PORT TOWNSEND — A lack of timely response from Jefferson County is holding up interlocal agreements, City Manager David Timmons told the Port Townsend City Council as he asked for its help.
“I hate to say it, but this is a chronic issue,” Timmons said during a council retreat Saturday.
“I was told to just pick up the phone, and I tried that, and it didn’t work.”
The city of Port Townsend didn’t pay Jefferson County for last year’s jail and court services until late December because the county had not signed the interlocal agreement.
Without an agreement, the city legally can’t pay.
It may be hard for the county to go that long without the money, but it also makes it hard for city officials to manage the budget, Timmons said.
After six weeks of proposals and prompts and no response, Timmons called on the City Council.
“There are currently no agreements in place for jail, District Court, substance abuse or animal control services,” Timmons wrote the City Council on Friday.
“In addition to the inter-local agreements, we have outstanding issues and questions relating to the Public Infrastructure Fund obligations to the City’s Water Street project and the Upper Sims/Howard Street allocation which have been awaiting a response since December 2009.”
Council members agreed it was time they reached out with an official, forceful letter directly to county commissioners and directed Timmons to prepare one.
“We have more weight,” said council member Laurie Medlicott.
County apologizes
Contacted later, County Administrator Philip Morley said the county apologizes for not being as speedy as the city would like.
He said he met with his finance director last week about the interlocals and hopes to begin scheduling a series of meetings next week.
Sheriff Tony Hernandez and County Treasurer Judi Morris, in charge of the county’s budget, also were asked to prod other county officials.
“This is about a million dollars in transactions, and we can’t keep doing it this way,” Timmons said.
Interlocal agreements were the most urgent of the priorities for 2011 discussed during the retreat.
It was not an official meeting of the City Council, and no votes were taken.
Fort Worden
Fort Worden State Park’s future was probably the second-most urgent matter the council discussed.
All but 10 of the state’s 147 parks are in jeopardy of being mothballed, including Fort Worden, because the general fund subsidy for parks that are not self-supporting is being eliminated.
At present, Fort Worden gets about $1 million a year in state subsidy.
Timmons and Mayor Michelle Sandoval spent two days last week in Olympia talking to legislators, parks officials and Gov. Chris Gregoire’s staff, hoping to win funding for improvements that would allow Goddard College to locate a program at Fort Worden.
They said they were encouraged that the plan to put the Port Townsend Public Development District in charge of the fort’s transition to a profit-making business/campus use was well-regarded.
Losing Fort Worden, which has 200 people employed by private operations there as well as parks employees, would be “like the paper mill shutting down,” Timmons said.
Community service
Council members also discussed community service funding.
Council members agreed to create a formal process for application, review and accountability for private nonprofit organizations that request direct funding or in-kind city support, including request-for-proposals when needed.
Sandoval said the YMCA is the “elephant in the room” that’s driving the move, since another, newly formed community group is preparing a proposal to compete with the Y for city support.
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Julie McCormick is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. Phone her at 360-385-4645 or e-mail juliemccormick10@gmail.com.