Fish and wildlife board sues Beshear to keep its commissioner. Cameron is helping.
With help from Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the governing board of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources filed suit Monday against the Beshear Administration to keep Rich Storm as the department’s commissioner.
The 20-page lawsuit asks Franklin Circuit Court to declare that the commission has sole authority to appoint its commissioner and set the salary. It also asks the court to rule that Storm is the lawfully appointed commissioner and order temporary and permanent injunctive relief prohibiting the Beshear Administration from interfering with the commission’s authority.
Plaintiffs in the suit are Tourism, Arts and Heritage Secretary Mike Berry, whose cabinet oversees the fish and wildlife department, and Finance and Administration Secretary Holly McCoy-Johnson, whose cabinet handles state funds.
Three attorneys in Cameron’s office filed the lawsuit, which was assigned to Judge Thomas Wingate.
The fish and wildlife board voted 7-0 Aug. 12 to pursue the lawsuit after weeks of contention between the board and the administration. The board claims only it can hire a commissioner. The Beshear Administration disagrees.
The board in January of this year unanimously voted to give Storm, who became commissioner in January 2010 during the administration of former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, a new two-year contract at $140,000 a year.
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 Beshear Administration offered Storm only a one-year contract, noting that the legislature this year enacted only a one-year, instead of two-year state budget. When Storm did not accept it, the administration stopped his salary July 15..
The lawsuit said the administration has had more than 900 contracts that extend beyond one year and that the money to pay Storm’s salary would not come from the state’s General Fund but from fees and federal funds.
The board on Aug. 12 voted to reaffirm Storm’s contract.
The Beshear Administration had no immediate comment on Monday’s lawsuit but Beshear, a Democrat, has called the board’s action “silly” and has mentioned news stories back to 2014 that documented ethical problems and financial irregularities at the fish and wildlife commission.
He has focused on a December 2018 audit by State Auditor Mike Harmon, a Republican, that said numerous laws had been violated at the department and “a cultural change” was needed.
The governor criticized the board for appointing Storm in January 2019 instead of going out of the department to hire its chief. Storm had been chairman of the commission and interviewed job applicants for the top position.
The lawsuit says the General Assembly has insulated the commission “from excessive political influence,” but now, political appointees in the Beshear Administration ”are depriving the commission of the statutory right to select and appoint the commissioner.”
No hearing date for the lawsuit has yet been scheduled.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 12:45 PM.
