This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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We can now reveal the identity of Pierce County’s Mad Referendum Filer. He is Robert (The Traveller) Hill, who is known to local officials as “a character.”
He’s the reason the County Council put Proposed Charter Amendment 8 on the Nov. 6 ballot (see our editorial about that here.) I indulged in a bit of hyperbole when I wrote that an unnamed citizen – Mr. Hill – filed a referendum “on nearly every ordinance” the council passed during a period of several weeks last spring.
A check of the records at the auditor’s office shows Hill has filed 14 referendum requests this year. The auditor has to officially process each one and send it to the prosecutor’s office to obtain a legal ballot title. When the filer is notified of the ballot title, he or she has 120 days to gather more than 25,000 signatures.
To discourage frivolous referendum filing, Councilman Dick Muri proposed the charter amendment setting a $5 fee. At that rate, the cost of filing serial referenda would start to add up after a while.
Hill is also known for bringing up wildly inappropriate subjects at Tacoma City Council meetings and getting gaveled down by the mayor. He ran against incumbent Councilwoman Julie Anderson in the August primary and won a little over 4 percent of the vote, finishing third behind the estimable Will Baker.
To see candidate Hill in three-day beard, granny shades and porkpie hat, see the primary voters pamphlet and go to page 35.
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