PORT ANGELES — A Clallam County Superior Court judge has dismissed a petition to recall Forks Mayor Nedra Reed.
Petitioners said they probably won’t appeal his decision.
Judge Ken Williams ruled this week after an April 10 hearing that all of the charges in a petition to recall Forks Mayor Nedra Reed were legally and factually insufficient, and that “further proceedings in this matter are not warranted.”
Reed said Thursday that she was “very gratified by the judges finding of what I knew all along about these charges.”
The petitioners have the right to appeal before April 30.
Tom Scott, one of seven Forks residents who signed the petition seeking Reed’s recall, said that, although a final decision had not been made, it was unlikely that the group would take further action.
“We can appeal to the Supreme Court of Washington State, but I doubt that court would find differently than Judge Williams,” Scott said in a written statement he released Thursday.
He said he encourages residents to vote Reed, and the City Council members who support her, out of office.
Scott was one of three Forks Police Department employees who were terminated Feb. 29.
Deanna DeMatteis, who also signed the petition, and JoElle Munger were the other two. Munger was not one of the petitioners.
“It is far beyond the scope of this proceeding for this court to determine whether or not such terminations were justified or unjustified, fair or unfair, or even whether the facts alleged in the various documents are true,” Williams wrote in his decision.
Many of the issues raised in the recall petition’s seven charges revolved around complaints about Forks Police Chief Mike Powell.
Petitioners said that Reed failed to discipline Powell when they believed he should have been.
DeMatteis said, “My sympathy goes out to the members of the community who were looking forward to voicing opinion of the mayor through the recall process,” DeMatteis said.
Reed said the dismissal will help the community to “heal and move on.
“We have a lot of exciting things ahead and a lot of challenges as well, and I need to spend as much time possible assisting the city staff with those challenges.”
