Mayor Cy Sun received a temporary reprieve from his legal woes last week with the postponement until next week of an appearance scheduled before a judge in Pierce County.
Sun had been slated to appear in Pierce County Superior Court on Tuesday to prove that he was complying with a Temporary Writ of Mandate that ordered him to begin the hiring processes for vacant positions in City Hall and the Pacific Police Department.
In a petition filed in Pierce County Superior Court by his lawyer Tyler Firkins, however, Sun asked the court to postpone the hearing until after Sept. 17 to allow him to attend a reunion of the 23rd Regimental Combat Team, the unit Sun served in during the Korean War.
“We are all in our 80s, and this reunion may be our last, therefore, [I] request the court to allow time for my reunion,” Sun requested.
In addition, the petition claimed that Sun had not received a summons to appear before the court and that he found out about the hearing online through local media. Sun also asked that any future summons not be served by members of the Pacific Police Department because “they are hostile to me and I cannot trust them.”
Sun requested that, because he is a King County resident, the hearing should be “transferred to the proper jurisdiction, King County Superior Court.”
The court postponed the hearing until 9 a.m., Sept. 25 at the Pierce County City and County Building in Tacoma.
In addition to his scheduled appearance in Pierce County, Sun will also likely have to appear before a King County Superior Court judge for a hearing regarding recall efforts mounted by Pacific residents.
The Committee to Recall Cy Sun turned in a 200-page account of Sun’s alleged misdeeds as mayor to the King County Prosecutor’s office on Aug. 23.
According to the committee’s attorney, Jeffery Helsdon, they hoped to meet with King County Prosecutors and Sun this week, but because Sun was out of town the parties hope to meet on Wednesday next week.
If the judge rules that there is sufficient cause to put the recall on the ballot, Sun can appeal the decision to the Washington State Supreme Court.
If no appeal is filed — Sun has stated previously that he welcomes the recall — then the Committee must wait 16 days before beginning to collect the more than 405 signatures needed to qualify the recall for the ballot.
Sun declined to comment for this story.
ALSO: Pacific residents were informed this month via their utility billing statement of Sun’s new blog at www.mayorsun.blogspot.com. The address for the blog – which features Sun’s personal thoughts on the recall, corruption at City Hall and the Writ of Mandate filed against him – was added to a message box on each utility bill mailed by the city.
“With the Writ of Mandate, the COUNCIL becomes a DICTATOR, just as Hitler did in Germany,” the Mayor wrote. “They tell me what, when and how to do, and I am required to do it, or else!”
Although only one post was up on the blog at press time, a teaser promises that Sun will dig into allegations against him “for FUN!!!” in the next installment.
