The job of a bureaucrat is not an easy one.

You don't always get to do what you want. Sometimes you have to do things you don't believe in. It's your job to implement policies voted on by elected representatives or by the people themselves. And let's face it...sometimes laws ain't so good.

To add insult to injury, whenever someone wants to blame the government for something, it's usually the bureaucrats' fault. People accuse the bureaucracy of being too big, too replete with red tape, too interested in sustaining the job prospects of its own members. Even politicians (the folks who enact the laws that create the bureaucracy) attack it!

That being said, when you're a bureaucrat, you should have a pretty good idea what your job is. That's why the recent retirement and loud complaints of Oregon State Marine Board Director Paul Donheffner are so strange.

Donheffner has led the OSMB for half its existence. In that time, he's been fairly described as a pro-motor director--not surprising given that the Marine Board was largely built (and is funded nearly entirely) by and for gas motor boat users.

The recent state proposal to phase-out gas motor boat use on Waldo Lake tested the long held orthodoxy of the Marine Board. More strangely, the Board serves at the behest of the Governor, and Gov. Ted Kulongoski was wholeheartedly in favor of the Waldo Lake rule. The potential for fireworks was imminent.

When the Marine Board accepted public testimony throughout November and December and then voted 4-1 to approve the gas motor ban, things seemed to go all too smoothly.

At the time, Donheffner seemed to defend his "yes" vote on the ban, describing the public testimony like this:

"That’s one of the themes we heard in Eugene in particular. There’s a spiritual or Zenlike quality to the lake that needed to be protected. That would create a unique opportunity for paddlers — and motor boaters can go someplace else."

Sounds like a man responding to a supportive public, yes?

Well, Donheffner was singing a different tune just a few weeks later in a scathing missive published online by the Oregonian:

"The Marine Board's decision was the wrong answer, made worse by the fact that public input and the rule process were circumvented to achieve the governor's agenda."

I know what you're thinking. If the gas motor ban as the wrong answer, why did Donheffner vote for it? And if the public input process was circumvented, how was Donheffner able to perfectly describe what the overwhelming sentiment of public comments conveyed?

In truth, the effort to protect the peace, and pristine water quality at Waldo Lake has been ongoing for two decades. The most recent round of public comment was just one episode in a long string of public processes that continually (and overwhelmingly) supported a gas motor phase out.

Consider the numbers from the Marine Board hearings and submitted comments, as reported in The Oregonian:

At a public hearing in Eugene, 26 people testified in favor of the motor ban and eight spoke against it, according to marine board documents. At a hearing in Bend, 21 people spoke against the ban and four favored it.

In written testimony, 80 people supported the ban and 24 opposed it. By email, 524 individual respondents favored the ban and 108 opposed it.

Judging by those numbers, despite his protestations, Donheffner did just fine by the democratic process. And Waldo Lake will be the beneficiary.