Richland School District recall, Washington (2022-2023)
Richland School District recall |
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Officeholders |
Audra Byrd Kari Williams |
Recall status |
Recall election date |
August 1, 2023 |
Signature requirement |
Byrd: 5,822 Williams: 5,176 |
See also |
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2023 Recalls in Washington Washington recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
Recall elections against three of the five members of the Richland School District school board in Washington were held on August 1, 2023. M. Semi Bird, Audra Byrd, and Kari Williams were on the ballot.[1][2] A majority of voters cast ballots in favor of the recall. The three board members were removed from office after the results were certified on August 15, 2023.[3]
Recall supporters said that the board members violated the Open Public Meetings Act; violated district policies, procedures, and code of ethics; and voted to make masks optional while a statewide mask requirement was in place.[4] All three board members denied any wrongdoing.[5]
The recall effort began in the spring of 2022.[6] The Benton County Superior Court approved the recall petitions for circulation on May 11, 2022. The three members filed an appeal against that decision with the Washington Supreme Court.[5] The state supreme court ruled on February 9, 2023, that four of the recall charges were factually and legally sufficient, allowing the petitions to be circulated.[7] Supporters submitted petition signatures to the Benton County Election Department in May 2023.[8] On May 19, 2023, the county announced enough signatures had been verified to put the recalls on the ballot.[9]
To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.
Recall vote
Audra Byrd recall, 2023
Audra Byrd lost the Richland School District school board Position 1 recall election on August 1, 2023.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
✖ | Yes |
54.2
|
10,666 | ||
No |
45.8
|
8,996 | |||
Total Votes |
19,662 |
|
Semi Bird recall, 2023
Semi Bird lost the Richland School District school board Position 3 recall election on August 1, 2023.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
✖ | Yes |
54.5
|
10,715 | ||
No |
45.5
|
8,953 | |||
Total Votes |
19,668 |
|
Kari Williams recall, 2023
Kari Williams lost the Richland School District school board Position 4 recall election on August 1, 2023.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
✖ | Yes |
53.3
|
10,476 | ||
No |
46.7
|
9,185 | |||
Total Votes |
19,661 |
|
Recall supporters
Recall supporters detailed their reasons for the recall effort on their website:[10]
“ | This recall is not about masks nor is it a partisan issue. The recall is about elected officials being held responsible for unlawful actions they took while in office.
On Tuesday, February 15, 2022, Richland School Board Directors Semi Bird, Audra Byrd, and Kari Williams participated in a special meeting, held a vote that was not included on the meeting agenda, and took the final action of making masks optional in Richland Schools, effective immediately. In doing so, they broke several Washington State laws and violated their oaths of office. In addition, there is evidence that the three collaborated before the meeting to plan for taking the vote, which is in violation of RCW 42.30, the Open Public Meetings Act.[11] |
” |
The Washington Supreme Court ruled that the following four charges could appear on the recall petitions:[7]
“ |
|
” |
Recall opponents
The school district settled a lawsuit related to the alleged violation of the Open Public Meetings Act, agreeing to pay $5,000 and to take additional trainings on the law. After the settlement, the school board published the following statement:[5][7]
“ | On February 23, 2022, Arthur West filed a complaint against the Richland School Board, Richland School District and Board members Audra Byrd, Semi Bird and Kari Williams. Mr. West’s complaint alleges that Richland School Board members Byrd, Bird and Williams violated the Open Public Meetings Act on February 15 and 16, 2022.
