By Matthew Nash
Olympic Peninsula News Group
SEQUIM — State representatives for the 24th Legislative District now have the city of Sequim’s Christmas list.
Rep. Steve Tharinger, who was elected to a fourth term in November, and Clallam County Commissioner Mike Chapman, who was elected to the Legislature in November, met with the Sequim City Council on Monday to hear the city’s requests for funding and reform in the upcoming legislative session slated to begin Jan. 9 in Olympia.
City priorities, according to a resolution the council passed unanimously in November, include human services funding, public works needs, public safety support, economic development and support for schools.
Some of the specific requests included funding the second phase of the Guy Cole Center at $700,000, completing the Simdars Interchange ($4 million to $5 million), and funding safety improvements along U.S. Highway 101 such as improving Happy Valley Road’s access to the highway (about $400,000).
Tharinger said the state’s capital budget is going to be tough in 2017 as the state matches public school bond amounts that were passed statewide.
“So it might be tough to get money for Guy Cole this cycle,” he said.
Tharinger said funding for Simdars could continue to wait for funding as well.
“It’s a tough one because what drives transportation dollars are accidents, not economic development,” he said.
Sequim City Manager Charlie Bush said one of the council’s priorities is the state fully funding basic education, as laid out in the state Supreme Court’s 2014 McCleary decision, because it’s “holding us back from addressing other issues.”
“We need help from the state to get this worked out so we can ensure we have a better future for our community,” he said.
City council members also recommended replacing the 60 percent supermajority now needed to pass a school bond with a simple majority of 50 percent.
Chapman said that, besides taxes and economic development, one issue often lost in discussions about supporting schools is that many rural schools could not sustain a moderate earthquake.
“We’ll have to have that conversation to push the needle a little more,” he said.
Tharinger said to solve the McCleary issue, “we need to fund our schools [and] it’s going to require additional revenue.”
“I just don’t know how we’re going to do it with our existing revenue,” he said. “That’s always a tough discussion.”
Councilman Bob Lake spoke out for state support for preparations for a massive Cascadia Subduction Zone quake and other emergencies.
He said the city’s emergency operations center in the Sequim Transit Center needs more radios and antennas to help carry the Olympic Peninsula in an emergency until Clallam County officials, who are mostly volunteers, can set up, as evidenced in a training scenario earlier this year.
Council members also suggested reforming public information requests and amending publication requirements to allow cities to post legal ads on their websites instead of publishing it with a printed newspaper of record.
Deputy Mayor Ted Miller said the public information reform could prevent frivolous requests.
City Attorney Kristina Nelson-Gross said that, according to the state auditor’s office representatives last year, jurisdictions statewide saw upward of $60 million in uncompensated time and money spent on requests.
Tharinger said public records reform still needs a lot of work.
“There are groups in the Legislature who want to protect the public’s right to know,” he said.
As for newspapers of record, Tharinger said, it’s “difficult to take on people who buy ink by the barrel” and because websites such as Craigslist have cut into revenue, public notices are a big part of their revenue.
Some other items council prioritized were funding for reconstruction or replacing the Elwha bridge, fully funding the basic law enforcement academy, finding better funding for mental health systems and redefining reclaimed water as a resource and not wastewater.
Chapman said he’s been assigned to the Transportation Committee in the Legislature and the Elwha bridge is likely his top priority.
Tharinger said the Legislature likely will see some discussions about water, too, and there might be an opportunity to make changes for the city.
He finished the meeting by saying, “We represent all the same people … The idea is to work together as much as we can. It’s the same taxpayer and dollar, and being as efficient and integrated as possible is always a good thing.”
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
