PORT ANGELES — A petition has been filed against a recently adopted Clallam County ordinance that would enable the county to draw $500,000 from its Opportunity Fund to help the Economic Development Council hire staff.
Ron Richards, a former Clallam County commissioner, filed a petition requesting referral of county ordinance 898 to a vote of the people.
The ordinance spearheaded by Commissioner Jim McEntire removes from county code references to the Opportunity Fund Board, an advisory panel that made recommendations to commissioners on uses of the fund.
The Opportunity Fund is a portion of state sales tax that supports public infrastructure projects — and personnel in economic development offices — in rural counties.
“It isn’t a question of funding the Economic Development Council,” Richards said in a Saturday interview.
“It’s a question of who is going to provide input on where this money goes. Is it just going to be Jim McEntire? Or is it going to be representatives from Forks and Sequim and the Port of Port Angeles? I think it’s better to have the latter. That’s what the issue is.”
Commissioners McEntire and Bill Peach voted to approve ordinance 898 on Jan. 27 despite strong objections from the public.
Commissioner Mike Chapman voted no.
McEntire, a member of the EDC board, has proposed to spend up to $500,000 to enable the private nonprofit organization to hire the equivalent of 2.5 full-time employees through 2017 to held spur economic growth in the region.
The code changes will lead to an agreement creating an interlocal economic development council, McEntire has said.
The new council will be made up of the county; cities of Port Angeles, Sequim and Forks; Port of Port Angeles; and the EDC.
On Tuesday, commissioners will consider a resolution adopting the EDC’s strategic plan as the county’s high-level economic development plan.
Richards, who served as a Clallam County commissioner from 1977 to 1980, filed the petition with the county Auditor’s Office last Monday.
The petition was accepted by Auditor Shoona Riggs and forwarded to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for the preparation of a ballot title in accordance with state law.
Once the petition is registered, Richards will have 60 days to collect signatures from at least 10 percent of Clallam County voters who cast a ballot in the last gubernatorial election to validate the petition, according to county code and charter.
The auditor would then verify the signatures and transmit the petition to the Board of County Commissioners.
If all requirements are met, commissioners will place the ordinance referred to in the referendum petition before the voters of the county in the next regular election or in a special election called by the board within 240 days of the validation of the petition.
“This is a great example of a citizen exercising the people’s right of referendum,” Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols said.
Richards said he will ask a judge for a declaratory judgement on ordinance 898, which amends Clallam County Code Chapter 5.40.
He said the ordinance violates a section of the county charter that requires the subject of an ordinance to be clearly stated in the title.
Richards’s petition prevents the code change from taking effect for at least 60 days, McEntire said.
“So for the next two months, unless we, the community, can find a way to adequately finance the Economic Development Council, it will continue to be less effective than it needs to be in performing its important work,” McEntire said in a Friday statement.
“Trying to coordinate the efforts of the entire public and private sectors of our county to push our economy forward, and bring about more and better paying jobs, is a big job and takes the efforts of more than one full-time and one part-time employee.
“The Port of Port Angeles is doing a good job at supporting a better economy, but even the Port cannot do it all.”
McEntire, a former Port of Port Angeles commissioner and retired Coast Guard captain, said the EDC is where the private sector and local governments work in harness to improve the economy.
“If we did not have an organization like the Economic Development Council, we would have to invent one,” he said.
The EDC will be more effective with a larger and more capable staff, he added.
“As I have said before, if all that I was being asked to do was throw more money at the ‘same old, same old,’ I certainly wouldn’t be working to find additional financing for the EDC — I would be advocating for cutting the money the county government has historically provided,” McEntire said.
Clallam County already contributes $30,000 per year to the EDC.
Nearly 200 citizens signed a separate petition against ordinance 898, Richards said.
No citizen spoke in favor of the ordinance in a lengthy public hearing last month.
“Something is wrong here,” Richards said in his own prepared statement.
“It is apparent that input in a statutorily required public hearing means nothing to Commissioners McEntire and Peach. Neither does input from the Opportunity Fund Board that is done away with by this ordinance.
Richards added: “Keeping [the] Opportunity Fund Board is an important step towards maintaining an open government and preserving the financial well being of the county.
“The alternative proposed by Commissioner McEntire is to have a private corporation of which he is the chair, and that is not subject to the Open Public Meetings Act or the Public Records Act, do the planning and spend the money,” Richards said.
“That is not a good alternative.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
