Shame on Benton County. Plan to split the court is pretty sneaky | Editorial

Instead of being upfront and open about its renewed effort to split the Benton-Franklin County Superior Court, Benton County tried to slide it through quietly in the state House budget.

That means no notice and no public hearings.

If it had not been for some keen Tri-Citians noticing the language near the end of the 504-page, mind-numbing budget document, this major policy decision might have been pushed through without the community knowing about it until it was too late to weigh in on it.

And that is flat-out wrong.

An issue of this magnitude should not be decided with off-the-radar legislative maneuvering.

Now that the attempt has come to light, legislators should drop the language from the budget proposal, and Benton County Commissioners should regroup, vowing to address this issue in the open.

If they have a case to make, make it in public.

County Commissioner Jerome Delvin told the Tri-City Herald he had a bill drafted and lawmakers lined up to help him move it, but he eventually decided against that route.

Instead, he asked Rep. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, to add language to the House’s proposed supplemental budget. Boehnke is in his second year in the Legislature and has been eager to help constituents.

Boehnke said the original language “was always intended to get the counties working together so the Legislature could consider whether we should separate Benton and Franklin’s judicial systems in the future.”

The problem is the public was left out of the process from the get-go. Expecting community members to get involved later is not good enough.

Franklin County Commissioner Brad Peck said he was caught off guard by the legislative move. While he believes Boehnke had good intentions about getting a conversation started, Peck disagreed with the method.

Splitting the bicounty Superior Court has been a controversial idea for several years, and trying to settle it on the sly is not going to go over well.

When community members started questioning Boehnke this week about the issue, he quickly changed the language in the proposal to ensure Franklin County is on board before the Legislature gets involved.

At this point, we don’t see Franklin County commissioners cooperating with the effort —especially since it appears the proposal was crafted behind their backs.

Unfortunately, this is another sad example of the lack of communication between the two counties. Benton County commissioners have made it clear they want to sever bicounty services with Franklin County.

Already, the human services department and the public defender’s office have been split apart. But only the Washington Legislature can split the nearly 70-year-old Benton-Franklin County Superior Court.

Delvin said the counties are big enough to go it alone, and that Franklin County voters don’t get to elect their own judges because Benton County dominates the vote.

We haven’t heard that complaint from Franklin County, however. In the past, Benton County complained about financial and workload disparities — and those topics drove the discussion.

It is no secret the two county commissions suffered a communication meltdown several years ago, and there has been hard feelings ever since.

In 2016, Delvin asked former Republican Senator Mike Hewitt of Walla Walla to introduce legislation to split the bicounty court.

When word got out, the Superior Court judges responded with a blunt three-page letter opposing the plan that was sent to the media and Franklin County.

The letter said splitting the court would undermine justice and cost taxpayers. Benton County Commissioners reacted harshly to the backlash, and ended up grilling Judge Cameron Mitchell about the letter during a commission meeting.

The uproar eventually quieted down, and now Delvin said enough time has passed that the idea to split the court should be revisited.

Fair enough. If it’s a good idea, own it and get the public on board.

Trying to slide it through the Legislature without warning sends the wrong message.

This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 3:25 PM.