PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners threw down the gauntlet Tuesday by approving two resolutions and two memos of understanding that authorize $1.3 million in disputed Opportunity Fund grants to the city of Port Angeles and Port of Port Angeles.
In their 2-1 decision, commissioners did not follow Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis’ recommendation that they delay the grants until the 2016 budget, laying the groundwork for a possible court battle Barkhuis has threatened to wage and which a majority of the commissioners have not backed away from.
Commissioner Mike Chapman, who said he favored the projects but was against the budget process employed by the board, was the lone no vote on the two resolutions and agreements, with Commissioner Bill Peach and board Chairman Jim McEntire voting for approval.
Although commissioners approved the action, they have not yet issued the warrants for the grants.
Instead, they agreed to send a letter to special Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Alvarez of Jefferson County, who is representing Barkhuis, that poses a question:
If the commissioners authorize the warrants, the auditor processes them and presents them to commissioners for their approval, and the board approves and issues the warrants, will Barkhuis honor those warrants and release the funds?
Board splits
Chapman said he would not approve the letter, while McEntire described it as a necessity.
“We need to have an answer to that so we can understand how to proceed forward,” McEntire said.
Barkhuis, who refused to process the warrants May 11, indicated Tuesday in an interview that she will reject the warrants unless the commissioners change their process.
She has said county officials should not have shifted $1.3 million in Opportunity Fund money from its intended purpose — the Carlsborg sewer project — to cover the grants without public hearings as debatable budget emergencies and without binding contracts signed off on by Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols, assertions that Nichols and the state Auditor’s Office have disputed.
Commissioners held hearings and produced memos of understanding that would apply to the grants.
That is not sufficient, said Barkhuis, who did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.
“I need to see the appropriate budget resolution that adopts the budget emergency that includes the appropriately completed and signed budget change form, and that has not happened,” she said.
“If I don’t see it, then we are back were we were, doing what we were doing before.
“This is a perfect example of that definition of insanity: doing the same thing but expecting different results.
“They know what they need to do.”
McEntire said the commissioners had done as much as they could.
Conciliatory stance
“This board has adopted, quite appropriately in my point of view, a very conciliatory stance toward one independently elected county official,” McEntire said.’
“Conciliation does not necessarily involve capitulation.”
The letter, which will be written by Nichols, will be fashioned as a response to an offer by Barkhuis to release the funds if commissioners include the infrastructure grants of $1 million to the port and $285,952 to the city in the 2016 budget instead of authorizing them now.
Commissioners have yet to respond directly to her offer of “settlement,” which Alvarez said in an earlier interview would prevent litigation if the commissioners accept the proposal.
“We have not officially rejected the proposal,” McEntire said. “That remains for the future.”
Chapman said he supported the port grant to complete construction of the planned Composite Recycling Technology Center and the city grant to complete Phase 2 of an ongoing waterfront improvement project.
Officials from the port and the city told commissioners at the board Monday work session that a delay until January would make difficult the completion of both projects in a timely manner.
Slowing progress
Meanwhile, Port Commissioner John Calhoun blamed the county’s conflicts not only for delaying a startup of the Composite Recycling Technology Center but for slowing progress toward the port’s second economic initiative: prefabrication of mass timber components from trees harvested on the North Olympic Peninsula.
“I am very disappointed in the lack of progress on this issue,” Calhoun said Tuesday during a port meeting that took place at the same time as the county commissioners’ meeting.
Groundbreaking ceremonies for the recycling center have been delayed from July to sometime in September, according to Port Executive Director Ken O’Hollaren.
County Administrator Jim Jones said Tuesday that the port and city could be reimbursed for 2015 expenditures with grant funds awarded in 2016.
It would require changing the memos of understanding that were approved Tuesday.
“I hope the county treasurer will permit this [waterfront improvement] project to proceed in a prompt and effectual manner,” said Port Angeles Deputy Mayor Patrick Downie, who attended the commissioners’ meeting, later Tuesday.
But longtime community activist Norma Turner, who chairs the county Charter Review Commission, said she was “confused” by the letter Nichols will write.
“If the treasurer says no, then what?” Turner said to commissioners at the end of the meeting.
“If the alternative is to go to court, I’m a little bit befuddled about this whole process.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter James Casey contributed to this report.
