This week we are dealing with an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” issue.
Tacked on to the end of the Clark County Proposed Bi-Annual Code Amendments to go before the planning commission on Oct. 18, is a proposal to bring archeological predeterminations in house.
Why do we care?
Until now, the County has contracted with an archeologist to do predeterminations for landowners and developers who wanted to purchase this service through the county to meet State EPA rules. But landowners and developers also have the option to hire their own vendors – archeological services professionals working in private practice – to do these determinations.
The proposed code change reads this way: “Predeterminations, when required, shall be performed by the county’s archaeologist prior to submittal of a development application.” The predeterminations are binding but subject to SEPA appeal.
The intent is that the County’s in-house archeologist will perform all predeterminations. The County will contract out if necessary, but the intention is to do them all in house. What’s more, landowners will no longer be able to choose their own vendor for this service. One developer in the Page 1 story “Proposed code change could cut out archeological contractors” called the decision “somewhat horrifying.” Folks in this business have longstanding relationships with professional consultants – they should be able to use them.
County reps say they have an ethical dilemma. Currently they contract out their predeterminations. They say they don’t want their contractor doing predeterminations, which always have the potential to lead to full determinations. Development Services Manager Michael Butts says this has the potential to create conflicts of interest and could lead to a self-serving situation, where their contractor could push for full determinations when it isn’t actually necessary.
I should mention – the County’s in-house archeologist is the former employee of the County’s current archeological services contractor, and speaking of conflicts of interest, he was let go from his previous job according to owner Alex Gall.
Despite all of these potential motivations for the County dumping the contractor or the contractor blowing the whistle on the County, we think the County has not given enough reason why the system should change and predeterminations should move in-house. As the rates stand, this isn’t a great revenue generator for the County, and conflicts of interest haven’t come to light. No complaints have been filed with the County by developers and landowners.
This appears to be a case of the growth of government in the place of a free market solution. And if the customers don’t see a reason for change, neither do we.
