Intending the funds to be used by the recently restructured Economic Development Council, Clallam County commissioners appropriated $150,000 from the county’s general fund toward general economic development March 24.

“(The) next step is to create a contract with the EDC,” County Commissioner Jim McEntire said.

The council can use the extra funding in a number of ways, including more staff, contracts or studies, but the hope is to increase the council’s ability to achieve its goals as a private nonprofit organization aimed at enhancing business in Clallam County, McEntire said.

As is, the council has two paid employees.

“The staff capacity to do what really needs to be done isn’t there,” McEntire said prior to the approval.

More financial support for the EDC has been an ongoing talking point among county commissioners after McEntire, a past EDC board member, succeeded in spearheading and passing Ordinance 898.

However, Ordinance 898 that changed Clallam County Code 5.40 with relation to the county’s Opportunity Fund, opening it up to the EDC was short-lived following a lawsuit filed in response by former Clallam County commissioner Ron Richards.

Although County Commissioner Mike Chapman opposed Ordinance 898 because of the public process, or lack there of, he said in a Feb. 23 work session, the “unfortunate” aspect of the lawsuit and not looking to the Opportunity Fund for the EDC is the remaining option to draw from the general funds and thus impact county government.

“It’s not in public interest to spend money and time pursuing the court case, but the best course of action that was determined at a prior discussion was repeal Ordinance 898 and proceed in a different fashion,” McEntire said during a commissioners meeting March 17.

The Opportunity Fund Board eliminated by Ordinance 898 was resurrected as a result of the commissioners’ unanimous decision to repeal the ordinance mid-month.

Separately, the EDC’s board of directors underwent a reconfiguration from a 27-member to a 17-member board and county commissioners unanimously approved the board’s most recent representatives, Don Butler of High Energy Metals Inc., Linda Dillard with Clallam Bay-Sekiu Chamber of Commerce, Ryan Malane of Black Ball Ferry Line and Larry Hueth, CEO of First Federal.

“The whole notion is to try to get the board slimmed down to be able to make decisions and be strategic,” McEntire said. “The EDC needs to be able to measure the progress toward achieving well-defined goals.”

The EDC’s objective to increase the average median household income by 4 percent above inflation by 2018 is one example of a measurable goal it has set.

With the Opportunity Fund Board back in place and the dust nearly settled from the EDC’s newly adopted bylaws and reconstruction, the two boards will have to work together if the council seeks to gain any funding from the county’s Opportunity Fund.

Communication between the Opportunity Fund board and EDC “is the piece that still needs some attention and to be worked out,” McEntire said.

“The EDC has been receiving state and federal funding, but that money is dried up,” he said, furthering his emphasis on the need to identify more funding options for the council.

As a possible response to the staffing and funding hardship, the county commissioners met with the Port of Port Angeles Commission on March 24 to discuss the council’s status and the Port of Port Angeles Commission’s involvement.

“The conversation went well,” McEntire said in reference to the county commissioners meeting with Port of Port Angeles officials. “But it was just the beginning to a larger conversation and still at a conceptual level.”

Reach Alana Linderoth at alinderoth@sequimgazette.com.