For fifteen months two Richland parks directors failed to notify the tribes about the proposed Leslie Groves Park plan. Fallout could jeopardize other projects.

Update: A Jan. 12 response from Deputy City Manager Joe Schiessl has been added to the bottom of the article.

For fifteen months two Richland parks directors, first Joe Schiessl and then Laura Hester, failed to inform the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) about a proposed long-term plan for Leslie Groves Park. When a “concerned Richland resident” brought the plan to the tribes’ attention, they were miffed.

“We would appreciate being made aware of plans as they develop,” CTUIR archeologist Ashley Morton wrote Schiessl, now Richland deputy city manager, on Oct. 20, over 15 months after Schiessl discussed the plan with the Richland Parks and Recreation Commission on July 14, 2022.

The fallout from months of city managers talking about a park development plan without including the tribes in the process could jeopardize other city projects that need tribal cooperation for success. 

The biggest of those projects involves getting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to transfer land to the city. Without buy-in from the CTUIR, the possibility of a transfer being successful is “probably near zero,” Schiessl told a Richland City Councilmember in April.

A tribe representative has already expressed skepticism about transferring oversight of their tribal treaty rights from the Corps to the city of Richland.

In the October email Morton described the religious and cultural significance that land included in Leslie Groves Park had for the tribe. Schiessl provided the same information to the parks commission at their July 2022 meeting, telling the commission members that the CTUIR would have an important role in creating the park plan. Yet, according to Schiessl, he didn’t reach out to the tribes until he received Morton’s October email.

“I contacted the US Army Corps of Engineers and CUTIR in October and the City paused work on the plan shortly thereafter,” Schiessl wrote the Observer in a Jan. 9 email.

Morton did not respond to the Observer’s email and phone call for comment.

The parkland, like other Columbia River shoreline areas in Richland, is owned and controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers. The CTUIR have treaty rights under the Umatilla Treaty signed in 1855 between the United States and the Umatilla, Walla Walla and Cayuse tribes. The treaty ceded 6.4 million acres of land in Washington and Oregon in exchange for a 500,000-acre reservation and the right to fish, hunt, and gather food and medicine.

“Early and Often” is how Andrew Strobel, director of planning for the Puyallup Tribe, suggested jurisdictions consult with local tribes about matters that affect them. He noted to the Observer that that was especially important when a project includes areas of cultural interest.

The law requires that the tribes be notified when a jurisdiction applies for a State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) permit, Strobel said. That is the “bare minimum,” he added.

Emails from Schiessl indicate that the formal city policy for notifying the tribes about projects is at the time the city applies for a permit like SEPA.

The proposed park plan never triggered a permit review and Schiessl blamed Hester for doing what he did – not contacting the tribe about the plan.

 Hester turned in her resignation on October 19, telling the Tri-City Herald that Schiessl was “very, very, difficult to work with.”

The Observer obtained emails and other documents through the Washington Public Records Act and also viewed videos of past city meetings available on Richland City View as well as agendas and packet information from past Richland City Council meetings.

CTUIR doesn’t object to the proposed park plan but is concerned about impacts on cultural resources

Morton said in the email to Schiessl that the CTUIR didn’t object to the proposed park plan, which included pickle ball courts, an additional dock, an environmental education center, additional viewing areas and parking lots. The tribes were concerned about impacts on cultural resources.

“The park is located within a historic property of religious and cultural significance to the CTUIR known as Sikima’,” Morton wrote. “The area is culturally significant to the CTUIR as a fishing area, burial ground, village and camp habitations, traditional food gathering, medicinal use area, religious ceremonial area, as a travel corridor, a trade area, and as a place for social events in precontact and historic times.”

Schiessl responded in the email on the same day, “Please forgive our planning that did not meet the expectations of our MOU. We’ll try this again the correct way beginning with a pause.”

The memorandum of understanding (MOU)  is a handshake agreement “which represents good faith voluntary commitments that are being made by the Parties in the spirit of cooperation and accommodation.” It was signed on September 3, 2015.

Park plan miscommunication could jeopardize other projects

The lack of communication on the park plan could jeopardize other projects that Richland needs the trust and cooperation of the CTUIR to move forward, most notably the city’s attempt to obtain Columbia River shoreline property from the federal government.

The project to transfer land from the federal government to Richland and other jurisdictions with  shoreline dates back to at least 2014, but gained momentum in 2018 when Congressman Dan Newhouse introduced legislation that would have transferred 34 miles of shoreline. The provisions in his legislation were included in the Defense Authorization Act, but they were flagged by the Congressional Budget Office and removed.

