Our Views: Lewis County Has Made Serious Progress in the Past Year, Thanks at Least in Part to County Manager Position

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In Thursday’s edition of The Chronicle, we ran a story about Lewis County Manager Eric Martin’s first eight months on the job — a hire resulting from months if not years of disorder at the county leading to lawsuits, allegations of hostile work environments and budget troubles. 

Proponents of the position predicted a county manager could facilitate communications between commissioners and department heads, streamline county operations and allow the commissioners to step away from day-to-day housekeeping and focus on big-picture goals. 

We’re thrilled to hear that’s exactly what’s happened in the past few months. 

“It’s been more efficient from my perspective,” Central Services Director Steve Walton said. 

Commissioner Edna Fund said she has more time to focus on “policy and advocacy,” and Todd Chaput of the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce and One Lewis County said, “He’s a problem-solver.”

Now, it seems no one disagrees on the importance of the position, with Fund going so far as to say she couldn’t imagine going without a manger. 

It wasn’t always so. 

The Lewis County Commission consented to hire a county manager about a year ago, after months of criticism from The Chronicle Editorial Board, columnists, constituents and One Lewis County, a political action committee formed by the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce intent on running a home rule charter ballot measure. 

The decision was also the result six weeks of self-reflection and soul-searching accomplished primarily by a “blue-ribbon” task force selected by the commission. Their task was to take a look at county government and see if the current organization structure — a three-member board with no county manager or executive — was really as inefficient and problematic as The Chronicle and One Lewis County argued. 

While the task force didn’t go as far as saying the county needed to go to home rule and add commissioners, they determined a manager would do a great deal of good and recommended one be hired by January 2018. However, they noted the position would be another expensive line item in a budget already difficult to balance. 

At first, the commissioners were less than excited about the prospect. Arguably, their hand-picked blue-ribbon panel’s conclusion was not the one they expected, and the $250,000 projected cost for a salary, benefits and equipment was a punch in the gut. 



Even so, we were disappointed when commissioner Bobby Jackson compared the manager position to “having a third wheel for a date,” according to Chronicle reporting at the time. 

Commissioners Edna Fund and Gary Stamper felt much the same way. 

“We would have to take a look at doing something different I think in our departments, whatever that looks like, to save money to be able to pay that person,” Stamper said, at the time. 

That was in September 2017. In October of that year the commission began swaying in the opposite direction, and by mid-2018 it was contracting with a firm to hire a manager. 

We were skeptical when Martin — then the county’s Public Works manager — was hired. 

As former Chronicle Editor Eric Schwartz wrote in a column in 2018, “While I mean no disrespect to former public works director Erik Martin, his hiring as county manager indicates a lack of interest in county management experience or expertise. I also have to wonder what direction Prothman received from the commissioners, who also interviewed Dave Campbell, a former city manager who has led governments.”

But a few months into 2019, we’re pleased with what we’re hearing from the county. 

We still believe in the home rule charter process, which we hope makes it to the ballot again. We still believe a three-person form of government is not efficient and makes it difficult for commissioners to avoid even accidental violations of public meeting laws. We still believe commissioners should be part-time decision-makers and advocates, rather than full-time managers. 

Perhaps as they become more comfortable with relying on their manager, the commissioners will see the value in that alternative. Until then, we’re encouraged by the positive shift in news from the county.