PORT ANGELES — A lingering dispute between Clallam County commissioners and Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis is over.
Citing an undisclosed medical issue, Barkhuis on Thursday said in an email that she wouldn’t reject a pair of warrants for $1.3 million in Opportunity Fund grants to the port and city of Port Angeles.
“I don’t want to die over this,” Barkhuis said in a brief interview while leaving the courthouse Thursday.
“They win, OK? They win.
“I’m physically unable to deal with this.”
Barkhuis had rejected the warrants in June because commissioners did not hold a budget emergency hearing or secure written contracts with the sister governments.
That led to threatened legal action and a sometimes-bitter dispute between the second-term treasurer and three-member county board.
Barkhuis told Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols in a Thursday email that she would be on medical leave until Oct. 13.
“In the meantime, if the majority of county commissioners feels sufficiently confident with the current paperwork to request and approve warrants for the $1.3 million in Opportunity Fund grant expenditures, neither I nor my staff will reject them,” Barkhuis wrote.
Commissioners Jim McEntire and Bill Peach said in separate interviews that they would vote to authorize the warrants.
“I’m very glad we’re able to see an end to this,” Peach said.
“I’m sad that [Barkhuis] has a need for medical leave. I wish her well.”
Commissioner Mike Chapman maintained that the grants should be placed in the 2016 budget, where they would be fully vetted by the public.
Doing so would represent “good government” and lift a “great cloud of uncertainty” over the grant approval process, Chapman said.
“I’m hoping she’s OK,” Chapman said of Barkhuis’ medical leave.
“I can only imagine this has been a very stressful situation for her.
“It has been stressful for all of us.”
Barkhuis had said she would reject the warrants, absent a court order, because of what was deemed to be an insufficient public process.
McEntire and Peach have maintained that commissioners acted according to county policy and state law when they approved the grants.
They said the board went above and beyond normal protocol by holding public hearings in a second attempt to release funds.
“I’m just glad that we’ve got this issue behind us,” McEntire said.
Nichols penned a legal memorandum in June that supported the board’s position but acknowledged Barkhuis’ demand for transparency.
Now that Barkhuis has released her grip on the grants, McEntire said, the board will likely authorize the warrants Tuesday.
“I really do think we need to be done with this issue and kind of move on to the 2016 budget,” said McEntire, board chairman.
“The objective here is funding in an expedient way two very worthwhile projects that have been fully vetted from the Opportunity Fund [Advisory Board].”
Port officials plan to use a $1 million Opportunity Fund grant to repurpose a building near William R. Fairchild International Airport for a planned Composite Recycling Technology Center.
The city plans to use a $285,952 grant to complete the ongoing second phase of an ambitious waterfront face-lift between Oak Street and the Valley Creek estuary.
Both projects were twice vetted and approved by the Opportunity Fund Advisory Board.
The Opportunity Fund is a portion of state sales tax that supports infrastructure in rural areas.
As it became clear that the sides had reached an impasse, Nichols in July appointed Jefferson County Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Alvarez to represent Barkhuis.
McEntire and Peach voted Aug. 25 to seek a declaratory judgment and an order from a Superior Court judge that would have forced Barkhuis to release the warrants.
Commissioner Mike Chapman was adamantly opposed to taking Barkhuis to court.
Barkhuis discharged Alvarez of his duties Sept. 2.
She complained Thursday that she was not entitled to the same level of legal representation as the Board of County Commissioners.
“There is no way I can fight this,” Barkhuis said.
“The mind is willing. The body is not. That’s what it comes down to.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
