PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County commissioners are working to ensure agreements are in place for criminal justice contracts between the county and the cities of Port Angeles and Sequim.
The existing contracts for criminal justice services, including prosecution, public defense, district court and jail services are set to expire Wednesday, county Administrator Todd Mielke told commissioners during their Monday work session.
The contracts were drafted in 2015 before a couple of changes came from the state Legislature and state Supreme Court.
“There were a couple of assumptions that were made that really laid the basis for these contracts,” Mielke said. “There was a fair amount of revenue streams created from infraction revenues, specifically in the area of legal financial obligations, or LFOs, as the court defines them.”
The assumption was that revenue from infractions, specifically the LFOs, would flow to the county and make up a significant portion of the revenue streams, he said.
Shortly after the contracts were executed, the state Supreme Court wiped out LFOs as a revenue stream so that they rarely happen, if it all, Mielke said.
“In addition to that, we have been well aware over the last few years that the state Supreme Court is considering caseload waiting standards as proposed by the state Bar Association which thereby limits the number of cases and case types that a public defense attorney can take on,” he said. “That also is greatly impacting what we believe the cost of criminal justice services will be going forward, and we’ve seen an escalation over time as well.”
The county spends somewhere near $3 million in public defense costs, Mielke said, and the county is reimbursed in the area of $68,000, he added.
“The legislative action that took place was under the form of law enforcement reforms to where there was an assumed protection for those working in law enforcement and corrections that if they acted in a way that was consistent with their training, with policies and procedures, that they were immune from personal liability in carrying out the duties of law enforcement,” Mielke said. “The Legislature changed that greatly, and we saw an extremely large exodus of people from law enforcement and from corrections as a result of those actions.”
That has made it more difficult for medium jurisdictions such as Clallam County to recruit and fill positions.
With that information in mind, the county began negotiating with the cities of Port Angeles and Sequim last year to renew the criminal justice contracts, but final contracts were not completed by the deadline. Instead, the governments are looking to extend the existing contracts.
“I think both cities and the county have agreed that an interim extension is appropriate to be able to evaluate and to be able to forge new language for a subsequent agreement,” Mielke said.
Since there are no more city council meetings remaining in 2025, the county commissioners will need to pass the same version of the contract most recently approved by the councils, he said.
“The No. 1 goal is that we continue to provide these essential public safety services,” Commissioner Mike French said. “These are services that our citizens rely on, and so that’s, I think, by far the most important thing.”
A primary concern for the new contracts is that the cities should not pay more than what their actual costs are and the county should not collect less than what its actual costs are, Mielke said.
“And so we’re trying to figure out what that actual cost is,” he said. “That’s what we’re engaging in, and what we’re trying to do is come up with the right formula.”
The commissioners are slated to vote on the contract extension today.
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
