Already facing a key juncture that will determine its financial future, the Columbia River Gorge Commission has reached another turning point.
Executive Director Darren Nichols recently announced that he’s leaving the agency in April. He’ll become associate director of the William D. Ruckelshaus Center, a public policy institute in Seattle.
Nichols’ departure comes at a time when the budget-battered agency is making a renewed push for more funding from Washington and Oregon with both legislatures in session. Nichols has been among the most visible faces calling for a financial boost; that role may now fall to some of the 13 appointed leaders whom the commission itself comprises.
Commission members met this week to discuss the upcoming transition to a new executive director.
“It’s a critical time, but I have faith that the commission is going to be able to find a suitable replacement,” Nichols said.
That process may not be quick — when Nichols joined the agency in February 2012, it was more than four months after his predecessor first announced her departure. Former executive director Jill Arens officially stepped away in January 2012.
The agency may name an interim executive director as soon as next month, said commission member Janet Wainwright. That person could then help with the transition before a permanent replacement is chosen, she said. Those steps give the agency an opportunity to go through a thorough process and “get it right,” Wainwright said.
Nichols noted several positives from his three-year tenure, including what he called a “historic agreement” signed with Klickitat County leaders this month. Under the pact, Klickitat County will send one of its planners to the commission office one day per week to help review a backlog of dozens of unapproved development applications.
The backlog, like the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area itself, has long been a source of frustration in Klickitat County — the only one of the six Gorge counties that never adopted its own local ordinances to carry out the federal scenic area act. That’s why all of the county’s nonurban development applications in the scenic area have to go straight to the commission.
The new agreement means Klickitat County won’t have to rely solely on a Gorge commission staff with just one full-time planner. Leaders hope the arrangement will reduce the backlog that has meant even the simplest permits — for a patio or a fence, for example — take a year or more to get through.
“Given the history between the commission and Klickitat County … having something like this actually happen is pretty significant,” said Damon Webster, Clark County’s appointed member of the Gorge commission.
Nichols’ tenure has also been marked by perpetually tight budgets and some tension among commission members and agency staff. The group has debated what role Nichols or commission members should play in guiding the agency’s direction.
Nichols said some dissent is expected on a group as large and diverse as the Gorge commission. The agency remains “severely under-staffed,” but the team as a whole has worked well together, he said.
“We have a great staff, and a great commission,” Nichols said.
Whether the agency receives the funding boost Nichols and others have pushed for remains to be seen. In Oregon, former Gov. John Kitzhaber recommended nearly doubling his state’s contribution to the Gorge commission. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee recommended essentially flat funding. The decision will ultimately be up to both states’ legislatures.
The commission now functions on slightly less than $900,000 per year. By law, it must be funded in equal parts by Washington and Oregon.
Webster said he and others will make their case directly to lawmakers in Olympia and Salem in the coming weeks in Nichols’ absence. Nichols said he’ll remain available to the commission during the transition, but will serve largely on an “on-call” basis.
The next director will need the ability to wear multiple hats and build relationships with a wide range of jurisdictions and agencies, Webster said, praising the work that Nichols has done.
As he departs, Nichols said he feels good about the Gorge commission’s future.
“We’ve got a long ways to go, but the commission is on a good path,” Nichols said. “I feel like the commission is in good hands.”
