Yakima County formally appoints court cost-study panelists

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima County commissioners formally appointed Tuesday the three-member panel to examine law and justice costs and recommend ways to rein in what has become an alarmingly large piece of the county budget.

The panel is being asked to report back in May before commissioners start putting together the 2013 budget.

The members are U.S. Magistrate Judge James Hutton, Yakima attorney David Thorner and retired Yakima businessman David Connell.

The county spends more than 81 percent of its general fund budget annually on the justice system and public safety. Included in the $41 million cost is $11 million to pay for housing inmates in the county jail.

Commission Chairman Rand Elliott said commissioners haven't given the panel a more specific charge than to analyze the system for efficiencies.

"We haven't gone beyond the general question that it is so costly and burdensome to us," he said following the appointments during the commission's weekly business meeting at Yakima City Hall. "We want them to look at it to make sure we are getting all we can."

Commissioner Kevin Bouchey said he is interested in seeing the resources to the various departments within the system -- prosecution, defense, the courts and the clerk -- are properly balanced and whether the allocations should be changed.

The panel will meet with heads of the various justice departments as well as Jail Director Ed Campbell during the four-month review.