Just before he left office, former state Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland (former Tacoma mayor) signed a settlement and lease agreement with Taylor Shellfish for the harvest of geoducks on state lands.

New Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark says he isn't going to sign it. It's basically a do-over.

Taylor Shellfish is getting fined for harvesting geoducks from state lands without and lease and the company is now getting the lease they should have gotten in the first place, said Goldmark spokesman Aaron Toso.

"The lease and the settlement are separate issues," Toso said "But they were tied together (in Sutherland's deal) and the public didn't have a voice in the lease."

The deal that Sutherland signed imposed a $630,000 fine on the shellfish company for harvesting geoducks and oysters from Totten Inlet. It gave the company 5 years to pay off the fine.

It also gave Taylor Shellfish Farms a 10-year lease to 10 acres of state tidelands for about 11 percent of the value of its geoduck harvest and 15 percent of its oyster harvest, plus a fee of about $11,500 a year.

Here's the whole deal.

Goldmark said he will meet with company officials on Monday.

Also, just before he left office, Sutherland signed a 30-year lease for gravel removal from the Maury Island. Goldmark's staff is still reviewing that agreement.

OLYMPIA – Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark today announced that he will not sign a lease with Taylor Shellfish with terms as negotiated by the previous commissioner. The terms had been set in a settlement addressing the company’s trespass on state aquatic lands in Totten Inlet.

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Typically, evaluations of public officials like city managers and school superintendents come with pay raises for good performance.

But Puyallup officials haven't discussed that matter yet as it concerns their city manager, who received his first annual evaluation Tuesday night.

Puyallup Mayor Don Malloy told me Tuesday morning that the city council had yet to talk about whether or not first-year City Manager Gary McLean would receive a raise.

And it didn't come up at that night's meeting, when three council members voted to put McLean out of a job and four voted to retain him.

I'm curious about this, so I'll continue to ask. And I'll be sure to let you know.

Here is the estimate from the General Accounting Office of how much Washington state would get from the U.S. Senate version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment ARRRRRRRRRRR economic stimulus. (Medicaid only).

Thanks to Jerry Reilly, chairman of the Elder Care Alliance. The alliance cares about that $2.02 billion figure because its members want to restore many of the human service cuts that Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed in her budget. That figure is for a 2-year, 3-month period, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2009.

FMAP: That the acronym for Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage. It's sorta synonymous with Medicaid.

From Jerry:

Attached is new analysis of the amount of additional federal funds that Washington state would receive for FMAP under Medicaid in the Senate
Version of the stimulus package. The amount is $2.020 billion. This is the highest number that I have seen thus far. There is more than enough money to restore the devastating cuts that have been proposed for long term care and health programs funded though Title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act.
Jerry Reilly (360 561-4212)
Chair, Eldercare Alliance

It's Senate Bill 5875. This is partially a defensive move by the Washington State Trade and Convention Center, which has seen its capital and operating budget surpluses raided by the Legislature in recent years.

Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, is pushing to the bill for the center. But Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, chairman of the House Finance Committee, said before the Legislature convened Jan. 12 that the convention center plan was "not ready for prime time."

Here's the story from the Seattle Times.

And here is the earlier post I put on this blog, explaining what the convention center was up to, partly through Hunter's eyes.

That's according to a report written by the Washington State Department of Transportation for the 20 years from 1984 to 2003. (Remember, the Legislature passed a 5-cent gas tax in 2003 and a 9.5-cent increase in 2005.)

Here is a link to the report.

This is for ALL transportation taxes, state and federal.

King County got back $1.09 in projects for every $1 its citizens paid in taxes. The county that got the least amount over those 20 years was Whatcom (Belligham). They got only 61 cents for every $1. Pierce was fifth worst in terms of return on taxes collected. We shelled out $640 million more than we got back: Paid $2.7 billion; got back $2.06 billion.

Wahkiakum County is the biggest beneficiary: something like $5.78 back for every $1 its citizens pay in transportation taxes.

Deputy Pierce County Executive Kevin Phelps cited this report Wednesday when he was rallying local officials to encourage the Pierce County delegation in the Legislature to persuade their colleagues to restore the money Gov. Chris Gregoire proposes to cut from state projects in Pierce County.

(County Executive Pat McCarthy is meeting over the lunch hour (right now) with the Pierce legislative delegation.)

CONFIDENTIAL TO NOTME: The info you're looking for is on pages 12-14 of the pdf.

But read the whole thing. Some of this info is dated. It appears this particular report was generated so legislators could see how much money counties had gotten in the past, compared to what they would get from the 2003 and 2005 taxes.

There are persistent rumors to that effect. But I've been told the Fish and Wildlife is not being eliminated.

I do know that combining the law enforcement officers for multiple agencies, such as state Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Natural Resources and may Parks and Recreation is being talked about.

Rumor is, they all could fall under the jurisdiction of the Washington State Patrol.

I'm only piecing together some random observations in the natural resources arena (with lots of guidance from others who know a lot more than I do) but there are some signals.

For one, Gov. Chris Gregoire telegraphed the potential for moves in her budget, where (I’m told) she made deeper cuts to Fish and Wildlife than other natural resource agencies.

She also made that remark in her (Second) inaugural address about having three biologists from separate agencies working in the same stream.

Pearse Edwards, the governor's communications director, said only that Gregoire would have a list of reforms to announce at her news conference on Monday. That's at 10 a.m., I think.

Regarding those scientists in the stream:

"Those bioloists are all looking for different things," said someone who works for one of the agencies involved. Fish and Wildlife protects endangered salmon. DNR protects the bottom of Puget Sound and the eel grass on it. Ecology keeps an eye on what is dumped into water.

"There are things we could do more efficiently. There are places where we could work together," my source said.

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Former state Rep. Mary Skinner is the third past legislator to die in recent months. Bill Grant and Steve Hailey, also from Eastern Washington, also passed away recently.

Cancer claims former Rep. Mary Skinner
Lawmakers mourn loss of former 14th District state representative

Surrounded by her family, former Rep. Mary Skinner died this morning at 6:25 a.m. at her home in Yakima after a lengthy battle with cancer. She was 63.

Skinner was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1994. She served for seven terms, including the last two as vice chair of the House Republican Caucus, but announced last May she would not seek re-election and would retire from office when her term expired this month.

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