The tribes weren’t onboard for that plan.

The effort has been revived. In early 2023 there were three city council meetings, led by Schiessl, to discuss a more limited acquisition plan that he described as a “light touch.”

Instead of asking for all of the shoreline to be transferred, Richland asked for a few key pieces that included land that would provide better access to Columbia Point South, shoreland near the Reach Museum and 30 acres on Little Badger Mountain that could have interpretation and site or place-naming by the tribe.

At least one tribe representative seemed skeptical.

“We are concerned about the federal transfer. We have the federal trust responsibility with the federal agencies and we don’t necessarily have that with you guys,” Kate Brigham, CTUIR board of trustees chair, told Richland city councilmembers at an April 7, 2023, workshop session.

When Richland Councilmember Ryan Lukson asked at an April 25, 2023, council workshop session about the chances of having the land transferred without the CTUIR approval, Schiessl responded, “Probably near zero.”

Schiessl recognized the importance of Leslie Groves Park property to the CTUIR but did not reach out to them during early project planning

Schiessl recognized the importance of the Leslie Groves Park property to the CTUIR when he told the Richland Parks and Planning Commission at their July 14, 2022, meeting, “This will be the first long-range plan that we will start since the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have placed a TCP, which is a traditional cultural property designation, on this land…I imagine that they will have a lot to say about this project and I imagine that will be very influential.”

On November 10, 2022, a list of capital improvement projects presented to the park commission budgeted $50,000 for the proposed long-term Leslie Groves Park plan. 

Apparently, Schiessl didn’t reach out to the tribe during the early planning. In an email he told the Observer that he contacted them on October, 20, 2023, after they learned about the project from the “concerned Richland resident.”

Schiessl seemed to blame Hester for lack of communication

Schiessl seemed to blame Hester, who became parks director on January 3, 2023, for the lack of communication with the tribes.

“Staff that led this project for the City are no longer with the City,” Schiessl emailed Morton in response to her October 20, 2023 email to him about the project.

“The Dept. Head with responsibility for this project had clear directions. We unfortunately bypassed our obligation to consult with CTUIR and they are understandably frustrated,” Schiessl told City Manager Jon Amundson in an email shortly after he responded to Morton.

Schiessl did not explain what the “clear directions” were. In an email to the Observer on December 1, Schiessl wrote, “Project Managers are responsible for project-level tribal consultation.”

In  an email to the Observer on January 9, 2024, Schiessl wrote, “The planning effort did not trigger NEPA or SEPA,” referring to the National Environment Protection Act and the State Environmental Protection Act, which Strobel referred to as the “minimum requirement,” for jurisdictions to notify tribes about projects.

Both Pasco and Richland managers outlined a formal process

The Observer reached out to both Kennewick and Pasco about their process for notifying the tribes about projects. 

Kennewick did not provide any information in response to an email followed by a telephone conversation.

In a January 10, 2023 email, Pasco City Manager Adam Lincoln pointed to permit applications, including for SEPA, as triggering consultation with the tribes, a process similar to Richland’s.

Schiessl did indicate in a January 8, 2024, email that he had been talking to both the Corps and the CTUIR. “These conversations have not yet progressed beyond initial telephone conversations with each organization, although we’re looking forward to future discussions.”

The Observer stands by the reporting, but has provided Deputy City Manager Joe Schiessl’s response below.

Ms. Slovic, 

Your story is inaccurate.

The long-range plan for Leslie Groves Park was not funded until January 1, 2023. A contract with the City’s planning consultant was executed on May 5, 2023. The City paused planning on Oct 20, 2023.

Project start = May 5, 2023. 

Project pause = Oct 20, 2023.

Elapsed project time = 5.5 months.

Your story indicates that the project time was 15 months. This is inaccurate. Please correct the headline and any other similar references.

Your blog indicating that “for 15 months two Richland parks directors failed to notify the tribes about the proposed Leslie Groves Park Plan” is an inaccurate statement.

The City expects that your blog be corrected to reflect an accurate accounting of time and that you provide notice to your readers that the City’s project to develop a long-range plan for Leslie Groves Park did not begin until May 5, 2023.

Your reporting that the project began in July of 2022 represents a misunderstanding of government contracting and project management.  

In the future, the Citizens of Richland would benefit from your fact checking prior to publishing misinformation on your blog. Richland citizens expect true facts and they did not receive them in this case.

Respectfully,