Residents press county to reprioritize funds to public safety as commissioners outline state grant limits

Public commenters at the April 21 Clallam County meeting pressed commissioners to make public safety the county's top priority, arguing that staffing is insufficient for the unincorporated population and urging the board to reallocate funds rather than asking voters for new taxes.

Eric Fairman told the board he was "sick and tired of hearing the same answers" and urged a reprioritization of spending to support the sheriff's office. Multiple commenters cited staffing shortfalls and asked the board to divert funds from other programs to hire deputies. One commenter cited a county figure used at the meeting'approximately 39 deputy positions covering a large unincorporated population'to illustrate perceived strain on patrol coverage.

The chair and other commissioners responded with a detailed accounting of funding options and constraints. The chair noted that Governor-proposed grant programs (cited in the meeting as a proposed $100 million grant program at the state level) include heavy training requirements and that, to date, jurisdictions had struggled to access those funds quickly. Commissioners said they have prioritized maintaining sheriff funding in recent budgets and pointed to legal limitations on some pools of money (for example, opioid-settlement funds are focused chiefly on demand-side treatment).

Commissioner staff offered to meet with residents and provide charts showing how general fund FTEs are distributed across departments; commissioners also encouraged residents to communicate directly with state legislators about laws that affect local enforcement powers.

What happens next: commissioners said they would make staff data available for community review and are willing to schedule a deeper public discussion on potential budget reprioritization; no formal budget action was taken at the April 21 meeting.