Longevity an asset for local Reclamation managers; too bad they don’t stay long 

Klamath Project gets its third new chief since 2006 

Editorial

November 16, 2010

   Sue Fry is moving on to another post with the Bureau of Reclamation after heading the Klamath Basin office since January of 2009. Her transition to the position of manager of a new office dealing with the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary will take place over three to six months.

   Naturally, we wish her well, but we also wish Bureau of Reclamation managers would stay longer in the Klamath Basin than in recent history.

   The Klamath Reclamation Project is a highly complex one that deals as much with human relations as it does with the water supply, moving water around and keeping everything legal. Longevity usually helps develop a good appreciation for such things.  

   We don’t doubt that Fry’s new position also includes an incredibly complex tangle of legalities and competing interests. Perhaps spending time in the Klamath Basin is regarded within the Bureau as good training for bigger things — we don’t know.

   Fry’s predecessor, Pablo Arroyave, was here from 2006 to 2008. He later moved up to become deputy regional director for the Mid-Pacific Region, which includes the Klamath Basin.

   Obviously, it’s a good thing for high-ranking Bureau officials to be familiar with the Klamath Project. It’s not like we want to handcuff Bureau top managers to the A Canal headgates to keep them here. But we do think there’s something to be gained with more stability and longevity in the position. Fortunately, while the turnover rate of Klamath Project top administrators has been high, the Project’s institutional memory below that level is much stronger, thanks to some long-term employees   .

   Before Arroyave, Dave Sabo was the Klamath manager for four years and had the difficult task of working through the problems and animosity created in 2001 when most of the irrigation water was cut off at the beginning of the irrigation season to help meet the needs of fish.

   Sabo did a good job dealing with the Klamath situation and, in 2006, became assistant regional director for Bureau’s Upper Colorado Region headquartered in Salt Lake City. He was named the Bureau’s senior advisor for hydropower in September of 2008, responsible for the Bureau’s hydropower program. This year, he has been serving as the Bureau’s Acting Director for Technical Resources.  

   The newest appointment is Jason Phillips, who will start the job in January. He’s worked for the Bureau since 2001 and, before that, for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and has a civil engineering degree from Portland State University.

   Like we’ve said as we welcomed his predecessors, we hope he’s a quick study on complex issues that have a lot of historical context.