PORT ANGELES — A special deputy prosecuting attorney from Jefferson County has been named to represent Clallam County Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis in her $1.3 million Opportunity Fund dispute with the county commissioners and other county officials.
Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols last week appointed Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Alvarez of Jefferson County to represent Barkhuis in matters regarding the disagreement.
“Because my office is involved in advising the treasurer and the commissioners, and because there is a clear disagreement, I felt it would be a service offered to the treasurer to provide this representation,” Nichols said Friday.
Nichols said Alvarez’s appointment “is limited to providing legal counsel to the Clallam County treasurer, including but not limited to representation as necessary in Superior Court with respect to a dispute arising from the county budgeting process and what are the necessary requirements for a lawful expenditure of public funds.”
Alvarez, who met with Barkhuis on Wednesday, said Friday he still must review material on the dispute.
Nichols said Alvarez’s services will be provided at no cost to the county, which has reciprocal agreements to provide no-cost services to Jefferson and Kitsap counties in similar instances.
Barkhuis, a licensed attorney, has challenged the commissioners’ award of grants totaling $1 million to the Port of Port Angeles to complete construction of a building intended to house the Composite Recycling Technology Center and $285,952 to the city of Port Angeles for a waterfront improvement project.
Barkhuis has rejected the warrants for the grant awards, which consist of sales tax proceeds.
She insists that not using the money for its intended purpose — the Carlsborg sewer project — requires public hearings as a “debatable budget emergency” and must include contracts between the county and grant recipients that are approved by Nichols.
After rewinding the approval process, Clallam County commissioners will hold public hearings on the grants at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the county courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
Barkhuis told the Peninsula Daily News on July 26 that she would decide her next course of action after the hearings are held.
Her position has been disputed by Nichols and the state Auditor’s Office, both of which have said the commissioners acted properly.
County Administrator Jim Jones said Friday that on Monday, the county may receive written confirmation of a review by the state Auditor’s Office that the commissioners acted correctly in awarding the grants.
Barkhuis has threatened to take her case to Superior Court.
“The fact is that I am all that is left standing between the BOCC [Board of County Commissioners] and unfettered access to $100 million,” she said in a June 23 email to the state Auditor’s Office and state Attorney General’s Office.
In the email, she asked the state Attorney General’s Office to intervene in the dispute, which the Attorney General’s Office refused to do absent a report by the state Auditor’s Office.
“With nobody to stop them, the BOCC and their county administrator will stop at nothing to get me out of the way,” Barkhuis warned in the email.
She would not be interviewed for this article and would answer questions from the PDN only by email.
The $100 million she referred to is “the average amount of public funds that, at any given time, are under my fiduciary duty to safekeep,” she said Friday in an email.
Barkhuis’ claims in the June 23 email are “hyperbole,” County Administrator Jones said Friday.
“When I saw that, I said, ‘Isn’t that cute?,’ you know?”
“What I officially make of it is that it’s a completely unsupported and wildly exaggerated, false concern on her part, and I think she knows it.
“It’s all about 1 percent of fact and 99 percent of supposition of what this whole thing has been.
“It’s kind of sad.”
Barkhuis was asked Friday to explain the position she outlined in the June 23 email.
“If the [Board of County Commissioners] is successful in pushing these expenditures through based on that simple budget modification, then the BOCC will have succeeded in setting new precedent that allows the county budget director and county administrator to sign a simple form in some back room ‘to allow for expenditures currently approved by the BOCC and potential future projects’ that allows for millions in Opportunity Fund ‘2015 ending fund balance’ reserves, specifically budgeted to stay in the county treasury, to leave the county treasury instead, without any public notice and without any public process whatsoever,” Barkhuis said Friday in an email.
“If the BOCC is successful in setting this new precedent, in [the] future, the BOCC will be able to change the budget by millions, and not even the treasurer, let alone the public, will get any notice of such ‘modifications.’”
Alvarez said he met with Barkhuis for lunch for two hours Wednesday at the Longhouse Market & Deli in Blyn to discuss the dispute.
Nichols was present for 45 minutes of the discussion.
Alvarez said he was waiting for supporting documentation from Barkhuis.
“Basically, I won’t know what the options are until I review the material,” he said.
Alvarez has been Jefferson County’s civil deputy prosecuting attorney for 16 years and represented many county officials.
He said it’s the first time he has heard of a county treasurer who has rejected warrants.
“That just means it hasn’t happened yet,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean that it isn’t lawful.”
State law says a treasurer “shall receive all money due the county and disburse it on warrants issued and attested by the county auditor.”
Clallam County Auditor Shoona Riggs had approved the warrants.
Barkhuis has defended her position by asserting that state law also says she must disburse funds “according to law.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
