Goldmark sees politics in shellfish lease study

Incoming state Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark on Monday charged that his predecessor is trying to push through a last-minute decision benefiting campaign contributors.

The case involves state tidelands planted with geoducks and oysters by Taylor Shellfish, a major shellfish company headquartered near Shelton.

It was discovered this year that Taylor was raising the shellfish on state lands in Totten Inlet, near Olympia, where it didn't have a lease.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on Monday said it had issued a study that's the prelude to a possible lease allowing Taylor to harvest shellfish from the disputed land. The public has until Jan. 5 to comment, a time period overlapping the Christmas and New Year's holidays. It also leaves a small window for possible action on the lease by Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland, whose last day in office is Jan. 13.

"It is regrettable that the incumbent would attempt to jam through another eleventh-hour deal for one of his campaign contributors," Goldmark spokesman Aaron Toso said in a prepared statement. "If this is a good deal, it doesn't need to be rushed through over the holidays when no one is paying attention."

Department spokeswoman Patty Henson said the study was released now simply because it was ready.

"This is as good a time as any," she said.

Todd Myers, spokesman for Sutherland's campaign against Goldmark in the recent election, said that Goldmark's people were speaking before they knew the details of the lease.

"This is typical of Peter Goldmark, commenting before he has the facts," Myers said.

This is the second case in recent weeks in which Goldmark, a Democrat, has challenged an action in the waning days of Republican Sutherland's term that involved campaign contributors.

Sutherland in early December issued a lease needed for the expansion of a disputed gravel mine on Maury Island by Glacier Northwest, a company that gave $50,000 to a Sutherland campaign fund.

Taylor officials say its use of state tidelands was an accident stemming from confusion over boundaries going back decades. To enable Taylor to retrieve the geoducks and oysters, worth more than $3 million, DNR is proposing to issue a five-year lease to Taylor.

Some Totten Inlet residents have complained for years about the possible environmental impacts of commercial shellfish farms in their area.

Top company officials donated more than $3,500 to Sutherland's campaign while giving nothing to Goldmark, according to state campaign-finance records. Company spokesman Bill Dewey, one of the donors, said they backed Sutherland because of his work on settlement of a legal fight between shellfish companies and tribes.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com