May 1, 2008

County to reinstate Law and Justice Council

By Jennifer Larsen

News editor

The Adams County Commissioners met with three members of the Law and Justice Council on April 7 to discuss the group’s direction and legislation.

Adams County Prosecutor Randy Flyckt led the discussion with support from Adams County Sheriff Doug Barger and Othello Police Chief Steve Dunnagan.

Flyckt asked the county commissioners for support and leadership to re-institute the council and get it off the ground.

“Although this body formally exists in the county code, it really exists in words on paper only,” Flyckt said. He explained that the body exists, but it hasn’t met or provided recommendations to the county commissioners for 10 years.

The commissioners unanimously agreed by consensus. Flyckt agreed to draft a new resolution and planned to present it to the board by the end of last week.

The resolution will include language that specifies how often the council will meet. The county commissioners will take the lead role and invite all participants to the first meeting, which it hopes will be the first part of June.

Flyckt opened the discussion with a brief history of the council, which is required by RCW 72.09.

“The purpose of these bodies are, among other things, to promote efficiency in the provision of criminal justice related services and best use of local resources,” he said.

By statute, the size and composition is determined by the county legislative authority, or the Board of Commissioners.

The commissioners adopted a resolution that established a local law and justice council on Oct. 18, 1993, after the state Legislature approved legislation that required the establishment of the council in each county.

The resolution set forth that the council would include: a member of the Board of Commissioners, county sheriff, representative of municipal police department, county prosecutor, representative of municipal prosecutors, representative of city legislative authority, superior court judge, district court judge, jail administrator, county clerk, county risk manager and representative of the Department of Corrections.

The council was expanded to include the public defender, juvenile director and county auditor with a resolution in 1996 after a 1994 resolution corrected the RCW referenced as the legal authority to establish the council.

Flyckt noted that although the resolutions included creating the council and specifying a time limit for the first meeting to convene, none of the resolutions stated how often the council met.

By talking with past council participants, Flyckt determined that the council met a few times in the mid-1990s but that no minutes were kept. The last meeting appeared to be in 1997 or 1998.

The first step, in addition to adopting an updated resolution, would be to address the size, composition and function of the local council, Flyckt said, and during the process correct any omissions in the current county code and mandate regular meeting intervals.

He also suggested possibly requiring the council to provide annual recommendations for future criminal justice planning to the county commissioners and each town or city council.

“I think that there’s a lot that can be achieved through this process. The good thing is it doesn’t cost anything to set this up,” Flyckt said. “This is where we can get everybody together and the cities and towns will have equal voice.”

He added that the sheriff’s office, Othello Police Department, Adams County Juvenile Department, Superior Court Judge and the administrator of the public defender contract have voiced interest and/or support for participation in the council.

“This whole system needs input and diversity – diversity and experience and knowledge,” Dunnagan said, “to give you a total picture, not bits and pieces.