ALERT: Volunteers Harassed At Vancouver Safeway Store - Kimsey Brings Back Charter Amendment To Hinder Future Initiatives

Mar 21, 2024 10:12 pm

As Predicted, KIMSEY Brings Back Charter Amendment To Hinder Future Initiatives

In a not so surprising turnaround this week, Auditor Greg Kimsey convinced the County Council to reconsider a Charter amendment that would hinder future initiative efforts by expanding the Prosecuting Attorney's office powers to deny proposed initiatives from gathering signatures if they don't like the initiative. Just as they attempted with us with the REC initiative in December when the Prosecuting Attorney's Office improperly "rejected" the initiative for reasons outside of the Home Rule Charter, they are seeking to codify their bad behavior to repeat it, but this time without being shut down with a Writ of Mandamus. It's a common tactic of bureaucrats who control bureaucracy: if you get caught breaking the rules, change the rules.

Miraculously, Kimsey discovered he had made an "error" in his cost analysis, only after Kimsey realized that Councilors were concerned about the high cost of adding Charter amendments to the ballot. This Monday, he began sending emails stating that the cost of amendments wouldn't be $150,000+ per amendment but now only $25k. What happened? On Wednesday, when asked multiple times, Mr. Kimsey dodged the question and never explained how such a massive error could occur (By the way, did I mention this is the Auditor who's in charge of our elections?).

Kimsey attempted to mitigate the problem of giving the PA's Office more power by proposing some kind of appeal process involving the Superior courts. Medvigy wisely shared his concern that it would impose a financial burden on the initiative sponsors, so he suggested it be a no-cost appeal process. I do appreciate that, but adding more bureaucracy won't address the issue of taking away the rights of the people and violating the WA Constitution, which is clear.

NEXT WEEK: MARCH 27TH AT 1 PM - The County Council will revisit this issue to continue working it out. This would be a good time to express your displeasure and make it clear to the Council that if Kimsey's amendment moves forward, it will violate the WA Constitution, which unequivocally states that the right to petition SHALL NEVER BE ABRIDGED!

Please plan to attend next Wednesday (March 27th) at 1 pm. Showing up in person is best, or at the very least, call in to voice your concerns. I'll provide more information about next week's meeting when it becomes available.

VPD VIOLATED POLICY AND KICKED OUT VOLUNTEERS FROM VANCOUVER SAFEWAY

Two volunteers sat up at the Mill Plain Safeway last Monday, but the manager asked them to leave. While it's not uncommon for a store manager to be unaware of the law, this time the manager called the police. The Vancouver Police Department sent an officer who ignored a person smoking fentanyl a few feet away but told our volunteers to leave or face a trespass violation. Our volunteers contacted me, and I spoke with the officer, reminding her of the standing VPD policy that officers shouldn't intervene unless there's an extreme circumstance. Despite this policy, the officer sided with the store based on a letter from Safeway's attorney, which contained inaccurate statements and referenced a King County ruling that doesn't apply in Clark County.

This law firm commonly uses this tactic, as they previously convinced law enforcement to cite petition gatherers for trespass, leading to legal proceedings that were ultimately dismissed at the last minute, anticipating they would lose in court (Refer to the 2015 press release). Even though their legal assumption is not true, they get the outcome they wanted which was to chase petition gatherers away past the initiative deadline.

We have contacted the PA’s office about this situation but, considering their previous action to not follow the law, we’re not optimistic they’ll remedy this anytime soon. In fact, I won’t be surprised if they are rewriting policy to make this the new policy.

This is a slimly lawfare tactic, but we will not be deterred. STAY TUNED!

Coming Up: We NEED Volunteers For March Events - PLEASE SIGN UP TODAY

Several community events are coming up and we need your help to sign up and collect signatures. Please check out the list and click on them to sign up for events.