TNT reporter Steve Maynard reports:

Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Michael Morgan appeared to be advancing tonight in his bid to seek re-election.

Morgan was in second place, trailing challenger Rebecca Robertson, according to early returns from King County elections.

Five challengers faced off against Morgan, who was reprimanded by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct in December.

Robertson, a prosecutor in the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, received nearly twice as many votes as Morgan, who heavily outspent his opponents during the primary campaign.

Matthew York, a deputy prosecuting attorney in the King County Prosecutor’s Office, was in third place.

The top two vote-getters advance to the general election Nov. 3.

Embattled Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Michael Morgan has attracted a crowd of challengers in the August primary. This won't help his case: The King County Bar Association Judicial Screening Committee rated him "not qualified."

From the release:

Of the eight candidates running for two positions on Federal Way Municipal Court, the Honorable David Larson received a rating of “Exceptionally Well Qualified.” Rebecca Robertson, Renee Walls and Matthew York received ratings of “Well Qualified;” James Santucci was rated “Qualified;” the Honorable Michael Morgan and Williams Jarvis were deemed “Not Qualified.”

The full text is below:

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The City of Federal Way has released a more complete copy of an investigative report into whether Municipal Court Judge Michael Morgan operated a hostile workplace.

We went all the way to the state Supreme Court recently to win release of the report. We feel voters are entitled to see it, especially as Morgan pursues reelection this year. To see a copy of the original, redacted version released by the city, click here. To see our story about the report, click here.

The more complete report goes into much greater detail about comments that Morgan allegedly made to court staff about his former colleague, Judge Colleen Hartl.

It's easy to see why Federal Way took its time before releasing the extra material. The things Morgan allegedly said about Hartl are unflattering and salacious. We have decided not to write a story about them or post them to our Web site.

The new information might be of interest to voters as they consider Morgan's reelection. But we had to weigh that public interest against the potential of doing further damage to the reputation of Hartl by publishing unsubstantiated claims. Hartl is no longer a public figure and isn't running for elected office.

Even so, we are happy to have spent the time and money to secure the full report as a public document. You can make a request in person at City Hall, 33325 Eighth Ave South, or you can e-mail city clerk Carol McNeilly at carol.mcneilly@cityoffederalway.com.

An electronic copy is free; a printed copy will cost 15 cents per page.

Last week we posted an item reporting that Tim Eyman appeared to have turned in enough signatures to get his tax-limiting I-1033 on the November ballot.

Over the next several days, Gig Harbor Councilman Derek Young and initiative sponsor Eyman engaged in a debate in the comment section of the post.

Young begins the comments and responds to a few other readers. He then poses a question to Eyman who replys and the debate is on.

Here is the exchange:

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The Pierce County Council voted today to send some advice to County Executive Pat McCarthy regarding next year's budget – don't cut sheriff's deputies, don't spend any more from the savings account, keep the polls open, don't reduce county lobbying efforts and keep fee increases at inflation or less.

This isn't the usual line-item-by-line item resolution. The council decided that given the troubled budget times, it should allow the executive flexibility in dealing with changing economics. The county has already altered its current spending plan twice, voting on March 31 and June 16 to close seperate $8 million funding gaps.

“We recognize that the executive’s budget staff will need flexibility in how they address the challenges of next year, since economic conditions could rapidly change,” Council Chairman Roger Bush said in a prepared statement. “What doesn’t change is our Charter-mandated duty to appropriate revenue and adopt a budget that delivers the core services that our county’s taxpayers expect.”

McCarthy will send her budget to the council by September 22 and the council will likely adopt a final budget before Thanksgiving.

A copy of the resolution can be found here.

Got this from the State Patrol. I deleted the name of the suspect because we generally don't name them when they are arrested. We wait until they are charged by prosecutors.

Olympia Man Arrested for Vehicular Assault and Hit and Run

A 4-year-old boy was airlifted to Harborview Hospital yesterday with serious injuries to his face after an Olympia man lost control of his wagon striking the SUV the young boy was a passenger in. The man fled the scene.

At approximately 7:30 p.m. last night 34 year-old (name deleted) of Olympia was driving his 1999 Subaru Legacy Wagon eastbound on Yelm Highway in Thurston County at Normandy Road when he lost control of his vehicle.

He was driving in the center turn lane when he lost control and went into the eastbound lane of traffic hitting a 1992 Isuzu Amigo driven by 30 year-old Jeffrey M. Carroll of Olympia. Carroll’s vehicle left the road hitting a metal fence and rolled coming to rest on its roof. (The suspect's) vehicle crossed into westbound lanes, left the road and struck a fence coming to rest in a parking lot.

(The suspect) left the scene, running up the Chehalis Western Trail and was found minutes later at the Mountain View Vet Clinic. Carroll had two young passengers in his Isuzu, a 10-year-old male of Olympia and a 4 year-old male, also from Olympia.

The 4 year-old male was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center with serious injuries. Carroll and the 10-year-old male were transported to St. Peter Hospital with minor injuries. All were wearing proper safety restraints. (The suspect) was treated for injuries at the scene and booked into the Thurston County Jail on suspicion of Vehicular Assault and Felony Hit and Run.

The roadway was closed for 4 ½ hours during investigation of the scene. Drugs and/or alcohol may have been a factor in this preventable collision.

