Commissioners okay assessor's overhaul

Wahkiakum County commissioners approved an overhaul of the assessor's office and addressed other issues in their meeting Tuesday.

The board supported newly elected Assessor Bill Coons's proposal to restructure his department, and commissioners authorized him to hire a temporary part-time clerk, if the move meets with approval from county union officials.

Coons, who is a certified appraiser, plans to lay off the department's appraiser and replace him with a full-time clerical deputy. That will allow the department to meet its deadlines, he said.

The department has been dealing with 285 appeals of property values, and with one deputy working 8-10 hours of overtime the past week, and the office starting Wednesday closures, they have settled 68 appeals he said.

After discussion, the board voted to suspend the overtime pay and allow Coons to hire a temporary clerk so that two people could work on the appeals.

Coons and R.C. Cavazos of the state Department of Revenue discussed the county's effort to switch from a four-year revaluation cycle to an annual cycle. They commented that it would likely be 2013 or even 2014 before the office is ready for the annual revaluation.

In other issues:

--Public Works Director Pete Ringen reported the Department of Ecology would be able to fund a grant for the county's recycling program through June.

He also reported that the Federal Highway Administration is refusing to cover the county's expense to repair eroding Loop Road last January. A camera malfunctioned and put the wrong year on photos of the work, he said, and the agency refuses to acknowledge other evidence supporting the emergency funding request.

Ringen said he would continue to supply information supporting the request.

--The board signed a letter to state Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark urging him to resist pressure from environmental groups to stop selling timber from state trust land in and around habitat for endangered marbeled murrelets.

The Department of Natural Resources should first complete a science based conservation strategy that meets with the federal Endangered Species Act, the letter said.

Agency scientists have been working on the plan, and the agency has developed trust timber sales in murrelet habitat in accord with guidelines from the scientists.

The agency should implement the scientists' 2008 report, the letter says, and that will allow the agency to meet its fiduciary responsibilities to trust beneficiaries such as Wahkiakum County.

--Grays River resident Al George urged the board to contact the commissioners of Port District No. 2 about ending maintenance of navigation channel markers in Grays Bay.

The county shared costs of the program when it was initiated 6-8 years ago, George said, and the county should have been consulted before the port commission decided to end the project.

Commissioners said they would review minutes and other records to see what obligations might exist.