“Government
must be a transparent garment which tightly clings to the peoples’
body.” - German dramatist Karl Georg Buchner
Even
the best of magicians might be impressed with the illusions being
offered up by the Kasich Administration as tooled to fine detail by
Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer.
At
virtually every turn Zerhringer and his cadre of acolytes have
systematically disassembled the department, reducing
some units to husks of their former selves and obliterating morale.
Similarly,
Zerhringer has failed in his duty to appoint and work with advisory,
consulting and over-seeing boards, commissions and councils.
At
the same time Zehringer appears to have attached the Natural Resources
Department’s star to a largely unknown and unseen (roughly)
40-person “ad hoc” committee. This group has long operated under
the radar without government oversight and away from public view.
Indeed,
a look at the email list of the ad hoc committee’s members
demonstrates very little in the way of hunting- or fishing-associated
group representation. Just the opposite, with representation by
forest, farming, agricultural and other interests all gathering
themselves together from time-to-time though no one outside of the
body knows when that time-to-time shows up on the calendar. Or even
where or why.
No
question, Zehringer and his politically appointed staff have made a
mess of things. But like the emperor strutting confidently through
his kingdom, Zehringer believes that his new clothes are admired by
his subjects. Of course, they are not.
All
of this is happening even while Zehringer has failed to appoint a
single person to a five-member panel charged by the Ohio General
Assembly several years ago to provide scientific advice on how to
operate the state’s natural areas and preserves. No one has ever been appointed and no council has ever met.
Zehringer’s
back-benching placement of other legally established advisory boards
does not end there, either. An advisory group that was tossed a life
jacket at the final moment by the Ohio General Assembly is the
remnants of the once noteworthy and effective advisory Waterways
Safety Council. At last report the five-person council is really just
a trifecta board that exists somewhere within the refried Division of
Parks and Watercraft.
Of
course the greatest plum that Zehringer and his people covet is the
Division of Wildlife. In this bailiwick of more than passing interest
to hunters, anglers and trappers, Zehringer also has demonstrated a
knack for ignoring history and protocol.
On
January 31st the valued contributions of Ohio Wildlife
Council members Charlie Frank ended when his term expired, though Dr. Larry Mixon was just reappointed. Typically, individuals to this eight-member council
(which is legislatively mandated to review and approve proposed fish
and game laws) are either quickly reappointed or shortly thereafter,
replaced.
To
date, however, Zehringer has done neither; perhaps signaling and
sealing the reappointment or replacement fate of Wildlife Council
members Tom Vorisek and Eric Hirzel. Their terms expire January 31st
2018 and their future with the council is very possibly a
non-starter.
Nor
can it be lost regarding the way Zehringer has turned the Wildlife
Division into a farm team for the agency’s sibling entities. Over
the summer a seemingly and almost unceasing display of shuffling
highly qualified Wildlife Division staffers to other Departmental
entities occurred. Without – importantly – even bothering to ask
the employees if they wanted the transfers.
In
effect, Zehringer ordered his version of the French Foreign Legion’s
unofficial slogan “march or die.” Either the expected
transferring man or woman went along with the switch or else be shown
the nearest exit and the address of the nearest unemployment office.
Of
course, in the case of former Wildlife Division chief Ray Petering
his options were pared down to none: His unceremonious exodus came
unexpectedly (for him, anyway) when he walked into Zehringer’s
office just one day after the July 4th holiday.
Petering
was then ousted, his replacement all ready named, present and
accounted for in the bodily form of Mike Miller.
All
in spite of Zehringer pretty much saying not all that long before
that Petering was in essence going to be the Wildlife Division’s
Moses that would lead the agency into the promised land of solvency
and efficiency.
And
so we are here and the there remains one very large and looming
question-mark. The Natural Resources Department’s permanent
residents are punch-drunk. They are unsure of what eventually will
become not only of the department but just as vital for them, their
jobs.
Alas,
that uncertainty is made even more manifest by Zehringer’s orders
to keep the blinds closed and post the doors with “no solicitation”
signs against the public from inquiring just what the heck is
happening behind the fence-moat at Fountain Square.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
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