Inside the editorial page

What's on the minds of TNT editorial writers

Sunday, October 14th, 2007

Posted by David Seago @ 05:14:28 am

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.

Categories: Taking notice

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Inside the editorial page

Inside the editorial page

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 and Executive Editor Karen Peterson.

Contributing bloggers

Chief editorial writer 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.

Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in July after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.