State Supreme Court validates now-defunct effort to recall Yakima clerk

Although it’s a moot point now, the state Supreme Court said Thursday an effort to recall Yakima County Clerk Janelle Riddle could move forward.

But backers of the recall called off the effort earlier this month, saying it wouldn’t be worth the $250,000 cost to taxpayers for a special election just months before her term expires in December 2018.

Riddle had appealed a visiting Spokane Superior Court judge’s ruling in July that five out of the six recall charges filed against her are factually and legally sufficient.

The high court’s ruling reaffirms the validity of the charges, said Bruce Smith, publisher of the Yakima Valley Business Times and one of the backers of the effort.

“It’s a vindication for us ... Her claims have now been rejected by an out-of-town superior court judge, as well as all nine justices of the state Supreme Court,” Smith said.

Riddle didn’t return several phone calls seeking comment Thursday.

Recall elections can only be held in March and April next year.

Smith, along with local attorneys Dick Johnson, Bob Young and Rick Kimbrough, launched the recall effort after an independent panel found several problems in the way Riddle was running her office, including delays in forwarding child support orders to the state for enforcement and processing no-contact orders.

Johnson served on the independent panel, whose findings were backed by a state audit.

Riddle has said those problems had since been fixed.

When the recall effort was launched, local judges recused themselves of determining its merits because of past clashes with her.

Riddle has had run-ins with other elected officials as well as judges since taking office in January 2015.

Those clashes stemmed from her efforts to reject a statewide case management system in Superior Court that judges said would allow them to access suspects’ criminal backgrounds from the bench.

She also attempted to nix an agreement requiring her to share some of her staff with the courts. That agreement was established under former Clerk Kim Eaton.

Judges and county commissioners said the agreement saved the county more than $400,000 a year.

After brief standoffs, including a threat to force the shutdown of Superior Court by pulling her staff out, Riddle backed down from both efforts.

This story was originally published October 26, 2017 at 7:24 PM with the headline "State Supreme Court validates now-defunct effort to recall Yakima clerk."