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Commission committee weighs options to rebuild public trust and boost community support
Summary
Commissioners discussed tactics to build community and legislative support — including town halls, focused public forums, advisory groups and updated social‑science surveys — and asked staff to compile existing efforts and feasible options for the June meeting.
The Big Tent committee discussed "building community support" as a follow‑up to earlier conversations about declining budgets and public trust. Morgan Carlson told the committee the work assignment was to scope the topic and return options; she asked commissioners to describe the future state they want so staff can develop feasible tactics.
Commissioners offered three overlapping objectives: create more meaningful two‑way public conversations at commission meetings, build coalitions that can advocate to the Legislature, and gather unbiased social‑science data about public values. Commissioner Lorna Smith pointed to BPEG as a model of collaborative advisory conversation and said she wants the commission "working somehow collaboratively with the public" rather than the standard front‑of‑the‑room posture where "the public comes in and yells at us." Commissioner Steve Parker urged building a legislative action team or coalition to carry the department’s priorities to lawmakers.
Several commissioners and staff flagged weaknesses in the current public comment format and suggested alternatives: focused topic forums, facilitated town‑hall formats, rotating stations where commissioners can have shorter conversations, and deliberately designed Q&A. Commissioner Barbara Baker and Morgan Carlson noted the America's Wildlife Values Survey (sponsored by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies) is being updated and could provide useful baseline data (the national survey effort aims for a roughly 2028 update); Carlson said Washington participates but cannot singly fund the large sample sizes such a survey requires.
Staff (Amy Windrope and Sam Montgomery) and Morgan will inventory ongoing department efforts (social‑science products, regional engagement committees, HR community‑engagement work) and return a set of options, including feasible pilot formats and communications steps, at the June meeting. The committee emphasized starting small, designing facilitated formats that reduce adversarial exchanges, and making results transparent to the public.
The committee adjourned with staff asked to prepare an options package and feasibility assessment for the next meeting.
