I’m offering a column this month I wish I didn’t have to write. I don’t know if I have every fact about this case, but in the last month I’ve collected a lot of information. It’s confirmed a long-held suspicion — the current N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission at the top level of politically appointed commissioners is dysfunctional and needs to be disbanded or reorganized.
Events leading up to and surrounding the “resignation” of Richard “Dick” Hamilton, a 37-year employee, brought us here.
You’ll read elsewhere in this issue that Hamilton was forced to fall on his sword by the current commissioners. A quick synopsis is Hamilton appears to have followed state law when he refused to fire his top legal assistant, then had no choice other than to resign or be fired by the current crop of commissioners.
If the name Terry Waterfield means anything to you, you’ll understand. In the late 1980s, Waterfield, a lieutenant in the Enforcement Division, sued the WRC because they denied him a promotion. The reason? He wouldn’t do the bidding of one commissioner who wanted to embarrass another commissioner.
The upshot of that scandal was then-governor Jim Martin fired all the commissioners and reappointed new ones. Martin also decreed commissioners shouldn’t meddle in staff personnel decisions, which is precisely what they did when they tried to force Hamilton to fire his assistant during July. He wouldn’t do it; they shut his legal aide, Joan Troy, out of her office, cut off her e-mail and telephone service while keeping her on payroll. She later filed a complaint with the state Personnel Board and, a month later, she suddenly was transferred to the WRC’s Enforcement Division.
Interim director Fred Harris has said his study found Troy’s job was necessary. Hey, that’s exactly what Dick Hamilton tried to tell the commissioners. And now Hamilton’s been forced out.
One given reason to dump Troy was a “reduction in force” (cost-saving). If, as we hear, she won’t be dealing with the legislature now, will the WRC have to hire someone else to do that job?
Why was Troy re-given a job? Probably to avoid an expensive out-of-court settlement and exposure of the closed-door dealings that forced an effective director to resign, which would embarrass the commissioners who instigated this mess.
North Carolina’s format of politicians appointing commissioners is the major problem. The governor, House Speaker and Senate pro tempore reward political supporters with appointments, not people with wildlife interests or ideas that enhance wildlife. We have 18 commissioners, and the number seems to grew every few years.
Missouri, often held up as the model state wildlife agency, has four commissioners and, by law, they have to be split two and two by political party. That means no power plays, compromise is forced upon commissioners in order to get things done, and cliques can’t be formed. How can you have cliques with only four guys?
“We just have too many damn commissioners, and now see what they’ve done,” a former commissioner told us. We have to agree.
We’d like to see the governor choose WRC commissioners from bona fide sportsmen’s groups (DU, QDMA, Hunters Helping Kids, NCWTF, TU, etc.) — not political supporters or buddies.
It’s time to remove politicians and politics from the agency.
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