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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Tardy applicants get a second chance to run

Elective offices in Latah, Waverly and some of Spokane County’s other small towns and political districts are going begging for candidates, so residents in those areas get a second chance next week to say that they want to run for office.

The lack of candidates is not unusual. Town council positions sometimes get no volunteers for the mostly unpaid or low-paying positions, and a “special filing period” has to be held most years to try to find candidates for a few spots there, and on small water, sewer and cemetery district boards.

But this year, none of the four spots up for election on the Latah City Council has takers. Mayor Ed Crockett suggested it was because no one knew the deadline had been changed.

“It’s never been in June before,” Crockett said. “It would’ve been nice if they notified the town.”

Filing week was moved from late July to early June because the Legislature moved the state primary from September.

Bruce Hogan, who has served on the council for about six years, said he didn’t know about last week’s filing deadline either. But while his seat is up for election this year, Hogan is planning to “take a little break” and won’t run.

“That caught me by surprise,” he said when told filing was last week.

The council is getting along fine, so it’s not as if everyone’s bailing out, Hogan said.

The Elections Office did, in fact, notify the towns and other jurisdictions around Spokane County about the change in the filing schedule, at least twice, Auditor Vicky Dalton said. One note went out in early spring when the office was trying to verify the offices up for election, and another went out shortly before filing week on “hot pink” paper.

Plus it was in the newspaper, on television news, and the county’s Web site, she said.

Latah City Clerk Kynda Browning said she sent a note to each of the council members affected by the change earlier in the year, with the new filing dates circled. Crockett didn’t get a note because he’s not up for election, she added.

Waverly has three city council seats up for election, and none filed for office last week. They were told, too, said Browning, who is also Waverly city clerk. So were the two commissioners up for election at Fire District 12, where she also serves as clerk.

Latah Councilman Gene Dye got an extra reminder last Friday from Browning. She’s also his daughter, and was headed to Spokane to file for re-election to her seat on the Liberty School Board.

Dye said Thursday he had to go to Idaho that day, so he couldn’t go to Spokane to file. But he’ll file for his office next week.

Town council seats aren’t usually very competitive, Browning said. Changing the filing week from July to June might not have been much of a problem because some incumbents don’t keep track of when they are supposed to file, she said.

“It’s not all that big of a deal to them,” she said. “There’s not a lot of people who run for office.”

Washington state law allows elected officials to keep their position if no one files for their office when it is up for election.

Sometimes, Dalton said, small towns or other jurisdictions deliberately do not have incumbents file for office because that allows them to continue to serve and the town or district doesn’t have to pay its share of the election costs.

That’s the strategy in Fire District 12, said Commissioner Gregg Wernz, where he and Ronald Tee hope to stay on and save the district the elections cost by not filing.

The strategy is risky, though, because a seat with no candidate brings up a special filing period, which creates extra attention to the spot up for election. If just one person files for an office during the special filing period, that person runs unopposed in November and the town still gets a bill for its share of the general election. If more than two people sign up for a particular office during the special filing period, there’s a primary and a general election, along with bills for each.

This year, the special filing period starts at 8:30 a.m. Monday and closes at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Offices covered by that period because they currently have no candidates are four positions on the Latah Council, three on the Waverly Council, one each on the Millwood and Spangle councils; one on the East Valley School Board, three on the Liberty School Board, two on the Fire District 12 board; two on the Chattaroy Springs Water District; one each on the Hangman Hills and the Vel View water districts, and one each on the Elk and Waverly cemetery districts.