How about $95,000 to make District Court courtrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act?
Or $104,000 to hire two people in the Clark County Sheriff’s Office’s records department to keep pace with public disclosure requests?
What about $205,430 to restore hours for employees of the Clark County Clerk’s office?
One by one, elected officials went before Clark County commissioners Wednesday to make a final plea for more money in the 2011-12 budget; the public will be able to comment on the requests next month.
Earlier this month, county Administrator Bill Barron submitted a $890 million draft budget to commissioners.
Of 70 spending requests by elected officials and department directors, Barron included 21 in the draft budget.
The budget was written on the assumption that county commissioners will not increase the property tax levy by the allowed 1 percent.
Wednesday’s meetings were the second opportunity for elected officials to make their cases for additional money.
Presiding District Court Judge John Hagensen said one wish would be to bring courtrooms in compliance for the hearing-impaired.
Hagensen said there’s one assisted-listening device that judges can sometimes borrow from Superior Court, or some court participants who know sign language can have an interpreter.
Hagensen said he recently had a man appear before him who was hearing impaired and did not know sign language.
“I basically had to yell at him the whole time,” Hagensen said.
Hagensen, like others who appeared before commissioners Tuesday, acknowledged that it was not a good time to be asking for money.
Undersheriff Joe Dunegan appeared on behalf of Sheriff Garry Lucas, who was at a conference.
Darin Rouhier, finance manager for the Sheriff’s office, told commissioners the department, which runs a consolidated records unit that includes all reports from the Vancouver Police Department, needs two additional staff members to respond to an increasing number of public disclosure requests.
Public disclosure laws are complex and include penalties for not fulfilling requests, Rouhier said. And entire police reports can’t simply be copied because some sensitive material has to be redacted.
Rouhier said the $104,000 would just be the county’s portion, and the city would share the total cost.
Auditor Greg Kimsey and Treasurer Doug Lasher both said they need thousands of dollars for upgrades to and annual maintenance for computer systems, prompting Commissioner Marc Boldt to say during Lasher’s session, “These IT people are worse than terrorists.”
Wednesday was also an opportunity for two newly elected county officials to get a taste of the budget process. Prosecutor-elect Tony Golik and Assessor-elect Peter Van Nortwick attended the sessions for their departments, even though they let the current official do the talking.
While Golik already works in the department he’s preparing to lead, Van Nortwick, a self-employed appraiser, has been meeting with outgoing Assessor Linda Franklin.
“One of the things I just dropped on him is that he doesn’t have an administrative assistant,” Franklin told commissioners. “We haven’t been able to afford an administrative assistant for several years.”
Clerk Sherry Parker, who was defeated by Scott Weber, asked to reinstate hours for deputy clerks, whose pay was cut in one of three rounds of cuts the county has been through in the past few years.
Deputy clerks work 7½ hours a day.
“The (Superior Court) judges are starting to feel like they are not properly served by our office,” Parker said. “We are doing the best we can.”
A balanced budget must be signed off on next month.
Public hearings on the budget will be at 2 p.m. Dec. 6; 10 a.m. Dec. 7; 10 a.m. Dec. 8; 9 a.m. Dec. 9; and 9 a.m. Dec. 10.
Each session is scheduled to last for two hours and will be in the sixth-floor hearing room at the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St.
Stephanie Rice: 360-735-4508 or stephanie.rice@columbian.com.
