Mabton mayor facing second recall petition containing new allegations

MABTON, Wash. — Mabton Mayor Rachel Ruelas is facing new allegations about her conduct in office in a second recall petition brought forward by resident Ruben Olivarez.

"The reason for that was because I feel like she's doing some things that are a little bit illegal," Olivarez said.

Olivarez filed a statement of charges with the Yakima County Auditor's Office Aug. 1 and once accepted, the information provided was distilled into a draft ballot synopsis by the Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

One of the claims in the new petition is that Ruelas convinced the previous city council to approve a $1,000 monthly raise during their last meeting in December, making the raise retroactive to May and allegedly resulting in an $8,000 stipend for the mayor.

Olivarez said the action violated state law because the mayor failing to approve a final budget made it, "impossible to verify if that expenditure exceeded the 2024 budget."

The new petition also highlighted how the absence of a budget led to the city clerk being unable to report expenditures and liabilities against 2024 budget appropriations, as required by law.

Additionally, Olivarez accused the mayor of restricting council members' access to their chambers for a special meeting on July 25, forcing them to meet outside the building.

The petition further claims that the mayor limited the council’s access to the city attorney, referencing a letter from the attorney dated May 10, 2022, stating, “I will not take any calls from or hold any conversations, such as through email, with individual council members.”

“She keeps everybody out of the loop, especially the council members, which I think is not right,” Olivarez said. “It’s unfair. The council members should be aware of everything that’s going on, but she keeps a lot of stuff away from them and that to me, as a resident of Mabton, it’s not right.”

On Wednesday, Yakima County Superior Court Judge Richard Bartheld ruled the first petition to recall Ruelas — spearheaded by the majority of the Mabton City Council in July — could move forward based on the two allegations he found to have factual and legal sufficiency.

The first allegation involves Ruelas' failure to adopt a 2024 budget, as required by state law. The second concerns the mayor reportedly using her position to secure special privileges by advertising her personal business on the city's website.

Both recall petitions are moving forward as separate cases. Yakima County Auditor Charles Ross said Ruelas has 16 days to file an appeal on the first recall petition.

"If there's no appeal, then they have 180 days to get the supporting signatures," Ross said. "However, it only requires 58 signatures, so that probably won't take all that long, if that's what's going on.”

Once the auditor’s office verifies the signatures and certifies the petition, Ross said an election must be held within 45 to 90 days.

“There is a prohibition, though, these type of elections cannot occur between a primary and a general election, so we're automatically talking about next year," Ross said. "So there could be an election as early as February, if not earlier.”

If both petitions advance, Ross said the auditor's office could potentially request the court consolidate the two questions into one.

"Do we want to conduct an election with two questions on it, or do we do elections for each petition?" Ross said. "Those are things I don't know yet, because it hasn't worked its way through the process.”

A hearing on the second recall petition has been set for Aug. 27 in Yakima County Superior Court.

READ MORE ABOUT THE ISSUES FACING THE CITY OF MABTON

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