Where is Marla Rico? Officials can’t find the elusive Pasco council candidate

A candidate for an open Pasco City Council seat may not live in Pasco.

Marla Rico declared her candidacy and paid the $120 fee on the last day of filing week in May to run for the District 1 seat in central Pasco.

That same day, she registered to vote with a Pasco address.

But city staff and the county auditor’s office have been unable to reach her in the three months since then.

Emails and snail mail have bounced back and voicemails have gone unanswered — when the mailbox isn’t too full to leave a message.

One envelope sent by the city on June 10 to Rico’s address at the Sacajawea Apartments on North Fourth Avenue came back with a yellow “Return to Sender” label and a Prosser address.

Rico also didn’t respond to a recent voicemail from the Herald asking about her residency.

An email sent to the Gmail account Rico used in her candidate filing was returned to the Herald as “address not found.”

Rico’s name remains on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. The deadline to withdraw was May 22.

She’s running against Blanche Barajas for the seat currently held by longtime Councilman Tom Larsen, who will retire at the end of this year. It’s a four-year term.

District 1 covers an area between Court Street and Interstate 182, extending from Road 36 on the western border to east Pasco around the railroad with Owen Avenue on the far east.

Barajas told the Herald last week she is aware that Rico is missing-in-action, but has no idea of her opponent’s whereabouts and hasn’t heard anything about her campaign.

“I tried to reach out to her in the past, initially when the campaign just started. I have not heard back,” said Barajas, who wanted to meet Rico in person. “I do wish her the best wherever she may be at, and I do look forward to speaking to the voters for District 1 and sharing my vision for Pasco.”

Barajas added that she will continue to push forward with her own campaign, meeting with neighbors and business owners.

If Barajas is successful in November, she will become the first Latina ever elected to the Pasco City Council.

A Rico win means the city would have to review her qualifications to be seated and, if found ineligible, appoint another person to fill the position.

Ashley Heyen, the county’s interim elections administrator, started looking into Rico’s contact information and residency after being notified by the city on June 6 that the candidate’s listed email account didn’t exist.

Toni Zunker, executive administrative assistant to City Manager Dave Zabell, ended up printing out the email and mailing it to Rico’s North Fourth address. That invitation to an informational meeting with Zabell was returned with the Prosser address label.

About the same time, the auditor’s office sent Rico her new voter ID card. It was returned June 19 with the same Prosser label.

Heyen said Rico immediately was placed on inactive status within the voter registration system. That was followed by another letter to Rico, this time asking her to confirm her home address. It went to both Pasco and Prosser.

As of last week, the office had not received a reply from Rico and the envelopes have not returned.

Heyen checked in with the Washington Secretary of State’s Office about the procedure for handling this type of situation. She was told that the Franklin County office has no further responsibility until Rico returns the confirmation notice.

Another voter can challenge the candidate by filing the proper form at least 45 days before the election. That would lead to an administrative hearing and potentially removal of the candidate’s name from the ballot.

The city also can challenge a candidate, but that end up in a court hearing.

This story was originally published August 19, 2017 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Where is Marla Rico? Officials can’t find the elusive Pasco council candidate."