3 recalled Richland officials could pay thousands for their attorney legal fees

The three Richland School Board members removed from office weren’t only engaged in a fight to save their seats — they also wanted taxpayers to pay their legal expenses.

Now, the trio must find a way to cover their legal bills from the unsuccessful fight to stop a recall effort.

On Aug. 1, primary election voters approved ousting Kari Williams, Semi Bird and Audra Byrd over a “mask optional” vote they took last year.

Washington state law allows school elected officials to seek legal indemnification, or to be reimbursed, as long as they were acting “in good faith” and within the scope of their duties.

Before the measures even made it on the ballot, the three school board members spent time and money trying to get the charges thrown out, first in Benton County Superior Court and later in an appeal to the Washington Supreme Court.

The group retained attorney Jerry Moberg and his firm Moberg Rathbone Kearns based in Ephrata, Wash., to work the case. Moberg could not be reached about the issue.

In August 2022, shortly before the group made its appeal to the Supreme Court, Moberg billed the Richland School District $30,800 to recuperate costs to defend them in Superior Court.

But if the 5-member school board had voted to pay their legal fees and the recall as successful, the school district would have been forced to get them to repay the money.

So, the board decided it would only cover their legal fees if the judge determined there was “insufficient grounds for recall.” In the end, two judges ended up finding that the charges were sufficient enough for voters to decide.

The school district never paid the bill and, last week, district officials told the Tri-City Herald they’ve received no other bills from Moberg.

In last year’s bill, Moberg said he would “file an appropriate action to collect the fees” if the district objected to the payment.

He argued at the time that the district had an obligation to pay the bill regardless of the recall outcome because the three were “acting within their powers to consider and vote on the resolution.”

But school officials say no other documents have been submitted on the issue.

It’s unclear how much the three former board members may end up paying to defend against the recall. Williams told the Herald recently that the total for her legal fees had not yet been finalized.

The We Want Accountability PAC, the local political group that organized the campaign against the recall, previously raised nearly $4,700 in a GiveSendGo campaign for the “legal defense of Audra Byrd, Semi Bird and Kari Williams.”