FILED IN COUNTY CLERK'S OFFICE I 111111111111111111 15-2-08040-2 44536994 PT APR 24 2.ot5 04-24-15 PIERCE '(, \,vl'·5HINGTON KEVIN STOCK, county Clerk 3 BY_ ~EPUTY 4 5 6 STATE OF WASHINGTON PIERCE COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT 7 8 9 10 15 2 08040 2 IN THE MATTER OF: NO. THE RECALL OF TROY KELLEY, STATE AUDITOR. PETITION TO DETERMINE SUFFICIENCY OF RECALL CHARGES AND FOR APPROVAL OF BALLOT SYNOPSIS 11 12 13 COMES NOW ROBERT W. FERGUSON, Attorney General of the State of 14 Washington, by and through CALLIE A. CASTILLO and ANNE E. EGELER, Deputy 15 Solicitors General, and petitions the court pursuant to RCW 29A.56.130 for.a detennination 16 of the sufficiency of recall charges and for approval of the attached ballot synopsis. 17 This petition is based on the relevant provisions of RCW 29A.56, which set forth the 18 procedure for recall of elective public officers. Under RCW 29A.56.130, the Attorney General 19 is required to summarize the charges filed in support of recall as a "ballot synopsis" of two 20 hundred words or less and petition the superior court to approve the synopsis and detennine 21 the sufficiency of the charges. In preparing the ballot synopsis and filing the petition, the 22 Attorney General does not authenticate, substantiate, validate, or endorse any legal or factual 23 allegations charged in support of recall. Rather, the Attorney General is merely the statutorily 24 designated conduit for placing this matter before the court for hearing. This petition is filed 25 pursuant to this statutory procedure. 26 PETITION ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WASHINGTON 1125 Washington Street SE PO Box 40100 Olympia, WA 98504-0100 (360) 753-6200 1 1. On April 3, 2015, Will Knedlik filed a statement of charges with the 2 Washington Secretary of State, requesting the recall of Troy Kelley as State Auditor. The 3 Secretary of State is the proper officer with whom to file such charges pursuant to 4 RCW 29A.56.120. The charge alleges Auditor Kelley failed to comply with constitutional and 5 state law requirements to hold his position. 6 2. Upon receipt of the statement of charges, the Secretary of State's duties were 7 (a) to serve a copy of the statement upon the officer subject to recall; and (b) to certify and 8 transmit the charges to the preparer of the ballot synopsis. RCW 29A.56.120. The office of 9 Auditor is a statewide office for which the Secretary of State accepts declarations of 10 candidacy, and thus the Attorney General is the preparer of the ballot synopsis for this 11 petition. See RCW 29A.56.130(1 )(a); RCW 29A.24.070(1). 12 13 14 15 16 3. The Secretary of State transmitted the statement of charges to the Office of the Attorney General, where the statement arrived on April 6, 2015. 4. A true and correct copy of the statement of charges is attached as Exhibit A to this petition. 5. After receiving the charge, the statute directs the Attorney General to prepare a 17 synopsis that is eventually to appear on the ballot if the recall matter qualifies for the ballot. 18 RCW 29A.56.130(2). The ballot synopsis prepared by the Attorney General is attached to this 19 petition as Exhibit B, and is transmitted to Will Knedlik and Troy Kelley with service of this 20 petition. 21 6. By statute, the Attorney General "shall additionally certify and transmit the 22 charges and the ballot synopsis to the superior court of the county in which the officer subject 23 to recall resides and shall petition the superior court to approve the synopsis and to determine 24 the sufficiency of the charges." RCW 29A.56.l30(2). This petition is filed, together with its 25 attachments, pursuant to this statutory directive. 26 PETITION 2 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WASHlNGTON 1125 Washington Street SE PO Box40JOO Olympia, WA 98504-0100 (360) 753-6200 1 7. This court has jurisdiction over this action and the proper venue lies in Pierce 2 County because Troy Kelley is a resident of Pierce County. RCW 29A.56.130(2). 3 THEREFORE, state law directs the court to conduct a hearing to determine the 4 following within fifteen days after receiving this petition: 5 1. Whether the statement of charges filed by Will Knedlik and attached as Exhibit 6 A, is or is not factually and legally sufficient to support the recall of Troy Kelley as State 7 Auditor; 8 2. Whether the ballot synopsis attached to the petition as Exhibit B is adequate, 9 and to correct.that synopsis if the court finds it inadequate; and 10 3. 11 DATED this 23rd day of April 2015. 12 Such other and further relief as the court deems just and appropriate. ROBERT W. FERGUSON A eyGeneral C~Mm 13 14 LIE A. CASTIL ~ WSBA No. 38214 E. EGELER, WSBA No. 20258 Deputy Solicitors General Box 40100 Olympia, WA 98504 360-664-0869 calliec@atg.wa.gov 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 PETITION 3 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WASHINGTON 1125 Washington Street SE PO Box 40100 Olympia, WA 98504-0100 (360) 753-6200 ~ Secretary ~ Legislative Building PO Box 40220 Olympia. WA 98504 Tel 360.902.4151 Fax 360.586.5629 www.sos.wa.gov of State ~IV~ April 10, 2015 ~ .J I - -} The Honorable Bob Ferguson Office of the Attorney General P.O. Box 40100 Olympia, WA 98504-0100 RE: Request to Recall Troy Kelley Dear Attorney General Ferguson: I, Kim Wyman, Secretary of State of the State of Washington, do t:Jereby certify that the attached Request for Recall of Auditor Troy Kelly was filed in my office on April 9, 2015. Pursuant to ~CW 29A.56.120, I certify that the attached is a full, true, and correct copy of the Request for Recall. . Pursuant to RCW 29A.56.130, you are responsib.le for formulating a ballot synopsis, certifying, and transmitting the ballot synopsis to the persons filing the charge and the officer subject to recall, certifying, and transmitting the charges and ballot synopsis to the superior court of the county in which the officer subject to recall resides, and petitioning the superior court to approve the synopsis and determine the sufficiency of the charges. