Under the settlement terms, the commissioners agree to rescind sections of two resolutions whose passage led to Kimball’s appeal to Thurston County Superior Court. They also agreed to pay $25,591.25 in taxpayer money to the private attorney retained by Kimball. In exchange, Kimball will withdraw his appeal.
The substantiative question raised by the appeal remains unanswered.
The settlement was signed Monday, a week after motion rulings by a visiting judge that made it more difficult for Thurston County to proceed with the case. David Edwards, a superior court judge in Grays Harbor County, ruled that the county would need to appoint special legal counsel to represent it. He appointed Kimball’s private attorney as his special counsel and ruled that the county would have to pay all of Kimball’s legal bills, past and future. Edwards also set a case schedule that meant he wouldn’t hear arguments on the meat of the appeal until March.
County Manager Don Krupp said commissioners had wanted the appeal resolved before next year’s budget was approved. They worried that continuing it into next year would increase costs and continue to “create turmoil and difficulties between the two offices,” he said.
Commissioners directed Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Elizabeth Petrich to settle the appeal during an executive, or closed, session last week after the rulings, Krupp said. Commissioners will take action on the resolutions subject to the settlement as early as Tuesday.
Commissioners were out of the office on business Friday and unavailable for comment.
“I’m glad it’s behind us,” Kimball said. “It would have saved the taxpayers a significant amount of money if the county commissioners would have accepted our offer of settlement a couple of months ago.”
In another sign that they’re moving past the dispute, the two sides appeared to have agreed to the framework for an agreement to balance the 2010 budget proposed by the Sheriff’s Office.
The appeal stems from a proviso, or condition, in a budget resolution that commissioners passed April 14 that Kimball lay off command staff to reduce costs. The county was in the midst of a midyear budget reduction, the result of a higher-than-expected drop in projected tax revenues. Two weeks later, the commissioners adopted a resolution that identified positions in the Sheriff’s Office to eliminate after Kimball indicated he would not abide by the earlier resolution.
In early May, Kimball filed an appeal challenging the resolutions, claiming commissioners had exceeded their authority under state law by telling him how to manage his budget. The county later filed a counterclaim alleging Kimball violated state law by continuing to employ workers without the consent of commissioners. Commissioners passed a third resolution in June staying the layoffs until the appeal was decided.
As for next year’s spending plan, the Sheriff’s Office had presented an operations budget, which pays for patrol and investigation, with spending above the revenue target set by county commissioners. His budget proposal included laying off three patrol deputies and eliminating two vacant positions. Since, one of the deputies whose job was on the line has departed, and his position will be eliminated, Kimball said.
Last week, the office presented a proposal to close the gap that commissioners took under advisement.
Krupp said he since has informed Undersheriff Brad Watkins that the county commissioners approved the sheriff’s proposal to transferring savings in the corrections budget next year to help close the shortfall. But commissioners turned down other short-term fixes proposed to plug the rest of the hole and provide additional revenues to keep deputies due to receive a pink slip on the job in 2010.
As a result, the Sheriff’s Office must cut $144,000 to balance the budget. Kimball proposes laying off two additional patrol deputies. The total number of lost deputy positions would be seven.
Krupp said he understood 6.5 positions would be lost, and the Sheriff’s Office was looking to cobble up enough funding to preserve the half-time position.
Even with this small discrepancy, it’s the closest the two sides have come to being on the same page of the ledger in months.
Christian Hill: 360-754-5427
chill@theolympian.com
