Tuesday, Sep. 16, 2008

Staples turns in Benton County petition signatures

By Franny White, Herald staff writer

PROSSER -- Retired judge Fred Staples capped his almost three-year petition drive Monday by turning in about 18,500 signatures calling for an election on moving the county seat.

The petitions Staples gave to county commissioners would ask voters to move the county seat to Kennewick.

The Benton County seat has been in Prosser since 1905, but Staples contends it should be closer to the county's population base in the Tri-Cities. He's also using the issue as his primary platform in his run for county commissioner against incumbent Leo Bowman.

The petitions, which county staff counted as 3,188 sheets of paper, sat inside two cardboard boxes in the middle of the commissioners' meeting room Monday as Staples addressed the board.

"Here they are," he said nonchalantly. "I guess we're going to have an election."

Commissioner Claude Oliver assured Staples the petitions would be thoroughly and fairly reviewed. The commissioners then turned the petitions over to Auditor Bobbie Gagner's care.

It took two county employees about an hour to manually number-stamp each petition, many of which had just two or three signatures.

But the petitions will sit untouched until state Attorney General Rob McKenna releases an opinion sometime this week detailing what he considers to be proper procedure for county seat petitions.

Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Andy Miller requested the opinion in April after Staples and county staff raised several questions. The questions Miller posed to McKenna are:

-- If the auditor can validate signatures for the commissioners.

-- If the person who submits petitions can watch officials validate signatures.

-- If there is a limit to how old a signature can be and still be valid.

-- If the number of signatures needed should be based on how many voted in the last general election even if petitions are submitted immediately before another general election.

-- If a county should keep or return petitions if not enough valid signatures are turned in.

-- And whether the county commissioners or the county canvassing board -- which is made up of the county auditor, prosecuting attorney and the county commission chairman -- should canvass the election results.

McKenna's response to how many valid signatures are required stands to significantly affect Staples' petition drive. Staples has said he needs 14,203, based on voter turnout in Benton County's 2007 general election.

State statutes require valid petition signatures from "at least one-third of all the votes cast in the county at the last preceding general election" to put a county seat move measure on the ballot.

But Staples could need more than he expected if McKenna rules that the November 2008 turnout, which is expected to be high, should be used instead of 2007's.

If there are enough signatures, the earliest the measure could be on the ballot would be 2010.

Assuming McKenna says the county auditor can validate signatures, Gagner expects it will take five of her employees 15 days to do so. Each petition's signatures will be compared with signatures on the county's electronic voter registration database.

Also Monday, the commissioners voted 2-1 to approve a new route for the planned extension of Piert Road, which would give Finley residents a direct route to Interstate 82 via the Finley Intertie.

Commissioners Bowman and Oliver voted for option 6, which would allow for construction of a circular rail track just west of the existing Agrium fertilizer plant. Commissioner Max Benitz voted for the original route, option 7, which the commissioners approved in 2005. That route would cut through the proposed track.

The newly approved route will cost about $3.67 million to build, but the county doesn't have funding fully lined up. Public Works Director Ross Dunfee suggested the county design the new route with about $1.67 million in transportation money the county has on hand and then apply for grants and other assistance for the rest of the project.