After years of operating with tight budgets and a bare-bones staff, the Columbia River Gorge Commission is hoping 2015 brings better fortunes.
The Gorge commission has approved requests to both Washington and Oregon that would nearly double the agency’s operating budget. That sounds audacious, but the actual increase — about $800,000 over two years — would amount to a minor blip on both states’ multibillion-dollar budgets. The commission now functions on just under $900,000 from each state, for a total two-year budget of about $1.8 million.
The commission is charged with overseeing land-use decisions and policy in the six Gorge counties, among other duties. Leaders believe a boost in resources and staff would help it carry out some basic functions it hasn’t kept up with in recent years.
The budget proposal didn’t come without some strife among commission members. The approval process saw the body’s chair and vice chair resign their leadership posts — but remain on the commission — over the role of commission members versus agency staff and Executive Director Darren Nichols.
Commissioners Jim Middaugh and Janet Wainwright said they feel the commission itself should be more involved in setting the agency’s priorities and direction. But both acknowledged that most other members appear comfortable with how the agency is operating.
“I stepped down as chair as respect for a majority of the commissioners,” said Middaugh, who resigned as chair in August. “There’s a majority of the Gorge commission that are strongly in support of the direction the agency is headed. I really respect that.”
Wainwright, who stepped down as vice chair during the same meeting, said the authority of the commission is “paramount.” She said the budget process was “not the ideal” and wishes commissioners had been given more information as the proposals were crafted. But both she and Middaugh noted they weren’t necessarily against the final product.
Commissioners Keith Chamberlain and Bowen Blair have since taken over as chair and vice chair, respectively.
Commissioner Damon Webster, Clark County’s appointed representative on the commission, said the group as a whole remains supportive of Nichols and his staff.
“There wasn’t a majority, or even very many, that felt the same way (as Middaugh and Wainwright),” Webster said.
Nichols could not be reached for comment.
‘Just don’t know’
The Gorge commission is funded in equal amounts by Washington and Oregon. If the two states’ legislatures authorize different amounts, then the agency gets twice of whichever is lower. In the 2013-15 biennium, that was Washington’s.
Agency leaders know asking for a larger budget doesn’t guarantee they’ll get it — far from it. The Gorge commission has lived with uncertainty for years, and now functions with a staff of just six employees.
The two states’ governors will release their recommended budgets by the end of this year. The agency’s fate will ultimately be determined by lawmakers in Olympia and Salem.
“You just don’t know,” Webster said. “It’s going to be a tough job for us to try and have our budget go up any appreciable amount.”
On the larger request, he added, “it’s something we just feel like we have to do.” Several of the commission’s key responsibilities simply aren’t getting done, he said. The agency currently has a huge backlog of pending development applications waiting for approval, for example.
The request may face the bigger challenge in Olympia, Middaugh said. There, lawmakers are staring down a multibillion-dollar education funding mandate in a session expected to be dominated by that and other issues.
“I don’t think we’re going to rebuild the commission in one session,” Middaugh said. “We didn’t see reductions all at once. We’re not going to see full restoration all at once.”
