A King County Superior Court judge dismissed petitions by three residents to recall Kent School Board members Meghin Margel and Tim Clark.

Judge Michael Scott issued his decision after about a 45-minute hearing Friday, April 11 at the King County Courthouse in Seattle.

“The court is compelled to dismiss the two petitions for recall for lack of factual and legal sufficiency,” Scott said after going through each of the alleged seven charges.

A sufficiency hearing was held to decide whether Margel and Clark committed acts of malfeasance or misfeasance under the law as claimed in the recall petition filed with King County Elections by Kent School District residents Greta Nelson, Lori Waight and Michele Bettinger.

“Tough day for Kent families,” according to a KSD Board Recall April 11 post on Facebook. “Judge Michael Scott dismissed the recall petitions. …ruling our evidence insufficient.”

If the judge had approved the petitions, the recall group would have started to collect signatures from voters to get a recall measure on a ballot to voters.

The recall petition claimed Margel, currently the board president, and Clark should be recalled based on the following allegations:

• Abused authority in voting, along with the board majority, to create a committee that violated board policy.

• Violated the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) and Constitutional rights, denied due process and abused executive session powers by holding closed committee meetings along with a majority of the board.

• Violated board policy and RCW 28A.320.015 by voting together with a board majority to adopt a resolution.

• In acting to suspend a board policy, violated First Amendment rights and failed to comply with board, OPMA and notice requirements.

• Violated board policy, RCW 39.26.140, and RCW 28A.400.315, and failed in her/his fiduciary duty to act in voting to hire consultant services, along with a board majority.

• Breached her/his fiduciary duty in voting, with a board majority, to approve a contract that posed a conflict of interest for the board.

The petition added one more item to Margel’s recall that alleges as board president she violated RCW 42.17A.555 for failing to stop public comments in support of a ballot measure at a board meeting.

Scott read the documents filed by the petitioners and responses from the school district attorneys. He listened to presentations from each side at the hearing.

After the presentations, Scott went through each charge and concluded he didn’t see any violations of laws or policies by Margel or Clark.

Despite the setback, the recall group plans to fight on.

“We know Margel’s and Clark’s individual actions have hurt our district (and Director Donald Cook),” according to the group’s April 11 Facebook post. “Petitioners are fine-tuning the arguments—we’ll either appeal the order to the (state) Supreme Court, or refile a new petition against Margel that includes the new facts. Since it is an election year for Tim Clark, a recall petition would not be allowed to move forward against him if refiled given the timing before the next general election for his board position.”

The petitioners wanted to add another charge against Margel for reportedly committing an unfair labor practice by pressuring Cook to have his wife resign from her teachers union role, according to court documents. The judge denied to include that charge because it was not in the initial petition but filed as a supplemental briefing on April 7.

“I will not consider any new facts or new charges in the petitioners brief,” Scott said.

The Kent Reporter reached out Friday afternoon, April 11 by email for comment from Margel and Clark about the judge’s ruling but has not yet received a response.

In a March article in the Kent Reporter about the upcoming hearing before Judge Scott, Clark said, “I believe this will put an end to the matter. Meghin and I have always done due diligence on all contentious issues. It is time to put this to rest.”

Attorney Karen Griffith, of Patterson, Buchanan, Fobes & Leitch, a firm with offices in Seattle and Portland, represented Margel and Clark at the court hearing. The board voted 3-2 March 12 for the district to pay for a law firm to represent the two board members.

The firm specializes in representing elected officials subject to recalls, according to its website, led by attorney Duncan Fobes.

The website mentions how the firm secured dismissal of petitions to recall five members of the Northshore School Board in 2021 during a sufficiency hearing and successfully obtained an unconditional surrender in 2021 by a Kent School District petitioner, who had filed petitions to recall two district school board directors in advance of the scheduled sufficiency hearing.