Judge overturns Lake Wenatchee Fire and Rescue’s $15 million bond, cites Open Public Meetings Act violations

WENATCHEE – Lake Wenatchee Fire and Rescue’s (LWFR) $15 million bond proposal, which received voter approval in the Aug. 5 special election, was overturned by a Chelan County Superior Court Judge.

The decision comes after four Plain residents – Mike and Laurie Aholt, William E. Burgess, and Wayne Rayfield – contested the results of the election, alleging that LWFR (also known as Fire District 9) violated election procedures and the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) in the months leading up to the election. Their lawsuit, filed Sept. 24 in Chelan County Superior Court, argued that these violations prevented an opposition statement from appearing in the voters’ pamphlet, thus influencing the outcome of the election.

The $15 million bond intended to fund upgrades to existing stations and construct new facilities, such as a new station and emergency operations center on its Hill Street property. The measure surpassed the required 60 percent threshold by just four votes, receiving 512 votes in favor and 335 against, according to the Chelan County Auditor’s certified results.

During a hearing on Nov. 3, the court orally ruled that LWFR did violate Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), which likely affected the election outcome. The court overturned the election result, and awarded attorneys fees to the petitioners. However, no civil penalties were imposed on the fire district, as the court did not find that they violated OPMA rules knowingly.

The court found that the fire district violated OPMA by failing to post meeting agendas and minutes promptly, specifically in regard to April 17 and the April 23 special meeting, when actions were taken to sign and submit the ballot measure, as well as form a committee of community members to write ‘pro’ and ‘con’ statements for the voters’ pamphlet (in this case, only a ‘pro’ statement was written). Additionally, the court found that the agenda did not adequately specify the business to be transacted at the meeting, as it only said "Agenda - Bond."

“Court found in all these circumstances that OPMA was violated, and stated that Respondent did not need to go door-to-door to contact individuals to participate in a con-committee, but they did need to do the bare minimum and comply with OPMA,” the court minutes read.

The court stated that “on a more probable than not basis,” these violations affected the outcome of the election, and ordered that Chelan County Resolutions 2025-2 and 2025-3 should be considered invalid, overturning the results of the election. The court directed petitioners’ attorney to prepare a written order to be signed following the oral decision.

“The Fire District is disappointed in Judge Brandt's ruling. We are further disappointed that the will of voters was denied to them. No individual board member did anything wrong in this process, and the district has adjusted our internal processes to avoid any future clerical errors,” LWFR Fire Chief David Walker said in a statement to Ward Media.

Walker said the district would ensure agendas would be timely posted, with agenda topics that were “indisputably clear” moving forward, stating that LWFR posted the April 23 special meeting 23 hours in advance, rather than the required 24.

“At this time, the board is considering its options for moving forward and what is in the best interests of the community,” said Walker.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media