Commissioners discuss possible county variance

COLFAX – At the Monday, May 4, Whitman County Commissioner workshop, county commissioners discussed what it would take for Whitman County to apply for county variance.

County variance would allow Whitman County to have the opportunity to move to phase II of the governor’s reopening plan before the rest of the state. Initial requirements to apply require the county to have a population less than 75,000 and three weeks of no new COVID-19 cases.

Whitman County would need to wait until May 13 before being able to start the process to apply for county variance. The last positive COVID-19 case in the county was April 22.

County commissioner Art Swannack said while counties applying for variance are based on population and number of cases within a three week period, he doesn’t believe this will be the same requirements for when the state changes phases.

The application process the county would need to follow to apply for variance includes the following:

First, a signed recommendation from the local public health officer, Dr. Brad Bowman, must be submitted to the local board of health, which in Whitman County is the county commissioners. The recommendation must have one of the following: not request a variance and stay in Phase I, request a variance to include all of thePhase II modifications, or request a subset of Phase II modifications.

Second, the local board of health must vote on the request from Dr. Bowman.

Third, local hospitals must submit a letter certifying that they have adequate bed capacity to serve their community and adequate PPE supplies to keep their workers safe.

Fourth, the county commissioners must request to move to phase II of the Plan to Reopen Washington.

The county would also need to submit a document describing plans to make COVID-19 testing available and accessible to everyone in the county with symptoms, the number of tests performed by week over the past three weeks, the number of people trained and ready to perform case investigations and contact tracing, etc.

These materials would then need to be submitted to the Department of Health where it will be either approved or denied by the Secretary of Health.

Counties that received eligibility as of May 1 include Columbia, Ferry, Garfield, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, Kittitas, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Skamania and Wahkiakum.

According to the Washington State Association of Counties, in the next two weeks the DOH and Gov. Inslee will be considering additional regional criteria for allowing other counties to apply for a variance.

“In normal situations, counties can do things on their own, but with the state’s state of emergency we don’t currently have the legal authority to do as we wish,” said County Commissioner Michael Largent. “We are very well aware that businesses are struggling in the county. We can’t forget the families who are struggling economically during this time.”

Largent said the job of the commissioners is to articulate what is going on locally to the state. He said they are letting the state known what is going on here economically.

“The state is making those decisions now and the county is not,” Largent said. “I’m disappointed in the unknowns at this time. Our county attorney has not advised us to go forward with legal action.”

Largent said this is a hard time for county businesses, electeds, public health departments, etc. He said these businesses are being heard loud and clear and the commissioners are open to any ideas of what to do during this time.

“This is certainly a moving target,” Largent said. “It seems to me that the governor is listening to counties. He is talking about regional options here and there and that gives me some hope.”