Enforcement authority requires training and graduation from a police academy plus any additional training done by the agency and continuing training to maintain a commission. While there might interest in some folks to get the training and maintain a commission, it would take them away from their current job for a few months and then a month or more (including travel time, etc) during the succeeding years plus any court time, administrative time, etc. Most supervisors aren't going to cut an employee loose for that amount of time from their regular job responsibilities. The commission can work if the person came in as an officer and then moved on to another job within the agency and the supervisor buys off on the extra work.

Pre-merger, under the Dept of Game and before we became such a litigious society, more agency personnel carried commissions. For some folks, the commission was a perk and let them carry a badge in their wallet. With some exceptions, their "use" as an LE officer was minimal at best. Across the country, the ability for agency Directors to issue special commissions has pretty much gone away because of training requirements for meeting societal standards for people who can use deadly force. That is a good thing.

Fine monies going back the agency won't fly in this state without a statute change which is another potential topic for discussion.

Smalma is probably pretty close in his estimation that an officer position, with salary, benefits, operations costs, etc is around 100K per year. Federal and state rules dictate hours worked as do the union contracts that are negotiated between employees and the administration. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of wiggle room on either side. I'm sure many, if not most/all, officers are donating time over and above their authorization. If an officer can't respond community needs, it impacts his or her effectiveness and that then reflects on the agency....it can be vicious circle....and if a complaint about uncompensated overtime is raised, it gets uglier. In a perfect world (ain't gonna happen) the officer gets adequate compensation and sets his or her own schedule to meet district responsibilities. With the current staffing load, even that is highly improbable.

The bottom line in this whole exercise is lack of money. In this state, there needs to be an epiphany within the legislature and the Governor's office that our natural resources are a money maker for the state. They need adequate and stable funding. They also need to remember that Referendum 45 was passed by the voters to have a Commission that represents the residents of the state to run WDFW. The politicians have more important issues on their plate than making regular runs at dis-banding/re-structuring the agency and the Commission needs the courtesy of being confirmed so that they can do what they were selected for and appointed to do.

Some hard decisions are going to have to be made. There are core functions that are needed to effectively manage our fish and wildlife resources. I think that some of the services provided within an agency can probably be better handled by out-sourcing services to private businesses. Internally, the whole budget process needs to be re-evaluated. The RCWs and WACs need a tight review and quite likely a major re-write. Staffing needs and job responsibilities need to be evaluated. More generalists and fewer specialists might be one outcome. Re-structuring supervisory levels and increasing scope of responsibility should cut some positions. Early retirements might help some, too. We can't continue to operate under the status quo.