PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis has reversed her cancellation of a county finance committee meeting, saying Thursday she will chair the meeting March 24 — two weeks after it had been originally scheduled.
Barkhuis’ pledge makes certain that the county commissioners will give timely consideration to a $731,705 grant to the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center (SARC) and a bid award for the $15.3 million Carlsborg sewer project, board Chairman Mike Chapman said Thursday.
It was an about-face from just two days earlier.
“I have canceled the finance committee meeting because it is incongruent to me that on the one hand, the county expresses the desire for my input, while on the other hand, the county threatens to sue me whenever it disagrees with me,” Barkhuis wrote in an email Tuesday to the Peninsula Daily News and the Port O Call newspaper, a monthly publication that has carried Barkhuis’ byline.
She said Thursday she had changed her mind.
Barkhuis made her new intentions known in response to a request for comment from the PDN on the fact that Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols said he was reviewing the question of whether the meeting could be held without her.
“In response to your question, I intend to call for a Finance Committee meeting shortly after I return to work on March 14, 2016,” she said in an email Thursday, clarifying in a subsequent email that the meeting will be March 24 to give proper notice to the public.
Also Thursday, county Commissioner Mark Ozias, who with Auditor Shoona Riggs and Barkhuis are on the finance committee, told the PDN he had intended to chair the March 10 meeting if Barkhuis did not and had planned to brief the board on the two requests.
Barkhuis also addressed that possibility in her email Thursday.
“In the meantime, I will consider the county’s attempt to hold a ‘Finance Committee meeting’ in my absence to be an attempt to usurp my authority, in violation of Chapter 7.56 RCW, Quo Warranto,” she said Thursday.
She said the violation she was referring to encompassed all 15 sections of the RCW.
Barkhuis and Ozias said Thursday they had requested that Nichols review whether the finance committee meeting could be held absent Barkhuis.
SARC, sewer project
The committee is scheduled to analyze the SARC grant request for a new air handling system that SARC officials have said will help guarantee the facility’s reopening this fall under new management of the Clallam County YMCA.
Public Works Administrative Director Bob Martin said Wednesday the finance committee must examine the sewer project bid proposals in a timely manner to ensure its April 1, 2017, completion.
He said meeting that deadline will save the county about $225,000 in interest costs for a loan that will help finance the project.
According to state law, county finance committees approve county investment policy and debt policy.
According to county code, the finance committee also addresses short- and long-term revenue shortfalls and “may, at its discretion, discuss other issues related to financial matters.”
Also according to county code, the committee will meet quarterly, although it did not meet in the third and fourth quarters of 2015.
Commissioners wait
Chapman, Peach and Ozias had said in separate interviews that they would not review the loan without finance committee review.
“Cool, awesome, great,” was Chapman’s response to Barkhuis’ turnaround.
“This is very much appreciated.”
He said the meeting that would have been chaired by Ozias will not take place.
“This will be good timing,” he added.
“That’s all we wanted was to have a finance committee meeting as required by law.”
Chapman said the commissioners will open bids on the sewer project at their regular meeting Tuesday.
That will give county staff up to three weeks to examine the proposals — and time for the finance committee to look at budget implications.
Barkhuis, who rarely attends commissioners’ meetings, notified the board in a Feb. 17 email that she was canceling the March 10 finance committee meeting.
“Until such time as the commissioners have adequately addressed and resolved their own staff and fund management issues, I will refrain from putting myself in situations (including chairing the finance committee meetings) that are likely to provoke further acts of intimidation and retaliation against me,” Barkhuis wrote.
Asked via email Thursday if anything had changed, Barkhuis said: “As the saying goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint a special deputy prosecutor to review an accusation by Barkhuis that commissioners have fostered a hostile work environment.
Barkhuis has made such claims in emails to county officials during the past year — most recently Feb. 17.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
