Senate bill could reduce county revenue

POMEROY––A Senate bill under consideration in Olympia could further erode revenue Garfield County receives from people caught committing criminal activities, Commissioners heard at the February 1 meeting.

District Court Clerk Katie Magill brought to the Commissioners' attention Senate Bill 5226, which would relax rules and fines for license suspension for failure to pay or failure to appear citations.

"Currently, if a person has a moving violation, and they don't pay, we can put a hold on their license," Magill informed. "It's a great incentive for them to pay their citations; that's where we get a bulk of our money from, and this senate bill would quash all that, basically, so it would be a huge loss in revenue for us."

Besides financial damage to counties, another organization, Washington Collectors Association, the trade-industry group for collection agencies, is promoting an alternative bill. Currently, a violator's ticket is suspended after 45 days, Magill said, giving that amount of time for the ticket to be paid. They have 15 days to respond to a ticket, so the WCA's recommendation is to extend the current 45 to 90 days, and extend the response time to 30 days.

"In general, rather than not suspending at all," Magill said, "they are recommending that after two unpaid tickets, they get suspended, which is different than current law, but better than not suspending at all."

The WCA is also recommending maximum penalties be reduced. For example, Magill said, a Driving While Suspended, 3rd Degree (DWLS 3rd) is a misdemeanor with a 90-day jail sentence and $1,000 fine, or both.

"Obviously, that rarely happens," she said. "The recommendation is to reduce that to $250 and 10 days in jail. There's still some monetary value over their heads, there's still some jail time over their heads, it's just not as extreme, and, obviously, it's still a little bit motivating."

Commissioner Jim Nelson asked for an estimate of loss which Magill didn't have at hand and pledged to provide. She noted that in 2012, the state switched the suspension from both moving and non-moving violations to just moving, and in the first year, the statewide revenue dropped over $10 million, and has dropped a total of $31 million through 2016.

Nelson said having a dollar impact to forward to the Legislative Committee would be helpful.

"We're going to see more of this kind of stuff coming down the pike," Nelson said. "This was kind of the push–decriminalize statutes and reduce penalties and not hold people accountable, unfortunately. We've got to work it out for us to try and prevent some of these things from happening, but it's a fight worth fighting."

Magill pointed out that DWLS 3rd is the County's most common criminal offense, followed by DUI and Domestic Violence. "If they decriminalize the driving while license suspended, that would probably have a pretty big impact," Magill said. She pledged to compile that information.

"Unfortunately, we're up against this sentencing-reform push and the argument about our fiscal impact may not carry a lot of weight because that's not the reason they're doing this," Nelson said. "It's that we don't want to penalize poor people that don't have any means to pay their bills and I think it's a valid argument that we'll have a loss of revenue, but I'm not sure it's going to carry a lot of weight with those bill sponsors that are pushing for these kinds of reforms. But it's still good information to take forward."

Commissioner Larry Ledgerwood noted that if there's a counter bill being proposed, there is a fair chance of the bill passing. Magill responded that these pushes have been over the past five years. "Every year they gain more and more traction," Magill said.

In other business:

-Road Superintendent Rod Norland gave an update on roadwork and equipment maintenance report.

-Commissioners unanimously approved entering into a $292,737 lease agreement for a new Caterpillar loader, including trading in a Cat 950 loader, financed through Summit rather than Caterpillar due to more advantageous terms. The terms are installments over five years at 3.5217% with a balloon $175,000 payment in the sixth year. Engineer Grant Morgan stated that the County could opt to make the balloon payment if the equipment turns out to be reliable.

Morgan said he didn't anticipate receiving the equipment in 2021, and advised that a budget amendment will likely be needed in the future as about $15,000 was budgeted and the first payment is $33,754, and that will depend on when the equipment is delivered.

-Commissioners unanimously approved a reduction in the Rural Arterial Trust Account (RATA) amount by $170,000 on the Kirby-Mayview Phase I Project, leaving $5,000 in the account to carry over to the 2023-25 Biennium.

"We've got a project on the array that may or may not get funded, but if we're going to leave enough money sitting in the RATA array, you want to have it available for the project to come on line," Morgan said.

-Sheriff Drew Hyer introduced three newly hired deputies. Zachary Grumbles was sworn in February 1 and will be on duty in a week or two after training with the undersheriff, Hyer said. Hired in January were Camdon Costello and Tiffany Williamson, who will be attending police academy on February 23.

-Three resolutions were approved: gravel prices, ERR rental rates and ERR Fee Schedule

-Addressing overgrown shrubs on the south side of the Fairground's Dick Brown Building was, by consensus, given approval. Commissioners Ledgerwood and Nelson favored allowing work to remove and/or replace the bark bedding, and Commissioner Justin Dixon suggested seeing if the school has a student or group that might be interested in doing a beautification project.

-A Department of Homeland Security grant agreement through Spokane County for $17,324 to fund the Emergency Management Department was unanimously approved. Garfield County is a sub-recipient of this routine grant, which funds the program, Commissioner Dixon stated.

Emergency Management's Tina Meier reported that PPE supplies "are going well," and she has been collaborating with the Garfield County Hospital District, Pomeroy School District and County Fire District on maintaining PPE supplies.

-Nelson advised commissioners of the progress of discussion about a coroner bill, and a request that additional options agreed to by rural counties be proposed to bill sponsors for inclusion.

-Another 200 COVID-19 inoculations are expected next week, Commissioners learned.

-The President's Day holiday Monday, February 15 will cause the commissioner's meeting to be held Tuesday, February 16.