Friday, October 22, 2010
Arkansas Politics Time to rein in Game and Fish UPDATE
Posted by Max Brantley on Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 7:06 AM
Sheffield Nelson is right, again.
His efforts to dig into the internal policy-making at the state Game and Fish Commission appear to be a big part of the reason that the ruling troika that now calls shots at Game and Fish has come up with a patently illegal proposal to draw up the agency's own, more restrictive version of the state Freedom of Information Act. I don't think this affront to transparency will withstand legal scrutiny. It's too bad the state and somebody's private lawyers will have to spend a ton of money coming to this conclusion. When it happens, ruling commissioners Craig Campbell, Emon Mahony and Rick Watkins perhaps should reimburse the legal fees. They can afford it. (I should have mentioned originally that this proposal was detailed in a story in the Democrat-Gazette this morning, available only to subscribers.)
This issue underscores, rather than obscures, the larger issue. Game and Fish is out of control. It views public input and control as a hindrance. With a dedicated stream of sales tax money and a windfall from gas revenue, it has continued on its expansive ways, with an exploding payroll and lavish perks (the famous one-vehicle-per-employee ratio a good example) even as hunting and fishing licenses have declined in the face of an increasing state population. Something is wrong with this picture. It's time to end Game and Fish's stature as an independent agency. By this latest proposal, it demonstrates that it views itself as unanswerable to any authority but the kingmakers of the controlling three-member Commission committee.
UPDATE: here's a copy of the draft of the Game and Fish Commission's own private FOI law, complete with a clause to prevent release of embarrassing stuff.
UPDATE II: Gov. Mike Beebe said in response to questions today that an end to state funding or a move to end the agency's independence would be potential consequences should the Commission continue on its path to attempt to write a more restrictive freedom of information rule for itself. That should nip the effort in the bid, but .... Beebe thinks getting the agency first to do right would be easier than a constitutional restructuring of the agency. I still think there are ample other reasons to reconsider the agency's independence, this being only the latest.
UPDATE III: Attorney General Dustin McDaniel piles on:
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel issued the following statement today regarding a draft proposal under consideration by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission:
"We have reviewed the draft proposal being considered by the Game and Fish Commission, and I find it astonishing. It is unacceptable as a matter of law and policy, as it brazenly defies the laws ensuring transparency and openness in government."The Game and Fish Commission has absolutely no authority to exempt itself from any provision of the Freedom of Information Act.
"Had the Commission’s lawyers ever contacted us even once about this proposal, we would have worked aggressively to prevent this bad policy from ever being presented to the Commissioners."
Speaking of...
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Gas tax group alleges poll intimidation UPDATE
May 23, 2012Sheffield Nelson, who's leading a grassroots campaign to increase the severance tax on natural gas, said petition canvassers at primary polls yesterday were intimidated by representatives of the industry-funded group fighting the tax increase. /more/
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Nelson on right side of gas tax debate
April 11, 2012Sheffield Nelson is an odd person to be waging a one-man crusade against the business and political establishment to raise taxes on the Texas and Oklahoma gas producers who have been drilling in the Arkansas shale. /more/
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Sheffield Nelson, unlikely severance tax champion
April 10, 2012Times columnist Ernest Dumas, who draws on nearly a half-century of coverage of Arkansas politics, including the essential role gas exploration and taxation have played in politics, examines today former gas executive Sheffield Nelson's somewhat role as a severance tax champion and his past leadership of the very business orgtanizations fighting him today. /more/
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Sheffield Nelson schools Beebe on severance tax
April 6, 2012I never really expected Gov. Mike Beebe, who cut his teeth golfing with the lobby in the Senate, to be a supporter of the Sheffield Nelson-backed initiative to raise the pitifully low severance tax on natural gas. /more/
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Stands accused
March 21, 2012Is the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce "un-American," as Sheffield Nelson suggests? It's a close call; reasonable men might disagree. That the Chamber is unconscionable, on the other hand, was verified long ago. /more/
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Comments (15)
Showing 1-15 of 15
It is high time to repeal Amendment 33. Might as well fix the situation with the Highway Department while we're at it...
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Way to go, Max! Let's go fishin', Razorbabies. Barbed hooks. Not catch-and-release.
I noticed the Democrat-Gazette's story illuminating this arrogant overreach was by its outdoor writer.
Many fish and gun scribes probably wouldn't even have bothered to take notes on such action 'cause it wasn't anything about duck, deer or turkey season. I believe this guy is the son of Lowber Hendricks? So he might be a little more familiar with outrageous legal maneuvering.
Incredible to think the commissioners and their flunky lawyers would believe they could get away with this.
They can't, can they?
"It is high time to repeal Amendment 33. Might as well fix the situation with the Highway Department while we're at it"
Amen, Pscyclepath
Perhaps the baggers will view this as an opportunity to show they are serious about reigning in out of control government expansion. Or maybe they’ll prove their jingoistic sloganeering is as hollow as the electorates’ head.
“RESPONSIBILITY, n. A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Why just this week I spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for a decent AGFC map of a 14,000 acre WMA. Nope, nada, zilch - save decades old difficult to find maps which lead one in many a wrong directions. It's been a WMA for many years, so it's not like they haven't had plenty of time.
The very least they could do is update on their web page where every drilling site, both past and present, might be... so we hunters and fisherman can inform ourselves and hopefully avoid toxic food/water chains like the plague.
I don't know enough about how G&F is structured, so can someone answer me this: Are the commissioners all gubernatorial appointees, and can he remove them at his pleasure? Because a new commission composed of more sensible people might be the best way to handle this. That, and repeal its independent status.
The Game and Fish Commissioners set sheffield Nelson off when they decided to close the 2009 fall turkey season on a week's notice. What they did was wrong and showed they were looking after their own interest, not the sportsmen of the state. In most of the state, the fall hunt was archery only. Now in there latest move, they are trying to put themselves about the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. What do they have to hide?
"Time to rein in Game and Fish"
AMEN...AMEN AMEN AMEN!!!
Then perhaps we can move on to the Highway Commission...then all those University School Boards that operate as little fiefdoms that are above the petty rules/regulations that burden other state entities. It's good to dream.
"It is high time to repeal Amendment 33. Might as well fix the situation with the Highway Department while we're at it"
Great minds think alike, cato :)!
It is Amendment 35, not 33, that created Game and Fish in its present form. Dogtown Writer, the governor appoints the commissioners for seven-year terms -- one each year. They cannot succeed themselves. But there is no removal process for the governor to get rid of commissioners. In the past, various governors have exerted pressure behind the scenes on Game and Fish commissioners. This could possibly happen with this latest uproar -- after the election. But that is just a guess on my part.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely which the GF&C and Highway Commission undeniably prove.
Interesting that they release this draft now, since the legality of this will very likely be decided by Sheffield Nelson's lawsuit. According to his complaint, the Commission is already refusing to abide by the state's Administrative Procedures Act. If the Judge rules they are subject to the APA, then they are certainly subject to the FOI.
Two other questions:
1.) If AGFC thinks it is exempt from FOI and APA, do they also think they are exempt from the state's purchasing and bidding laws? Have they been following those laws?
2.) AGFC hired a private law firm to represent them on this. All other state agencies have to follow certain required procedures before hiring an outside law firm; did AGFC follow those procedures, or do they claim to be exempt from that as well?
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