EDITOR’S NOTE — See related Aug. 4 story, “An important non-election? Both Clallam prosecutor candidates see value in Tuesday’s nonbonding vote” — https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20140804/NEWS/308049962
PORT ANGELES — Mark Nichols says the changes William Payne has made in the Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office came straight out of his own playbook.
That’s not true, said Payne, who was appointed to the post in January and is running against Nichols for a four-year term as the county’s chief lawyer.
“My position is that he took those ideas from me,” Payne said in an interview.
Although Payne and Nichols are on Tuesday’s primary election ballot, the race won’t be decided until the Nov. 4 general election.
Nichols said Payne obtained a copy of his application prior to the Jan. 13 interviews with the Board of County Commissioners prior to the appointment and that he used some of his ideas to get hired.
“To be clear, it’s my position that Mr. Payne has literally implemented the ideas that I presented to the board as seasoned, reasoned solutions to real-world challenges that were confronting the prosecutor’s office under Ms. [Deborah] Kelly’s administration,” Nichols told the Peninsula Daily News.
Nichols served as Kelly’s chief deputy from 2006 until her retirement at the end of 2013.
Payne was then appointed by two of the three county commissioners to serve the final year on Kelly’s term.
Nichols, Kelly’s choice for interim prosecutor, resigned from the office Jan. 27 — the same day Payne was sworn into office — and was the commissioners’ choice for county hearings examiner.
Restructuring office
In his application packet, Nichols proposed to dissolve the chief deputy position and use a portion of those funds to hire an extra felony deputy, which would “allow for many if not all of the felony cases that are currently being declined based on existing charging guidelines to once again be prosecuted as felonies.”
Payne restructured the office in the same way Nichols had proposed and began charging felony drug possession and certain property crimes that were previously not prosecuted.
“I’m honored that he’s endorsed my ideas and implementing them during his time as appointed prosecutor,” Nichols said.
“I think they were overdue, benefit the community and will help the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to function more efficiently,” he added.
“I would implement them further in a way that would make them more compelling with respect to results being realized in a way that the community will see.”
Payne: his ideas
Payne does not dispute that he obtained copies of the questionnaires, which are public records, but said the changes he has brought were his own ideas.
The ideas, Payne said, stemmed from conversations he has had with law enforcement and city officials, attorneys, judges, county commissioners, crime victims and other citizens.
“Yeah, they were on [Nichols’ application], and they were written down, but I’ve been talking about that publicly to everybody for years,” Payne said.
Clallam County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Hollis confirmed that he spoke with Payne about the need to charge felony drug possession prior to Payne’s appointment.
“I talked with Will about it,” Hollis said.
Payne said he reviewed the applications of Nichols and co-finalist Robert Strohmeyer to learn about his opposition.
Commissioners held separate half-hour interviews with Nichols, Payne and Strohmeyer, the three candidates that the Clallam County Republican Party recommended as Kelly’s successor, before appointing the former Marine in a contentious board meeting.
Questionnaire, interview
When asked why he didn’t put down his ideas for restructuring the office and changing the charging standards on the questionnaire, Payne said he “didn’t see a good place for that to go.”
He added that he preferred the flexibility of an open interview to make his pitch.
Commissioner Jim McEntire during the interview asked Payne to weigh in on the budget and staffing level in the prosecutor’s office.
“That office has been kind of management-heavy, if you will, for the last few years,” Payne told commissioners.
“I don’t think you need a chief deputy. So that person, depending on what they’re doing, their money, part of their salary, part of their money or however that works, could be used to hire another prosecutor.”
Nichols said it was an “interesting factoid” that Payne’s verbal responses were “mirrored in the application materials to the extent they stray into responses that appear in either mine or Bob Strohmeyer’s materials but don’t in his written applications.”
“It’s something that people may not be aware of,” Nichols said.
“I’d just thought I’d highlight it.”
Payne said he figured Nichols and Strohmeyer would review his application.
“If [Nichols] did, that’s fine,” Payne said.
“I don’t care.”
Chief criminal deputy
Nichols effectively promoted felony deputy John Troberg to chief criminal deputy during his four-week stint as acting prosecuting attorney between Kelly’s departure and Payne’s arrival.
Nichols did not process the hiring paperwork, however, to “avoid tying the hands or presenting a fait accompli to whoever was ultimately appointed.”
After taking office, Payne wasted no time making Troberg’s promotion official.
He added a full-time felony deputy a short time later and began to prosecute felony drug possession and property crimes that were previously declined or referred to the cities.
Payne noted that Nichols had every right to make his own hires and change the charging standards as acting prosecutor.
“If these were really his ideas, then why didn’t he do it?” Payne asked.
“I’ve been talking about these ideas for years.”
Nichols said there was nothing illegal or unethical about Payne’s review of the job applications.
The uniform prosecutorial evaluation questionnaire is a public document, Nichols noted, an “open book for the world to see.”
“If you’re asking me whether I believe that it violated the spirit and intent of the hiring process, I believe that it did,” Nichols said.
Embezzlement cases
If elected, Nichols said he would retain the office structure that he proposed, apply for more grants and “take a much more critical look” at embezzlement cases.
“I’ve got some others,” Nichols said. “But for obvious reasons, I’m not going to delve into those now.”
In a Monday email, Payne said his “actions speak louder than words.”
“My opponent chose on his own accord to quit his job in the prosecutor’s office when I was appointed by the commissioners,” Payne said.
“I have remained true to my word and implemented the changes I told citizens, law enforcement and city officials I would implement when in office.”
Nichols said he put a lot of time and effort into his written application and “spelled out very specific solutions.”
“And the reality is that they do not appear in Mr. Payne’s materials,” Nichols said.
“I am glad that he has implemented these things because my interest is in helping this community,” he added.
“Serving as prosecutor is the best way for me to make a positive, critical contribution to this community, which is my home,” Nichols said. “These ideas were intended to do that.
“They have been implemented — not by me, by somebody else. But it is to the benefit of the community at large.
“It’s to the benefit of the relationship between the county and the cities, and it’s to the benefit of the people who work within that office.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
