EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third and final report on Saturday’s voters forum at the Elwha Klallam Heritage Center in Port Angeles.
PORT ANGELES — Appointed Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney William Payne and challenger Mark Nichols disagreed at a voters forum about employee turnover and reprised their dispute over who originated the idea of charging felonies.
Nichols — former chief deputy prosecutor who quit Jan. 27, the day Payne was sworn in — criticized Payne in his opening statement at the hourlong forum Saturday at the Elwha Klallam Heritage Center.
The forum on the Nov. 4 general election race was moderated by Bertha Cooper, a columnist with the weekly Sequim Gazette.
Payne, a Sequim resident, and Nichols of Port Angeles are both Republicans.
Before about 70 people in attendance, Nichols, 42, asserted that his goal in replacing Payne was “to stabilize the prosecutor’s office” and reduce turnover that he said had resulted in the loss of six attorneys since Payne took office in January.
“My goal is to stop turnover and get back to business,” Nichols said.
Said Payne: “Every single one of those people were going to leave whether I was appointed or Nichols was appointed.”
He added that they resigned, retired or did not want to take on duties assigned to them.
Payne, 57, was a Clallam County deputy prosecuting attorney when Nichols was chief deputy prosecutor under former Prosecuting Attorney Deborah Kelly.
Payne had quit by the time Kelly resigned in December 2013 with one year left in her four-year term.
Kelly appointed Nichols to head the office as the acting prosecuting attorney.
Payne was appointed the post over Nichols on Jan. 14 in a 2-1 vote by county commissioners.
Commissioners later appointed Nichols the county’s land-use hearings examiner.
Payne suggested Nichols himself bore some responsibility for turnover when Nichols was a chief deputy under Kelly, saying 40 lawyers resigned or were fired during Nichols’ tenure.
“The error in that statement is that I had not yet been the elected prosecutor,” Nichols responded, acknowledging that turnover was higher than it should have been.
“It’s a red herring to saddle me with turnover from a former elected prosecutor’s administration. They are the boss.”
Payne said he ramped up felony prosecutions at the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office over the past eight months.
He said he hired two more felony deputies to increase the total to five and is now pursuing felony drug cases, which he said were not being prosecuted until he came on board.
Nichols responded that the charging guideline was based on limited available resources, adding that those cases included possession of more than 40 grams of marijuana.
“The decision to start charging [in felony drug cases] is a great idea,” he said.
“I know that because I recommended those crimes be charged when I applied for this position,” he added.
“There was no such recommendation in my opponent’s [application] material.
“If anyone would like to review the prosecuting attorney applications, I brought copies with me.”
Nichols has said that Payne obtained a copy of his application prior to the Jan. 13 interviews with the Board of County Commissioners and that he used some of Nichols’ ideas to get hired.
Payne said he obtained copies of the questionnaires, which are public records, but said the changes he has brought were his own ideas based on conversations with law enforcement and city officials, attorneys, judges, county commissioners, crime victims and other citizens.
On Saturday, Payne said that if those were Nichols’ ideas, “when he came into office Jan. 1, he did not implement those ideas.
“I did the very first day I came into office. That’s all I can say.”
Nichols said he spent 27 days serving as county prosecuting attorney.
“It would have been irresponsible to capitalize on that to make wholesale changes,” Nichols said.
“I respect the process.
“I had better things to do than spinning my wheels from Day 1 to Day 28.”
County auditor candidate Kim Yacklin asked about imposing a law-and-justice sales tax to fund programs such as mental health and driving-under-the-influence courts.
Payne and Nichols both said they oppose such a tax.
The salary for the prosecuting attorney position is $129,579 for 2015.
The winner of the election will oversee a budget that in 2014 is $2 million.
Unlike other candidates in the general election, the winner will fill out Kelly’s unexpired four-year term beginning Nov. 26, a day after the election is certified by county Elections Supervisor Shoona Riggs.
The winner’s four-year term will begin Jan. 2.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
