Recall organizer confident she can get signatures needed to put issue on ballot

OLYMPIA – Less than halfway into Spokane Mayor Jim West’s four-year term, the state Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a green light to critics calling for a vote to oust him from office.

In a brief ruling just hours after morning arguments in the case, the high court upheld a Spokane court’s decision to allow the vote, so long as West’s critics can gather the required number of citizen signatures. Chief Justice Gerry Alexander wrote that the recall petition drafted by Spokane mother Shannon Sullivan – and rewritten by the lower court – is “factually and legally sufficient.”

The unexpectedly quick ruling was a serious setback for West, whose lawyers for weeks have been filing briefs arguing that Sullivan’s charges lack the legal justification needed to try recalling a public official. The mayor’s lawyers also maintained that the judge who initially approved the vote – Superior Court Judge Craig Matheson – exceeded his authority when he turned Sullivan’s 28-word recall charge into his own, much more detailed 119-word version.

The approved ballot summary alleges that West, who had been secretly discussing sex online with someone he believed to be an 18-year-old high school student, wrote a letter intended to help the student get a city internship. That, the summary says, “was an improper exercise of an official duty.”

In fact, the “student” was a computer expert hired by The Spokesman-Review to confirm the story of a real 18-year-old Spokane man who said he’d met the then-53-year-old mayor in an online chat room. The young man told the newspaper that he and West had gone on a date and had consensual sex.

Sullivan and her attorneys were delighted by the Wednesday ruling.

“All my hard work has prevailed,” Sullivan said. “My real victory here is in giving the citizens of Spokane a say.”

She said the recall group will begin printing petitions immediately. After a legally-required five-day waiting period, Sullivan attorney Jerry Davis said, the group can start gathering the 12,567 signatures to qualify the recall for a citywide vote.

“I don’t think we’ll have absolutely any problem,” Sullivan said. “I think we can have them (to county election officials) by Sept. 9.”

“I think people are going to come out of the woodwork, volunteering to help collect signatures, now that this court fight is over,” said Rita Amunrud, a spokeswoman for Citizens for Integrity in Government, which runs an anti-West Web site called westmustgo.com.

West’s lawyers issued a three-sentence reaction to the court’s ruling, saying they disagree with it and await a more detailed written opinion from the court. Wednesday’s order didn’t say why the justices ruled the way they did, or whether any of the nine disagreed.

“Mayor West will continue to perform his duties and responsibilities as he has throughout the process,” the statement said, “and we will continue to advance and protect his interests.” It was signed by attorneys Bill Etter, Susan Troppmann and Carl Oreskovich.

At City Hall, Mayor West referred questions to his attorneys. But earlier in the day, he said that he wasn’t worried about the case.

“I’m at peace whatever they decide,” West said.

West didn’t attend the court hearing in Olympia. He spent the morning meeting with city staff and with a citizens’ group to discuss a property tax proposal to help pay for public safety and library services.

“He’s fighting cancer, but in my opinion he’s very tough, very strong,” Troppmann said. “He’s doing his job.”

“I’m not so sure that he’s got much else,” said Democratic political strategist Cathy Allen. “I think you hang on when you don’t have a better choice. And look at it from his side: every day he’s in that chair is money, benefits, and power.”

If West’s critics manage to gather enough signatures to trigger a vote, Allen said, he’ll be out of a job.

“He’s toast if this thing goes to a vote this fall,” she said. His legal tactics, she said, seem to have been “to drag his feet, ensure any process is longer, and to wait it out. The more time you can put between the headlines and the ultimate vote of the people, the better.”

Spokane City Council President Dennis Hession said that a recall election will give the mayor the chance to convince voters to keep him in office. The council has unanimously asked West to resign “because we feel his presence is a continuing impediment to the progress of the city,” Hession said. Since West refused, the recall will force the issue, Hession said.

Councilman Brad Stark, a close ally of the mayor, said he had no opinion on the high court’s decision. He vowed to press ahead with the city’s business.

“It’s frustrating that some council members are choosing to become wrapped up in this issue, as opposed to doing their jobs,” Stark said.

In oral arguments Wednesday, West’s attorneys tried to convince the justices that the mayor should not be subjected to a recall vote largely on the basis of allegations summarized in newspaper stories – and then improperly rewritten by Judge Matheson.

“The role of the court is as a gatekeeper for this constitutional right (to recall an elected official),” said Etter.

Matheson took Sullivan’s wording – that West had “solicited internships for young men for his own personal uses” – and, after querying Sullivan and letting her introduce more documents, wrote a much longer version. Matheson’s ballot wording notes that West sent a photo of himself to the fictitious student, “raised issues of sex”, “discussed dating”, and “urged the person to keep Mayor West’s identity a secret.”

Under state law, Judge Matheson was only to “correct” the ballot language, not rewrite it wholesale, West’s lawyers argued.

But the court apparently concluded that the gist of the wording was the same.

Sullivan – a single mom with no formal legal training – addressed the court herself.

“We feel that Mayor West let us down,” she told the black-robed justices. “The trust of the city has been violated.”

Her 9-year-old son sat behind her, fidgeting in his tie and periodically videotaping his mother’s day in court.

Justice Susan Owens asked Sullivan if she would have filed the recall petition if West “had e-mailed an 18-year-old female” rather than a male.

“Absolutely,” Sullivan responded.

Sitting in the front row, behind West’s lawyers, was 91-year-old Doris Raudenbush, who’d made the trip from Spokane to watch the hearing. She’s treasurer of Spokane’s Ponderosa Republican Women’s Club.

“I supported the mayor, I voted for him, I shook his hand,” she said. “And now I’m embarrassed by it.”