Clean air group urged to use caution in choosing director

A prominent Spokane businessman urged Spokane’s clean air board not to rush into choosing a successor to embattled Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority director Eric Skelton without broader input from the community.

Skelton submitted his resignation on Sept. 16, saying he could no longer work with a board that he accused of undermining his efforts to clear Spokane’s air. His last day is Friday.

At a special meeting Monday, the SCAPCA board tried to limit public comment from clean air activists angered by Skelton’s departure but relented as people rose to speak.

“You are really making a mistake,” Don Barbieri, board chairman of Red Lion Hotels Corp. and past chairman of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, told the SCAPCA board.

Spokane’s “Near Nature, Near Perfect” image can’t survive a public perception that polluters and their agenda have seized control of SCAPCA and are taking Spokane backward, Barbieri said. He lauded Skelton for doing a “huge service for this community” by enacting successful strategies since he was hired in 1991 to clear carbon monoxide and particulates from Spokane’s air.

Spokane was removed from the federal government’s “dirty air” list on Aug. 30.

Now, when Barbieri walks to his downtown office, he says he can see the Spokane River valley clearly – where once there was a grimy cloud of pollution.

“We are so close to hitting a home run on our quality of life,” said Barbieri, a former Democratic candidate for Congress. “We can’t afford the perception that special interests are driving this.”

Tina Flint, an occupational nurse consultant who works with people with lung disease, said the medical community supports a strong director for the clean-air agency and is upset that Skelton is leaving.

“You have a large medical facility that’s your biggest employer, and they are mad. This board has been damaged,” Flint said.

The SCAPCA board will continue to uphold state clean air laws, replied Spokane County Commissioner Phil Harris.

“No matter who the director is, the standards won’t be lowered,” he said.

“Perception is reality,” said Julian Powers, a retired engineer and environmental activist.

“The perception is there’s been a screw-up here. Until you give the public the perception that everything is being done legally and morally, there will be a dark cloud over this agency,” Powers said.

Karen Lindholdt, a public interest lawyer for two groups that oppose field burning, Save Our Summers and Safe Air for Everyone, said state law requires all board members to reveal their conflicts of interest. She zeroed in on the elected officials on the board, Airway Heights Deputy Mayor Matthew Pederson, SCAPCA’s board chairman, and Spokane County Commissioners Phil Harris and Todd Mielke.

“How many of you have received money from Inland Asphalt and Wendle Ford?” Lindholdt asked, referring to two local businesses that have complained in recent months about Skelton’s management of the clean air agency and his role in drafting a memo for the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency that analyzed the benefits of a proposed state law requiring Washington to adopt more stringent California emissions standards for new cars.

Harris reacted angrily to Lindholdt’s question. “You are far off the spectrum here. You’re turning things around. I received donations from Mr. Wendle and about 1,200 other people,” Harris added. State Public Disclosure Commission records show that Wendle Motors gave Harris $1,000 for his campaign in December 2001, and board chairman Richard C. Wendle gave Harris $100 in April 2002. Inland Asphalt contributed $500 to Harris in August 2002. Mielke received $1,000 from Chud Wendle, president of Wendle Motors, in June 2004 and another $1,000 from Richard and Carol Wendle in July 2004.

Chud Wendle, interviewed Monday at his auto dealership on North Division, said he didn’t ask the SCAPCA board to support or oppose the California clean-car emission standards. He opposes the standards because he fears he’ll lose auto sales to dealers in Idaho who remain unaffected by the stricter emission limits.

“I was opposed purely for economic reasons,” Wendle said. He worked with industry consultant Kay Jones on a records request to track Skelton’s input.

At the April board meeting, Wendle complained that Skelton had helped the Puget Sound clean air agency lobby for the new California standards, which were approved by the Legislature about a week after his presentation. In executive session, the SCAPCA board admonished Skelton and decided to take a neutral position on the California standards. The board took no disciplinary action against Skelton.

“Puget Sound needed Eastern Washington support for this bill. They used Eric as a pawn to lobby legislators. I felt Eric stepped out of bounds,” Wendle said.

In his decade and a half at SCAPCA, Skelton said he’s generally refrained from taking any legislative positions without going to the board. Skelton said he didn’t go to the board this time because he wasn’t lobbying for the clean-car legislation but was helping the Puget Sound agency develop accurate information about Spokane’s clean air problems and how cleaner cars would help. That information was used in a presentation to the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce by Climate Solutions, a Seattle coalition backing the California standards.

Wendle said he was invited by Dan Gore, a local renovator unhappy with SCAPCA’s asbestos cleanup regulations, to testify again at an August SCAPCA meeting where Inland Asphalt and Northwest Renovators presented their grievances to the board. He declined, Wendle said.

“I support SCAPCA,” said Wendle, whose company helps with programs to reduce vehicle emissions in older cars and encourage staff to use mass transit or carpools. “I just wanted the board to know what Eric had done” with the Puget Sound memo, he said.

Also on Monday, the SCAPCA board chose Ron Edgar, the agency’s deputy director, to fill Skelton’s position until a national search is conducted and a director is found. A search committee comprised of Harris, Pederson and at-large board member Michele Pope will meet before the board’s next regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 6 and discuss who else should be involved in the search.