the Council still may be reduced to nine,” Edmonds said. “The substance hasn’t changed.”
Edmonds said Eyman’s assertion that recent changes the Council made to the initiative are actually job protection is simply “a good sound byte.” She said the changes are needed because if voters approve the initiative, under the existing language of the ballot measure, the county would have to be redistricted by 2004, which is impossible.
“It is just absolutely impossible to establish a redistricting commission and have the work complete,” Edmonds said. “We needed to give the redistricting commission a longer timeline.”
Therefore, the Council adopted amendments to the initiative in early July to delay the first nine-district elections until 2007, giving an additional two years to complete redistricting.
I-18 will be on the November ballot after being signed by 71,000 voters. It is sponsored by the King County Corrections Guild, which hired Eyman to promote I-18. The initiative was originally proposed because unionized jail workers lost jobs due to county budget cuts, and the Council voted to put the decision to reduce members from 13 to nine before the voters.
Edmonds supported putting the initiative on the ballot, she said, because it is important to give residents the opportunity to express themselves. However, if the measure eventually passes at the November 2003 election, Edmonds said it will be a “trade-off.”
It was originally argued that by reducing the Council to nine members and eliminating staff, money would be saved, she said. However, Edmonds asserts that the responsibilities for the four members will still need to be addressed and there will be the same number of committees and business to be taken care of.
“It will not save tax payers’ money,” Edmonds said. “It will reduce representation.”
Voters created the present 13-member County Council structure in 1992, when the health and public safety services of King County merged with waste water treatment and regional transit obligations of Metro.
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