The Dark-Lantern Courthouse Deal That Split Benton County

In an editorial upholding the action of Commissioners Clements and McNeill in voting a $125,000 courthouse bond issue, the Prosser Independent-Record says:

'There undoubtedly will be some criticism against the board of county commissioners for bonding the county to build a courthouse. That is to be expected. This criticism, however, will only come from Kennewick and will come only because that town wants the county seat and the courthouse for herself. When true conditions are known, people from other parts of the county will realize the necessity for building.'

Those may have been the honest convictions of the Prosser editor last week, but certainly by this time his mind must have been disabused of any such hallucinations. He must know by this time that the high-handed, arbitrary action of the two commissioners has aroused a storm of criticism from all parts of the county. He must know that the newspapers of White Bluffs and Richland have denounced the action of the two commissioners in no uncertain language. He must know that the people of Kiona and Benton City, lacking a newspaper of their own, have carried their protest to Prosser and by this time the editor of the Independent-Record has been requested to give publicity to their denunciations. He must know that the farmers in the west end of the county are denouncing the action as a 'dirty' deal. He must know that the citizenship of Prosser as a whole, in spite of their loyalty to their home town, do not approve of the conspiracy. They want a courthouse, but they want it honestly. He must know that the taxpayers from one end of the county to the other feel that they have been defrauded of their rights and they look upon the bond deal, not only as a blow to their pocketbooks, but as an insult to their intelligence.

This is not a question of Kennewick against Prosser or Prosser against Kennewick. It is a question of right or wrong; a question of integrity or betrayal; a question of fairness or trickery; a question of honesty or dishonesty; a question of candor or conspiracy; a question of business or scandal; a question of honor or disgrace.

We shall be very candid with our fellow editor. Kennewick has wanted, does want, and intends some day to get, the county seat. We are even willing to admit, for the sake of argument, that this county needs a courthouse. Nor do we presume to argue for one minute that the commissioners have not the authority to bond the county to build one.

We are told by the Independent that the commissioners have realized for years that the 'emergency' existed. While we question whether or not an emergency can continue to exist over a period of years, the commissioners certainly cannot seek to justify their action on the grounds that the circumstances were such as to render their regular procedure impossible. If the emergency has existed for years and the commissioners have known it, why did they wait until both had been defeated for office and had but a few weeks yet to serve and then in thirty minutes attempt to shove a $125,000 bond issue down the throats of the people to whom they were responsible for their public acts? A school boy who would attempt to justify what the county commissioners did on December 4 on the grounds that an emergency existed and had existed for years should be taken out of the grades and put in an institution for imbeciles.

If Commissioners Clements and McNeill were actuated by honest motives, if they were playing fair with the people, if their sole object was to overcome an emergency and provide this county with a courthouse, why didn't they proceed to build one regularly, openly and above board? Had they given notice, even casually, that they intended to introduce a bond issue; if they had given the taxpayers an opportunity to be heard after it had been introduced; if they had publicly called for bids on the bonds and sold them in open competition, only death or a miracle could have thwarted their purpose. Kennewick might have protested, Kennewick might have howled, Kennewick might have raved, but all their ravings would have been as a head against a stone wall. The commissioners could have built and Kennewick and the public, for that matter, could have been damned. Had they proceeded in this manner they would have had at least the self-respecting citizens of Prosser back of them.

'The county is in the best financial condition. In fact in better condition than any other county in the state,' continued the Independent-Record. All right, then, if this be true, why is it that on the same day that our dark-lantern commissioners handed Benton county's bonds to Keeler Brothers at 5%, in Yakima county, where bids had been called for, bonds sold at 4½, and on the day following bonds sold in Walla Walla at 4? Does the Prosser editor mean to tell us that this county should hand $30,000 or $35,000 of the taxpayers' money to somebody as a penalty for being prosperous? Does he mean to tell us that just because our finances are not impaired that our treasury should be looted?

With admirable consistency, the Prosser editor concludes his editorial by saying:

'Then too, it is something to have a board of county commissioners with the courage to declare an emergency when it exists, even in the face of the opposition that has developed. This is courage of the right sort, and Commissioners Clements and McNeill should have the backing and commendation of everyone who has the real interest of the county at heart. Theirs is the action of men who know their duty and are not afraid.'

If so courageous, why didn't they long ago declare the emergency which the Prosser editor says has existed for years? Yes, indeed! Theirs was the courage of the men who, with a dark lantern and a crowbar, entered the back door of the Kennewick Clothing company when the proprietor was at his home sound asleep and the night policeman was in another part of the city.