Yakima County home rule debate begins

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Battle lines are now drawn over home rule in Yakima County.

Political action committees for and against the charter question on the Nov. 8 ballot have submitted member names to the county Auditor's Office for the voter's pamphlet. Both committees will submit statements for voters to review.

The ballot will feature a two-part question on home rule: Voters will be asked whether a charter should be written and select 15 people from 42 freeholder candidates to write that charter.

The pro-charter group is led by former Yakima City Councilmember Bernie Sims and includes Sister Kathleen Ross, the retired president of Heritage University, and former county Commissioner Jesse Palacios of Grandview, currently a city councilman.

State Rep. Charles Ross, R-Naches, is chairman of the committee opposing the measure. Others are Commissioner Mike Leita of Yakima and Bruce Smith, publisher of the Yakima Valley Business Times.

Smith has editorialized against home rule and Central Washington Progress, the group that spearheaded the petition drive to win a spot on the ballot.

Ross, who was the mayor of Naches prior to being elected to the Legislature, said he has a simple message for voters: It ain't broke.

"County government is operating absolutely efficiently and is an example of what government can do," he said Wednesday. "There is no reason to change it."

He said a charter, which would be prepared and submitted at a subsequent election, will result in more expensive county government.

Ross said his group, tentatively calling itself Right Path, will mount what he called an information campaign.

Leita, in his second commissioner term, was silent on the issue until after the freeholder filings last week. But he said Wednesday that the current system is more responsive and better serves the public. He said he will work on the anti-charter campaign on his own time, in compliance with a resolution forbidding employees from campaigning on county time.

On the opposite side, Sims said he agreed to serve at the request of Ronald Patnode, a retired priest and former teacher who taught at Marquette High School when Sims was a student there. Patnode is a freeholder candidate in Commissioner District 1.

Sims said home rule is worth looking into after so many years with the three-member commission form of government.

"This is a good exercise for citizens to go through in public and open meetings, kick this around and see what is best for county government," he said.

A political action committee financed the signature-gathering phase that got the question to the ballot. That committee, according to state Public Disclosure Commission records, is called Voters For Home Rule For Yakima County, and raised more than $29,000, of which $24,000 was in-kind services.

The Win/Win Network paid for signature gatherers, staff support, travel, office supplies and other costs. Central Washington Progress is a member of the Win/Win Network.

Much of the group's funding came from the Win/Win Action Network of Seattle, a nonprofit group that draws membership from community, labor and environmental groups.

* David Lester can be reached at 509-577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.