The state agency in charge of earthquake study and preparation, as well as monitoring mining efforts in Oregon, could be shut down after going over budget for the second time in four years.

The Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, widely known as DOGAMI, will lose three staff members and the Governor’s office is considering whether the agency should continue to exist in its current form given its financial woes.

For the 2013-2015 budget cycle, the agency needed an extra $800,000 from the general fund. For 2017-2019 cycle, it needed $650,000. Agencies needing more cash is unusual said John Terpening, a legislative analyst for the state who reviewed the budget proposal. Needing more cash twice in as many budget cycles is cause for concern.

“This type of thing should be very rare,” he told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The agency has two primary functions, both of which are important. The Geological Survey & Services program studies earthquakes, landslides, coastal erosion and other hazards and develops plans to reduce risk to the public. Many disaster plans in Oregon are based, at least in part, on the work done by DOGAMI and that work is mostly funded through grants and state money from the general fund. The agency is also responsible for overseeing mining in the state, which is funded entirely by fees.

Besides going over budget, the agency also fell well short of inspecting the number of mining sites it is supposed to. In 2018, the goal was to inspect 50 percent of the state’s mining operations “to help prevent off-site impacts or violations, and build positive working relationships.” Last year the agency inspected just 13 percent.

Brad Avy, director of the agency, said there were a number of factors that led to the financial problems “including the need for an improved accounting architecture and written financial policies and procedures.” The funding model has shifted over time, Avy added, to more reliance on grants.

“(The agency) starts the biennium without knowing how successful it will be in securing grant awards to meet its budgeted revenue,” he said. “This results in a less predictable funding structure for our Geological Survey and Services Program.”

Now, those cost overruns will cost the agency three natural resource specialist positions in the next budget. A few positions will be added or changed to ensure the agency doesn’t run into fiscal trouble again, Avy said, but the net is still a loss of staff.

“The agency will lose scientific capacity to execute our mission which is to provide earth science information and regulation to make Oregon safe and prosperous,” Avy said.

In a note on the preliminary budget proposal for the agency, the Joint Ways and Means Committee said the Governor’s office would be “evaluating if the Department should continue to exist as an independent or recommendations to abolish and move the individual programs to other entities.”

That drastic of a move could come with big consequences, Avy said.

“It would be incredibly disruptive to staff and it is likely that some on-going studies would be discontinued,” he said.”Oregon would lose a valued agency and may lose talented staff in our Geological Survey and Services Program which provides a focus on geologic and mineral mapping and natural hazard identification.”

The Governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Despite the cuts his agency is facing, Avy said the criticism is fair and that he is doing everything in his power to make sure DOGAMI stays within its budget moving forward.

“There are consequences when a budget isn’t managed well,” he said. “We are stewards of the resources entrusted to us and we have an obligation to honor that trust in the best possible manner.”

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048

@sfkale

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