PORT ANGELES — Clallam County will ask port and city officials if they would be willing to wait six months to collect commissioner-approved grant money for infrastructure projects.
The three commissioners Monday directed County Administrator Jim Jones to find out if the port and city of Port Angeles would agree to waive the accruing interest and accept a combined $1.3 million in grants as part of the county’s 2016 budget rather than under the warrants that county Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis has rejected.
The board in May approved a $1 million grant from the sales tax-supported Opportunity Fund to the Port of Port Angeles to support its Composite Recycling Technology Center and a $285,952 payment to the city of Port Angeles for a waterfront project on Railroad Avenue.
Barkhuis has said commissioners violated county policy and state law because there was no public hearing and no written contracts with the port or the city.
Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols issued a legal memorandum June 17 concluding that Barkhuis had a “mandatory duty” to release the money.
Nevertheless, Barkhuis has said she would not honor the warrants — or checks — unless ordered to do so by the state Attorney General or Clallam County Superior Court.
“There’s another way,” Commissioner Mike Chapman said in Monday’s board work session.
“We can take the high road. . . . If the city and the port could wait, we could go through the budget process.”
Funding the grants through the 2016 county budget would provide a clean process with a public hearing and line items for the specific projects, Chapman said.
It would also take the onus off the city and the port to challenge the unpaid warrants in court.
“I just wonder if the city and the port would rather do that than have to be embroiled in this,” Chapman said.
“They don’t want to fight it. . . . I think they’re wanting the county to kind of figure out how to do it right.
“There’s no way — if we budget it, and it’s spelled out — there’s no way that it can be rejected,” Chapman added.
“The process would be as clean as we’ve ever done it.”
Commissioners Jim McEntire and Bill Peach agreed to poll city and port officials about delaying the payments and waiving the interest, which is estimated to be about $430 per day.
“I think the most urgent matter is getting this interest meter to stop rolling over,” McEntire said.
McEntire directed Jones to “settle the process” by which the annual county budget is amended.
He asked his colleagues to help him draft a news release or other writing to articulate the board’s collective view on the “extremely unpleasant” public dispute about the unpaid warrants.
Chapman’s said his “head hurts” from the controversy.
“This is just killing us,” Chapman said. “Front page of the newspaper, elected officials arguing, fighting, warrants being issued. Our credit’s shot to hell at this point to a certain degree.
“Sometimes, as adults, we just have to start over,” Chapman added.
“I wonder if the city and the port would say, ‘Fine, we’ll wait. It will be clean. We’ll get our money in January. We don’t want to fight it in court.’
“Otherwise, I think they have to fight it. They’re the victim. So I’m offering them the chance not to be the victim.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
