A year and $80K later, a probe of WA fish and wildlife commissioners continues

An investigation of Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission members launched by Gov. Bob Ferguson last summer is taking longer and costing more than expected.

The tab is nearly $80,000 so far and could reach $130,000, more than triple the original price, according to recently obtained public records. Neither Ferguson nor his staff will say when the investigator’s report — originally due last fall — will be released. The latest contract extension runs through the end of August.

“To protect the integrity of the investigation, we will not comment on the specifics of the investigation until it is complete. I will note that it involves the review of a significant volume of records,” Brionna Aho, Ferguson’s communications director, said in an email.

Chiedza Nziramasanga of Transformative Workplace Investigations delivered findings on April 13. Those have been under review by the governor’s staff. As part of the process, the investigator recently contacted the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s deputy director with questions to clarify information.

Ferguson’s office initially anticipated the report’s release in April. It has pushed out the date several times and now, per a public record request, says it will be July 31, one month before Nziramasanga’s latest contract expires.

From its start, the governor has made no public statements on the investigation.

Commissioners interviewed for the probe last fall have said they’ve had no contact with the investigator since, and have not heard from Ferguson or his staff in 2026.

“We don’t have any control of what the governor is doing and not doing,” said Jim Anderson, chair of the nine-member Fish and Wildlife Commission. “I am trying to keep us going with our work and stay focused. I feel like the commission is doing that, albeit with this elephant in the room.”

Ferguson can remove any commissioner he thinks is guilty of misconduct, or malfeasance in office, or is incompetent. The process, established by the state’s founders in 1893, requires the governor to file a statement of reasons with the Office of the Secretary of State.

The first-term Democratic governor, who is the state’s former attorney general, might use findings of the report to support such an action. 

The big picture

While the investigation’s status and scope are hazy, its genesis looks traceable to the commission’s controversial 2022 decision to ban recreational hunting of black bears in the spring.

The Sportsmen’s Alliance, a national advocacy group for hunters and anglers, argued that commissioners violated state requirements for open meetings and public records disclosure ahead of the vote. 

After obtaining a trove of public records, the group, in May 2025, petitioned Ferguson to remove commissioners Lorna Smith, Melanie Rowland, Barbara Baker, and John Lehmkuhl, alleging misconduct and malfeasance. Ferguson has not commented or acted on the petition.

When Kelly Susewind, the leader of Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, read some of the commissioners’ emails and texts provided to the group, he flagged potential issues to the governor’s office. In early August, he formally asked Ferguson to investigate. This was an extraordinary request for an inquiry into the nine-member commission, which oversees his department and has the power to remove a director should it choose.

Unbeknownst to Susewind, Ferguson had already prepared for an investigation.

On June 20, 2025, the Office of Financial Management signed a $40,000 contract with Transformative Workplace Investigations. The firm, per the scope of work, was to “provide a comprehensive investigation of a reported experience in a work unit to allow leadership to determine if any discrimination, retaliation and/or other policy violations occurred as alleged.” 

“Our office was aware of a possible need to investigate, based on a preliminary conversation with the (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife),” Aho said last December. “After the governor received the letter from Director Susewind laying out his concerns, it was clear an investigation was needed. At that point the state began to engage with the investigator on initiating the actual investigation.”

Nziramasanga got started in August but did not meet the initial deadline of Oct. 7, 2025. 

There have been several contract extensions. The most recent, signed June 12, ends Aug. 31. Nziramasanga had been paid  $79,720 as of early May and could earn another $51,500 through the end of her current deal. Those funds will come out of the agency budget.

‘Puzzling’ and ‘complicated’

Susewind and commissioners targeted in the petition were interviewed last year. None have been re-interviewed, though the investigator did seek out Deputy Director Amy Windrope in recent weeks, an agency spokesperson said.

No one from the Sportsmen’s Alliance has ever spoken with the investigator.

“We find it puzzling that the state and investigators have not wanted to have any dialogue with the chief whistleblower on this issue,” said Brian Lynn, vice president marketing and communications for the alliance.

“There is no real justification for a report of this size to take more than a year to complete, and multiple rounds and months of ‘clarifications’ and edits are very concerning,” he said. “Instead of being a champion of transparency and holding rogue bureaucrats accountable, Gov. Ferguson seems content to let their terms expire as a matter of political convenience.”

The appointments for Smith, Rowland and Lemkuhl run through Dec. 31. Baker can serve through the end of 2028.

No one from Washington Wildlife First, which provides a counterpoint to the hunting group and has publicly called for Susewind’s removal, was interviewed either.

Claire Davis, who leads the wildlife advocacy nonprofit, and Smith have filed a federal lawsuit against Susewind, accusing him of attempting to silence them for criticism of his leadership and the agency.

“In a way we’re not surprised by the continued delay,” said Francisco Santiago-Avila, Washington Wildlife First’s advocacy director. “We expect the investigator encountered a more complicated and troubling situation than presented by the director.”

“We hope, given Gov. Bob Ferguson’s background, there is a desire to get this right,” he said. “We’d rather this be a thorough and accurate review rather than a rushed one.”