Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Klickitat County Commissioners skipped a workshop meeting yesterday for a short afternoon session yesterday, but still have unfinished business concerning indigent defense, that is, how to pay for providing lawyers for people charged with crimes who can’t afford representation. They have scheduled a session this afternoon at 2 pm on that single topic.
Yesterday, commissioners made a couple of internal adjustments in the budget, appointed Rebecca Cranston as the County’s new Prosecuting Attorney and responded to our question about accomplishments in 2025.
Chair Ron Ihrig was the first to respond, citing the budget process:
“I felt very positive that the board looked at a three-year solution, not a one-year solution. Today on the consent agenda is our selective county-wide hiring freeze, and that’s going to be painful over the next three years and how we navigate that. And the reorganization with administrator, starting on the comp plan.”
For 2026, he said he’d like to see follow-through on short term rentals, fireworks, solar and BESS ordinance, critical area ordinance and the shoreline master plan
New commissioner Todd Andrews said it took him a while to adjust to the slower pace of government:
“I’ve probably had more frustrations my first year here, just with the speed of government, being in private industry my whole life. But we set things up, I think, for success for the coming years. And I appreciate this board’s work on that. I think we’ve made some really good decisions in putting Robb as county administrator and taking a slow, thoughtful approach, rather than just a knee-jerk reaction. I think that was wise, and in doing that, we’ll be better set up and prepared for the future.”
And Lori Zoller commented on a change in mood:
“I think for me, it’s just the working of the board has been wonderful. We’ve brought it back to civility. Mr. Ihrig said he was going to bring it back to boredom. I don’t know if we’re there yet, but I think that pretty much the soap opera was gone that we were living under, and all the things that came forward, like the comp plan, and the ADU and everything else that needed to be done, we’ve set those up so they’re going to be accomplished, finally.”
Again, the Klickitat County Commissioners have a final meeting of the year this afternoon at 2 pm.