OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The state Supreme Court will hear a dispute between the state’s public lands commissioner and Attorney General Rob McKenna.
Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark says McKenna is ignoring his legal duty to represent the Department of Natural Resources because he has refused to appeal a right-of-way case in Okanogan County. The county Public Utility District won a lower-court case allowing it to run power lines across some state trust land that Goldmark manages.
The attorney general is the lawyer for state agencies in official matters. Goldmark, a Democrat, wants to appeal the case. But McKenna says he can decide which cases to appeal on his own.
The high court announced Friday that it would hear oral arguments on the case on Nov. 18.
