PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles has joined a legal effort to defend home rule authority.
The City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday — with Cherie Kidd and Michael Merideth opposed — to support the city of Olympia’s amicus brief in the case of Michael Kunath v. the city of Seattle, which involves Seattle’s right to impose an income tax on high wage earners.
The 17-page document calls on the state Supreme Court to overturn a 2017 King County Superior Court ruling that said Seattle’s taxing authority must come from the Legislature.
Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin added the item to the council’s agenda at the meeting, drawing criticism from three fellow council members.
The amicus brief was filed with the state Supreme Court on Wednesday, City Attorney Bill Bloor said.
“It does mean that we come down on the side of supporting Seattle’s (taxing) authority,” Schromen-Wawrin said during the four-hour meeting.
“That doesn’t mean that we’re supporting Seattle’s policy as good public policy. It means that we’re supporting their authority to decide at a local level what is best for their citizens’ health, safety and welfare.”
Schromen-Wawrin, a constitutional attorney and one of four first-year council members, said the King County case threatens to narrow the home rule authority granted to first-class cities like Seattle and code cities like Port Angeles.
According to a council-approved resolution that accompanies the brief, the high court’s recognition of home rule power would “further the city of Port Angeles’ objectives of responsible municipal government, budgeting and provision of necessary services to the community.”
The city of Port Townsend also joined the amicus brief, Bloor said in a Thursday email.
“Unfortunately, at different times throughout the 20th century, the courts have reverted to Dillon’s Rule, the idea that local governments can only do what they’re expressly told they can do by the state,” Schromen-Wawrin said.
“It appears that the King County Superior Court reverted to Dillon’s Rule in its ruling concerning Seattle’s ordinance.”
Schromen-Wawrin apologized for the timing of the action item, saying it was driven by a court deadline.
Bloor provided for the council a history of Dillon’s Rule and the emergence of home rule power in Washington.
“I fully support the concept of home rule, and anything that we can do to promote home rule, I’m fully in favor of that,” Bloor said.
“The drawback is that the council would be associated with the action of the city of Seattle and its efforts to impose an income tax on wealthy people.”
Council member Mike French said home rule power gives citizens a better chance to “make their voices heard” when it comes to taxes.
“It’s much easier for citizens to stand up to their local governments and say ‘Hey, stop taxing me’ than it is to stand up to their Legislature and say ‘Hey, stop taxing me,’ ” French said.
“It’s all the way to Olympia. It’s a much more complex process that involves legalese.”
While the amicus brief is scattered with references to the Seattle income tax, Bloor told the council that the document “does not address that issue.”
“The amicus brief that the city would be joining is simply an affirmation of an attempt to have the court affirm the viability of home rule code cities,” Bloor said.
“That’s very much a concern for Port Angeles, in particular, because we’ve just gone through this debate about second-class city, and home rule was at the very crux of that debate.”
Last November, a 79-percent majority of city voters rejected a measure that would have reverted Port Angeles to a second-class city.
As a second-class city, Port Angeles would have lost its home rule power and could only do what has been allowed by the state Legislature.
Given the 2017 debate, Deputy Mayor Kate Dexter said Port Angeles has a “unique experience that I think is worth sharing.”
Schromen-Wawrin added to the amicus brief a two-page perspective from the city of Port Angeles.
“In Port Angeles we recognize that modern problems and issues often are best dealt with on a local level and that the best answers often are tailored locally to fit the size and shape of the local issues,” it says.
Late items can be added to the council’s agenda with a consensus of four members.
Dexter, French, Schromen-Wawrin and Mayor Sissi Bruch agreed to discuss the amicus brief.
Council members Jim Moran, Merideth and Kidd were opposed to having the debate.
“I have to tell you,” Moran told Schromen-Wawrin, “that a little bit of poor planning on your part should not constitute an emergency on our part.”
Despite his admonishment of Schromen-Wawrin’s timing, Moran said he would support the amicus brief based on Bloor’s analysis.
“I haven’t been able to read it thoroughly and again, I don’t appreciate it being dumped on my desk the moment of,” Moran said. “But I do believe the concept is sound.”
Schromen-Wawrin sent the amicus brief to his fellow council members at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, Merideth said.
“I’m simply not going to vote in favor of this because I’m not in favor of anything being stuck in front of me on the day of that is 17 pages long,” Merideth said.
“It is a legal brief, and our vote does go on the record permanently.”
Kidd said the brief was “dumped on our dais” before the meeting, leaving no time for research.
“We are responsible for everything we vote on, and we have to vote knowledgeably,” Kidd said.
“That’s our responsibility to the citizens of Port Angeles and to ourselves.”
Flipping through the pages of the brief, Kidd cited several references to the income tax and Seattle’s taxing authority.
“I’m not involved in Seattle’s taxation,” Kidd said.
“There’s page after page after page of corroborating evidence to back this up — that this is about Seattle’s right to tax, tax, tax. That’s not what I’m here to do.”
The amicus brief is supported by the Association of Washington Cities, which represents Port Angeles and 280 other cities and towns.
“Yes, in the statute and in the state constitution there’s home rule power, but if the court says there isn’t then there isn’t,” Schromen-Wawrin said.
“The court can say that blue is red and chicken is beef, but ultimately that’s where it lies.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
