The contents of a juicy memo from last year that led to a soon to be wrapped up investigation of several Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission appointees is now being made public.
The so-called “Knoll memo” was first mentioned in a Washington State Standard story last month that termed its allegations against Lorna Smith and Melania Rowland “scathing,” and it was posted in full today by the Sportsmen’s Alliance and Conservation Coalition of Washington.
The organizations are releasing what might essentially be considered a police affidavit “so the public can read exactly what independent legal minds within WDFW found when reading the same evidence as the watchdog organizations,” according to the Sportsmen’s Alliance.
The 10-page memo, which was written by Thomas R. Knoll Jr., a WDFW criminal justice legal liaison, last May, followed upon his receipt of commissioner records and interactions with outside groups, which were surfaced through public records requests. He was tasked with figuring out if the documents showed commissioners acting inappropriately or had created a conflict or interfered with the agency’s mission.
Knoll lists seven areas he analyzed – public records retention issues; various relationships between frequent WDFW court opponent Claire Davis and Rowland, Smith and former Commissioner Tim Ragen; use of personal devices for communicating offline; a carnivore panel webinar Smith invited all fellow commissioners to attend and how that conflicted with rules around quorum; and invoices for work done by Smith in 2024.
The conclusion? Both Smith and Rowland “present serious risks to WDFW in terms of failure to abide by the (Commission Rules of Procedure), especially when it comes to avoiding a conflict of interest and favoritism to the special interest groups represented by Claire Davis,” Knoll wrote.
Evidence included material from Ragen’s computer showing Davis commonly “expressed concerns or ideas” with the commissioners, and the computer is also where a curious spreadsheet grading potential future commissioners and identifying decoy candidates also appears.
The memo was shared with the Governor’s Office, which handed it over to Transformative Workplace Investigations when it was hired last summer to “provide a comprehensive investigation of a reported experience in a work unit to allow leadership to determine if any discrimination, retaliation and/or other policy violations occurred as alleged,” according to the Washington State Standard.
After two extensions, the Transformative Workplace Investigations final report is now due to Governor Ferguson next Monday, April 6.
“Moving forward, he may want to consider what options are available to him pursuant to RCW 43.06.070 through RCW 43.06.090,” Knoll wrote in his memo, referencing Revised Codes of Washington related to removing people from appointed positions.
That will of course be the governor’s call, but for their part Smith, Rowland and Davis all blasted Knoll’s memo in that Washington State Standard story last month, saying they were “shocked to see the false and outrageous claims it contained” (Smith), said it is “replete with assumptions, inferences, unsupported accusatory opinions, and incorrect conclusions” (Rowland), and that it “recklessly makes allegations of misconduct against me without any evidence of wrongdoing” (Davis).
Meanwhile, Sportsmen’s Alliance says the memo’s findings “support assertions in Sportsmen’s Alliance petition (to the governor) for removal of commissioners for collusion, obstruction, and violations of Open Public Meetings Act and Public Records Act.”
“Governor Ferguson has taken the first step to investigate the biases of his predecessor and can now begin to restore lawful management of our wildlife and enforce the transparency and accountability within Washington government that is outlined in law,” said Rob Sexton, SA senior vice president, in a press release. “We look forward to reading the findings of the independent investigation, and we’re optimistic it will come to similar conclusions.”
Davis and others made hay during former Governor Inslee’s final term to pack the Fish and Wildlife Commission with more preservationist-oriented members, and it’s led to all sorts of fun that I’ve chronicled ad nauseam on this blog. Now it’s coming to a head.
