Spokane
mayor asks state supreme court to block recall

Spokane, Wash., mayor Jim West has asked the state supreme court to reject a recall effort seeking to remove him from office over a sex scandal. Lawyers for West argued Thursday that a superior court judge erred in allowing a recall proposal to go forward and by rewriting the proposal after it was originally submitted by unemployed Spokane mother Shannon Sullivan, who is leading the recall effort. In producing the rewritten recall synopsis after a June 13 hearing on Sullivan's proposal, the lower court deprived West of the opportunity to challenge the rewrite, West's brief said. The lower court also erred in concluding that a public official may be subject to a recall election for engaging in private online conversations and e-mails, the mayor's lawyers contended. "May a public official be subject to a recall election for engaging in private online conversations and e-mail correspondence using his own computer equipment on his own time?" West's appeal asked. The recall effort contends that West, a former state senate leader, misused his office and city equipment by offering City Hall jobs and perks to young men he was seeking to date via Internet Web sites. The FBI is investigating whether West improperly used his political position.

West also complained that in writing her recall request, Sullivan improperly relied only on a series of investigative articles by The Spokesman-Review newspaper, which hired a forensic computer expert to assist in its online research. "Is a petitioner's knowledge of alleged facts sufficient when it is based on newspaper stories which are based on information from an unidentified newspaper consultant?" West's appeal asked. West also said there is no proof that his alleged misfeasance in any way interfered with his official duties. "I'm very confident that the supreme court will rule in my favor," Sullivan told NW Cable News. Arguments supporting the recall must be filed by next Thursday. Meanwhile, the head of Spokane County elections said Thursday there is almost no chance that the recall election could be on this November's ballot, as supporters had hoped. The elections office will not have enough time and staff to verify the more than 12,000 petition signatures required to get a recall on the ballot, while at the same time preparing for September's regularly scheduled primary election, Paul Brandt said. "We are unable to throw all our staff into signature verification because we are running a primary," Brandt said. The state supreme court is scheduled to hear arguments in the West recall case on August 24 and will rule after that on whether the issue can be put to voters. If the recall bid is approved, boosters can then begin collecting signatures and submit them to the auditor's office for verification, a process Brandt estimated would take four weeks. After verification, the recall election cannot be held for 45 days, but must be held within 60 days, Brandt said. "Even if she handed in signatures the day after the supreme court made its finding, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to hit November," Brandt said. "I really feel that the people of Spokane will step up to the plate here and help me collect the signatures, and, hopefully, we still can get it on the November ballot," Sullivan told NW Cable News. "If not, I have no problem with next year as long as their voices as well as mine get to be heard." West, a Republican, still has two years left of his first four-year term as mayor. (AP)