Kitzhaber Inauguration

With Gov. John Kitzhaber, who was inaugurated Monday, planning to push a transportation spending package this year, Oregon Transportation Commission chairwoman Catherine Mater became a liability.

(Beth Nakamura)

Catherine Mater, the leader of the Oregon Transportation Commission fired this week, acted independently enough that she became a political liability for Gov. John Kitzhaber.

The Corvallis civil engineer was so much of a hindrance that Kitzhaber fired her for a puzzling reason: Opposing a $2 million state subsidy that would help coal exports, which he also opposes.

Kitzhaber plans to push a transportation spending package in the 2015 legislature. He'll need all the help he can get from lawmakers to increase taxes to expand funding for roads.

Catherine Mater.

Mater's activism threatened to stoke discontent among lawmakers when the Kitzhaber administration is seeking money from the Legislature to address what the Oregon Department of Transportation calls a $5.1 billion backlog in seismic upgrades and other projects. Last week, Oregon legislative leaders and business groups expressed support for increasing vehicle taxes to fund ODOT's wish list.

Kitzhaber appears to have genuflected to supporters of the coal project, a remarkable turn for a governor that has forcefully opposed coal export proposals, saying: "The future for Oregon and the West Coast does not lie in 19th century energy sources."

In a statement, Kitzhaber spokeswoman Melissa Navas indicated that contrary to Mater's view, the governor's concern was about the process, not the coal project. Normally, the Oregon Transportation Commission approves without question the list of projects assembled by ODOT stakeholders, regional officials and staff.

"She was not asked to step down for the reasons she claims," Navas said. "The governor and the chair were not in alignment about the roles and responsibilities of the commission."

Kitzhaber pointed to the transportation package in a Tuesday letter to Mater. He wrote:

As highlighted at the recent Oregon Business Summit, a transportation package is a priority in the 2015 session. In this new term I am advancing an agenda in support of a transportation revenue package toward that end, I am seeking new leadership for the Oregon Transportation Commission. Therefore your service to the Commission is complete effective today. Thank you for your service and I wish you well.

Mater's take?

"From his perspective, it's clear that I've upset certain people and those people are in key positions that affect budgets of the Department of Transportation," she said.

Jim Moore, a Pacific University political science professor, said Kitzhaber's decision shows the governor, who was inaugurated Monday, starts his new term with less power after struggling with the Cylvia Hayes scandal and Cover Oregon debacle.

"It is a weakened governor," Moore said. "We're not sure what that weakness is going to manifest itself as. This is the first time we've seen something like this. But not a surprise."

Mater was the deciding vote in a 3-2 commission motion in August that doomed a grant that would've benefited Ambre Energy, the company proposing to annually export 8.8 million tons of coal through the state.

The commission's rejection, which came at Mater's first meeting as a member, hurt plans to expand a Columbia River dock near Clatskanie, part of a chain of facilities Ambre needs to move Western coal overseas. Ambre planned to use rail to get coal to a new terminal in Boardman, barge the coal to the dock, then load it on ocean-going vessels. The dock improvements would also benefit the adjacent oil train terminal.

Until then, the commission had approved more than $380 million in spending through a program called Connect Oregon. And in nine years, the commission had never rejected a recommended project.

Mater's vote upset at least one key legislator: State Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, a business-friendly lawmaker who represents the area where the dock project is located.

Johnson had criticized the decision to reject the $2 million subsidy, saying transportation spending decisions should be "commodity agnostic."

While Johnson no longer wields the state Senate's swing vote, she remains influential. She didn't return a call for comment.

Tammy Baney, another transportation commissioner who supported the coal grant, said she objected to Mater singling out the coal project.

To qualify for state grants, projects are supposed to be ready for construction. Mater said the dock project clearly wasn't. Ambre doesn't have all the permits it needs and won't find out until December whether a judge will overturn the denial of a key state permit.

Baney said the commission had approved other projects without all their permits before. Though it was Mater's first meeting, Baney said she had an obligation to follow the process that had been used in the past.

"If we don't like the rules in which we've been operating under, we should change the rules," Baney said. "But do you change the rules mid-course or after a process?"

Mater said the project was nowhere near ready. "I'm pretty sure that rubber-stamping projects isn't what the law calls for," she said.

Baney will lead the commission's Jan. 15 meeting, not vice chairman David Lohman, who also opposed the coal subsidy.

— Rob Davis

rdavis@oregonian.com

503.294.7657