Clallam County Proposes Water Specialist Position

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  Clallam County Board of Commissioners will consider creating a new Water Resource Specialist position“After discussion between the Director of Community Development and the Board of Commissioners on how to move forward with consideration of this recommendation, the Director of Community Development is considering options for the creation of this new position within his department and will be prepared to discuss his recommendation(s) for doing so as a component of the annual budget planning process for 2027. The Board of Commissioners is prepared to work with the Director of Community Development to discuss his recommendation(s) and to work collaboratively on how to achieve them.”
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  The Water Resource Specialist position will be within the Community Development Department“The first recommendation was to create a new position of "Water Resource Specialist" within the Department of Community Development "with the necessary expertise to collect, analyze, and provide water resource data to all entities managing water resources in the County." Both the Charter Review Commission and the Board of Commissioners received a range of comments, thoughts and suggestions from the public on this topic.”
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  The creation of the Water Resource Specialist position follows a recommendation from the 2025 Charter Review Commission“The 2025 Clallam County Charter Review Commission forwarded two formal recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners. After holding town hall events in each of the three Districts and soliciting additional public comment, the Board of Commissioners is taking action on both recommendations.”
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  The position aims to centralize water resource data collectionNo usable supporting receipt — unverified.
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  The position aims to centralize water resource analysis for county entities“"with the necessary expertise to collect, analyze, and provide water resource data to all entities managing water resources in the County."”
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  The County Administrator will draft policy updates“The County Administrator is drafting an update to County Administrative Policy which outlines the process for future responses.”
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  The policy updates aim to standardize responses to state and federal land transfer requests“To ensure consistency, the County Administrator is drafting an update to County Administrative Policy which outlines the process for future responses.”
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  The Board will review the Director of Community Development's budget proposalNo usable supporting receipt — unverified.
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  The budget proposal is for 2027“After discussion between the Director of Community Development and the Board of Commissioners on how to move forward with consideration of this recommendation, the Director of Community Development is considering options for the creation of this new position within his department and will be prepared to discuss his recommendation(s) for doing so as a component of the annual budget planning process for 2027.”
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  Public input included support for the water specialist role“Those in support of the concept underscored the fundamental importance of water and water resource planning and pointed to the benefit of having this be the sole focus of a position.”
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  Public input included concerns about potential regulatory overreach“Those concerned or in opposition to this recommendation expressed an aversion to the potential for the position to either be, or to become, regulatory in nature as well as concern regarding the ability of the County to support this position given challenging financial times for counties.”
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  Most public input supported policy updates for land transfer responses“The vast majority of public input related to this recommendation was supportive, particularly recognizing that the intent and best practice is to provide a response to all requests for comment and in light of the high percentage of land in Clallam County that is already under State or Federal ownership.”
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  Two Charter amendments were approvedNo usable supporting receipt — unverified.
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  The Charter amendments were approved for the November 2026 ballotNo usable supporting receipt — unverified.