Just when you think things can’t get any wilder in Klickitat County, here comes the latest head-scratcher. Last week we reported that the county had been served with a notice of a tort claim that Mark Jobe, husband of County Auditor Heather Jobe intends to sue Commissioner Dan Christopher for remarks made in emails. Then at last week’s meeting of the county commission, Commissioners Jake Anderson and Lori Zoller voted that Commissioner Christopher was not acting in his official capacity and thus should not be defended by the insurance pool to which the county belongs.
Yesterday afternoon, the insurance pool formally notified the county that it disagreed with that assessment and stands ready to defend Christoper in this proposed lawsuit. Furthermore, the notification cites a portion of its agreement with the county that says if the county denies the request for defense and the pool disagrees with the county’s decision, then the county must defend the lawsuit and pay any costs that might result from it.
It appears that if the county persists in denying that Christopher was acting in his official capacity, the county would be on the hook for his defense.
In an evening email last night Christopher noted that about 30% of Klickitat County ballots have been turned in, and said “the county is on the hook for election interference from me if I loose the election and file suit against the county and commissioners Zoller and Anderson…I will be notifying the board clerk tonight of my request for the board to hold an emergency session so that they can reevaluate and potentially change their minds before even more votes are cast.”