Washington Law Bars Pre-Election Challenges to Initiative; Call to City Council and Mayor to Preserve Initiative Process

CONTACT:  Kai Huschke, Envision Spokane

                  [email protected]

                 (509) 607-5034

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

            Spokane (5/16/2013) – Envision Spokane sent an open letter to the Spokane City Council and Mayor today, cautioning the City against filing a pre-election challenge to the duly qualified Community Bill of Rights Initiative (Initiative 2012-3). In that letter, Envision Spokane notified the City that it had retained the Whipple Law Group, PLLC, as legal counsel in any action brought by the City.

            The letter declared that legal action brought by either the Council or the Mayor would constitute an unconstitutional “prior restraint” on the speech and petition rights of the petition signers and the collective Spokane electorate.

           It also concluded that such a filing would violate Washington State’s Anti-SLAPP statute (RCW 4.24.525 (4)(a)), which was adopted by the Washington legislature to prevent governmental interference with people engaged in public participation activities.

            Additionally the letter points out that the City Council is the only entity with management authority over the initiative process, and the failure of the Council to legislatively declare the initiative “legally invalid” pursuant to provisions of the municipal code applicable to the initiative, results in a separation of powers issue between the Mayor’s office and the Council.

         It also called into question the Mayor’s standing to file suit, given that adoption of the initiative would not create “injury” to the Mayor’s office.

         Kai Huschke, campaign manager for Envision Spokane states, “any pre-election challenge filed by the City is a direct attack on the initiative process. The City has now worked for five years to make the initiative process too burdensome and expensive for the people to use. A pre-election challenge would be the final nail in the coffin for Spokane’s citizen initiative process.”

          Huschke further noted that “it’s appropriate for private interests to challenge the bill of rights, but only after the people vote and the measure is adopted and enforced; what’s not appropriate is for the City to use the people’s tax monies to save those private interests the money and energy to do so. In effect, the City is now subsidizing those corporate interests that have run Spokane for decades against the people’s right to vote.”

            Thomas Linzey, legal advisor to Envision Spokane explains, “Any pre-election challenge is premature. The issues raised by the Community Bill of Rights initiative have never been raised previously in any Washington municipality. They will be issues of first impression for any Washington court, and thus, should be handled in a deliberate manner in a real case between interests affected by the initiative and the people of the City of Spokane. The Washington Supreme Court, over the past fifty years, has been crystal clear about prohibiting pre-election challenges based on the substance of an initiative. Unfortunately, that’s been the sole focus of the City over the past several months – attempting to hide a challenge to the substance of the initiative as one aimed at the ‘scope’ of the initiative process.”

            The letter concludes with a notice of intent that Envision Spokane will aggressively raise and litigate both federal and state claims if an action is filed, with a consequent request for damages and attorneys’ fees from the courts; and the organization has vowed to pursue appeals, if necessary, through all levels of courts.

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