EPHRATA — Despite disagreement regarding a one-year severance package, Grant County PUD commissioners approved a new contract Monday with its interim attorney, Mitch Delabarre, in a 3-2 vote.

After working for six months on an interim basis, the contract makes Delabarre a district employee.

According to his contract, his base salary is $7,576.92 per pay period. At two pay periods per month, his annual base salary is roughly $181,900.

The contract also states the district may terminate his employment “at any time, with or without cause, by providing general counsel 10 calendar days notice.”

During the fifth year and all subsequent years, he receives one-year notice, according to the contract.

If he’s let go during his first four years of employment without cause or good reason, he receives his base salary and some benefits for 26 consecutive pay periods, according to the contract.

Before voting against the motion, Commissioner Randy Allred said a year’s worth of severance is going “overboard” and “helps tie hands of future boards.”

Commission President Terry Brewer, Commission Bob Bernd and Commissioner Tom Flint voted in favor of the contract.

Flint said the contract protects the district as well as can be anticipated and will save the district money in the long run.

Brewer said having an in-house attorney will reduce the cost burden the district’s been bearing for quite some time.

Commissioner Greg Hansen said he feels the package is too generous, compared to the previous attorney’s and referred to a $197,000 penalty the district didn’t have before.

Bernd said the district previously paid $500,000 every year for legal services.

Hansen said the $500,000 wasn’t due to termination.

From January to mid-December 2008, the office of the PUD’s contracted attorney, Ray Foianini, was paid $502,107.37, according to a December article from the Columbia Basin Herald.

Hansen also called the action another erosion of the powers of the commission given to them by the state auditor.

Bernd said if termination was to happen, the cost would be less and pointed out Delabarre would be an employee of the district under the contract.