Adams County Misused Road Funds, State Official Says Commission Chairman Asks For Ruling From State Auditor

Adams County commissioners broke the law when they paid half their 1996 salaries out of county road funds, a state official said Tuesday.

Eric Berger of the County Road Administration Board in Olympia traveled to Ritzville Monday to give the commissioners that message.

“I wanted them to be very clear about the correct expenditure of road funds,” said Berger, executive director of the board that oversees the use of state road money in Washington’s 39 counties.

The commissioners agreed to stop using the road money for 1997 salaries, said Adams County Commission Chairman Shawn Logan.

“Until this gets cleared up, we really don’t want to proceed down that path,” Logan said. He’s asked for a ruling on the issue from state Auditor Brian Sonntag.

Sonntag plans an immediate review, he said Tuesday.

“You cannot divert road funds into the general fund for those kinds of uses,” Sonntag said. “Adams County’s prosecutor (David Sandhaus) has been trying to tell the commissioners this, and we agree with the prosecutor.”

Berger’s visit to Ritzville was prompted by a March 4 Spokesman-Review story, which outlined the controversy over the commissioners’ use of $53,000 in road money for 1996 salaries.

Richard Owings, Adams County public works director, brought the issue to light when he resigned March 3.

In his resignation letter, Owings said he had become “increasingly resentful” of the commissioners’ diversion of road money for other purposes - including half the salaries of the three commissioners and their clerk.

If the state orders the county to reimburse the road fund, that will be a problem for the rural, cash-strapped county. But Logan said commissioners will pay back the money if ordered.

In a string of legal opinions dating back to the 1960s, the Washington state attorney general’s office has ruled counties can’t use road money for anything but transportation.

State law says money paid to counties from the motor vehicle fund must be spent on roads, bridges, wharves, ferries and “for the operation of the county engineering office, and for any other proper county road purpose.”

The commissioners’ rationale for diverting road money to salaries was that they spend at least half their time on road issues, Logan said in early March when Owings complained about the practice.

“We have a lot of roads with problems,” Logan said.

Adams County isn’t the only county that’s tried to divert road funds.

A recent state audit of Skagit County’s books discovered commissioners there had illegally diverted state road money since 1993.

Sonntag’s office has ordered the county to reimburse the road fund $575,162.

“It’s an easy thing for counties to stumble into because of the difficulties they have supporting increased criminal justice costs and other things,” Berger said.

Now that the issue has come to a head in Adams County, he’ll remind other counties it’s not allowed.

“I’m going to highlight this in my communications with county commissions statewide - to remind them of the law,” Berger said.

, DataTimes