Taking over Methow, Wells facilities
By Marcy Stamper
The Douglas County Public Utility District (PUD) is making substantial progress in its plans to assume management of the Methow and Wells hatcheries by the end of November.
The PUD has hired a supervisor for each hatchery and received enough résumés for hatchery specialists that it is no longer accepting applications for those jobs, according to Meaghan Vibbert, a public information officer with the PUD.
Vibbert said the PUD had received a good pool of qualified applicants from multiple states, with a dozen applicants for each of the supervisory positions and many more for the hatchery specialists. The PUD is recruiting three specialists in the Methow and five at Wells, plus a fish health and evaluation specialist at Wells.
Although the PUD built and owns the hatchery facilities, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has always managed them under a contract with the PUD, which currently pays the state more than $2 million a year.
The PUD gave WDFW 90 days’ notice at the end of August that it would be terminating the contract and hiring its own staff. The PUD invited WDFW’s hatchery employees to apply for the jobs.
The PUD has hired Brandon Kilmer, who oversaw WDFW’s hatchery operations in Winthrop and smaller regional facilities, as hatchery supervisor for the Methow Hatchery; and Patrick Phillips, manager of the Colville Tribes’ Chief Joseph Hatchery, as the Wells Hatchery supervisor, said Vibbert.
The PUD initially posted 10 jobs for the two facilities and anticipated hiring up to four more people, said Vibbert. WDFW has had 18 people, some seasonal, to staff the two locations and smaller facilities in the area, but Vibbert said the PUD didn’t anticipate needing as many because the employees wouldn’t be moving among locations.
Staffing in the transition plan is similar to current operations, said WDFW Hatchery Division Manager Eric Kinne.
Hatchery operations require staff to be available 24/7, so some hatchery employees live on the premises, said Kinne. There are two houses at the Methow Hatchery in Winthrop and three at the Wells Hatchery near Pateros. The state workers and their families will be moving unless they end up continuing in their jobs with the PUD.
As the transition progresses and the hatchery jobs are filled, WDFW may issue a formal reduction-in-force, which would enable its employees to seek other jobs with the state, said Kinne. “They’ve already hired two of our staff,” he said.
Transition planning
Managers with WDFW and the PUD are continuing to work out details of the transition, said Kinne. Details include permitting issues, onsite transition of fish-rearing procedures, and transfer of the employee housing, he said.
Kinne is assisting with the switch on the managerial level, and WDFW is providing an employee to work with PUD staff on day-to-day operations at the hatcheries, he said.
After receiving the PUD’s termination notice, WDFW Director James Unsworth told the PUD he was concerned about the timeline and urged the utility to reconsider, but the PUD moved ahead with the transition.
According to correspondence between the heads of the two agencies, the PUD was troubled by WDFW’s handling of what was described by outside investigators as an “extremely sexualized” culture at the Wells hatchery that had “eroded trust in our partnership,” wrote PUD General Manager Gary Ivory. The situation resulted in WDFW’s dismissal of four employees at Wells.
WDFW attorneys have been reviewing the federal license for the hatcheries. As of this week, WDFW hadn’t found anything that would prohibit the PUD from taking over all operations, although the agency still has concerns about the timeline, said Kinne.
Gerald Lewis, chair of the Fish and Wildlife Committee of the Yakama Tribal Council, also raised concerns to the PUD about risks to fish because of the short transition period. The Yakama Nation is a co-manager of the fishery with responsibilities to the tribal public, said Lewis.
In a Sept. 19 letter to Lewis, Ivory said the PUD will work with WDFW and other agencies “to ensure the safety and health of the fish.”
