Tom Mielke, chairman of the Board of Clark County Commissioners, said Wednesday that his proposal to formally establish existing departments by ordinance has nothing to do with saving Don Benton’s job as director of Environmental Services, as alleged by former Commissioner Ed Barnes.
Mielke, who earlier did not return a phone call from The Columbian giving him the opportunity to refute Barnes, said nothing could be farther from the truth.
“What we have today has been very, very successful,” Mielke said of the county’s structure.
Under the voter-approved county charter, effective Jan. 1, executive authority over departments will be turned over County Manager Mark McCauley, the current county administrator.
Mielke and Commissioners David Madore and Jeanne Stewart discussed the proposed ordinance Wednesday during their weekly board time meeting.
They agreed the ordinance should proceed to a public hearing, 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St., Vancouver.
“I’m not offering any assurance about how I’m going to vote on it,” said Stewart.
Madore, who earlier expressed concerns about taking away the county manager’s power to configure county departments, reiterated Wednesday his confidence in McCauley to make smart decisions.
The ordinance would prevent McCauley from consolidating any of a dozen departments, including the Department of Environmental Services, which last year Madore and Mielke, both Republicans, hired Benton, a Republican state senator, to run.
That hire cost the county $250,000 in a settlement with Anita Largent, the interim director who sued the county alleging unlawful hiring practices and discrimination.
The commissioners bypassed the county’s hiring practices before hiring Benton, and Largent was not allowed to apply.
The Department of Environmental Services was created five years ago.
On Nov. 4, Barnes suggested dissolving the department because 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.
The work could be split between Public Works and Community Development, which did the work before the department was created in 2009, Barnes said.
McCauley said he has considered restructuring departments, but hasn’t mentioned the Department of Environmental Services. He added that when commissioners don’t take the 1 percent property tax levy increase allowed by law every year, it creates even more pressure to streamline county operations as much as possible to cut costs.
Clark County Assessor Peter Van Nortwick attended Wednesday’s meeting and said employees are worried about possible restructuring and want to be able to give input about potential changes that will impact how they perform their duties.
Mielke said his ordinance would help reassure employees there won’t be major structural changes.
Stewart said that when citizens approved the charter, they sent a message to commissioners that they want a more profound separation of power between the elected policymakers and the professional manager. She said she’s still trying to determine whether the ordinance would help balance the power or unfairly tie McCauley’s hands.
