Walkout Of Spokane-Area Referees Forces Few Changes Only Three Local Games Affected By Iefoa’s Payment Dispute
Although Spokane-area football referees will not and cannot work games this week, the immediate effects on teams will be minimal.
Three games scheduled for Friday, two in the Northeast A and one in B-11, have been moved to Thursday as school officials found replacement referees.
Members of the Inland Empire Football Officials Association, which serves the Spokane area, voted Sunday night not to work games in a dispute regarding the method in which they are paid.
On Monday, the association was decertified by Washington Interscholastic Activities Association executive director Mike Colbrese, meaning the referees cannot work games.
Russ Brown, assistant executive secretary of District 7, lined up referees from neighboring associations to work games and is confident the final three weekends of the regular season will also be covered.
In the NEA, the Freeman at Medical Lake and Chewelah at Newport games have been moved to Thursday, both at 7:30. The Selkirk at Reardan Northeast B-11 game has also been moved up a day to Thursday at 7 p.m.
Brown is getting officiating crews from the Yakima, Okanogan, Columbia Basin (Ephrata), Lewiston, Idaho, and Seattle or Tacoma associations to work games this week.
Ken Olson, president of the Washington Officials Association, is making the arrangements for a Tacoma or Seattle crew to work Greater Spokane League games.
Brown also said the Blue Mountain (Walla Walla) and Chelan associations would have provided refereeing crews, if needed, and probably will next week.
The IEFOA held a press conference Tuesday morning to dispute some of Colbrese’s statements Colbrese in recent editions of The Spokesman-Review.
Colbrese was the arbitrator in the method of payment disagreement between the schools and a coalition representing the referee associations, including the IEFOA but excluding soccer, that works Spokane-area high school games.
Colbrese found for the schools. When the referees voted to quit working, Colbrese said an injunction did not appear to be an option.
Jerry Skogstad, president of the IEFOA, said his group would welcome an injunction. He said once the IEFOA was allowed to present its side to an impartial third party, referees would return to work regardless of the outcome.
One of the IEFOA’s contentions is Colbrese is not impartial because he basically works for the schools.
“Sure we could (ask for an injunction); you can ask for anything,” said John Olson, WIAA assistant executive director/legal counsel. “Whether we could get it, I don’t know.”
Olson said he is not inclined to seek an injunction.
“My recommendation at this time is not to seek redress in the court but try to resolve this thing through negotiations if we can,” Olson said. “It would be extremely expensive and time consuming at this time. We’re not comfortable or confident that it would solve the problem immediately (to get local referees on the field this weekend).
“I hate deciding athletic issues in court. To me, that’s not where these things should be decided.”
Referees want to be paid on site when they work a game. Schools wanted to prepay the association a lump sum before the season, and the association in turn would pay the referees.
, DataTimes