Mike Chapman: The Buck Stops Here! (Before We Give It Away Willy-Nilly)

Arrogance is never attractive in a person.

 

It's even less attractive in an elected official, being that they're supposed to be "public servants" and all that.

 

So the latest spat over the Clallam County Commissioners sudden deep desire to give money away and make their once proud surplus a thing of the past is very interesting. Let's look at what has been reported, and some of the quotes from a couple of key players...

 

Clallam County commissioners today are expected to award nearly $1.3 million in infrastructure grants despite objections from the elected treasurer. The three commissioners agreed May 4th to give $1 million dollars to the Port of Port Angeles for the development of a proposed composites recycling center, and $285,952 to the City of Port Angeles for the second phase of the ongoing waterfront improvement project.

 

Commissioners plan to use Opportunity Fund money that was originally budgeted for the delayed Carlsborg sewer project to fund the grants.

 

County Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis said county policy and state law requires a public hearing to appropriate the funds for the grants. In addition, the county should have written contacts with the Port and the City to ensure that the money is spent appropriately, she added.

 

In a Thursday email to Board Chairman Jim McEntire, Barkhuis said there is “nothing in the adopted budget for the Opportunity Fund that anticipated making any grants to outside entities. This is why the budget needs to be amended, subject to a public hearing, as reflected in the county’s policies, before these grants can be funded,” Barkhuis wrote.

 

“I’m not willing to modify a process and overturn years, if not decades, of history in how we approach modifying the budget as opposed to newly authorized appropriations that are the result of an unanticipated emergency,” King Jim McEntire said.

 

Commissioner Mike Chapman, the dean of the board, took umbrage with the notion that the county has violated its own policy and state law in making budget modifications. “We have to be really careful when we start interjecting that the board’s not allowed to do things that have been done for 15 years,” Chapman said. “That would mean former board members and former prosecutors and former administrators have violated the law. That just strains the bounds of logic that the board would have been allowed to do things illegally all these years. Now all of a sudden, somebody wiser, smarter who’s better than everybody else who’s worked here says, ‘No, it’s illegal to do this?’”

 

 

“The advisory committee made a recommendation. The board is going to vote in public tomorrow. It’s a done deal.”

 

So what do YOU think? Is it possible, even probable, that "former board members and former prosecutors and former administrators" have violated the law? Did you notice how Chapman used a semantic dodge by saying "former," as opposed to "current"? Do you think it "strains the bounds of logic" that there might have been things done illegally in the County Courthouse "all these years"? Oh, and how about the crazy, crazy notion of having contracts with the City and Port to ensure the money is spent properly? Ya think?

And how about that big finish from Mike Chapman, that sit down and shut up to another elected official, and a finger to the face of the tax-paying public: "It's a done deal." Yes, Mike, we know it is. Just like so many, many other deals have been "done" for "all these years." You know, if you're feeling a little defensive, Mike, maybe it's because, deep down, you know you've done wrong, and are doing wrong, but apparently you just can't control yourself.