Clarification on rural roads grants leads to confusion

Thurston County, along with counties across the state, must adjust to new standards to receive state grants for rural road construction and maintenance.

Each biennium since 1983, the County Road Administration Board doles out grants to counties through the rural arterial program. The state is divided into regions similar to Department of Transportation regions, County Road Administration Board Executive Director Jay Weber said. Counties in those regions compete against each other for funds, so Thurston County does not compete against King County.

Recently the board added clarifying language into its administrative code stating counties lose their eligibility to receive those grant funds if the county diverts road levy funds to pay for other services besides road construction and rural traffic law enforcement, Weber said.

Under state law, counties are authorized to use funds from the road levy, collected through property taxes, to pay for traffic law enforcement if the county commissioners or council approve it.

Thurston County Manager Ramiro Chavez said the county does use portions of the road levy to pay for law enforcement, but the question is where does law enforcement stop. If someone is stopped in a rural area and charged with a DUI, charges will be filed and processed by the prosecutor’s office. If the person cannot afford an attorney, a public defender will be assigned to the case.

“The question really is where the traffic law enforcement really stops,” Chavez said.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued an opinion in March on the rule change, supporting the clarification but says the prosecution and indigent defense may be considered traffic law enforcement. However, in the opinion, Ferguson does not believe they are.

Weber said the purpose of the clarification is to ensure counties do not accidentally disqualify themselves from these grants in the future.

“Currently no county is in violation,” he added.

Chavez is unsure how the changes and Ferguson’s opinion will affect Thurston County. The county commissioners and county staff discussed the impacts in an executive session Wednesday, citing litigation or potential litigation as the reason for not allowing the public into the meeting.

The counties compete against neighboring counties for these funds to ensure the projects with the greatest need get the funds first, Weber said. The funds go only to projects in rural areas; urban projects come from the state transportation board.

This story was originally published April 22, 2017 at 6:58 PM with the headline "Clarification on rural roads grants leads to confusion."