In a move former Clark County Commissioner Ed Barnes calls an attempt to save Don Benton’s job as director of Environmental Services, commissioners will vote this month to formally establish existing departments by ordinance.
The proposal directly conflicts with a county charter approved by voters in November, said Nan Henriksen, a former Camas mayor who served as chairwoman of the county freeholders who wrote the charter.
The charter, which takes effect Jan. 1, gives executive authority over departments to County Manager Mark McCauley, the current county administrator.
The ordinance would prevent McCauley from consolidating any of a dozen departments.
A public hearing on the proposal will be 10 a.m. Dec. 16 at the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St., Vancouver.
Before leaving office, Barnes said dissolving the Department of Environmental Services and eliminating three positions — the director, finance manager and administrative assistant — would save the county $713,225 over the next two years in employee costs, a figure confirmed with the county budget office.
Barnes suggested the environmental services staff could be reassigned to the Community Development and Public Works departments, which handled most of the responsibilities before the county created the new department in 2009. Public Works could take solid waste, clean water, conservation and legacy lands, vegetation management and environmental permitting for county capital projects. Community Development could take forestry, biology and private environmental permitting, he suggested.
Barnes made the recommendation at the end of a Nov. 4 meeting. He said it wasn’t a personal attack on Benton, a state senator hired last year by Commissioners Tom Mielke and David Madore to run the department. Madore and Mielke didn’t appear to take his suggestion seriously, even though Barnes said they are always trying to find ways to cut costs and create a more efficient government.
On Friday, Barnes said he never heard any talk about amending county code to formally establish the departments.
“Tom is trying to save this position for Sen. Benton,” Barnes said on Friday. “I think that’s all this is about. To keep Don Benton’s job.”
Benton, R-Vancouver, emailed a statement Friday in response to questions about whether he discussed the proposal with Mielke and if he agrees it was made with his job in mind.
“The organization of county departments is a policy call reserved to the elected commissioners. I am an employee here, countywide policy decisions are up to the BOCC and the County Administrator, certainly not me, so I do not involve myself in them. Mr. Barnes has a long history of making statements that are factually incorrect and/or politically motivated, he simply cannot stand the fact that I killed the CRC bridge boondoggle, so I view everything he says in that light,” wrote Benton, whose current annual county salary is $114,648.
Re-dividing powers
Henriksen said Friday that Mielke, the current chairman of the board, who put the item on the agenda, clearly doesn’t want to lose some of his current administrative powers.
“I am saddened that Tom Mielke would resort to this, and hope that the others (Madore and newly elected Commissioner Jeanne Stewart) will not support it,” she said.
The division of powers between the county manager and elected board of county policymakers was clear in the charter, she said.
The change will make the county operate more like the city of Vancouver, which has a city manager who oversees employees and operations and implements policy set by the city council.
Vancouver City Manager Eric Holmes, for example, has the authority to consolidate or create departments. Holmes would need to seek permission from the city council, which approves the budget, only if he wanted to add staff positions.
Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt said that in his dozen years on the city council there’s never been a suggestion to limit Holmes’ flexibility by formalizing departments in city code.
“Why would we do that? That’s a power move over the person we employ,” Leavitt said.
“It’s good to see that there is some transparency coming out of the commissioners’ office,” he added.
Under the charter, the Board of Clark County Commissioners will be expanded to five people who will be called councilors. Two members will be elected next year and take office in 2016.
If the proposal does pass Dec. 16, a new board could undo it, Leavitt pointed out.
McCauley said Friday that commissioners have not publicly discussed the proposal.
Commissioners routinely discuss proposals, at either a work session or weekly board time meeting, in advance of a public hearing.
But that’s not always the case, McCauley said.
The proposal would establish the following departments by ordinance: Public Works, Community Planning, Environmental Services, Public Health, Community Development, Community Services, General Services, Human Resources, Medical Examiner, Public Information and Outreach, Application Services and Infrastructure Services.
Mielke did not immediately return a phone call Friday seeking comment.
Madore and Stewart did not immediately return emailed requests for comment.
