Gov. Kate Brown

Gov. Kate Brown fired a majority of the commission overseeing the state Department of Environmental Quality Wednesday, just more than a month after it hired her former advisor to be the department's leader.

(Stephanie Yao Long/Staff)

Gov. Kate Brown fired a majority of the commission overseeing the state Department of Environmental Quality Wednesday, just more than a month after it hired her former advisor to be the department's leader.

Brown replaced three members of the five-person Environmental Quality Commission, including one commissioner, Colleen Johnson, whom the governor had recently reappointed. Two other members, Melinda Eden and Morgan Rider, were also fired.

The commission oversees an agency that has struggled to regain public trust since last year's Portland air scare revealed just how little it had done to protect city residents from toxic air pollution.

The resulting crisis led to the resignation of its previous director, Dick Pedersen, and left the agency without a permanent leader for nearly a year.

The commission had not met since Feb. 14, when it unanimously chose Richard Whitman, a former adviser to Brown and Gov. John Kitzhaber, to be its director.

That recruitment process moved slowly. Commissioners interviewed three candidates in August 2016 but refused to name any as finalists. As the search dragged on, Whitman took over as interim director because the other temporary leader, Pete Shepherd, reached the maximum amount of time he was allowed to serve.

After announcing the shakeup in a prepared statement Wednesday, Brown's office quickly moved to quash suggestions that the governor didn't want her former adviser leading the agency.

"Their decision to hire Richard Whitman as DEQ director was not a factor," said Bryan Hockaday, a spokesman for the governor. "The process the EQC went through to solicit a diverse pool of candidates was something that led to the governor's decision. The governor is fully confident in Richard's ability to guide DEQ."

Whitman was one of just two finalists named for the job after the commission spent nearly a year on a national search. The only other long-standing member of the commission, Ed Armstrong, will remain, along with a commissioner, Sam Baraso, who joined the board in February.

The fired commissioners did not respond to requests for comment, though one, Colleen Johnson, told the Register-Guard newspaper that she was blindsided by the governor's decision and expected to release a statement soon.

Jane O'Keeffe, a former commissioner, called the firings a surprise. "I didn't think the governor would do that," she said. "I didn't think anything had happened that would result in removing three commissioners. That's pretty drastic."

The three new members, who must first be confirmed by the state Senate, are:

* Kathleen George, an elected member of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council and former Department of Environmental Quality employee.

* Wade Mosby, a founding member of the Forest Stewardship Council and former executive with Collins, a wood products company.

* Molly Kile, an associate professor at Oregon State University who studies how chemicals influence children's health.

If confirmed, they will oversee a significant overhaul of Oregon's air pollution rules ordered by the governor after last year's crisis.

-- Rob Davis

rdavis@oregonian.com

503.294.7657