Game Commission puts itself ‘in political peril’: Hunting lobbyist

(The Center Square) — Months after an abrupt resignation at the Pennsylvania Game Commission led to the swift appointment of a new executive director, those invested in the agency’s future told its leaders to heed warning signs and improve their communication with the public.

During the public comment period of the commission’s meeting on Friday, hunters aired their long-standing complaints about Sunday hunting, advice on improving land acquisitions and game lands, and ideas for better management.

But they also brought a warning about the future.

“The game commission has some of the finest personnel, most of them sitting here today, that I’ve worked with ever since starting in the Capitol in 1991,” said Mike Kriner, a lobbyist for the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen & Conservationists. “It pains me to deliver the message I’m gonna deliver: The political missteps — by both the commission and the commissioners — continues to put the commission in political peril. The political strategy has been absolutely terrible and, quite honestly, I’m getting tired of repeating this.”

Kriner warned commissioners of three problems: the lack of a plan for what to do with $500 million in the game fund (which led to the Senate passing a bill to transfer $150 million from the game fund to the Clean Streams Fund); a failure to “hit the reset button” with the resignation of former Executive Director Bryan Burhans; and poor overall communication that hinders hunters’ and environmental groups’ efforts to assist the commission.

Inaction has hampered the PGC, he argued.

“It was not the commission or the board that put up the political fight to block (the $150 million transfer) — it was the NGOs, some folks in the audience here, and the House members who helped to defend the game fund,” Kriner said.

The commission’s stasis led to a “horrendous” Senate committee hearing in February, he said, where “the word ‘takeover’ was mentioned.”

That hearing featured senators grilling the commission over their choice to hire a lobbyist, along with concerns about lackluster payments in lieu of taxes. By May, House members were calling for a “reckoning” within the commission; Rep. David Maloney, R-Boyertown, warned of “a culture of personal pet projects and vendettas against anyone daring to speak out” within the PGC.

When the commission appointed Steve Smith as executive director in May, Maloney called the appointment “a violation of state law;” within days, the PGC then called a 10-minute meeting to vote Smith as the agency’s top official.

“I think Steve personally is a wonderful guy, but the commission missed the mark on this,” Kriner said. “By putting in an acting title for just a period of time — even if you were intending to hire him eventually — would’ve given Steve the benefit of not having a bull’s-eye on his back as he has had every day in the Capitol since … it was a terrible political mistake.”

The result has been House Bill 2314 advancing, which would make the game fund subject to an annual review and classify it as an appropriation from the General Assembly — a dramatic restraint on independence for the PGC. The commission is not funded with tax dollars, but with hunters’ fees, license sales, and oil & gas royalties.

“I would view that as a shot across the bow,” Kriner said. “Every session, there’s 6,000 bills that are introduced. None of them work and get through a committee process within a 30-day period of time. That bill did.”

He also warned the commissioners that they miss an opportunity by not responding to comments or questions during the public comment section of the commissioners meeting.

“We want to be in lockstep with you, but we don’t have anything to know what we’re standing behind, and I think it’s irresponsible of the board for that,” Kriner said.

After his public comments, Kriner repeated the need, as he saw it, for more communication and collaboration.

“We as a group, as conservationists across the state, wildlife people, let’s get together and talk about what we’re seeing,” he said. “The more that the commissioners can be in front of elected officials and talk about these things, that’s healthy …  there’s a lot of things happening at the commission that are really, really good, but it gets down to communication.”