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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 29, 2006 ODFW member could face ethics charge By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune An Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission member faces a possible ethics charge over his recent vote on Columbia River salmon allocation, which spawned a business boycott that now has even Gov. Ted Kulongoski mad. Portland marine-supplies store owner Dan Grogan said he plans to file the ethics charge with the state Government Standards and Practices Commission next week against Commissioner Jon Englund of Astoria. Grogan said he believes Englund should have recused himself from a Jan. 6 commission vote dividing Columbia spring chinook salmon harvest sport anglers and commercial gillnetters. Grogan claims that Englund, as owner of Englund Marine & Supply, the state’s largest industrial marine distributor, stands to profit from allocating a higher percentage of fish toward commercial interests. Englund voted with the majority in a 4-3 commission decision. Grogan said he believes Englund’s votes on this and other commercial-fishing issues show a pattern of conflict of interest that should lead to his removal from the commission. Advertisement "The biggest commercial (marine) supplier in the state shouldn’t be on a commission making allocation decisions," Grogan said Friday. "You don’t put a bunch of guys who own bars on a board that sets drinking-age limits, do you?" he said. Englund said Friday that he regularly declares a "possible" conflict of interest on some marine and Columbia fishing issues because his business is part of an industry that could benefit from those decisions. If Englund were the sole benefactor of a commission decision — such as the sale of Englund property products to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife — then statutes say Englund should not take part in any discussions or votes on that issue. Since his Englund Marine & Supply is not the sole seller of gillnets or other items used in the spring chinook commercial season, Englund said he saw no reason to recuse himself. His business is about 60 percent sport-fishing and 40 percent industrial — and gillnet sales and supplies are a small fraction of the industrial business, Englund said. "If I was voting my pocketbook, this isn’t even close," Englund said. "But this has been an issue that’s been brewing a long time and it’s hit the surface, I guess." Grogan and two other recreational fishing interests — North River aluminum boats in Roseburg and Stevens Marine in the Portland area — have said they will no longer do hundreds of thousands of dollars in business with Englund’s companies because of his commission vote. And in a Jan. 10 letter to Englund, North River President Brian Brush, a former Medford police officer, said he challenges Oregon’s aluminum boat-building industry and all sport-anglers not to do business with Englund’s companies. Those actions have led Englund’s fellow commissioners and former commissioners alike to mobilize on Englund’s behalf, calling it an unethical economic attack that threatens to cheapen citizen participation on commissions. And Kulongoski, who appointed Englund in 2003, fired off a news release Thursday, calling the apparent boycott "inappropriate, unjustified and unethical." "I call upon those businesses that disagree with the Commission’s decision to reverse their inappropriate actions against a single Commission member, and work instead with the entire Commission during the appropriate public process that serves all Oregonians." Grogan, who said Fishermen’s Marine and Outdoor had a six-figure account with Englund’s U.S. Distributing, said he was angered by Kulongoski’s response. "What right does the governor have to say who I do business with and who I don’t do business with?" Grogan said. "I don’t do business with someone who is hurting my business, and I’m bashed for this?" Grogan said. Kulongoski spokeswoman Anna Richter Taylor said the governor remains confident in Englund’s qualifications and ability to serve on the commission. Former commission Chairman John Esler, who Kulongoski removed in 2004 and replaced with Englund, said he has followed the issue and believed Englund "followed the letter of the law." Esler, of Portland, said the economic backlash from the vote "smacks of vigilantism," but "everybody has a right to spend their money wherever they want." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail ODFW member could face ethics charge ">[email protected] . 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