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have set my hand and affixed the official Seal of the State of Washington, this 1Qth day of April 2015. KIMWY~~ Secretary of State Exhibit A legislative Building PO Box 40220 Olympia. WA 98504 Tel 360.902.41SI Fax 360.586.5629 www.sos.wa.gov ®secretary of state . 71$,~ April 10, 2015 The Honorable Bob Ferguson Office of the Attorney General P.O. Box 40100 Olympia. WA 98504-0100 RE: Request to Recall Troy Kelley Dear Attorney General Ferguson: I, Kim Wyman, Secretary of State of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached Request for Recall of Auditor Troy Kelly was filed in my office on April 9, 2015. Pursuant to RCW 29A.56.120, I certify that the attached is a full, true, and correct copy of the Request for Recall. Pursuant to RCW 29A.56.130, you are responsib,le for formulating a ballot synopsis, certifying, and transmitting the ballot synopsis to the persons filing the charge and the officer subject to recall, certifying, and transmitting the charges and ballot synopsis to the superior court of the county in which the officer subject to recall resides, and petitioning the superior court to approve the synopsis and determine the sufficiency of the charges. IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have set my hand and affixed the official Seal of the State of Washington, this 10th day of April 2015. I KIMWY~~ Secretary of State EXPANDED Cbarges for Recall by Voters and for Removal under Law as to Honorable Troy X. Kelley as an Elective Public Officer for Malfeasance or Misfeasance and for Violations of His Oath of Office COMES NOW Declarant herein, Will Knedlik, a citizen ofthe State of Washington, who resides within legal boundaries of said state, who is a registered voter residing in the 48th Legislative District in the City ofKirkland and who is legally represented by Honorable Troy X. Kelley qua the nominal Auditor of said state, pursuant to the constitutional right of recall as a fundamental civil right establIshed by the Eighth Amendment to our state's Constitution, as codified at Article I, sections 33-34, hereby requesting recall and removal of said individual, as a nominal elective public officer, both for his acts of malfeasance or his acts of misfeasance, and also for his violations of his Oath of Office, all in respect to his repeated acts of misconduct hereinbelow outlined as having been and now still being undertaken by him in and by virtue ofmultiple abuses of a state position of public trust Concise Statement of Constitutional & Other ChRl'ge~ for Rempval from Public Office Malfeasance or misfeasance and related Oath ofOffice violations by the nominal Auditor of our state derive from his breaches both of the Washington State Constitution and also of various statutory provisions of state law codified as the Revised Code of Washington, as well as from his repeated and ongoing failures to perform reasonably competent audits conducted with due professional care in conformance with fundamental requirements for provision of any reliable professional audit (which, in turn, has aided and abetted ongoing frauds on more-than-three million state taxpayers, on all Justices ofthe Washington State Supreme Court and on all United States taxpayers through $1.2 billion in loan guarantees made by the Federal Transit Administration based on thus-suppressed and thereby aided­ and-abetted frauds), fi'om further failure to report to work and other lack of diligence in respect to the work of state auditofs (which have contributed to his aiding and abetting of all frauds outlined infra) and from abuses of a position of public trust (including actions to pressure one-Of-more professionals in the Office of State Auditor to hire a crony, who is also under criminal investigation on information and belief, without standard vetting for state employment as required by his Oath of Office, state law and due professional care). A More Detailed Description of Vnlid Legnl Bases for Removal from Public Office The Washington State Constitution's Article III, section 24, specifically requires that the Auditor of our state must maintain all public records, booles and papers in relation to said office, as Auditor of our state, at "the seat of government," which is located in Olympia, and therefore in Thurston County, "at which place also the governor, secretary of state, treasurer and auditor shall reside," which is not the location where the Auditor appears to maintain his actual residence, which is in Pierce County (at which Pierce County location the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation searched his true residence during March, 2015, and from which location the FBI then removed materials under the legal authority of a search warrant issued in conjunction with a stilI ongoing federal criminal grand jury inquiry). Thus, the nominal Auditor of our state took an Oath