A fight over how to replace Pierce County nonpartisan auditor is about to get very partisan, and may wind up in court.

At issue: whether the County Council must accept Democratic Party recommendations for a new auditor or whether it can open the job to all comers.

The Republican-majority County Council this afternoon will consider an emergency ordinance that lays out a replacement process that does not rely on nominations from the Democratic Party.

The process calls for advertising the position, with an ad hoc committee whittling the list to three applicants to be submitted to the council.

Several County Council members say Republican Shawn Bunney (right) is likely to get the council’s nod to replace the outgoing auditor.

He would be filling the shoes of Democrat Pat McCarthy,

(left) who was elected county executive last month. Bunney told me recently he is interested in the job.

But the county Democratic Party is objecting. Chairman Nathe Lawver contends that under the county charter the party should have a say in who is appointed auditor. He’s willing to press his case in court.

“We have a very solid case here,” Lawver said this afternoon. “If it comes down to it, yeah, we’ll be working through the courts.”

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King County Elections Director Sherril Huff will have to win election to her job if she wants to keep it. King County voters made elections director an elected, rather than an appointed, position last month.

King County Executive Ron Sims is backing her. He should. He hired her, didn't he?

There are a few others already in the race or expected to announce, including state Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, as you can see from these earlier posts.

Jason Osgood is one of them.

Sherril Huff announces candidacy for
King County Elections Director

SEATTLE – With unparalleled experience running 21 successful King County elections, King County Director of Elections Sherril Huff on Tuesday announced she is running for the position in the Feb. 3 election.

“I am honored today to announce my candidacy for Director of Elections,” Huff said at a news conference held at Strategies 360. “I want to continue running smooth elections for King County voters, and keep pushing for accuracy and innovations to ensure a fair, open election process.”

Huff has served as Elections Director since 2007, and was assistant Elections Director from 2005 to 2007.

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Are you paying too much in taxes? Check your cell phone bill. If you are being overcharged, we want to hear from you.

We found one Pierce County resident in Graham was being charged a Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) tax -- as a portion of the sales tax -- on her cell phone bill, even though she lives about five miles outside the taxation district boundary.

Update: And since then we've found two others who are in the same boat.

We’re trying to figure out how accurate phone companies’ methods are for figuring out who should be taxed. The state recently admitted its methods had an extreme number of errors, resulting in about $3 million being owed back to residents.

(You may not be able to tell on some cell phone bills because the RTA tax isn't broken out from the sales tax. The customer in question uses Verizon and it was broken out on the bill she provided to us.)

More details after the jump.

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No, that headline is not a mistake.

Barry (aka Bart) Ladenburg has been appointed to fill a vacancy on the SeaTac City Council and will take the oath of office at tonight's meeting. The council selected him last Tuesday to finish the term of Councilman Joe Brennan, a one-time mayor who died in late October.

Bart, 51, is the younger brother of Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, which makes him the much older brother-in-law of Tacoma City Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg. (You're welcome, Connie.)

Bart will have to stand for election in 2009 if he wants to keep the job. That means there probably will still be a Ladenburg on the ballot.

Not John. He ran for Attorney General and lost to incumbent Rob McKenna this year, and his executive term ends Dec. 31.

Not Connie. She is term-limited so her council term runs out on Dec. 31, 2009.

So, the political activities of the Ladenburg clan will be concentrated a bit further north next year.

Bart is a master mechanic for Metropolitan King County government and has lived in SeaTac for a while. I have a call out to him, but he must be at work. More later when he calls back.

UPDATE: Bart said he and wife, Debbie, built a house near Angle Lake in 1995 and he's gotten involved in the community. (She grew up in SeaTac.)

King County Councilwoman Julie Patterson had a hand in urging him to seek public office, Bart said. "She's been after me to run, but I didn't want to do anything until my kids were out of public school."

The appointment gives him "a chance to get my feet wet and see what it's like," he said.

The cost of Tacoma's big pay and benefits study -- known internally as the classification and total compensation study -- has been going up and down since the city hired Seattle-based consultant Milliman Inc. to help out.

The latest move is up.

The City Council is expected to vote tonight on a resolution that would increase the Milliman contract from $179,500 to $277,243.

City officials said they needed Milliman to do extra work related to "custom salary data" that was not requested in the original contract. That means they needed help figuring out what to pay some positions where it's not easty to find comparable positions in other cities or companies.

The original Milliman contract was for $200,000, but the city later reduced the scope of the work, which lowered the bill to $179,500.

The study, which is not quite finished, revealed lots of Tacoma's jobs have pay scales that top out below City Council's goal of the 70th percentile of the market. Some positions are within the market range, and a few are paid higher than the market.

City officials say it will cost about $2.9 million to adopt a new salary schedule that puts everyone in the market range.

Check out the resolution in tonight's City Council agenda packet, and supporting documents, here.

If you could increase your salary by $5,000 a year -- and I mean an ongoing increase, not just a one-time bonus -- wouldn't you?

You'd have to study and take a test, but when you're done, your employer pays you $5,000 more than your fellow teachers with comparable years of experience and education. Plus, if you could get another $5,000 a year if you got teach in one of the tougher schools.

The Legislature calls them "challenging" schools. They are defined by the number of students who get free or reduced lunches.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction reports that in the 2007-08 school year, 919 teacher became National Board certified, which is what it takes to get the pay raise. That's nearly twice the number who got board certified the previous year.

The Legislature approved the $5,000 amount in 2007.

More than 2,000 teachers have signed up for 2008-09 to work toward certification. "A total of 22 percent of the newly Board-certified teachers in the state are now teaching in challenging schools, compared to 13 percent for all Board-certified teachers through 2007," OSPI reported.

Here's the full news release.

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C-Ted, as the acronym generally is pronounced, is an agency that seems to do a little bit of everything.

The departure of Juli Wilkerson means Gov. Chris Gregoire is going to have to find at least 4 or 5 new agency directors for her second four-year term.

CTED Director Wilkerson to retire

OLYMPIA – Juli Wilkerson, director of the Washington state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED), today announced her retirement effective January 9.

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