The State Patrol will continue to focus on keeping our roadways safe from aggressive drivers and drunk or drugged drivers by getting them off the road and arresting them. You can also help keep our roadways safe; if you observe someone driving erratically or think they may be under the influence, call 9-1-1 right away.

This quick and very important phone could allow us to get that driver off the road and prevent roads from being closed for hours and ultimately could save a life.

For the first time in Puyallup history, the city will have a publicly elected municipal court judge.

Citizens can file with the Pierce County Auditor's office next week -- June 1 through June 5.

For years, Puyallup's judge position has been part-time and appointed by the mayor.

But citing an ever-increasing municipal court caseload, the Puyallup City Council voted in June 2008 to create a full-time judge position that is elected by voters.

Council members appointed Stephen Shelton, the city's longtime judge, to fill the position temporarily until it could be filled by an election in November 2009.

Prior to his appointment to the full-time position, Shelton worked part-time handling Puyallup's cases for 15 years.

Shelton said Friday that he plans to run for the position in November. The full-time office comes with a salary of $127,521 a year.

Challengers can cough up the $1,200 filing fee and sign up through the auditor's office. More information, as well as a list of all open positions in the county, can be found here.

Puyallup's contentious proposal to have all its city council positions elected by a citywide vote may be dead in the water, despite receiving initial approval from a majority of the city council last week.

Councilman Mike Deal, who voted in favor of the proposal on first reading last Tuesday, now says he's changed his mind. Citizens shouted their opposition to the proposal to eliminate council voting districts at last week's council meeting, prompting Puyallup police to review recordings of the meeting to see if any citizens engaged in disorderly conduct.

Deal said in an e-mail today that he doesn't think it's right to make all council positions citywide after some of this November's council candidates have already begun to campaign in their neighborhood districts. If Deal changes his vote and the other council members maintain their positions, the at-large proposal will fail 4-3.

East Pierce County readers can find out more about Puyallup's at-large city council proposal in tomorrow's edition of The Herald.

Click 'more' to see the e-mail Deal sent to me and other members of the City Council today.

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Police delayed the TV broadcast of this week’s Puyallup City Council meeting to review the recordings for evidence of citizens engaging in disorderly conduct.

During Tuesday’s meeting, several citizens shouted angry comments at council members, prompting police to call two additional officers to the meeting for backup.

Officers asked the Rainier Communications Commission not to air the meeting recording until they could review it and see if any citizens behaved inappropriately, said Bryan Jeter, Puyallup’s deputy police chief.
Police OK’ed the release of the recording Thursday morning, but not in time for the meeting to air as scheduled at 8 a.m. on Channel 22.

Officers didn’t want the recording to be shown to the public until they could make a copy and determine the original recording wasn’t tampered with, Jeter said.

“It’s standard procedure for video evidence,” Jeter said.

So far police haven’t identified any citizen behavior they need to follow up on, but they are still reviewing the recordings and may forward recommendations to prosecutors Monday, Jeter said.

The Puyallup City Council meeting still aired as scheduled at 2 a.m. Friday and will show again at 8 p.m. Sunday on Channel 22.

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Yelling. Conspiracy theories. A fight regarding a council member's late wife.

It's all in a day's work for the Puyallup City Council.

At Tuesday night's meeting, the action taken by the Puyallup City Council was far less interesting than what was said.

Want a good idea of what went down? The meeting ended with Mayor Don Malloy telling Councilman John Knutsen, "Shame on you," and Knutsen responding, "Shame on YOU."

That's Knutsen's emphasis, not mine.

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Actually, the authority would be much broader than Pierce County, but I mention the county in the headline because under the new federal limits on particulate matter, Pierce is one of the places that no longer is in compliance.

Parts of Tacoma and Pierce County are spewing too much bad stuff into the air, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Senate Bill 5565 would let the state Department of Ecology or the local health department or other local governments impose a ban on wood-burning stoves that are not certified, if the area in question exceeds the new federal level for, well basically, smoke. (Most of the problem is from wood stoves and diesel fuel, according to the bill report.)

The vote was 66-31, with Republicans and woodsy kinda Democrats voting against it. (OK, it was Brian Blake.)

Here's the roll call vote.

Here is the bill report.

The bill now goes back to the Senate, which passed a similar version on a 38-10 vote last month.

With the House and Senate proposing to shift $700 million to $800 million from building projects to help out programs -- schools, health, prisons -- in the operating budget, there's going to be lots of folks complaining about how their particular project didn't get paid for.

It ain't $9 billion, but $780 million is still a lot of money.

BY Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com

Supporters of a vocational skills center near Frederickson in Pierce County appear to have struck out in their effort to get more state money for the project.

The governor’s mid-December budget proposal had no money for it. The Senate budget that came out Wednesday had none. And supporters got their third strike Friday when they tried to amend the House capital budget to include $20 million that would have been spread among several skills center, including the one in the Bethel School District -- and failed.

State Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, asked members of the House Capital Budget Committee to approve her proposal to shift $30 million from a program that buys property for recreation and purchases development rights to preserve farmland and earmark $20 million of it for the skills center program. The money would have been divvied up by the state schools superintendents’ office. The other $10 million would have been earmarked for state parts.

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