Trust Sutherland To Manage Lands

Washington state’s commissioner of public lands is a job that calls for a top-flight manager known for balance, not partisanship or ideology. Doug Sutherland offers what this position needs.

Sutherland’s name isn’t familiar in this part of the state but no one should hold that against him. He grew up in Spokane, worked in area farms and forests as a youth, spent a decade as a Boeing engineer, spent another decade as owner of a successful Tacoma awning business and then entered public service: two terms as mayor of Tacoma, two years as Sea-Tac’s first city manager and now is in his second term as Pierce County executive, managing 3,200 employees and a $675 million budget.

Along the way Sutherland acquired a reputation as a Republican who governs in a bipartisan way - an essential skill in the Democrat-heavy governments he has led.

Also, Sutherland is well respected as a friend of the environment, having grappled with Tacoma’s pollution problems and having led in the effort to restore Puget Sound salmon runs.

But Sutherland is no extremist. He supports sustained-yield logging, hopes to consolidate the state’s agricultural lands for greater efficiency and criticizes the outgoing lands commissioner for obstructing needed fiber optic cables on state-owned land beneath the waters of Puget Sound.

Sutherland’s opponent, former Democratic Gov. Mike Lowry, has had his share of time in the limelight and would bring an excessively ideological edge to a job that calls for balance and professionalism, Sutherland’s forte.