Idaho Trying to be Utah

Saw this on another forum...

http://www.idahowildlife.org/e-mails...me-commission/


E-mails Reveal Back-room Arm-twisting at Idaho Fish & Game Commission

Opponents Axed Volunteer Commissioners, Targeted Agency Heads

Contacts:

Brian Brooks, Idaho Wildlife Federation Executive Director (208) 870-7967
Kahle Becker, Idaho Wildlife Federation President (208) 340-1231
Mark Doerr, former IDFG Commissioner (208) 421-4710
Will Naillon, former IDFG Commissioner (208) 833-4799

For Immediate Release October 17, 2016

BOISE ? Recently unveiled emails confirm what Idaho sportsmen had suspected: That Gov. Butch Otter bowed to political pressure to axe two members of Idaho?s Fish and Game Commission, who ran afoul of a Legislator?s desire to revamp the way Idaho distributes its most prized hunting licenses.

?Idahoans enjoy a world-class wildlife resource thanks to our independent Fish & Game Commission,? said Kahle Becker of the Idaho Wildlife Federation. ?The strong-arm politics we have unveiled are a direct threat to Idaho sportsmen and the hunting heritage we have built over decades.?

Recently unveiled emails clearly show that Blackfoot businessman Doug Sayer and Sen. Steve Bair, R-Blackfoot, used their political influence to draw cross-hairs on the Commissioners who objected to their goals. Sayer is an influential member of the Idaho Republican Party; Bair is chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee. Sayer also tried, but failed, to bring down the Director and Deputy Director at the Idaho Department of Fish & Game.

At issue is the lottery system that Idaho uses to distribute highly prized and limited hunting permits, such as moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat. Historically, these permits have been distributed in annual lotteries. But some Legislators have pushed to carve out more and more tags to be sold to the highest bidder, which has been controversial.

?Idaho?s Fish and Game Commission is a proven success because it guarantees sportsmen?s have a voice even in times of intense political pressure,? said Brian Brooks, of Idaho Wildlife Federation. ?Idaho outdoor families won't stand politicians playing heavy-handed politics with public servants and professional biologists.?

The standoff between Legislators and the Commission grew heated in May of 2016, when Gov. Otter failed to reappoint two commissioners, Mark Doerr and Will Naillon.

But months earlier, Sayer was emailing the Governor?s Office, calling for heads to roll.

?I fear that if we aren't willing to change the chemistry of the existing commission and perhaps the leadership at the department, this issue will not heal or repair itself,? he wrote to Butch Otter?s Chief of Staff David Hensley.??I must however recommend to you that we do not reappoint Mark Doerr or Will Naillon when their term expires in June.?

Gov. Otter failed to reappoint Doerr and Naillon, offering no explanation for the move. The Idaho Wildlife Federation sought those emails under Idaho?s sunshine law and reviewed hundreds of pages to shed light on the actions, which were provided to the Idaho press this morning.

The Idaho Fish & Game Commission was created by a statewide vote in 1938.

The emails reveal that:

Sayer asked the governor?s office to axe Commissioners Doerr and Naillon and suggested he had names to recommend as replacements.
Sayer recommended firing the director and chief deputy of the Idaho Department of Fish & Game as well. (They remain in office, as the commission has authority over their employment.)
Sen. Steve Bair organized large agriculture special interests to testify at hearings, to drive a wedge between the Idaho Department of Fish & Game and rank-and-file sportsmen.
Bair and Sayer coordinated political strong-arm tactics to withhold necessary funding increases for the Idaho Department of Fish & Game to gain political leverage for their pet project: selling more big game tags to the highest bidder.

?Clearly, there are many creative ways to fund wildlife conservation in Idaho,? said Brooks. ?We have a system that works and is fair for all Idahoans, but allowing politics to trump the public interest and professional biologists is a recipe for disaster. The Idaho Wildlife Federation ? and other outdoor groups ? clearly need to double our guard to prevent that from happening.?

LAST EDITED ON Oct-17-16 AT 06:27PM (MST)[p]Wow.

Might have to start calling Idaho "Utah Lite".

Thanks for posting that Grizzly.

Pretty smooth of Sayer. Most of us figured SFW was behind the tag grab only to find out the Chairman of the Wild Sheep Foundation was pulling the puppet strings on legislators and the Governor the whole time. Wait how many Idaho sheep Governor tags has Sayer bought...

This is disappointing and ironic a WSF board member was using his influence as one of "the top 100 Most Influential People and Idaho's Business Leader of the Year" to oppose the voice of Idaho's sportsmen. Also ironic since the Governors tag holder in Utah just poached a ram...and got away with it.

Top quotes:

"I will need you and others to come testify when the hearing gets scheduled. Based on the angry minority of hunting folks, we will be in for a battle. Should be interesting. I'll keep you in the loop."

-Senator Steve Bair

"The authorizing statute regretfully said the commission ?may? create the Governor?s tag program. We are drafting legislation that simply changes the ?may? to ?shall?. Our Commissioners are so hung up on following the Western Wildlife Model that wildlife can never, ever be sold that they cannot see the benefit of conservation tags. I suppose we will have to mandate the program."

