State Likely To Pay Counties To Control Runaways County Could Get $250,000 From Settlement Of Lawsuit

The state is ready to reimburse 20 counties part of their costs for implementing a 1995 law designed to help control chronic runaways, officials said Friday.

Spokane County stands to gain more than $250,000 if the counties agree on the $4.7 million settlement and the Legislature appropriates the money during the current session, said Assistant State Attorney Brian Buchholz.

“What I’ve heard is it is well on its way and we can expect the money,” Spokane County Administrator Francine Boxer said. “We’re banking on it.”

Spokane and the 19 other counties sued the state in 1997 to recoup costs for implementing the Becca bill, which allows county officials to hold runaways for up to five days without court approval.

It also gives parents of children under 17 the right to commit their kids to drug, alcohol or mental treatment programs and requires schools to file truancy petitions with the courts for repeat offenders.

The law was named for Rebecca Hedman, a 13-year-old chronic runaway who was murdered in a Spokane motel room in 1993.

County officials across the state have complained since the enactment of the law that legislators have not appropriated enough money to pay for it. That cost has unfairly fallen to county taxpayers, they said.

“Nobody’s questioning the law. We’re just saying it has created a financial burden on the counties,” Thurston County Commissioner Diane Oberquell said in 1997.

Thurston, King and Pierce counties also are plaintiffs in the suit.

The proposed settlement would reimburse the 20 counties for their costs for implementing the bill from 1995 to 1997. Reimbursement of costs since 1997 is still being negotiated.