Something ordinary, but nonetheless troubling, happened July 7 when the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission met in Raleigh.
The commissioners recognized and thanked four outgoing commissioners — Eugene Price, Bobby Purcell, Maughan Hull and Chuck Bennett — and announced the re-appointment of Wes Seegars to the District 3 commissioner’s post and a 6-year term.
The commissioners also voted David Hoyle Jr. of Dallas (District 8) as their chairman for the next two years and picked Martin Lewis of Asheville (District 9) as vice-chairman. Lewis, already on the commission, remains the D9 commissioner, even though his term expired in July, because Gov. Beverly Perdue hasn’t named a replacement. Hoyle, Lewis and Seegars are Democrats.
Five new Republican appointees — chosen by the House Speaker and Senate Pro Tempore — didn’t get to vote for chairman or vice chairman. State statute requires the chairman and vice-chair’s jobs to be decided every two years at the commission’s first July meeting.
It seems unfair that new commissioners can’t vote for their leader, but that’s the way it is in North Carolina. Our research hasn’t uncovered any other board that operates this way.
But the major problem with the commission is it’s overloaded. A state with nine wildlife districts has 19 commissioners? At its creation in 1947, the commission had nine governor-appointed commissioners, one from each district. In 1961, that total rose to 11. In 1977, during the first of his four terms as governor, Jim Hunt, a Democrat, expanded the commission to 13 members. In 1989, Gov. Jim Martin, a Republican, fired every commissioner, then re-appointed some while naming several new commissioners. He also re-formatted the process, naming nine district commissioners, plus two at-large commissioners (one appointed by the governor and one by the lieutenant governor) while the House Speaker and Senate Pro each got one appointment. In 1993, with Hunt again at the helm, commissioner numbers rose to 17. In 2001, under Gov. Mike Easley, another Democrat, the number grew to 19.
The statute that created the Commission says a commissioner “shall be an experienced hunter, fisherman, farmer or biologist who shall be generally informed on wildlife conservation or restoration problems.”
Only a few current commissioners fit that description. Recent events proved the main qualification for being a commissioner to be political donations to the governor, House Speaker or Senate Pro Tempore.
Marc Basnight and Jim Black, Democrats who were formerly Senate Pro Tempore and House Speaker, once tried to push the Commission to 21 members — giving those two leaders more appointees than the governor, but Easley vetoed their bid. Basnight retired this year, Black is serving a prison sentence for malfeasance and Easley was convicted of a felony.
In either case, we indisputably know before each election that politicians demand donations in exchange for commission appointments. Few are appointed because of wildlife acumen.
We also know Missouri, with four commissioners — by law split between Republicans and Democrats — is generally acknowledged to have the best wildlife agency in the United States. We hope North Carolina will follow Missouri one day and put wildlife first instead of dollars to buy votes when naming commissioners.
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