PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis has objected to the county’s draft budget on procedural and substantive grounds.
Barkhuis issued a formal public comment on the proposed $36.8 million budget in a Tuesday email to County Administrator Jim Jones and other officials.
Commissioners held two public hearings on the draft 2016 budget Tuesday.
A final budget will be approved by Dec. 8.
“I object to the proposed 2016 budget on both procedural (lack of transparency, lack of notice) and substantive grounds, and I reserve the right to specify the procedural and substantive defects until such time as I have had a reasonable opportunity (access and time wise) to review the 2016 budget processes and documents,” Barkhuis wrote.
Barkhuis complained in a Nov. 23 email to county officials that revenue projections in the draft budget were too high.
She raised specific concerns about Jones raising the investment interest projection from $300,000 to $500,000 and “last minute” spending increases in the prosecuting attorney’s office budget to pay for more staff.
Barkhuis also asked commissioners to terminate Jones’ employment contract.
On Friday, Barkhuis sent an email to Jones and Budget Director Debi Cook noting that revenue forecast for her office had changed yet again.
“I hereby also want to note my objection to the total lack of transparency associated with this year’s budget process,” she wrote.
Jones replied in a Monday email that he reduced the investment interest projection from $500,000 to $300,000 at Barkhuis’ request and would have done so earlier had Barkhuis participated in and expressed her preference in scheduled budget meetings.
On the topic of transparency, Jones said there were more budget meetings this year than ever before.
“We had 28, publicly noticed budget meetings, open to the public and 20 more individual department head meetings together with at least a dozen more BOCC (board of county commissioners) meetings that had budget issues listed as agenda items,” Jones wrote.
“In addition, there were many more times that budget direction was given from the BOCC during ‘good of the order’ comments.”
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
