In Our View: Good Call on Recall

An effort to launch a recall petition against three Clark County councilors proved to be little more than an embarrassment for fellow Councilor Tom Mielke.

On Friday, Stephen Warning, a visiting Cowlitz County Superior Court judge, dismissed the allegations filed against Marc Boldt, Jeanne Stewart and Julie Olson. Warning determined that Mielke’s assertions of malfeasance and misfeasance by his fellow councilors did not meet the legal or factual requirements for a recall petition to move forward.

That decision comes as no surprise for those who have closely watched the political wrangling in Clark County. Since Boldt and Olson joined the council in January, expanding it from three members to five as mandated by a county charter passed in 2014, Mielke and David Madore have found themselves on the short end of a series of 3-2 votes.

In the process, rather than engage in diplomacy and statesmanship, Mielke and Madore have deployed desperate measures in an attempt to remain relevant as policymakers. They have routinely besmirched Clark County government while poorly serving their constituents, clinging to demagoguery rather than thoughtful governance. The people of Clark County deserve better than the endless series of sandbox fights that have been instigated.

Mielke has declined to seek re-election this year, which left him with little to lose other than his dignity in pursuing the recall effort. Madore, on the other hand, has used the fiasco as a campaign tactic, posting a video frequently noting that three council members are “currently facing a recall petition.” We would hope that, in the spirit of honesty and decency, he would remove the video or amend it to say that the three councilors were “absolved in a misguided, selfish, childish attempt to have them recalled.” But we are not holding our breath waiting for that to happen.

Judge Warning was tasked simply with determining whether there were legal grounds for the recall effort to proceed, not whether the three councilors had engaged in the actions for which they had been accused. In the process, he thoroughly rebuked Mielke and, by extension, Madore. And while it would not be prudent to dishonor Boldt, Stewart and Olson by repeating all of the unfounded allegations, it is particularly pertinent to revisit one of them.

Mielke accused the councilors of conspiring to dissolve the county’s Department of Environmental Services, an action that was undertaken earlier this year by County Manager Mark McCauley. Under the county charter, McCauley has sole discretion to reconfigure county departments. In this case, that included the loss of a job for department head Don Benton, a state senator who was selected for the post by Mielke and Madore despite his distinct lack of qualifications. In recent months, Madore has disingenuously attempted to blame others for Benton’s hiring, a tactic that we hope voters are savvy enough to dismiss for its absurdity. The fact that Mielke would again fall on his sword in defense of an indefensible hiring defies credulity.

On another matter, the judge said McCauley did violate a county ordinance regarding the posting of contracts, but that did not warrant a recall.

In the end, the recall petition was a ridiculous attempt to distract voters during election season and to draw attention away from the real problems facing the council. In the process, Mielke has once again cost the county thousands of dollars in needless attorneys fees and has once again damaged the credibility of county government. He should feel embarrassed for his actions.