Benton County says it subsidizes Franklin by $662,000 a year

The crisis that threatens to end decades of cooperation between Benton and Franklin counties now has a price tag: $662,000

That’s the amount Benton County claims it’s subsidizing Franklin County by administering a joint Superior Court, Juvenile Court and human services, according to figures released Tuesday.

The number, which is hotly disputed by Franklin County, will provide Benton County leaders with a compelling talking point as they move to terminate interlocal agreements that have united court and other operations for decades.

Subsidizing another county is likely an illegal use of public funds and it’s coming at Benton County’s expense, they said.

“That’s $600,000 of services that could be provided to Benton County residents,” said Commissioner Jerome Delvin.

Franklin County Commission Chair Rick Miller said later he was taken aback by the amount. Franklin County officials will analyze the numbers before responding.

“We’re going to look at them from our side to see if they’re correct and why they’re so high. We want to pay our fair share, but we want to make sure they’re correct,” he said.

In the meantime, he’s planning to meet with his counterpart, Commissioner Shon Small, to set a joint meeting after Franklin County officials have had a chance to review the numbers.

Benton County audited expenses to support its contention that Franklin County does not fully reimburse it for the cost of administering its joined operations.

Bicounty relations turned icy in 2014 when the commissioners began arguing over potentially dissolving the joint human services department.

Then last June, Benton County notified Franklin via letter that it would dissolve the joint Benton-Franklin Office of Public Defense at the end of 2015. It cited increasing workloads for the move.

Franklin never responded to the letter and the public defense office dissolved as planned at the end of December. It was permanently abandoned in January when the two sides failed to negotiate an extension.

The move to separate joint operations has now shifted to Benton-Franklin Superior Court. The two counties have collaborated for more than a century and the current two-county judicial district has formed 65 years ago. It can only be dissolved by the Washington Legislature.

On Jan. 27, Delvin confirmed to the Tri-City Herald that Sen. Mike Hewitt, R.-Walla Walla, would sponsor a bill over objections from the presiding judge. Hewitt conditioned his support on at least four of the six commissioners in the two counties supporting it. Since no Franklin County Commissioner will sign on, the plan appears dead for now.

However, Delvin said the idea merited attention because Benton was subsidizing Franklin County, though last week he could not answer questions about the amount of the subsidy.

Loretta Smith-Kelly, Benton County deputy administrator, said the $662,000 figure reflects numerous costs borne by the county that aren’t currently charged to Franklin under the existing agreements.

For example, 22 percent of its payroll is related to Franklin County employees but Franklin pays nothing for the service.

The sum calculated by Benton County reflects payroll and personnel services, as well as a 7.5 percent administrative fee to cover Benton County’s overhead cost to manage the Superior Court and Juvenile Court systems. Administrative fees are common in government and are meant to address indirect costs such as staff time, building costs, office supplies and more.

Franklin County currently budgets $660,000 to pay Benton County for Superior Court costs and an additional $160,000 for miscellaneous expenses. An added $662,000 hit would be devastating to its budget and would slash its emergency reserves in half, said Miller.

“I don’t want to get into a fight with Benton County. They need to be reasonable and we need to be reasonable,” he said.

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Benton County says it subsidizes Franklin by $662,000 a year."