Fishermen rock the board’s boat

OLYMPIA – The battle to strip the state Fish and Wildlife Commission of some powers – mainly hiring and firing the agency’s director – continues.

Commercial fisherman say the board tilts too far in favor of sport anglers. The latter say that the board is simply making the hard decisions necessary to preserve the region’s fish, and that rod-and-reel anglers are inherently more selective than nets.

Last week, Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, tried to hash out a deal to give the governor the power to hire the director. His plan would also take the commissioners out of regulating commercial fishing.

Rep. John McCoy, R-Marysville, thought that was such a good idea that the commission should also lose its authority over many game fish and all hunting. Others balked. The bill died.

But the idea didn’t. And someone – the bill record isn’t clear – quietly tucked similar provisions into another bill.

Result: House Bill 1778 would now shrink the nine-member commission to seven, shorten their terms, and give the governor the authority to pick a director for the agency. The commission would keep all its fishing and hunting authority, however.

On another front in the same fight, meanwhile, state Sen. Ken Jacobsen plans a confirmation hearing Friday for commission chair Miranda Wecker.

Such hearings are usually love-fests. Lawmakers toss a few softball questions and quickly vote to confirm.

This one won’t be a love-fest. Jacobsen is deeply unhappy with the commissioners and the ongoing fish fight. How unhappy? He recently vowed to “neuter” the commission’s authority.

North-south freeway or deadly intersection fix?

That’s the question posed in the recently released House transportation plan.

In the face of shrinking dollars, the plan mostly maintains funding for the state’s “mega-projects,” like a Seattle waterfront highway tunnel, a floating bridge and $600 million in work on Snoqualmie Pass.

Locally, instead of the Senate’s proposed $350 million for the North Spokane Corridor, the House plan has only $302 million.

What happened? Rep. John Driscoll, D-Spokane, says some of the difference ($14 million) would instead be spent to build a bridge at the intersection of U.S. 195 and Cheney-Spokane Road. A 16-year-old girl died there in January when her car was struck by a pickup.

The accident sent community members flocking to Olympia to call for changes.

“We’re looking at that intersection as very dangerous,” said Driscoll. “We need to get on that right away.”

The Senate plan had far less – $250,000 – to realign a turn lane to improve visibility for cars trying to cross.

What people think of the proposed budgets

Here’s the abbreviated version:

•Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina: “… Devastating.”

•Washington State University President Elson Floyd: “… Devastating.”

•Diane Sosne, Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199 NW: “… Devastating.”

•Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton: “… Devastating.”

•Tom Geiger, United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 21: “… Devastating.”

•Mary Lindquist, president of the Washington Education Association: “… Devastating.”

•Bill Lyne, English professor, Western Washington University: “… Devastating.”

Parker battles for a veterans’ bill

This can be a stomach-churning time for lawmakers trying to shepherd pet bills over the finish line. If you doubt that, ask Rep. Kevin Parker, R-Spokane.

Parker, a freshman who narrowly ousted a Democrat in November, rushed to introduce a bill. He filed it Dec. 8, standing in the rain on the capitol lawn to meet a handful of veterans who supported it.

The bill would allow the state Department of Veterans Affairs to claim human remains sitting abandoned at funeral homes across the state.

Parker badly wants his bill to become law. And yet for weeks his House Bill 1001 sat, stalled, in a Senate committee.

“Being that it was the second bill (introduced) this session, and the day after Pearl Harbor Day, you’d think there could have been a hearing by now,” he said. So he went to see the committee chairwoman, Sen. Darlene Fairley.

At this point, the two versions of what happened diverge.

Parker says he waited patiently for Fairley, and finally got a moment with her to urge her to move the bill ahead.

Fairley, D-Seattle, has a somewhat different take on what happened. She said Parker accosted her as she was trying to get somewhere on her electric scooter. She repeatedly described him as a “bully.” And the famously outspoken Fairley was clearly underwhelmed by Parker’s alleged threat to go to the press.

Fairley says there’s a simple reason she didn’t hold a hearing or vote on the bill: there’s a similar version from Sen. Chris Marr, D-Spokane. Marr introduced his bill six weeks after Parker’s.

“Marr’s bill is alive and well,” Fairley said. “It does the same thing. The House sent me millions of bills. I can only hear so many. We’re going with Marr’s bill.”

This was one of Parker’s few bills. All are now dead. But things aren’t quite over. Angry at what they see as Marr trying to carry Parker’s idea over the finish line, local Rep. Joel Kretz and other Republicans are trying to prod Democrats into resurrecting Parker’s bill.

And if a freshman in the minority party can really bully a majority committee chairwoman, Kretz jokes, Parker should be giving other Republicans lessons.