County declines Department of Commerce clean‑energy planning grant, citing staff capacity

Walla Walla County's acting Community Development director told commissioners on Dec. 22 she did not have the bandwidth to manage a Department of Commerce grant for long‑range planning work related to clean energy facilities and asked the board to authorize declining the award; the board approved the request unanimously.

Melissa Schumake said that although consultants would do much of the work, the director still must manage the grant contract and review consultant deliverables and did not have the capacity to oversee the project now. "I did not agree at the time with applying for [the grant]," Schumake said, "... I just don't have the capacity to take that on right now."

R. O. McFarland, a member of the County Planning Commission, urged the board to reconsider, saying the grant included useful baseline materials (for example, solar and wind standards and consultant reviews) that the port and future developers might find valuable to have on file. "It was a good grant and the clean energy concept ... is important to have it on file," McFarland said, noting regional stakeholders had interest in such preparatory work.

Commissioners said they understood the concern but supported the acting director's decision to decline the award given current department workload; the motion to approve the director to decline the grant was adopted 3–0.