Posted: 02.22.2010

Wisconsin Farmers Union leaders today called for the state Assembly to override Gov. Jim Doyle’s veto of legislation that would have a citizens’ committee select the state Department of Natural Resources secretary .
 
The Assembly is expected to vote Feb. 23 on the veto override of Assembly Bill 138. With the veto, the DNR secretary selection would continue to be made by the governor. The state Natural Resources Board’s power to select the DNR secretary was taken from the board in 1995, when the selection became a function of the governor.
 
“It’s good to have a level of separation between the politics that might influence who the DNR secretary is,” Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden said. “With family farmers’ lives so affected by actions the DNR takes, we’d rather have the citizens’ committee naming the secretary.”
 
Von Ruden said that, under AB 138, the DNR secretary would be accountable to the state’s citizens. If the veto is sustained, the Natural Resources Board appointments will continue to be made by governors and confirmed by the state Senate. But the Natural Resources Board often has members appointed by more than one governor, providing more chance for a balanced approach to the secretary’s selection, he said.
 
“Having the Natural Resources Board appoint the secretary makes the secretary accountable to grass-roots citizens’-committee members instead of to any governor’s whims or to the whims of the day’s politics,” Von Ruden said.

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