Following several gruesome workplace accidents, local governments in Southwest Washington are starting to heed calls by building trades unions to keep dangerous contractors off public works projects.
The Port of Longview and City of Vancouver both took steps in June to hire safety consultants to monitor Rotschy Inc., a non-union general contractor with a record of safety violations.
The port awarded Rotschy a $44.6 million contract to expand a rail yard in January. In May, port commissioners voiced concerns about Rotschy’s safety record, which includes a 2023 incident in which a 16-year-old Rotschy employee lost both of his legs after operating a machine he wasn’t legally allowed to operate. In March, the Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) had recommended Clark County prosecutors conduct a criminal investigation into Rotschy’s safety violations.
Then on June 3, 2025, another Rotschy employee was hospitalized with serious injuries after an excavator bucket fell on him at a Woodland, Washington, construction site.
Two days after that accident, Port of Longview staff ordered Rotschy to stop work on the rail project. Work paused for nearly two weeks while the port evaluated an amended version of the company’s safety plan. Port commissioners also directed staff to hire a safety consultant to conduct site visits and monitor Rotschy’s safety.
Separately, City of Vancouver council members approved a plan to hire a safety consultant to monitor Rotschy’s work, which could cost the city around $100,000. That decision was made at a June 16 meeting as the city council accepted Rotschy’s bid on a $2.1 million road extension project.
But union leaders and elected officials don’t want local governments to have to use public funds to monitor a contractor.
Under Washington law, local governments generally have to accept the lowest “responsive and responsible” bidder, meaning the bidder who offers the lowest price and is deemed capable of completing the project.
Vancouver accepted Rotschy’s bid for the road extension work because the project has a tight deadline. Rotschy was also the lowest bidder on a $8.8 million water station project, but Vancouver City Council opted to reject all the bids on that project.
“Sorry, but I don’t think we can afford a year’s worth of babysitting a contractor who has numerous violations right now,” Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle said at the June 16 meeting.
Vancouver City Council directed city staff to draft new bidder criteria so that in the future, a contractor’s safety record would be considered.
Nearby Ridgefield, Washington, kicked off what could become a wave of new safety standards in May when its public works department added safety to the list of what qualifies a contractor as a responsible bidder. For City of Ridgefield projects that cost $500,000 or more, a bidder can’t have had any serious or willful health or safety citations, violations, or penalties issued in the past three years unless there are extenuating circumstances that the city evaluates.
As Ridgefield’s public works director, Chuck Green led the addition of the new responsible bidder criteria before he retired at the end of June. Green said he worked with the city attorney to develop the legal language.
“We could not find any kind of example from a city that had done something like this, so I think we were breaking ground,” Green said.
After Ridgefield added its new language, Laborers District Council organizer Deken Letinich started proposing that other cities, counties, ports, and school districts in Southwest Washington adopt the same criteria.
“I question whether the county or any government agency should be awarding work to contractors that continually put the lives of their employees in harm,” Letinich told Clark County Council at a June 3 meeting.
Clark County Public Works, in response to safety questions from County Chair Sue Marshall, said the county does not currently have any policy to exclude contractors based on their safety record, but would continue to monitor how other municipalities address the topic.
Port of Vancouver spokesperson Casey Bowman said the port is looking into adding safety to its contracting standards and is studying the approaches other municipalities are taking.
Rotschy’s safety incidents spurred Green to take action in Ridgefield, he told the Labor Press, but the new rule isn’t aimed specifically at Rotschy. During his career in Clark County, Green saw other contractors disregard safety on construction projects.
“[Rotschy’s] poor safety record and recent history of severe injury to their workers is certainly the springboard. But I think it’s important to make it known that it’s not Rotschy-specific. If a union contractor breaks this language, it affects them just the same,” Letinich told the Labor Press.
