Justice contracts close to finished

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 30, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Although a six-month extension to negotiate new criminal justice contracts will not be met, Clallam County staff will continue to work with the cities of Port Angeles and Sequim on the new contracts.

Clallam County contracts with the two cities for criminal justice services such as prosecution, public defense, district court and jail. The existing 10-year contract expired Dec. 31 and the entities had been working through a six-month extension to come to agreement on new terms for the contracts.

That extension ends today, but the work will continue.

During a joint meeting between the two entities June 23, the Port Angeles City Council approved two options to move forward, county Administrator Todd Mielke told the commissioners Monday during their work session meeting.

“The preferred option approved by the city council is to amend the interim agreement, and that amendment would essentially move the June 30 termination date to Dec. 1 with all other conditions being held similar,” Mielke said. “I believe there was language inserted in that the parties will attempt to resolve all matters by Sept. 30. It does retain the language in there that says if we get to the end of the agreement and there’s either non-agreement or there is a desire to not proceed with any or all of the services, then there would be an additional 120 days at the end.”

Since that would amend the contract, the county commissioners would have to take action to approve the amendment.

“The second provision that was approved by the council as kind of their option two is taking language out of the interim agreement which states that the city, if they provide in writing notice, they can continue services with the county providing services in those four bucket areas for a period of 120 days,” Mielke said. “Because that language is in the interim agreement, that does not require any action on behalf of the board to proceed with that.”

Each of the three commissioners expressed concerns with the city’s preferred option of extending the deadline to Dec. 1.

“I prefer the no action today course,” Commissioner Mark Ozias said. “I think that that is in line with our original intent. That’s the language that exists in the extension that got us till June 30, and I believe that that will continue us on the path toward achieving a resolution as quickly a possible, and I think that that’s a wholly appropriate option.”

The extension of another 120 days is a lot of time to get the contracts done, Commissioner Mike French said.

“We should really push both sides together to have that meeting of the minds in the next, I would say 60 to 90 days, to see if we can at least get close,” French said. “… I don’t think we should keep pushing that deadline off. I think we need to just roll up our sleeves and do the work, get in the room and come to an agreement, and I think both sides are negotiating in good faith, and we can do that.”

The contracts are very close to completion, Port Angeles Deputy City Manager Calvin Goings said.

“On the pure dollars and cents, we’re about 99 percent there on public defense and prosecuting attorney,” Goings said. “On dollars and cents for District Court 1, we’re about 95 percent. We have a little more work to do on the jail and on the boilerplate issues, there’s about four or five outstanding issues per contract. So we really are close.”

He agreed that it’s time to wrap these contracts up for the sake of everyone’s sanity and so the city financial team can start planning the 2027 budget.

The commissioners did not decide to add taking action on the city’s first option of amending the contract so the commissioners chose option two of just extending for another 120 days.

Meeting canceled

In other business, the commissioners were scheduled to hear a presentation from Nathan Naidu, director of Intergovernmental and External Affairs with the Department of the Interior, but Naidu canceled the appearance in a communication received Sunday, Ozias said.

“On May 22, all three commissioners received an email from Naidu … and he said, ‘Hey, team, I’m reaching out from the Department of the Interior to offer a virtual meeting to go over any issues you may be having and to touch base going into President Trump’s second year, please let me know availability,’” Ozias said.

The group worked on scheduling that meeting, and the agenda for Monday’s work session said it would be “to discuss relevant topics of interest including a review of the department’s process for making determinations about tribal trust applications and a discussion of the administration’s priorities relating to capital investments in federal assets like Olympic National Park.”

“Yesterday, the clerk received a communication from Nathan that says, ‘My intention is just to meet with commissioners as an introductory meeting, not to discuss department policy on the record or as minutes of an official meeting. I see in the Peninsula Daily News I’ve been advertised as a speaker of official business and I will not be able to participate in that capacity,’” Ozias said. “It certainly appeared from his outreach that this would be an opportunity to talk about some of the topics we had hoped to discuss. I’ll note at least my own personal disappointment that Mr. Naidu is not able to come and speak on the record. This is not very transparent.”

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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.