Fish and Wildlife board votes to sue Beshear to keep commissioner. Cameron helping.
The governing board of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources voted 7-0 Wednesday to sue Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration with the help of Attorney General Daniel Cameron to keep Rich Storm as the department’s commissioner.
The action drew the governor’s ire in his afternoon news conference about COVID-19, when he called the move “silly.”
The vote to sue the Beshear administration was taken in a special online meeting of the board after weeks of contention between the board and the administration.
The vote came after board chairman Karl Clinard said in an opening statement that the Beshear administration “has thwarted our efforts, I believe, in an attempt to exert undue political influence over the commission and to access departmental funds.”
The members voted with no discussion. That prompted Sarah Cronan, general counsel for the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, which oversees the department, to ask whether there had been any discussion by the members prior to the meeting in violation of the Kentucky Open Meetings law.
Clinard said he was not aware of any quorum of the board meeting to discuss the issue.prior to Wednesday’s special meeting.
He said after the meeting, “I am remorseful that it has come to this. I regret that the board had to take this action against our governor but we had to do it for the future of the commission.”
The only two members absent were Harry Carloss and Kevin Bond. Clinard said they had scheduling conflicts.
Beshear later took about 10 minutes at his news conference to rail against the board’s action.
“This whole thing is really silly,” said an exasperated Beshear, adding that it is “goofy” to take the issue to court.
Beshear said the board is wrong to think that no one has financial oversight of it. He said that authority lies with the state Finance and Administration Cabinet.
He said his administration offered Storm a $140,000 contract for one year instead of the board’s preference of a two-year contract for $280,000 but Storm declined it.
“I thought that was pretty reasonable,” said Beshear of the offer, especially in a time when the legislature this year chose to enact only a one-year budget during record unemployment because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“No one was trying to say no to their pick. We were just trying to make them be financially responsible,” he said.
The Democratic governor said the board thinks “they can hire their buddy as a commissioner and pay him a million bucks, and as long as the legislature didn’t raise it in a committee, they apparently think that’s the be-all, end-all and that is OK.”
Beshear noted news stories back to 2014 that documented ethical problems and financial irregularities at the fish and wildlife commission. He focused on a December 2018 audit by Republican Auditor Mike Harmon that said numerous laws had been violated at the department and “a cultural change” was needed.
Among other things, Harmon questioned funds spent on alcohol, meals, pre-paid debit cards and outside contracts that were poorly monitored.
Then, said Beshear, the fish and wildlife board in January 2019 had the chance to appoint a new agency chief from outside its ranks. But it rejected several finalists for the vacant post of commissioner and hired Storm, the insider who interviewed the job applicants. Storm had been chairman of the nine-member Fish and Wildlife Commission that supervises the agency and chooses the commissioner
The Beshear administration stopped issuing paychecks to Storm on July 15, but the board claimed that was wrong, saying only it can hire or fire a commissioner.
Besides retaining Cameron “to initiate any and all legal proceedings necessary to vindicate the commission’s selection and appointment of Commissioner Rich Storm,” the board Wednesday reaffirmed its Jan. 31 vote to appoint Storm as commissioner.
The board Wednesday also authorized Clinard to execute any contracts or documents to keep Storm commissioner. Clinard said the cost for Cameron’s office to represent the board will be $125 an hour.
That money will come from the department, which does not receive any money from the state’s General Fund, said Clinard. The department’s money comes from agency collections and other sources, he said.
Clinard said Storm did not accept the one-year contract because Cameron and the board had said the board had sole authority over his contract.
Clinard noted that the state recently hired Jason Glass to be education commissioner for four years at $260,000 a year and that the Beshear Administration has issued several contracts this year for more than one year.
The state personal service contract list for July showed that the tourism cabinet had two $1 million contracts that ran for two years.
Cameron spokeswoman Elizabeth Kuhn said in an email, “It’s the job of the attorney general’s office, when asked, to represent state entities in legal matters, and we appreciate the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s vote to retain our office as counsel in this important matter.
“We look forward to doing what is necessary to represent the commission and their position that the law should be followed regarding Commissioner Storm’s contract.”
Last month, a group of legislators sent a letter to the governor stating their belief that the commission has the ability to choose its own commissioner.
Also in July, the legislature’s Government Contract Review Committee approved the two-year job extension for Storm.
The legislative action signals that lawmakers may weigh in on the issue in next year’s General Assembly.
On July 24, Beshear appointed two new members to the fish and wildlife board, effective Aug. 14., to replace members whose terms expire Aug. 13. Boyle Circuit Court Clerk Cortney Shewmaker of Gravel Switch will replace Jeffrey Eaton of Lawrenceburg and David L. Jones of Barlow will replace Harry W. Carloss. The two new members will serve until Aug. 13, 2024.
Clinard said he wanted to hold a special board meeting before Aug. 14 to consider a lawsuit before the two new members take office. “That way the board members who voted for a contract extension for Storm in January can vote on what remedy we take for Rich Storm,” he said.
Beshear is due to make one more appointment to the board this summer to replace Kevin Bond of Burlington, whose term is expiring.
A board member serves a four-year term. Licensed hunters and anglers in each of nine districts send names of five nominees to the governor, who selects one from each district. The selections then have to be confirmed by the Kentucky Senate.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 4:32 PM.
