Ballots out for Rosalia vote; fire district ballots re-sent after error

Voters in Rosalia and the Rosalia area will be the only voters involved in the April 26 special election, with voters deciding a street proposal and voters in the park and recreation district deciding the annual special levy for the pool and parks. Voters in Rosalia and Whitman County Rural Fire District 7 will also be asked to endorse a proposal to merge.

Ballots were sent to voters Friday, April 8. On Tuesday, April 12, Fire Chief Bill Tensfeld reported the ballot measure regarding the fire district merger was incorrect.

“The ballots were screwed up, and we’re told new ones are on the way,” Tensfeld said.

Tensfeld reported the merger was mis-worded on the ballot.

“It was backward,” he said.

The measure was supposed to read, “the Town of Rosalia shall be annexed into and be part of Fire District 7,” Tensfeld said. However, the ballot read, “Fire District 7 shall be annexed into and be part of the Town of Rosalia.”

Tensfeld said the error on the ballot only affected the fire district.

“The city ballots were correct,” he said, “but the fire district’s were wrong.”

Tensfeld said documents were checked after the error came to light and noted the documents were correct until the point at which they reached ballot.

Whitman County Auditor Eunice Coker said she was not sure where the error happened.

“How it got to the printer could have happened in any direction, but it should have been caught in the proofreading process,” she said.

Coker said Tensfeld brought the error to her attention Sunday, and Monday she started the process of re-ordering correct ballots. She said Tuesday those ballots were expected Wednesday and would hit the mail after that.

“We’re not sure what happened,” she said. “Wherever it happened, it comes down to I don’t think the elections office proofread them.”

Coker said when the new ballots, amounting to 291, are sent out, they will have a pre-stamped return envelope and a “purple swoosh” in one corner. The purple mark will indicate to the elections office that the ballot returned is the corrected ballot. Any ballots returned without a purple swoosh will be held aside initially, Coker said.

“We’re holding those aside so we can hold those and just count the ones with the purple swoosh,” she said.

There were 291 voters affected, and 222 of those voters also have the park district measure on the ballot. Any ballots returned without the purple mark will not be counted for the fire district, but would be duplicated for the parks district, Coker said.

“Whether they vote no or yes, it won’t be counted for the fire district,” Coker said. “Returned fire district ballots have to have the purple swoosh. Original ballots will be duplicated to a new ballot for the parks district and we will leave off the fire district.”

The annexation measure calls for the Town of Rosalia volunteer fire department to move into Whitman County Rural Fire District 7.

Voters in both the town and the district have to approve the measure by a majority vote.

“The fire department has been talking about having this happen for five or six years,” Mayor Nanette Konishi said.

She added the merger is being sought with the aim for more efficiency and lower costs.

“Insurance-wise, it’s not practical for the city to own the building,” she said. “If passed, we would be turning the building over to the district.”

The services, however, are expected to remain the same.

Konishi said the move would mean the equipment will also change hands.

“All of the equipment will go to the district’s ownership, but the old 1937 vintage truck will stay as city property,” she said.

Konishi said the annexation would also redistribute property taxes slightly.

“My feeling is it’s all aiming toward the future and getting a better use of our time and energy and also our dollars,” she said.

As for the other items on the Rosalia ballots, Konishi said the street levy is in the town’s street budget for 2017, and “we always do it a year in advance.”

Konishi said the street levy usually funds things such as street lights and street projects around town.

The one-year levy is asking voters to pass a $69,000 property tax levy. Konishi said this is up $2,000 from last year.

She anticipates the levy will be approved, as it has been in years past.

“I can think of only one year it didn’t pass,” she said.

Rosalia city treasurer Jenna McDonald said the $60,000 parks and recreation levy is also routine and would be collected in 2017 if approved.

McDonald said the parks and recreation district comes close to matching the school district boundary lines and includes voters in Rosalia, as well as Thornton, Malden and even some places in Spokane County.

The levy, if passed, will fund general maintenance and operation conducted seasonably by the district.

“It’s pretty typical of what the rest of the districts do,” McDonald said.

She added she is looking forward to seeing support for the levy.

“We hope everybody will support it so we can have some activities for the kids,” she said.

The ballots for the special election are due back to the Whitman County Elections Office in Colfax, postmarked by April 26. The ballots can also be dropped off by April 26. The election will end at 8 p.m. that night.