-Senator Steve Bair

"We are considering drafting a bill that will make the auction tag program mandatory. Prior to slugging the commission in the gut with that type of legislation, I am going to try to educate them. Utah information will certainly help in that effort."

-Senator Steve Bair

Extremely frustrating. These guys need to be voted OUT!

Thank you for sharing this. Keep spreading the word to fellow hunters.

This is very scary stuff. We need to keep this thread at the top of the page through this legislative term.

I will make a point to send letters to every one of these meddling law makers before the next session. Stay out of our wildlife matters and leave it to the experts at F&G! There are some local (Boise) area law makers that keep insisting on forcing a point system down our throats. Even after repeated polls of sportsmen and women show it is not wanted! I suggest you all do the same. Make your voice heard, don't wait for someone else to do it!

Im from Utah. We have fallen, but you guys need to stop these clowns in their tracks right now. If Idaho falls we may eventually lose the west to the highest bidder.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE read this article.

Next week we have the opportunity to vote and maybe we can vote some of these anti-sportsman out of office. Particularly if you see Bair, or Moyle on your ballot, it's time to chop them.



By Marty Trillhaase
October 27, 2016

Blackfoot Republican Steve Bair is serving his fifth term in the Idaho Senate.

He's chairman of the Resources and Environment Committee.

And on that panel sit some of Idaho's more conservative Republicans - Jeff Siddoway of Terreton, Lee Heider of Twin Falls, Sheryl Nuxoll of Cottonwood, Clifford Bayer and Marv Hagedorn, both of Meridian.

Is it any wonder Bair had the air of a self-confident power broker last year while he was emailing back and forth with Wild Sheep Foundation Chairman - and Premier Technology co-founder - Doug Sayer of Pocatello?

Sayer was co-author of a 2010 bill suggesting the Idaho Fish and Game Commission auction off a dozen of Idaho's choicest hunting opportunities to the highest bidders. Mindful of Idaho's 1938 initiative-inspired egalitarian approach to wildlife management, Fish and Game declined.

So Sayer and Bair hatched a plan to compel Fish and Game to engage in the auctions.

With House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, as his co-sponsor, Bair went before his own committee on Feb. 2 with Senate Bill 1236.

To say what happened next surprised Bair would be an understatement.

Apparently mindful of public opposition to Bair's approach, his own committee shrugged it off. In fact, had he not been chairman, the panel might not have extended him the courtesy of at least agreeing to introduce it.

"I introduced the ... (auction) tag bill to my committee yesterday to get it printed," Bair wrote to Sayer in a Feb. 2 email, "and it nearly died. The committee spent considerable time expounding on how the Legislature should not be making decisions like this for the commission, and for not letting the commission decide themselves whether to let one tag, 12 tags or no tags out for auction. After the discussion, there was a long, pregnant silence. Finally, one reluctant member said, 'Out of deference to Chairman Bair, I will make the motion to have (it) printed.' No one would second it until another member also voiced pity on the chairman. So we got it printed, but it won't get out of committee without a lot of arm twisting."

Continued Bair: "I was shocked. My committee has several new members over the last couple of years, and I thought they would be supportive. Not so, evidently."

As the Tribune's Eric Barker reported, we learned this because the Idaho Wildlife Federation obtained, under Idaho's Public Records Law, copies of emails surrounding the auction tag bill and the subsequent firing of two Fish and Game Commission members, Mark Doerr of Kimberly and Will Naillon of Challis.

Look over Sayer's March 16 email to Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's chief of staff, David Hensley, and you're left with the impression that Sayer shifted to a Plan B - pressuring the Fish and Game Commission to do what the Legislature will not.

"I fear that if we aren't willing to change the chemistry of the existing commission and perhaps the leadership of the department, this issue will not heal or repair itself," Sayer wrote in a reference to Doerr, Naillon and Director Virgil Moore. Sayer recommended "that we do not reappoint Mark Doerr or Will Naillon when their term expires. ... It is a difficult and severe problem, but when faced with something like this, one also needs to look at the top of the organization and wonder if that individual is part of the problem. In this case, I believe Virgil and especially his deputy director are in fact promoting the culture that we now experience."

There's no email showing Hensley's reply - and the governor's office dodged Barker's question about whether Otter supports the auction tag scheme. But the governor did choose not to reappoint Doerr and Naillon - as Sayer suggested - telling the two commissioners they were free to reapply.

Sayer would not be the first prominent corporate official to hold sway over the governor's office - whether that involves the operating of prisons, broadband services in the high schools, transportation contracts and policies, or special favors for the friends of Otter's former State Tax Commission chairman.

Who's to say whether Otter will remove additional appointees from the Fish and Game Commission or even hold any fee increase hostage to win the commission's support for an auction tag program?

A smoking gun, this is not.

There is, however, more than just a little smoke. - M.T.

http://idaho4freedom.org/the-infamous-idaho-power-play-amendment-hjr-5/ But wait theres's more..... could make everything a mute point from voter ability to contest anything. RIP Lil Bro' "Huntnfever"