LITTLE ROCK — Someone should explain to the Game and Fish Commission that it is not a power unto itself.
It is not a fourth branch of government, either.
The constitutional independence granted it by Amendment 35 did not release it from abiding by the duly enacted laws of this state.
Talk about gall. These folks have it by the car- and truckloads (and I need not remind you that they’ve got a staggering number of those, although most are for their personal use-your sales taxes and hunting and fishing fees at work).
Our news story about this outrageous power grab noted that G&FC officials are claiming “special privileges” for agency as a constitutionally independent entity. What it should have said was that the commission is claiming omnipotence, authority without limit even to the point of writing its own laws when it doesn’t like the ones put in place by the General Assembly or the voters.
The law it doesn’t like at the present time-who knows what will rub the commission wrong next?-is the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, whose purpose is to exact accountability from government officials who spend public funds and government agencies that are financed wholly or in part by public funds.
I doubt that any G&FC officials like the state’s FOIA, but the officials who don’t like it so much that they have drafted their own “law” are Commissioners Craig Campbell, Emon Mahony and Rick Watkins.
Their version of the act, to quoteour news story, “would give commission personnel some of the authority analogous to that of the state’s attorney general . . . allow the commission director to refuse to disclose information he deemed might be embarrassing to commission personnel [and] allow the commission to take as long as 10 days to answer freedom of information requests from the public.”
Or as G&FC attorney (one of three!) Robert Jackson said, “We have thrown out some things [in the state FOIA law] that are not applicable to the Game and Fish Commission. . . . We are essentially the General Assembly when it comes to making wildlife rules and regulations.”
In a pig’s eye. They aren’t the General Assembly in any shape, form or fashion; they can’t “throw out” parts of the state FOI law or any law. Such an action, and a policy such as they propose, would be blatantly illegal.
Mahony’s claim to the contrary-“We have the ability as an independent agency to address these rules ourselves”-the commission has no such authority.
Frankly, I am still so outraged that I can’t say it any better than did Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times: “This issue underscores, rather than obscures, the larger issue. Game and Fish is out of control. It views publicinput and control as a hindrance. With a dedicated stream of sales tax money and a windfall from gas revenue, it has continued on its expansive ways, with an exploding payroll and lavish perks (the famous one-vehicle-per-employee ratio a good example) even as hunting and fishing licenses have declined in the face of an increasing state population. Something is wrong with this picture. It’s time to end Game and Fish’s stature as an independent agency. By this latest proposal, it demonstrates that it views itself as unanswerable to any authority but the kingmakers of the controlling three-member Commission committee.”
Gov. Mike Beebe was caught unawares by the power grab on the part of the commission, to which he has appointed four of its seven members. Here’s hoping he gets up to speed pronto and follows through on his recent boast that he is not without influence over agencies that are “technically” constitutionally independent.
Don’t think you’ve heard the last of this. If ever there was any doubt that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission should be stripped of its autonomy by the people of Arkansas, this outrageous power grab should erase all trace of it. We need to repeal Amendment 35.
But alas, my space is gone, so we’ll have to leave further elucidation on why the Game and Fish Commission has grown too big for its britches for another day.
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Associate Editor Meredith Oakley is editor of the Voices page.
Editorial, Pages 89 on 10/24/2010