Lane officials reverse course, rejoin lobby group | Federal funding issues trump concern from environmentalists that the association is pro-timber

By Matt Cooper - The Register-Guard

The Lane County commissioners have narrowly voted to rejoin a lobby association criticized by environmentalists as being pro-timber.

But Commissioner Bill Fleenor said the Association of O&C Counties can be important to winning critical federal timber funding for county government.

Fleenor called himself the swing vote in the board’s 3-2 decision last week to restart annual membership dues of $37,000. The vote reversed a unanimous move by Fleenor and the board earlier this year to leave the association amid concerns about county funding.

The association, named for the Oregon and California Railroad that once owned 5 million acres of timberland in Western Oregon, represents 17 counties with a stake in the lands, which are now controlled by the federal Bureau of Land Management.

Environmental groups have called the association extreme and committed to old-growth logging. Association officials say they support sustainable harvests and have taken positions at odds with the timber industry.

Regardless, that debate is secondary to the group’s role in helping the county win renewal of federal timber payments, Fleenor said.

The federal government has long compensated Lane and other counties with payments for federal timber land that the counties serve but can’t tax. Congress renewed the payments last year but said they would end in 2011-12, and efforts to win another reauthorization are under way.

“Now is not a good time for us to pull the plug on (the association) attempting to renew the (federal) act,” Fleenor said. “Even though there may be a bitter pill to swallow, the final product of reauthorization is well worth that taste.”

Fleenor’s vote placed him opposite board chair Pete Sorenson, often a political ally of Fleenor’s but a constant critic of the association. Sorenson said he was skeptical of plans to change the association’s direction.

“Ultimately, we’re giving them the money and they can do whatever they want with it,” Sorenson said. “That’s the wrong approach.”

In return for rejoining, the board has asked the association to make the timber payments its top priority.

The board also wants the group to abide by the same laws that require Lane County and other governments to conduct most business before the public, Fleenor said.

But a member of the environmental group Oregon Wild criticized the group’s openness after attending an association meeting a day after the board vote. Conservation Coordinator Doug Heiken said that after he introduced himself, the association skipped a “normal agenda item” about federal plans to log in Western Oregon and said it would be covered in a closed session at the end of the meeting.

“So much for open meetings,” Heiken wrote in an e-mail reviewing the meeting.

Doug Robertson, association president and a Douglas County commissioner, said there was no closed session and that Heiken left before the association held a discussion about “sensitive legal issues relative to pending litigation.”

The public is welcome to attend association meetings, Robertson said, but as with any private group and even public governments such as Lane County, there are certain matters that cannot be discussed in the open.

“Would I be welcome at an Oregon Wild meeting addressing their legal issues?” Robertson asked. “I would be interested in attending.”