PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has identified a few steps it could take to extract itself from the rock and hard place it finds itself between regarding what attorney Duncan Fobes called the “coroner-prosecutor dilemma.”
The dilemma involves a potential conflict between an amendment to state law, which will take effect Jan. 1, and a long-standing provision of Clallam County’s charter.
The charter currently dictates that the county prosecuting attorney will automatically serve as coroner, without extra compensation.
“Many small and medium counties use this system because of a lack of a formal medical examiner,” Fobes said.
State law has a similar provision, stating that county prosecutors will automatically serve as coroners in counties with fewer than 40,000 people.
However, the state law was amended in 2021 to remove that requirement, effective Jan. 1, 2025.
This past August, the state attorney general’s office released an opinion interpreting the change to mean that the county prosecuting attorney will no longer be allowed to serve as both prosecutor and coroner.
While an attorney general’s opinion of a law is not law in itself, Fobes said it often is cited as authority by lawyers, courts, bar associations and more.
“An attorney general’s position is persuasive,” he said.
Based on the attorney general’s opinion, county prosecuting attorney/coroner Mark Nichols submitted his resignation as coroner, effective Dec. 31.
However, the county’s charter “is very explicit in saying that the prosecutor will serve as the county coroner,” County Administrator Todd Mielke said during an October county commissioners’ session.
“We do need to reconcile what is believed to be the most current interpretation, through the AG’s [attorney general’s] office, of state law with regard to the county charter,” he said.
The long-term solution that will have to occur is for the county to amend its charter, Fobes said.
However, charter revisions take time — something the county hasn’t had a lot of since the attorney general’s opinion was released in August.
Next year, Mielke said the charter review commission likely will take up this issue and put a charter amendment on a ballot. But with the change in state law scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, a decision needs to be made for the interim period.
“We need a solution,” Fobes said.
Fobes, who was contracted to advise the county from Patterson Buchanan Fobes & Leitch law firm, has identified three potential interim options.
First, he said that, starting Jan. 1, one of the county’s two district court judges could serve as coroner, as allowed by state law.
As of Monday, neither of the judges had agreed to take the position, Fobes said.
The second option would involve the county appointing a coroner while it waits for the charter to be amended.
The third — and least preferred, Fobes said — involves a legal battle. In that situation, the county would file litigation asking the court to issue an order that allows the prosecutor to continue serving as coroner.
“Filing litigation is always costly and uncertain and takes time,” Fobes said.
Whatever path the county chooses to take, Mielke said it likely will take action at the commissioners’ Dec. 31 meeting.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
