Snohomish County's Class Struggle
A legal battle over county classification and official salaries heats up in Everett, threatening to topple the local board of commissioners.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Everett—The attorney employed by the county commissioners to fight the mandamus case brought to compel them to advance Snohomish County to the seventh class has been notified that the hearing will be held Saturday. It is the general expectation that the case will be set for trial some time this month. If the superior court holds that the commissioners must advance the county and this decision is upheld by the supreme court, to which the commissioners say they will appeal if beaten, it is asserted that an action will be brought to oust the entire board of commissioners from office on the ground of dereliction of duty, and a suit brought to compel them to refund all amounts they have drawn in excess of the salary fixed for commissioners in the class to which the county is advanced. This is stated to be the plan mapped out by parties interested in the move, though they refuse to divulge the results of the special census taken to support the claim. Some interesting developments are expected when the case comes to trial.
“It is asserted that an action will be brought to oust the entire board of commissioners from office on the ground of dereliction of duty.”
County classification battles over population-based funding remain a volatile subject in Washington, reflecting the ongoing struggle between local governance and state mandates regarding how tax dollars are allocated.
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