PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners will proceed to issue $1.3 million in disputed warrants from their Opportunity Fund, despite the elected county treasurer’s refusal to approve them.
Furthermore, they voted Tuesday to waive their attorney-client privilege and to release today a legal memorandum from county Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols backing their action.
The vote Tuesday to delay the release by 24 hours gives Nichols a chance to brief other parties to the dispute — including Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis — although they already have received copies of his 16-page opinion.
Barkhuis was not available to return requests for comment Tuesday from Peninsula Daily News.
Nichols said Tuesday that Barkhuis also had not responded to his emailed and in-person requests to meet with her about the memo.
Last week, she refused to attend a discussion among county officials about the warrants that grant $1 million to the Port of Port Angeles’ Composite Recycling Technology Center and $285,952 for the city of Port Angeles’ improvements to its new waterfront park.
Barkhuis has maintained the grants were improper because they were approved without written contracts or public hearings — although the port’s request was subject to a lengthy public meeting at which the Opportunity Fund Advisory Board examined the project April 22 and recommended the grant.
As for the memo, its release will represent an unusual breach of attorney-client privilege between Nichols and the commissioners.
They can do so without the consent of Barkhuis or other parties, Nichols said.
Commissioner Mike Chapman moved to make the memo public, saying it was one of the best legal opinions he’d read and calling it “a blueprint for the future for how we do business.
“It will help the public accept the funding of these grants without having any doubt that this is all above board.”
Commissioner Bill Peach said the memo contained information “to maintain the morale” of county employees.
And Commissioner Jim McEntire, while admitting he was reluctant to waive confidentiality, said he would support releasing the memo.
“The public, having witnessed some level of controversy and uncertainty, is due a thorough explanation of what we do and how and when,” he said.
The memo also was sent to county Auditor Shoona Riggs and county Administrator Jim Jones, whom Barkhuis has targeted with a string of allegations that he has exceeded his fiscal authority.
Jones said Tuesday he, too, was reluctant to waive confidentiality but agreed with commissioners’ unanimous decision to do so.
“There’s been way too much discussion on this issue and way too many accusations . . . including criminality,” he said.
“[The memo] would go a long way toward the citizens of this county taking comfort that the county is working as it is supposed to.
“Things are not only legal and above board; what the commissioners did was follow the letter and spirit of the law.”
The port’s Opportunity Fund grant will help build out a structure at 2220 W. 18th St. at William R. Fairchild International Airport for its proposed Composite Recycling Technology Center.
Besides the $1 million from the county Opportunity Fund, that project has attracted $1.7 million in state and federal funds and stands to receive more from state sources.
Proponents of the recycling technology center say it would provide 111 family-wage jobs by its fifth year of operation. Construction could start as early as this summer.
The city’s $285,952 allocation will help it finish phase two of its waterfront improvement project between Oak Street and the Valley Creek Estuary.
The waterfront improvements will include an extension of the Olympic Discovery Trail, landscaping and electricity-generating wind spires.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
