Capitol Dispatch: Orcutt elk bill demise not the end of the road
Thursday, March 8, 2007 6:08 AM PST
By Don Jenkins, columnist
Printable version
E-mail this articleOLYMPIA ---- Rep. Ed Orcutt won't get an immediate investigation into how well the state Department of Fish and Wildlife handles elk herds. But in the long run he may help change how the entire department functions.
His bill to bring in outsiders to assess elk management plans failed this week to meet a deadline to pass the House Appropriations Committee
Although bills can be revived before the Legislature adjourns April 22, Orcutt, R-Kalama, said House Bill 1250 probably won't resurface. "I am very disappointed it died," he said.
Orcutt asserted that an evaluation by private biologists would have confirmed that government biologists failed to head-off widespread malnutrition in the Toutle Valley last spring.
Studying the department's management of the Mount St. Helens herd and the Colockum herd in Central Washington would have cost $90,000 ---- a small expenditure by state-budget standards. But Fish and Wildlife officials told lawmakers the studies weren't needed and could lead to acrimonious debate between dueling biologists.
Orcutt bristles at the suggestion that his bill ---- or his call last year for the firing of Fish and Wildlife director Jeff Koenings --- was a hasty overreaction to witnessing elk slowly dying.
The plight of the elk and the department's denial that there was a problem topped off "several years of frustration with the department," Orcutt said.
Orcutt isn't the only lawmaker frustrated by some aspect of dealing with the department.
House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee chairman Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo, last month at a hearing diplomatically outlined concerns he had.
"I'm not trying to be accusatory in any way," said Sullivan, who went on to say that he's had a hard time getting information from the department.
He proposed to make the Fish and Wildlife director answer to the governor rather than the nine-member citizens commission that was set up by a public vote in 1995.
With the governor appointing the director and ultimately being responsible for the department, lawmakers would at least know where the buck stops, Sullivan said.
Orcutt, who's on the natural resources committee, proposed waiting a year and convening a task force to study the department's structure. "We need a good thoughtful look at restructuring. And we have to have all the stakeholders at the table," Orcutt said.
Sullivan agreed. House Bill 1193, setting up the task force, awaits a vote by the full House.
Theater, horse arena: Bills to renovate the Columbia Theatre and build a 7,000-seat indoor arena near Winlock passed the Senate Ways and Means Committee at a fast-paced meeting Monday.
The committee held hearings on 31 bills in the afternoon, took a 15-minute break and passed dozens of bills in the evening. The bills would have died if the committee hadn't acted, according to the session calendar.
The Winlock arena bill already had passed the House Finance Committee, keeping the proposal alive even if the Senate budget committee hadn't acted.
Approval by the Senate budget committee was more important for the theater bill because the legislation didn't get past the House Finance Committee.
Proposals to publicly fund a $500 million pro basketball arena in Renton or a $368 million NASCAR racetrack near Bremerton have not passed either the House or Senate fiscal committees. Really big proposals, however, don't go away until lawmakers leave Olympia at the end of the session.
Capitol Dispatch appears Sundays and Thursdays. Don Jenkins can be reached in Olympia at 360-705-9438 or don.jenkins@tdn.com.
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