KY Fish & Wildlife chair defies AG’s resignation demand, says he will fight it in court
The chair of the board overseeing Kentucky’s fish and wildlife management agency says he will retain his post, despite calls from the state attorney’s general office that he resign due to ineligibility.
Fish and Wildlife Commission Chair Chuck Meade told the Herald-Leader he has retained counsel and will defend himself in court if Attorney General Russell Coleman files suit.
The attorney general’s interpretation of an exemption that allows landowners to hunt and fish on their farmland without a license would result in a “wholesale change” in the status thousands of sportsmen and women enjoy across the commonwealth, Meade’s attorney said in a letter filed late Tuesday and reviewed by the Herald-Leader.
“There will be far reaching political ramifications should your interpretation of the landowner license exemption be pursued,” wrote William Repasky, a Frost Brown Todd attorney in Lousiville who is representing Meade.
In a Dec. 19 letter, Coleman’s office demanded Meade resign by 4 p.m. Dec. 31 because the commissioner did not hold a state fishing or hunting license for the five consecutive years prior to being appointed to the commission in 2024.
Meade said he held a license during three of those five years, but relied on the farmland exemption for the remaining two.
But Attorney Aaron Silletto, head of the Coleman’s Office of Civil and Environmental Law, said Kentucky’s farmland exemption only applies to individuals who are living on the farmland they hunt or fish license-free.
The statute applies to “the resident owner of farmlands or his or her spouse or dependent children.” Meade and his attorney said the term “resident” under the law means people who live in Kentucky, not any specific plot.
Meade represents Eastern Kentucky’s District 7 on the commission, which oversees the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources commissioner and the agency’s roughly $100 million budget — funded primarily by sporting licenses and boating registrations. He was nominated in 2023, appointed by Gov. Andy Beshear in January 2024 and confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate later that year.
He owns 2.5 acres of land in Johnson County where he often hunts deer, along with a 100-acre family farm in Lawrence County where he hunts and “engages in wildlife habitat management work,” according to his attorney.
“Our General Assembly knows how to draft laws,” Repasky wrote in his Tuesday letter to the attorney general’s office.
Elsewhere in the statute, Repasky said, the word “resident” is used to describe people who have resided in Kentucky for at least 30 days—no more or less.
“In a real sense, interpreting the statute as you propose is a textbook case of you trying to hide the proverbial elephant in a mousehole,” he wrote, referencing the U.S. Supreme Court’s major-questions doctrine requiring federal agencies to cite clear, explicit support from Congress when interpreting matters with sweeping economic or political significance.
The attorney general’s office has said it will file action in circuit court to force Meade’s removal if need be.
“Kentuckians expect all their public officials to comply with the law and fulfill the requirements of their positions,” Coleman wrote in a statement to the Herald-Leader last week. “In rare cases when that doesn’t happen, it’s the Office of the Attorney General’s responsibility to seek the removal of the ineligible individuals. After a fair and thorough investigation, our Office is working to remove this individual, uphold the law and protect Kentuckians’ trust in their institutions.”
The attorney general’s office first began investigating Meade this fall following an anonymous whistleblower complaint.
Meade said he will fight the attorney general’s decision in court “on behalf of the people of my district” and other Kentuckians who have relied on the farmland license exemption for decades.
It is unclear whether the Coleman’s opinion will have a trickle-down effect on the way Kentucky game wardens interact with other hunters and fishers in the commonwealth. The League of Kentucky Sportsmen has drafted a resolution calling on KDFWR to clarify the attorney general’s interpretation and how it applies to the men and women who use it in Kentucky.
League President Doug Ramey told the Herald-Leader he fears the effort to oust Meade is part of political movements to shield agency commissioner Rich Storm, who has clashed with Beshear over his office’s oversight, as well as procurement and conservation easements, as first reported by the Kentucky Lantern.
Senate President Robert Stivers has said it is the Senate’s priority to protect Storm from retaliation.
Sen. Gary Boswell, R-Owensboro, who serves as vice chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee and is a member of the Natural Resources and Energy Committee, said he is unaware of anyone in the state who has been ticketed for hunting or fishing on land they own.
“There are literally thousands of Kentuckians who hunt and possibly fish on property they own who would be in violation of the law,” Boswell told the Herald-Leader. “This thing is going to get pretty nasty before its over with if the AG’s opinion stands.”
This story was originally published December 31, 2025 at 2:51 PM.
