Wednesday, January 23, 2019

(Updated) New Ohio Division of Wildlife leadership makes major staff changes

In a rapid fire set of changes, the Ohio Division of Wildlife has reassigned people who had been removed in 2017 from key mid-management positions by the just-ended Governor John Kasich-Natural Resources Director James Zehringer era.

And the new bosses also jettisoned other mid-management personnel.

In making the changes, the agency brought in as one of its two assistant chiefs a principal in the so-called “Brown County Five,” a group of several Wildlife Division officials who nine years ago were charged with felony counts for alleged misconduct in the manner of handling the discipline of a former county wildlife officer. The charges were later dropped following a successful appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court that their protections against self-incrimination were violated by the state.

Newly installed Wildlife Division chief Kendra Wecker announced the changes to agency employees via electronic notification. This memo highlighted the following changes:

The appointment of Todd Haines as one of two assistant chiefs: the elevation of acting to permanent Assistant Chief, Pete Novotny; the return of Ken Fritz as Executive Administrator for Wildlife Law Enforcement; the return of Scott Hale as Executive Administrator for Fish Management; the move of Rich Carter from Executive Administrator for Fish Management to the assignment of head of Special Projects including capital and engineering associated projects; the return of Dave Kohler as the full-time Human-Wildlife Conflict Administrator; the return of Stacy Xenakis as the agency’s Federal Aid Supervisor; the transfer of David Lane to the Ohio Division of Forestry; the transfer of Tammy Terry to the Ohio Division of Parks and Watercraft; and the departure of former Wildlife Division Assistant chief Mike Luers (though no indication as to Luers’ subsequent status).

In an official release the Wildlife Division says that Novotny began his career in 1996 as the wildlife officer assigned to Harrison County. He was promoted in 2015 as the manager of the division’s District Three office. Since April 2018, Novotny has served as acting assistant chief and administrator of the division’s law enforcement section.

The official release says that Haines began his career with the Wildlife Division in 1987, working as a wildlife research technician in Oak Harbor. In 1993, he moved to southwest Ohio, working as a management supervisor in the division’s District Five office. Since 2003, 
Haines has served as the manager of that office.

However, Haines likewise was a member of the then-so-called “Brown County Five.”

Haines and the others in the so-named “Brown County Five” group were successful in their appeal that the state was wrong in forcing them to testify against themselves in the case of former county wildlife officer Allan Wright.

Wright was ultimately dismissed after allowing an out-of-state wildlife officer to use his home address in order to buy a resident hunting license. The so-named “Brown County Five” were accused of handling the matter administratively instead of criminally by the state, with actual charges brought by then-Brown County Prosecutor Jessica A. Little.

The Ohio Supreme Court later ruled the defendants were subjected to testifying without the self-incrimination protections guaranteed under federal law. Following the Ohio Supreme Court ruling, the charges against the defendants were dropped.

The group later filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Little and the state though this suit was later dismissed as well.

In her electronic note to Wildlife Division employees, Wecker said that “2019 is going to be an outstanding year marking a new era for the Division of Wildlife.”

Your support, hard work and dedication are appreciated and together we are going to accomplish wonderful things. I am looking forward to meeting each one of you and spending time in the field,” Wecker said.

Mike Budzik, now retired Wildlife Division chief and current natural resources adviser to DeWine, believes that Wecker has developed “a truly awesome team that will be focused on the resource, constituents and employees.”

It is well balanced in terms of experience representing the proper mixture of field service and administrative service,” Budzik said.


- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net

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