Benton, Franklin county commissioners agree to meet

The Benton and Franklin county commissions will meet in person for the first time in nearly a year.

The commissions will meet at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Benton County Justice Center commissioners’ board room, 7122 W. Okanogan Place, Building A, in Kennewick.

The two elected boards will discuss the future of their combined human services operations. The discussion includes an update on a recommendation by the Tri-Cities Behavioral Health Review Workgroup to create a full system for behavioral health care. The agenda also includes a discussion about hiring a consultant to implement an expanded behavioral health care system.

The two counties have several combined operations but have not met face-to-face since last summer. In the interim, they have waged an increasingly public battle over the cost to administer the shared programs, including the bi-county judicial district and human services operations.

The joint Benton-Franklin Public Defense Office dissolved at the end of December with Benton County saying it needed to refocus resources to cope with rising caseloads. Franklin County subsequently created its own public defense service to comply with constitutionally mandated requirement to provide legal counsel to indigent criminal defendants.

More recently, Benton County Commissioner Jerome Delvin confirmed that Sen. Mike Hewitt, R.-Walla Walla, agreed to sponsor legislation to divide the Benton-Franklin judicial district if at least four of the six commissioners agreed. That died when the three Franklin County commissioners declined.

Benton County responded saying it subsidizes Franklin County’s share of administering the court system by more than $660,000 per year.

This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Benton, Franklin county commissioners agree to meet."