|
” |
Williams told KEPR that she believed no laws were broken when the board voted to make masks optional. She said the board received medical and legal advice before taking the vote and that the state's mask requirement ended a few weeks later.[12]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Washington
The Benton County Superior Court initially ruled on May 11, 2022, that the recall petitions could be circulated with five charges.[5] On June 14, 2022, the same court reconsidered one of the charges and took it off of the petitions. The remaining four charges were appealed to the Washington Supreme Court.[4] The state supreme court ruled that the four charges were factually and legally sufficient to be put on the recall petitions and circulated.[7]
To get the recalls on the ballot, supporters had to collect 5,887 signatures against Bird, 5,822 against Byrd, and 5,176 against Williams.[13] The minimum number of signatures were verified for each petition, and the recall election was held on August 1, 2023.[1] The three board members were removed from office on August 15, 2023, after Benton County certified the election results.[14]
After the three board members were removed from office, the board had only two members, meaning they lacked a quorum and were unable to conduct board business. Educational Service District 123 appointed one member to the board on August 29, 2023, in order to re-institute a quorum. On September 20, 2023, the three-member school board appointed two new members to serve on the board temporarily. Two of the seats were up for regular election on November 7, 2023. The winners of that election replaced any appointed members and serve full four-year terms on the board.[14][15]
The state of Washington requires specific grounds to be met for a recall to move forward. Those specific grounds are "acts of malfeasance or misfeasance while in office or violation of oath of office." Once a court rules whether those grounds have been met, recall supporters are given 180 days to collect signatures equal in number to 25% of the votes cast for the office in the last election.[16][17]
Ballotpedia covered 35 coronavirus-related recall efforts against 94 officials in 2022, accounting for 13% of recalls that year. This is a decrease from both 2020 and 2021. COVID-related recalls accounted for 37% of all recall efforts in both 2020 and 2021. In 2020, there were 87 COVID-related recalls against 89 officials, and in 2021, there were 131 against 214 officials.
The chart below compares coronavirus-related recalls to recalls for all other reasons in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
2023 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 48 school board recall efforts against 97 board members in 2023. Sixteen of those board members faced recall elections. The recall elections were held on January 10, 2023, August 1, 2023, August 8, 2023, August 29, 2023, November 7, 2023, and December 12, 2023. The school board recall success rate was 13.4%.
The chart below details the status of 2023 recall efforts by individual school board member.
2022 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 54 school board recall efforts against 123 board members in 2022. Recall elections against school board members were held on January 11, 2022, January 18, 2022, January 24, 2022, February 15, 2022, March 29, 2022, April 4, 2022, and November 8, 2022. The school board recall success rate was 7.3%.
The chart below details the status of 2022 recall efforts by individual school board member.
See also
- Richland School District, Washington
- Recall campaigns in Washington
- Political recall efforts, 2023
- Political recall efforts, 2022
- School board recalls
- States that allow school board recalls
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- Richland School District
- Benton County Election Department
- Richland School Board Recall website
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 KEPR, "RSD Board Recall on the Ballot for August Special Election," May 23, 2023
- ↑ Richland School District, "Board Members," accessed July 22, 2022
- ↑ The Tri-City Herald, "Recall succeeds in ousting 3 Richland school officials who violated WA masking law," August 4, 2023
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Wenatchee World, "Judge tosses out 1 charge in Richland School Board recall," June 14, 2022
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 KEPR, "Richland School Board members to appeal recall decision to Supreme Court, attorney says," May 11, 2022
- ↑ NBC Right Now KNDU 25, "Judge rules recall of Richland school board members can move forward," May 15, 2022
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Tri-City Herald, "Update: WA Supreme Court rules on Richland school board recall," February 9, 2023
- ↑ NBC Non-stop Local, "Organizers of Richland School Board recall turn in over 18,000 signatures to oust board members," May 2, 2023
- ↑ NBC Right Now KNDU 25, "Petition verified in Richland School District recall," May 19, 2023
- ↑ Home," accessed July 22, 2022
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ KEPR, "Debate over RSD recall continues, School Board President responds," February 27, 2023
- ↑ NBC Right Now, "Update to the Richland School Board recall process," March 16, 2023
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Tri-City Herald, "What happens after rare recall leaves a WA school district with no quorum? What we know," August 3, 2023
- ↑ NBC Right Now, "New Richland school Board member appointed following recall," August 29, 2023
- ↑ National Conference of State Legislatures, "Recall of Local Officials," accessed July 27, 2021
- ↑ Washington Constitution, "Article I, Section 34," accessed February 10, 2023
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