by Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard
September 1, 2026
Gov. Bob Ferguson won’t punish two members of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission for violating public records and open meeting laws but has warned each that they will face removal if they don’t comply with state transparency statutes and conflict of interest rules in the remaining months of their terms.
Letters from the governor’s office to Commissioners Melanie Rowland and Lorna Smith late Monday said their slow response to public records requests was “particularly problematic” and their multiple meetings with parties that had sued the Department of Fish and Wildlife undermined the perception of the commission’s impartiality.
The letters, signed by Chief Operations Officer Franklin Plaistowe and stamped confidential, were emailed to Smith and Rowland late Monday and made public by Ferguson’s office on Tuesday.
Rowland declined to comment. She said she has not spoken to anyone in the governor’s office about the investigation or the findings.
Smith could not be immediately reached for comment.
Both commissioners are serving terms that end Dec. 31.
The letters come one month after the release of the findings of an investigation into commissioners’ conduct that Ferguson ordered a year ago at the request of Kelly Susewind, director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Ferguson has never discussed the investigator’s report issued at the end of July. Neither he nor his office provided comment Tuesday.
Last Friday, following an event at Western State Hospital in Pierce County, he brushed off questions about any potential actions he might take.
“No update. We’re working through it,” he said.
Susewind ignored the letters in his short statement.
“The Department remains focused on its long-term work of advancing conservation and management of fish, wildlife, and their habitats, now and for future generations,” he said.
Ferguson’s refusal to remove Smith and Rowland angered a national hunters and anglers group that has pressed the governor to replace them for more than a year.
The governor “chose politics over the law when it comes to holding these commissioners accountable,” said Brian Lynn, vice president of marketing and communications for the Sportsmen’s Alliance. “Collusion, corruption and perjury are now the accepted standards for the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.”
The Conservation Coalition, tribal leaders and more than a dozen elected county officials in eastern Washington have also asked Ferguson to oust the two commissioners following the investigation.
“Disappointing as hell. Expected, but frustrating nonetheless,” reads a post on the coalition’s Facebook page.
A long and windy road
Commission meetings have become a forum for heated debate among groups fighting over how far the state should go in protecting wildlife or allowing for hunting or fishing of various species.
The investigation didn’t ease tensions because its conclusions did not recommend the removal or resignation of any commissioners. Nor did it absolve commissioners of wrongdoing.
It’s unlikely Ferguson’s response, or lack thereof, will end a saga that dates back to the commission’s narrow and controversial decision in November 2022 to stop recreational hunting of black bears in the spring.
Members of the Sportsmen’s Alliance vociferously opposed the outcome. They obtained, with the aid of a lawsuit, a trove of commissioners’ emails, texts and other communications that they insisted show state public meeting laws had been violated ahead of the vote.
After receiving thousands of records, the group petitioned Ferguson in May 2025 to remove four commissioners — Smith, Rowland, Barbara Baker and John Lehmkuhl — alleging misconduct and malfeasance. Ferguson didn’t.
The yearlong probe focused on those four commissioners plus Commissioner Woody Myers, and one past member, Tim Ragen. All but Ragen were interviewed last fall by the investigator. Commissioners are gubernatorial appointees. Those at the center of the inquiry were appointed by Ferguson’s predecessor, Jay Inslee.
The investigator concluded that while some of the commissioners routinely disregarded transparency laws and skirted conflict of interest rules, their behavior stemmed from a lack of training and understanding, and did not reach the level of serious misconduct.
“In each instance, the evidence stops short of establishing the most serious forms of the alleged misconduct,” wrote Chiedza Nziramasanga of Transformative Workplace Investigations.
She recommended the governor require comprehensive training on public records and open meeting laws, and establishment of clearer rules for how commissioners communicate with advocacy groups, especially those suing the panel or the department.
Nziramasanga did suggest “corrective or personnel action” could be considered against Smith and Rowland who, in one instance, were found to have purposely declined to turn over certain public records for 18 months.
In the letters, Plaistowe inserted findings of the investigation pertinent to Smith and Rowland, such as their slow response on public records.
In another example, he pointed to the investigator’s flagging of their relationship with the leader of a conservation nonprofit, Washington Wildlife First, with whom they had regular undisclosed meetings on policy matters. The group is also suing the department on some agency actions. The investigator found no evidence of collusion but Plaistowe cited her concern that those meetings “undermined the perception of impartiality and transparency” of the commission.
Each letter directs the commissioners to carry out “prompt and comprehensive compliance” with the public records act and “strict observance” of conflict of interest rules. Each needs to recuse themselves “from matters of personal or organizational relationships that can even create an appearance of a conflict of interest,” Plaistowe wrote.
And they also must refrain from “making any threats of retaliation or engagement in retaliatory conduct against anyone who participated in the investigation.”
“Failure to meet these expectations will result in the removal from your position prior to the time you leave the Commission at the end of your term,” Plaistowe concluded.
Copies of the “confidential” letters the governor’s office sent to Fish and Wildlife Commissioners Melanie Rowland and Lorna Smith late Monday.
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