Judge’S Order Could Reverse Springdale Election Results Court Also Has Invalidated Growth-Management Decisions

Two years after Dan Hite was elected mayor of Springdale by one vote and Lowell Peterson won a council seat in a drawing to break a tie, a judge’s order could turn the election on its ear.

If a complicated sequence of events plays out, Hite could be forced into a drawing with his election rival, Councilman Floyd Pope, for the second half of his term as mayor.

The first half has been frustrating enough for the embattled mayor that he’s now pretty indifferent about the prospect of losing the job.

“What will be will be, is all I can say,” Hite said. “They’re welcome to it. If only they knew what they’re asking for.”

Hite said the town budget is “down to nothing,” and a hostile council has cut off all money for legal representation. As for hiring a lawyer himself, Hite said, “I wouldn’t pay a penny to fight for this job.”

Hite’s ally Peterson is home free, though. The two-year, unexpired council term for which he and Vickie Denman were tied in November 1997 has now expired.

Peterson won a clear victory over Denman in last November’s general election for a new, four-year term.

The 1997 election turned on the question of whether Don Wilma’s home at the edge of Springdale had been properly annexed before he cast his vote for Pope and Denman.

Stevens County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Baker ruled shortly before the 1997 election that the 80-acre annexation was invalid. Baker said the annexation violated a resolution earlier that year in which county commissioners failed to designate any “interim urban growth area” for Springdale under the state Growth Management Act.

Citing Baker’s ruling, the Stevens County Canvassing Board - composed of Prosecutor Jerry Wetle, county Commissioner Fred Lotze and Auditor Tim Gray - disqualified Wilma’s ballot in the 1997 Springdale general election. Baker upheld the canvassing board’s decision, and Wilma appealed her decision.

The appeal is pending before the state Court of Appeals in Spokane, which is waiting for a final ruling in the annexation case.

That case is still before Baker because of a bizarre turn of events in which the man who filed the lawsuit to overturn the annexation changed sides and sought to quash the suit. Another Springdale resident intervened in an attempt to revive the suit - and Baker’s initial ruling against the annexation.

Meanwhile, Wilma’s brother and sister-in-law, Al and Saundra Wilma, asked the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board to overturn the county commissioners’ decision not to designate a growth area for Springdale.

The board ruled last May that commissioners improperly made growth management decisions without seeking public opinion. The board ordered the commissioners to reconsider some of its decisions, but declined to invalidate the commissioners’ original action.

Al and Saundra Wilma, who own the annexation area, argued in a lawsuit that the growth board should have overturned the county resolution that allowed no growth in Springdale. Baker agreed Friday and ordered the growth board to invalidate the resolution.

A spokeswoman for the three-member growth board said members hadn’t seen the decision Monday and couldn’t comment on it.

“This is really exciting,” Saundra Wilma said. “I think it really puts Springdale on the right track.”

She handled most of the case herself before hiring Spokane attorney John Riley. Now, though, she’s uncertain how to proceed, and Riley wasn’t available Monday.

County officials also aren’t sure what will happen next. But Baker’s decision makes it clear which way the dominoes are falling. If the county growth-area decision was invalid, then “presumably” the annexation of the Wilma property was valid, Baker said in her ruling.

It is possible, though, that supporters of Hite and Peterson would be allowed to revive their argument that Don Wilma wasn’t entitled to vote because he mostly lived in Longview at the time of the disputed election.

Regardless of how the election turns out, Baker’s ruling in the growth board case could be a big headache for county officials. Lloyd Nickel, the county’s chief civil deputy prosecutor, said eight months’ work to address issues raised by the growth board may have to be repeated if the commissioners’ initial action is thrown out.

All the repairs have been treated as amendments to the original resolution.