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Don Gronning
Q&A with county commission chair
NEWPORT – Pend Oreille County commission chair John Gentle was recently elected to his second term as county commissioner from District 1, which is in the south county. Gentle, like all elected county officials, is a Republican. The county commission rotates its leadership annually and Gentle became chair this year, taking over from Robert Rosencrantz, with Brian Smiley the vice-chair.
Gentle sat for a wide-ranging question and answer interview with The Miner. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Question: How will the state’s looming budget shortfall affect Pend Oreille County?
Answer: “My biggest fear there is that the outgoing governor’s budget was a little bit of a wish list, a little bit of a parting shot,” says Gentle, who serves as the county’s legislative liaison. He says the state will likely sweep some of the Public Works Assistance account, which will mean less state money for small rural counties like Pend Oreille County. “Obviously infrastructure, I would say, is critically underfunded and certainly out in the rural counties.” He says the state raids the Public Works Assistance fund when they need dollars and it’s slated to have a big chunk taken out of it this year.
Q: Does the county have adequate budget reserves?
A: “No, I wouldn’t say so,” Gentle says. He says the county commission has increased reserves during his time in office, to $1.7 million, but two months operating expenses is what is recommended, and that he doesn’t think that has been reached. “I would be a lot more comfortable with about $2 million in there.”
Q: Does the county have enough workers?
A: “In some departments the answer is no,” he says. “There’s a bottleneck in the Prosecutors Office for sure.” The Prosecutors recently lost their civil attorney to the state Attorney General’s office in Spokane. That was a key loss, as commissioners rely on legal review of virtually all county contracts. The prosecutor’s office is also down a deputy prosecutor for criminal cases.
The county has enough contracted public defenders, he says, with three. Even with state law requiring public defenders to carry fewer cases, Gentle says the county is in good shape regarding indigent defense. “That may be the best (public defender) contract in the state,” he says.
He says there is a shortage in corrections officers for the jail and dispatchers for 911, but they have always been difficult positions to fill. The county is considering trying things like going to the schools to create interest.
Overall, the county has about a 6% worker vacancy rate, he says, down from 10% or 11%. “Six percent is manageable,” Gentles says.
Q: As a former county worker, what are some of the advantages of working for the county?
A: “Actually understanding how your government works,” he says. He worked as a county appraiser for a year and a half. He says working close to home is an advantage. “If you can have a 12-minute commute to work, that’s pretty attractive.”
Q: What are the disadvantages? A: “Well, pay,” he says. Because of Pend Oreille County’s size and budget, it struggles to keep up with pay. “We’re outbid literally any direction you go. Even Bonner (County) has positions that pay more than us, but certainly Stevens does and Spokane as well.”
Q: How would you assess county infrastructure, such as roads, buildings and bridges?
A: Gentle says when road maintenance has been deferred, it is much more expensive. “To fall behind is very costly to taxpayers,” he says. He acknowledges that the county has fallen behind. “At what point do you say we can’t afford to have what we have, we can’t afford to maintain what we have,” he says. He says the commission has turned some roads back to gravel.
Much of the money the county gets from the state for roads comes from the gas tax. With more electric and hybrid vehicles, and cars and trucks getting far better gas mileage now than they were 20 years ago, it’s not a sustainable source of revenue. By 2030, no new gas vehicles will be sold in Washington. “This is a fiscal cliff for roads,” he says.
Gentle says the county’s buildings have been well maintained. “We’re in pretty darn good shape for buildings,” he says. “We’re taking care of what we’ve got.”
The county has bridges and they also are costly to maintain and repair. The county set aside $400,000 in this year’s budget to match a $100 million federal grant for bridge repairs on the Usk Bridge. “We’ve been chipping away at that for a couple of years, working with the Kalispel Tribe of Indians on that.”
Q: What are some of the most difficult things you’ve had to do as county commissioner?
A: “Personnel has been the greatest challenge, unquestionably” he says. “To me it feels more COVID related.” He says that has changed how people value their work, in terms of pay. He says he had no previous experience with collective bargaining, so that was something he had to learn.
Q: What has surprised you about being a county commissioner?
A: “The biggest surprise to me is if you ask someone, do you want safe roads or do you want lower taxes, the answer is yes,” he says. People want both. He says the biggest surprise to him is how much people want to count on government, even in a two thirds conservative county. “I will almost always default to lower taxes, because that isn’t red or blue,” he says. “People want to pay less.”
Q: What are a few of the big challenges facing the county in 2025?
A: “For 2025, the biggest one is funding roads,” he says.
Q: How are relations with other government entities?
A: Gentle says the nine commissioners meeting has been revived and that’s good. The nine commissioners meeting involves the three commissioners from the Port of Pend Oreille, the Pend Oreille Public Utility District and the county meeting regularly. The tribe is also invited.
