Marian Beddill has devoted much of the latter part of her life to working for environmental and social change. She is retired yet rarely finds a free moment in her day. In 1999, Beddill and two other concerned citizens created the Drinking Water Initiative, which called for better water-quality protection in Lake Whatcom — the drinking-water source for more than 87,000 Whatcom County residents.
“When the legislature fails to act, the initiative process comes next,” Beddill said.
The initiative mandated an increase of no more than $12 to monthly residential and commercial water bills to raise $4 million a year to buy land in the watershed.
The Drinking Water Initiative lost by 2 percent, but its efforts did not go unnoticed. Beddill attended nearly every Bellingham City Council meeting for nine months to prove her dedication to and concern for the issue. The council members took note. One year later they passed a similar version of the initiative into law.
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Marian Beddill is an advocate for Lake Whatcom water quality. She and two other Whatcom County citizens created the Drinking Water Initiative in an effort to protect it. |
Citizen initiatives don’t require great expertise. Dedication, community support and involvement stand out as the essential ingredients, Beddill said. Any legal voter in Whatcom County, either individually or on behalf of an organization, can propose an initiative to the county auditor.
“I think it’s something that the proponent must feel very strongly about,” Whatcom County Auditor Shirley Forslof said.
The Whatcom County Charter and County Code explain the process in detail. According to these documents, once someone proposes an initiative, the petitioner meets with the auditor to make any corrections to the format of the initiative. The initiative then receives an identification number and the prosecuting attorney meets with the petitioner to create a concise, unbiased title. Writing the initiative is one of the most difficult steps, Beddill said.
“Writing the initiative requires careful legal review through preparation to maximize the validity of initiative language once it is passed into law,” Beddill said.
If the wording is vague, a much greater chance exists that the council will reject or change it. Forslof said the initiatives that pass usually have relied on attorney assistance regarding specific structure and wording. The petitioner has 120 days to collect signatures from registered voters. The number of signatures must equal or exceed 15 percent of the total votes cast in the previous county election.
“The initiatives that get the most valid signatures are when the proponents go out and talk to the voters about the requirements ... not when they are just left on a counter,” Forslof said. “What I would advise is to start early in the year. If you start early enough, you can have the full 120 days to get enough signatures.”
If the initiative meets the deadline and has adequate signatures, the City Council validates it and places it on the next general- election ballot.
Tim Eyman has ample experience sponsoring citizen initiatives. Four of the 12 initiatives proposed to the Washington secretary of state so far this year carry his name. Unlike politicians, initiatives follow through on their campaign promises, uninfluenced by outside funding and re-election concerns, Eyman said.
“With initiatives, you get the chance to resolve the problem. You have months to debate it; newspapers can address it; legislatures can talk about it. ... If it was an easy problem for the legislature to solve, it would have been dealt with long ago,” Eyman said. Todd Donovan, a political science professor at Western Washington University, said citizen initiatives aren’t necessarily the makings of good policy, but they are indicative of the will of the people and can ultimately change government policy.
“Citizen initiatives are becoming a default option to a lot of groups whose issues are being ignored by the council,” Donovan said. Even if citizen initiatives fail, they usually increase public dialogue, Beddill said. This was the case for Boats Off!, a citizen initiative in 2004 that didn’t make it onto the ballot.
Although the presidential race was the highlight of the 2004 elections, Boats Off! received a large amount of local attention — good and bad — in its effort to halt motorboats on the portion of Lake Whatcom
within Bellingham city limits. Sharon Crozier, one of Bellingham’s 2004 mayoral candidates, sponsored the initiative. Forslof certified the initiative in August 2004, making it ready to go on the November ballot.
A judge removed it, however, when its process was challenged in court. Attorneys disputed the validity of the signatures, saying some were too old. Forslof said all the votes came from people registered in the county, which gave her reason to certify the initiative. After judges determined that initiative organizers had not collected all of the signatures within the allotted time period, Forslof subtracted the late ones, leaving the initiative invalid. Now the case is in the court, and proponents are hoping to place it on the next ballot.
Eyman said public policy is divisive by definition, and if it weren’t, there would be no need for government.
“Why is it that we are smart enough to pick elected officials but we have a mental lobotomy when it comes to public policy?” Eyman said.
Beddill and Eyman show that through active participation, a place for “the voice of the people” exists within the government.
In Bellingham, initiatives that address environmental issues have garnered positive results for both the proponents and the environment. Thanks to citizen initiatives, Whatcom County is a nuclear-free zone and bans the burning of medical waste.
“Coming up with ideas that the voters will think is a good idea is simple,” Eyman said. “The really difficult part is how to get your idea on the ballot.”
While the process may not be easy, citizens have repeatedly proved it possible.
“Should students do this sort of thing? Hell yes,” Beddill said.