The decision of which Democrat will fill late Rep. Roger Freeman’s seat in the 30th District moved to the governor’s desk today, after the Pierce County Council could not agree on an appointee.

Gov. Jay Inslee plans to make his decision after Jan. 1, but before the start of the next Legislative session on Jan. 12, said Jaime Smith, director of media relations for the governor’s office.

Inslee will select from the three candidates 30th District precinct officers chose on Dec. 1: current Federal Way Public Schools board member Carol Gregory, Richard Champion and Shari Song.

Because the 30th District straddles King and Pierce counties, the King and Pierce County Councils were tasked with choosing a Democrat from the nominees.

However, some disagreement over the interpretation of state law caused confusion over the appointment process and discord between the two Councils.

In a separate vote, the King County Council unanimously voted for Gregory on Dec. 8, saying there was an urgency to the matter and they wished to appoint someone before their holiday break.

Pierce County Council members expressed their disapproval of the King County Council’s decision to appoint Freeman’s replacement without them. The Pierce County Council members said they wanted to follow specifications regarding joint action matters in the state Constitution and a number of historical precedents in which councils meet jointly to make these appointments.

The Pierce County Council then called for a joint meeting with the King County Council on Monday, when Pierce County officials hoped their King County counterparts would jointly vote on an appointee. However, the King County Council did not show up for the meeting, saying beforehand that they already made their decision in accordance with the state Constitution.

As a formality, Dan Roach, chair of the Pierce County Council, adjourned the joint meeting on Monday, noting they did not have a quorum without the King County Council members.

However, the Pierce County Council reconvened 15 minutes later for another special meeting to fill the 30th District vacancy.

Gregory and Champion gave brief presentations to the Council during the meeting, before the Council interviewed the candidates. Song was not present but Councilwoman Joyce McDonald read Song’s statement.

The Council went into an executive session to evaluate the candidates’ qualifications and when they reconvened, voted for or against each candidate.

Before the vote, Councilman Jim McCune said he would abstain from voting because of the process.

“I believe there’s a Constitutional process of a joint meeting and that’s the tradition over the years … and the other joint members aren’t here today, so that’s going to lead me to an abstention.”

Councilman Douglas Richardson said he’s tried to be consistent in his approach to Legislative appointments.

“That consistency has been that as long as I find all of the candidates that are nominated by the Party to be suitable to serve office … I always vote in the affirmative for those candidates,” Richardson said.

The Council voted 3:2 for both Song and Champion, as McCune declined to vote and Stan Flemming, vice chair, was excused from the meeting.

Before the Council voted on whether or not to appoint Gregory, several Council members expressed their concerns with the appointment process.

“A lot has been said about the process,” said Councilman Rick Talbert. “There’s the issue with King County and how they approached this and our attempt this morning to try and convene what we believe to be the proper process, which again King County chose to do their own thing, which has left us where we are today.”

Talbert said he wanted to honor the process and vote for Gregory, the Democratic Party’s top choice. He said Gregory is “capable, prepared and ready” to take on this Legislative position.

McDonald, however, said she supported Song and said the process that King County subscribed to was unfair to the candidates.

“I feel it’s unfortunate she [Song] couldn’t be here today because of the inability of King County to respond to Pierce County when we tried to set up an early meeting way back when, when she was available and she did show up for the meeting that was previously heard,” McDonald said. “My choice was for Song and unfortunately … Pierce County was put in a very difficult situation and we were hoping for a joint meeting and didn’t get the joint meeting, so today we just have to stand on the people at this point that we believe would be our first choice.”

She told the candidates she was “sorry that you’re the ones who were placed in this difficult situation.”

Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg emphasized that the Pierce County Council reached out to the King County Council just after the general election in November.

“So I don’t want people to think we waited until this week,” she said. “This has been going on for weeks and King County has chosen to do their process the way they thought was appropriate; we just didn’t happen to agree with it. We did outreach to them to try and work together with them from day one, not just at the last moment.”

The Council voted 3:2 for Gregory. However, since none of the affirmative votes for any of the candidates generated the necessary four votes to pass, the Pierce County Council was unable to take action on the appointment.

Following the meeting, Gregory told the Mirror she was “a little bewildered because I don’t think anyone expected this or theorized what this all means.”

She said the meeting was “amiable” but the Pierce County Council ultimately didn’t make a decision.

“I’m not sure why,” Gregory said. “They’re very unhappy with the King County Council, so I don’t know if they were protesting the process. They didn’t say that, but I’m surmising that’s what happened. They were complimentary of [the candidates], but they weren’t happy with the process and I think that took precedence over making a decision.”