Charter Review Commission Adjourns | Final Meeting July 6

The Charter Review Commission held its final meeting July 6, at 6:00 p.m., in the the Civic Center Garden Room, 322 N. Commercial Street, Bellingham.

The meeting was originally scheduled for July 13. However, because of last minute action by the County Council to put competing amendments on the November ballot, the time available for prosecutor Dan Gibson to reconcile the competing ballot measures was severely limited. Commission chairman Ben Elenbaas decided to move the meeting up to the date originally requested by Mr. Gibson.

This was seen as a dirty trick by some, including most of the more progressive members of the commission, as well as Jon Mutchler, who generally votes with the more conservative majority. Commissioner Mutchler abstained from most of the votes involving the procedural process of moving the proposed amendments forward to the November ballot. 

Commissioner Eli Mackiewicz showed up for the roll call, and then left, noting that the commission had a quorum without him.

Commissioner Todd Donovan stayed for the entire meeting, but abstained on all votes, until Commissioner Joe Elenbaas noted that under Roberts Rules of Order, abstentions would be converted to "no" votes for procedural decisions. At this point, Commissioner Donovan moved to the audience for the rest of the meeting.

Dan Gibson attended via telephone, and rendered legal opinions on questions regarding Proposed Amendment 3 (Ballot Poposition 2) and Proposed Amendment 10 (Ballot Proposition 3). These amendments were deemed incompatible with the Washington State Constitution according to several legal opinions, because of the hard limits they placed on the legislative branch (Whatcom County Council). Both amendments were modified with the eight voting commissioners present, by making it possible for the council to override proposed limits with a unanimous vote. Mr. Gibson believes this change makes the amendments constitutional.

It is a three step process to modify an amendment after the Charter Review Commission has voted to approve it. First a 2/3 majority must vote to suspend Roberts Rules to revisit the amendment, then the changes must be discussed and approved, and finally the amendment must be approved as modified. This was accomplished without the help of the boycotting commissioners.

The commission finished its work and adjourned sine die, i.e., permanently,

We will post a full transcript of the meeting and details of the final results in a few days.