Snohomish County Council won’t wait for executive’s resignation letter

The Snohomish County Council is moving on, tired of waiting for a formal, written resignation from the county executive.

The council voted unanimously Monday to consider Reardon’s speech in February, in which he declared he would step down, as his formal resignation.

“We were advised that the statutes don’t really say ‘written’ resignation, they say ‘tender’ resignation and he did that verbally and we finally decided it was time to move the process along,” said county council vice-chairman Dave Somers.

Enveloped in scandal, Executive Aaron Reardon announced in February he would step down May 31. The council sent a letter to Reardon earlier in May asking him to submit a formal resignation. But, Somers added, “there was no communication with the council.”

The council waited for an answer and finally took action. “We want to have an orderly transition to the new executive and so we have given Aaron every opportunity to do this in an orderly manner and submit a written resignation,” Somers said after the vote. “We’ve asked the [county] Democratic party to meet, as soon as possible and forward three names to us for our consideration,” explained Somers.

The council will interview the candidates June 3 and select a replacement for Reardon to serve until the general election in November, 2014.