PORT ANGELES — Five months ago, the three public entities on the North Olympic Peninsula with a stake in redeveloping the former Rayonier pulp mill site challenged the state Department of Ecology.
The heads of the city of Port Angeles, Port of Port Angeles and Port Angeles Harbor-Works took issue with agency rules covering grants that are handed out to stir up public participation.
The sticking point: an Olympic Environmental Council advertisement, paid for with one of those grants, that advocated a no-development solution for the 75-acre property.
The heads of the city, port and Harbor-Works Development protested the use of the grant to pay for the full-page color ad, published twice in July in the Peninsula Daily News — but Ecology’s guidelines remained unchanged.
Rayonier critic
The issue resurfaced earlier this month when Darlene Schanfald, Rayonier cleanup coordinator for the Olympic Environmental Council, publicly criticized the three public entities for challenging the grant.
A frequent critic of the port, city and Harbor-Works, she brought up the issue up at the Jan. 5 City Council meeting.
“This project has no integrity and is not neutral,” said Schanfald.
The environmental council, which has representatives from other local environmental groups, has received the two-year grant each time it has applied for it for about the last 10 years.
The grant has usually been about $40,000 every two years, Schanfald said.
Schanfald said the ad cost about $1,000 each time it ran.
Public money
City Manager Kent Myers said the concerns of the city, the port and Harbor-Works revolved around the use of public funds to promote a single group’s position.
“Our concern was not about the [Olympic Environmental] Council,” he told the Peninsula Daily News.
“It was the use of state resources for an advocacy position.”
In August, Myers and then-port interim Executive Director Bill James each signed a letter to Ecology, which is overseeing the cleanup of the Rayonier property.
They protested the agency’s approval of the ad, which they called a “piece advocating only the position of the Olympic Environmental Council.”
Harbor-Works Executive Director Jeff Lincoln said he shared the same concern, and Myers and Lincoln said they spoke to Ecology about the issue.
Ad passes muster
Blake Nelson, Ecology public participation grant manager, said his office approved the ad because it complied with grant guidelines.
The purpose of the grant, he said, is to involve private groups in environmental cleanup projects.
Nelson said the grant allowed private groups to publish ads expressing what they would like to see done with a cleanup site to ensure that not only local governments have their voices heard.
Schanfald said the grant also has covered the group’s costs for putting on public meetings on the cleanup site, having an environmental expert review project documents in order to provide comment, and Schanfald’s position.
Nelson said that last year, the Port Angeles Business Association also applied for the grant.
He said its application was denied because it did not include enough information.
Ad researched
While Ecology’s grant guidelines haven’t changed, Nelson said the agency no longer has the funds to cover items like an ad.
At the City Council meeting almost two weeks ago, Schanfald said that the city, port and Harbor-Works wasted public funds researching and protesting the grant, which she said she believes they wouldn’t have done if the ad promoted development.
Myers and James said they did not do anything more than draft a letter or speak with Ecology staff.
Lincoln devoted a little more time to the issue and reviewed the environmental group’s grant application.
With Harbor-Works in particular, Schanfald alleged in a recent letter to the public development authority’s board that Lincoln used one of the entity’s contracted law firms to research the document in August, and therefore, used public funds.
Funds properly spent?
While Lincoln said he did review the document, he added that he did the work himself.
“I called Ecology myself,” he said. “I didn’t hire lawyers to do that.
“I reviewed her grant, which is a public record, and looked that the appropriate uses of public money to pay for an ad that clearly represents a point of view of just one group.”
Lincoln said he couldn’t recall, after five months, if he received the record through a telephone request or if a lawyer acquired them for him.
Nelson said his records show that a lawyer for one of Harbor-Works’ contracted firms, Cindy Lantry, spent three hours Aug. 20 reviewing all of the environmental group’s past public participation grant applications, which go back about 10 years.
He added that he didn’t know for whom she was researching the documents.
A Harbor-Works invoice says that Lantry billed the public development authority for about four hours of work that same day, which included reviewing Ecology records, coordinating “with Ecology staff to obtain copies of records,” among other items, without being more specific.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.