Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Two interlocal agreements with seemingly no connection are being tied together and causing consternation for Whitman County commissioners at the county and port.
The two interlocals are for the PCC Rail Authority and Martin Hall Juvenile Center. The PCC is a four-county interlocal that makes decisions on rail business and provides direction to the Washington State Department of Transportation for rail improvements. The four counties involved are Whitman, Grant, Lincoln and Spokane. Port of Whitman Commissioner Tom Kammerzell sits on the board to represent Whitman County.
Martin Hall Juvenile Center is a facility in Medical Lake that serves as a juvenile detention center for several counties. It was created by a consortium of nine counties which formed a 50-year interlocal agreement in 1995 to pay for the facility and keep it running. The counties in the interlocal are Whitman, Adams, Asotin, Douglas, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Stevens and Spokane.
Whitman County Commissioner Art Swannack sits on the board to represent Whitman County.
Whitman, Lincoln and Spokane are the only counties represented on both boards. The only other connection is both have interlocal agreements that require unanimous approval to pass certain measures.
“Martin Hall has no connection to PCC railroad,” Swannack told the Gazette.
The two boards which have nothing to do with each other are now finding themselves linked by an edict of Spokane County Commissioner Al French.
“All I know is he’s tying them together,” Kammerzell said at a joint meeting of the port and county May 7.
The issue first became known at a PCC conference call May 2. The PCC board has been working on revising its interlocal agreement for almost two years. The main thrust of the change is that matters the board is voting on can be passed by a simple majority instead of unanimously. Whitman, Grant and Lincoln counties have all signed the interlocal, but Spokane is holding it up. This minority vote controlling the board business is the main reason for the change in the first place. Kammerzell cited two recent instances when silence or a no vote from Spokane has stymied board support of legislation.
“The tail’s kinda wagging the dog on this one,” he said.
When asked at the conference call why Spokane had not signed the interlocal, Kammerzell reported French said he did not want to address the PCC interlocal without addressing the Martin Hall interlocal.
At the joint port/county meeting, Kammerzell asked county commissioners for information about Martin Hall.
Spokane County and French have a history of wanting out of the Martin Hall consortium which obligates each of the nine counties to a portion of the operating costs based on a pre-set number of bed days at the facility.
According to Lincoln County Commissioner Scott Hutsell, chair of the Martin Hall board, the facility’s 27 beds per day are divided among the nine counties based on historical usage at the time it was set up in 1995.
Whitman County is obligated for 2.5 beds per day which calculates out as $164,250 in 2018.
Spokane County is set for five beds per day, which would leave it owning about $328,500 this year.
In 2012 and 2013, the board switched to pay-as-you go which let Spokane County off the hook for its obligation, but went back to the original payment plan in 2014. Since then, Spokane County has expressed a desire to get out of the interlocal and rid itself of the financial obligation to Martin Hall.
“They (Spokane County) very much want out of Martin Hall,” reported Michael Largent after speaking with French at a Washington State Association of Counties meeting in Orcas Island last week. Largent had promised to make the connection and talk to French about the situation after the joint meeting with the port.
“I could tell early on I was not going to convince him otherwise,” Largent said of French’s PCC position.
According to Largent, French wants both boards to be simple majority votes. The only action for Martin Hall that requires unanimous vote is for a member county to leave the interlocal and its obligations.
“Then it would only take a simple majority for them to get out,” Hutsell said. Without that vote, Spokane can leave the consortium, but is still obligated to pay its share. If Martin Hall did change its interlocal, it would still take the approval of five counties to let one out.
“I think there is some value in honoring the agreement that you have made and people you have made them with,” Largent said at the joint meeting of the situation.
For the last two years, Spokane County has voted not in favor of the Martin Hall budget, but has continued to provide its portion of the funding.
There is no money or obligations involved in the PCC.
“They want to hold (the PCC) hostage,” Kammerzell said.
Spokane County does have its own facility for juveniles and only uses Martin Hall for its overflow. According to Hutsell, it is cheaper for Spokane County to keep youth at Martin Hall than its own facility. He added that Spokane County used Martin Hall extensively for the first 10 years after it was formed.
Commissioner French did not return a Gazette request for a statement.
Jana Mathia is a reporter at the Whitman County Gazette.
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