North Carolina’s sportsmen have been buffeted from all sides in recent months.One obvious problem is the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission continues to be managed ineptly at the highest level by politically-appointed commissioners. With the April 17 resignation announcement of interim executive director Fred Harris (he will stay until a new director is chosen), the WRC will have lost two executive directors in less than a year.
That means with the August 2007 resignation of Richard “Dick” Hamilton, the commissioners will have tossed 73 combined years of experience and service to N.C.’s sportsmen out the window.
Hamilton said he was forced to resign because the commissioners tried to influence personnel decisions that belonged to the executive director. At the time, WRC chairman Wes Seegars disagreed with Hamilton’s analysis, but Seegars said he couldn’t explain further.
Apparently the well-respected N.C. Wildlife Federation thought enough of Hamilton to hire him almost immediately to run its new Camouflage Coalition program.
Harris told us he resigned because he was overburdened by having to work as interim director and his own assistant, which resulted in a drop of staff morale. Sources told us Harris submitted explanations for his resignation in e-mails to his staff, the WRC’s division chiefs and the commissioners. In those e-mails, Harris also cited “micro-managing” of his staff by commissioners and disagreed with the potential hire of a new executive director from outside North Carolina. Harris later recanted the hiring criticism.
Seegars said our web-site story about Harris’ resignation, based upon reports to us of what was in his e-mail, was inaccurate. So we asked Harris and Seegars, through the Freedom of Information Act, to send us copies of Harris’ e-mail because it’s a public record. Harris sent the e-mail; it confirmed our web-page story.
Seegars said during an interview he wanted more involvement at the executive director and division chief levels and wanted to present “action plans” as part of strategy for future agency management. Call us crazy, but that sounds like micro-management.
Apparently the commissioners also aren’t happy about media scrutiny. During an April 21 meeting, a source told us a staff employee said the agency had a “cancer,” referring to our revelation of Harris’ resignation by e-mail.
Our basic concern is why it’s taken so long (nine months) to find a permanent executive director. If, as Harris believes, the current WRC staff has capable wildlife managers, why the delay? Obviously delays have affected morale among employees.
Two reasons may exist for the foot-dragging. Non-N.C. wildlife professionals may not want to work for an agency with obvious problems or the commissioners actually don’t want to promote an executive director from within the agency’s ranks.
Why would that be? It seems to be a control issue.
The commissioners may want the new executive director to be beholden to them for his job instead of being primarily concerned about professional wildlife management in North Carolina.
It seems clear good leadership is lacking at the WRC.
Be the first to comment