Following appointment shakeup, Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission set to meet Friday

The panel that oversees Washington’s fish and wildlife agency will hold a shorter-than-normal meeting this week, with its committee meetings and regular Saturday session nixed in the wake of last week’s appointment shakeup.

Instead of a usual three-day meeting, the Fish and Wildlife Commission will meet virtually for a full day on Friday, with an agenda that covers land deals, rules for commercial whale watching and a decision on Columbia River salmon management, among other items.

Its typical Thursday committee meetings have all been canceled, as has the Saturday session that usually includes public input.

The truncated schedule – which included moving the meeting from in-person to virtual – was released Monday, just a few days after Gov. Bob Ferguson pulled back the appointments of Tim Ragen of Skagit County and Lynn O’Connor of Ferry County to fill two open seats on the nine-member panel.

It appears that the panel will move forward with seven members. As of Wednesday morning, the biographies for both Ragen and O’Connor had been removed from the commission’s website.

Staci Lehman, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson, confirmed in an email that as of Wednesday the agency expected seven commissioners to attend Friday’s meeting. She added that the agency is waiting for direction from the governor’s office on new appointees.

Former Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Ragen and O’Connor just before leaving office in mid-January. On Feb. 5, the Washington Senate returned the appointments to Ferguson’s office.

Ferguson requested the return of the appointments. In a letter to the Senate, Ferguson wrote that his administration heard from “individuals, tribes, and other entities expressing a desire for a more extensive process” for naming the new members to the panel.

A Ferguson spokesperson added that calling them back would allow the office to “engage in a more thorough appointment process.”

The governor will have three appointment decisions to make for the commission. Ragen, who was first appointed in 2022, was one of three members whose terms expired on Jan. 1. The others were Molly Linville of Douglas County and Jim Anderson of Pierce County.

Linville was set to be replaced by O’Connor, who would have attended her first meeting on Friday.

No decision was made on Anderson’s seat, so he has continued serving on the commission. He is still listed as a member on the body’s website.

Ferguson’s office has not responded to requests for additional information about the panel’s makeup or the appointment process.

Multiple sources have said that interviews for the open seats have taken place in recent weeks. Last week, a Ferguson spokesperson said appointments were due within 60 days.

All this comes against the backdrop of a report released in December by the William D. Ruckelshaus Center that found that observers feel the commission is “dysfunctional.”

Many people interviewed for the report had concerns about the appointment process. Commissioners are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate, and they oversee the Department of Fish and Wildlfie and make decisions on items like species protections and hunting rules.

At least three bills have been introduced in the Washington Legislature to tweak the appointment process.

One would give county commissions power over some of the appointments. Another would create a nominating committee appointed by the governor. A third would make WDFW a cabinet agency and make the commission an “advisory body.”