of Office in knowing violation of the constitutional residency requirement for validly undertaking and holding said office and, thus, he is either not a legitimate state officer and subject to recovery ofall funds received while ineligible to hold such position ofpubJic trust, or else is acting in willful violation of our,state constitution and subject to removal from office by the People for good cause. Additionally, Washington State statutory law, pursuant to RCW 43.09.010, also requires that the Auditor of our state must reside at "the seat ofgovernment," which is located in Olympia and therefore in Thurston County, which is not the location where the Auditor appears to maintain his true residence, which is in Pierce County, for reasons noted Slpra. Thus, the nominal Auditor of our state took an Oath of Office in knowing violation of the statutory residency requirement for validly undertaking and holding said office and, thus, is therefore further legally subject to removal from office by the People for good cause. Further, Washington State statutory law requires, pursuant to RCW 43.09.050(3), that the state Auditor shall U[i]investigate improper governmental activity under chapter 42.40 RCW," which the nominal Auditor has failed to do throughout his nominal tenn to date, on information and belief, even after the Office of State Auditor issued its Performance Audit Report No.1 000005 squarely documenting that a large junior taxing district is now, and has been at all times since 1996, operating in violation of its ballot-title guarantee to all state residents eligible to vote in its tax-authority election then that it shall "conduct an annual comprehensive performance audit through independent audit services," and even though the first of several formal "Findings" by said audit report identified, squarely, that "Sound Transit has not commissioned annual, independent, comprehensive performance audits limiting the ability to identify and address budget, schedule and scope issues." Thus, the nominal Auditor of our state is failing to comply with the explicit requirement of the mandatory Oath of Office obligating him to "faithfully discharge the duties of the office of (name of office) to the best of my ability" pursuant to RCW 43.01.020, and, hence, is further legally subject to removal from office by the People for good cause, , Still further, Washington State statutory law requires, pursuant to RCW 43,88. T60(6)(e), that the state Auditor shall "[p]romptly report any irregularities to the attorney general," which the nominal Auditor has failed to do on information and belief even after gaining 2 knowledge through multiple state, audits that a junior taxing district is now taking in over $2 million per day from state taxpayers based on a totaHy false pretense in its ballot title. Thus, the nominal Auditor of our state is failing to comply with the explicit requirement of the mandatory Oath of Office obligating him to "faithfully discharge the duties of the office of (name of office) to the best of my ability" pursuantto RCW 43.01.020, and, hence, is further legally subject to removal from office by the People for good cause. Yet further, Was!lington State statutory law requires, pursuant to RCW 43.88.160(6)(£), that the state Auditor shall "[i]investigate improper governmental activity under chapter 42.40 RCW," which the nominal Auditor has failed to do on information and belief even after thereby gaining knowledge that a junior taxing district is now taking in more-than­ $2 mi11ion per day from state taxpayers based on a totally false pretense in its ballot title. Thus, the nominal Auditor of our state is failing to comply with the explicit requirement of the mandatory Oath of Office obligating him to "faithfully discharge the duties of the office of (name of office) to the best of my ability" pursuant to RCW 43.01.020, and, hence, is further legally subject to removal from office by the People for good cause. In addition, in every financial-and-other audit conducted since a nominal assumption of office, the nominal Auditor of our state has failed to identify both balloHitle fraud on all residents of the junior taxing district (in order to get hold of more-than-$2 million per day from st,ate taxpayers through this ongoing wrongdoing), and also a further fraud to evade an $800 million ceiling on long-term debt as negotiated with King, Pierce and Snohomish counties so as to gain any ballot access to voters within those counties (in order to borrow over $1 billion as loaned to the miscreant district by investors, to attain a Federal Transit Administration loan guarantee for $1.2 billion in additional debt of that miscreant district through this continuing fraud and to defraud aU other persons and entities who and which have relied upon audits promulgated without due professional care, reasonable diligence and other essential actions minimally adequate for him to "faithfully discharge the duties of the office of (name of office) to the best of my ability" pursuant to RCW 43.01.020. Thus, the nominal Auditor of our state is failing to comply with the explicit requirement of the mandatory Oath of Office obligating him to "faithfully discharge the duties of the office of (name of office) to the best of my ability" pursuant to RCW 43.01.020, and, hence, is further legally subject to removal from office by the People for good cause. Further, because the nominal Auditor of our state has both failed to investigate this ballot~ title fraud, as required by state statutes, and also failed to report it to the attorney general, as also required by statute, his gross misfeasance or actual malfeasance as to agency legal duties to "conduct an annual comprehensive performance audit through independent audit services" has effectively aided, and abetted, the same ongoing ballot-title fraud against all nine Justices of the Washington State Supreme Court, who were squarely assured in open court claims by its General Counsel, on June 10,2003, that it is both legally obligated by, and also that it shall fully comply with, every ballot-title provision thereby guaranteed to state citizens, which is thus binding on it legally as a matter of law, as given under intense questioning from the bench in Sane Transli v. Sound Trimsit, 151 Wn.2d 60 (2004). 