PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners today are expected to award nearly $1.3 million in infrastructure grants despite objections from the elected treasurer.
The three commissioners agreed May 4 to give $1 million to the Port of Port Angeles for the development of a proposed composites recycling center and $285,952 to the city of Port Angeles for the second phase of an ongoing waterfront improvement project.
Commissioners plan to use Opportunity Fund money that was budgeted for the delayed Carlsborg sewer project to fund the grants.
The grants will be formally considered in the commissioners’ business meeting today.
County Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis said county policy and state law requires a public hearing to appropriate the funds for the grants.
In addition, the county should have written contacts with the port and the city to ensure that the money is spent appropriately, she added.
“This is your taxpayer dollars,” Barkhuis said Monday.
In a Thursday email to Board Chairman Jim McEntire, Barkhuis said there is “nothing in the adopted budget for the Opportunity Fund that anticipated making any grants to outside entities.”
“This is why the budget needs to be amended, subject to a public hearing, as reflected in the county’s policies, before these grants can be funded,” Barkhuis wrote.
Commissioners disagreed, saying Monday the grants can be funded through a simple budget modification.
“I’m not willing to modify a process and overturn years, if not decades, of history in how we approach modifying the budget as opposed to newly authorized appropriations that are the result of an unanticipated emergency,” McEntire said.
“That’s the debatable emergency thing that we go through every quarter. This is not that. This is a modification of existing appropriation authority.”
Commissioner Mike Chapman, the dean of the board, took umbrage with the notion that the county has violated its own policy and state law in making budget modifications.
“We have to be really careful when we start interjecting that the board’s not allowed to do things that have been done for 15 years,” Chapman said.
“That would mean former board members and former prosecutors and former administrators have violated the law. That just strains the bounds of logic that the board would have been allowed to do things illegally all these years.
“Now all of a sudden, somebody wiser, smarter who’s better than everybody else who’s worked here says, ‘No, it’s illegal to do this?’” Chapman continued.
“I’m not just going to roll over on this. This is a really big issue for me.”
Chapman in the work session said Barkhuis and Chief Accountant Stan Creasey were “arguing over the semantics” of the board’s decision to fund the grants.
The board also directed the Auditor’s Office to create the warrant for the grants without intergovernmental agreements.
The Opportunity Fund consists of sales taxes returned to the county by the state Department of Commerce.
It can be used for infrastructure projects and personnel in economic development offices.
The Opportunity Fund Board, which advises the Board of County Commissioners on how to use the money, voted 6-0 last month to recommend approval of the city grant and 5-1 in favor of the port grant.
“There is a public process,” Chapman said.
“The advisory committee made a recommendation. The board is going to vote in public tomorrow. It’s a done deal.”
Commissioners meetings begin at 10 a.m. Tuesdays in Room 160 at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
