PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has moved two steps closer to funding staff for the Economic Development Council.
Despite strong objections from citizens, county commissioners Tuesday voted 2-1 to approve a code amendment and policy change that will enable the county to draw $500,000 from its Opportunity Fund to help the private nonprofit organization become more efficient.
“You can’t have an EDC that is starved for resources,” said Commissioner Jim McEntire, who made the proposal in a Jan. 5 work session.
“So we’re at a fork in the road here about a viable EDC.”
First-year Commissioner Bill Peach voted with McEntire to amend county code and policy to restructure the Opportunity Fund.
Commissioner Mike Chapman voted no on both amendments.
“I see no representatives of the EDC staff here today,” Chapman said in a three-hour meeting.
“I see no representatives of the EDC board here today, other than the two commissioners. In my time in office, that’s a real red flag for me.”
Chapman added: “Most people who are asking for a half-million-dollars in taxpayer money would at least come make a statement.”
The Opportunity Fund is a portion of state sales tax that rural counties can use to finance public infrastructure projects and personnel in economic development offices.
Formal approval of the $500,000 will be considered as a debatable budget emergency in a future public hearing.
Clallam County already contributes $30,000 per year to the EDC, which currently has the equivalent of 1.5 full-time employees.
It would use the influx of money to hire the equivalent of 2.5 staffers through 2017 to help existing businesses prosper and bring new jobs to the area.
Approval of the code and policy changes will lead to an agreement creating an interlocal economic development council, McEntire said in a later interview.
The new council will be made up of the county; cities of Port Angeles, Sequim and Forks; Port of Port Angeles; and the EDC.
On Feb. 10, commissioners will consider adopting the EDC’s five-year strategy as the county’s high-level economic development plan.
“In other words, you’re going to move it from county plans that require a lot of public comment and oversight to a private entity that created this plan around the table with a select group of individuals, and then use tax dollars to fund whatever they come up with,” said Norma Turner of Port Angeles, who chairs the county’s Charter Review Commission.
“It feels very closed and tight for an expenditure of tax dollars.”
Turner and others asked the board to delay its decision until there is a more disclosure about how the $500,000 will be spent.
“When I first looked at this proposal, my mind went back to Harbor-Works,” said former county Commissioner Ron Richards, referring to the defunct public development authority that tried to spark development of the former Rayonier mill site on the Port Angeles waterfront.
Several speakers, including recently retired county Commissioner Mike Doherty, complained that the EDC website lacks information about the EDC, its meetings and strategic plan.
“Basic economic development planning, and any kind of planning, involves the public,” Doherty said.
“Clearly, you’ve heard today this is not a well-documented, public process.”
About 150 people were said to have signed a petition urging the board to postpone the allocation of $500,000 to the EDC “until there has been a full disclosure of how those funds will be used and ample opportunity for public discussion of alternative proposals of those funds.”
“The commissioners are pledging taxpayer’s money without public input,” the petition reads.
“Let’s not forget that public funds to the [Clallam Business] Incubator — an EDC initiative — resulted in a default on a $700,000 loan resulting in the county paying $49,194 per year to retire the loan. . . . Who will be held accountable if a new EDC handout fails.”
Said Francisco de La Cruz: “Five-hundred-thousand dollars is a big chunk of change anywhere.”
“And it’s an especially big chunk of change in Clallam County,” he said.
“I think it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
De La Cruz and others suggested that McEntire’s service on the EDC board represents a conflict of interest.
“It just doesn’t feel right,” de La Cruz said.
“I don’t know whether legal lines are crossed, but it’s early enough to hold off and look at it a little closer.”
McEntire strongly refuted the notion of a conflict.
“I have no conflicts of interest whatsoever in regards to my assigned role as the county commissioner that sits on the EDC board, and I will have no conflicts of interest,” McEntire said.
“It is thoroughly consistent with my duties that I was elected to perform to make decisions on monies that go to private-sector organizations. We do that as a matter of routine here at this commission.”
In response to other comments, McEntire defended his strategic planning experience as a Coast Guard officer and a civilian strategist for the federal departments of Transportation, Labor and Homeland Security.
“I think I know a little bit about strategic planning,” he said.
“I stand behind no one in what I believe is my professional experience in the world of strategic planning, measuring performance and reporting on the same in terms of outcomes.”
Chapman, a 15th-year county commissioner, said the $500,000 payment to the EDC for staffing would be an unusual use of the Opportunity Fund.
The fund is now being used to finance a sewer project in Carlsborg and will soon be needed to replace the aging Clallam Bay-Sekiu sewer, Chapman said.
“We never looked at adding staff,” he said.
“I’m not here to denigrate, but I think the track record of the county Opportunity Fund is vastly superior to the track record of the EDC.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