3 Thus. the nominal Auditor of our state is failing to comply with the explicit requirement ofthe mandatory Oath of Office obligating him to "faithfully discharge the duties ofthe office of (name of office) to the best of my ability" pursuant to RCW 43.01.020, which include very negative indirect consequences for sound governance here, as wen as direct, and, hence, is further legally subject to removal from office by the People for good cause. Finally, the nominal Auditor of our state has grossly abused his position of public trust in order to pressure members of the professional staff within the Office of State Auditor to hire a crony of his, Jason JeRue (also known as Jason Je Rue and also now under active criminal investigation, on information and belief, according to key news reporting by The Seattle Times), without vetting him by means of standard qualification processes for state employment (according to news reports quoting from emails formally obtained through public disclosure requests by the press but not as yet made public), also in violation of his Oath of Office duties, state l~w, best practices and due professional care C;n/er alia). Thus, the nominal Auditor of our state is failing to comply with explicit requirements to fulfill the mandatory Oath of Office obligating him to "faithfully discharge the duties of the office of (name of office) to the best of my ability" pursuant to RCW 43.01.020, and, hence, is further legally subject to removal from office by the People for good cause. Taken together, repeated misconduct documents either gross negligence with respect to rigorous fiducial responsibilities imposed as a matter of law on all elective officers who temporarily hold positions of public trust in our state, or else abetting, aiding, assisting and otherwise furthering wrongdoing, along with other abuses of public trust, as well as a constitutional violation implicating the Office ofState Auditor to be vacant since late 2012. Oath in Verification grEach Above-Stnted Charge for a Removal from Public Office Declarant swears on his Oath and under all penalties of perjury within state law, through his signature below, that he believes each-and-every charge to be true, as presented, and that he has knowledge of information offered hereinabove as factual bases for a recall and as legal grounds for a removal, as each is being formally requested hereby, inclusive of each-and-every fact as is hereinabove identified with respect to Mr. Kelley's acts, and in regard to his omissions, all as verified evidence of misfeasance or malfeasance in public office and of numerous related violations of his Oath of Office, including his breaches of quintessential fiduciary obligations owed py him as state elective officer, all pursuant to sections 33 and 34 of Article I of the Washington State Constitution, and aU pursuant to every applicable provision ofRCW 29A.S6 for lawful recall of elective public officers for wrongdoing, as stated hereinabove, and for removal from public office, as hereby prayed, a Dated, signed and sworn to, upon my Oath, as of and on this 9th day of April, 2015: l»u-{~ Will Knedlik, Declarant upon an Oath Post Office Box 99 Kirkland, Washington 98083 TruthInTaxation@aol.com 4 BALLOT SYNOPSIS OF RECALL CHARGE TROY KELLEY STATE AUDITOR The charge that Troy Kelley, as State Auditor, committed misfeasance, malfeasance, and/or violated his oath of office alleges: 1. That Auditor Kelley resides in Pierce County and the Washington Constitution and RCW 43.09.010 require the Auditor to reside "at the seat of government," which is located in Olympia; 2. That Auditor Kelley has not faithfully discharged his duties under state law to identify and investigate improper governmental activity and/or report irregularities to the Attorney General, by failing to: a. perform reasonably competent audits, report to work, and diligently oversee the work of state auditors; b. ensure a junior taxing district obtained annual independent performance audits, as promised in a ballot title, which aided and abetted fraudulent ballot title assurances made to the Washington State Supreme Court; c. investigate or report a junior taxing district for taking $2 million per day from state taxpayers based on a false pretense in a ballot title; and d. investigate or report a junior taxing district's evasion of a negotiated long­ term debt ceiling of $800 million to attain additional debt of $2.2 billion; and Exhibit B 3. That Auditor Kelley pressured his staff to hire Jason JeRue without vetting him through standard qualification processes for state employment. Should Troy Kelley be recalled from office based on these charges?