Yesterday, the Senate Dog and Pony Show on DNR Bashing rolled the circus wagons all the way up to Arbor Vitae for its first hearing. Yes, your taxpayer dollars are paying for all those miles to drive up to the middle of nowhere for a hearing when we have perfectly good facilities available in Madison. Problem is, people in southern Wisconsin don't hate the DNR as passionately as the black-helicopter, U.N. fearing, confederate flag-waving crowd up in the sticks.
Dick Wheeler posted a timely account of the hearing. One exchange was particularly interesting.
According to Wheeler...
For those of you playing along at home, please take out your flow chart of state government. The reason the DNR doesn't take direction from the Legislature is because it is not a part of the legislative branch.
The DNR, like all the other state agencies, is part of the executive branch of government. It reports to a secretary (nominated by the Governor, confirmed by the Legislature) and to the Natural Resources Board (nominated by the Governor, confirmed by the Legislature). The Legislature can also temporarily suspend rules proposed by the DNR. But that's about the extent of the Legislature's direct interaction with the DNR.
This, of course, does not stop legislators from constantly trying to tell the DNR what to do, something DNR employees are undoubtedly grateful for. Surely, the hundreds of pages of statutory language and rules are not adequate guidance. They need a natural resources expert like Cathy Stepp to guide them. She probably took many classes on land and resource management in colle... oh wait, her Blue Book bio makes no mention of a college degree, or even attending college for that matter. Perhaps her time on the Wisconsin Builders Association Board of Directors afforded her the balanced perspective necessary for effective stewarding of our state's resources? Otherwise, her website says she's a member of the Racine Assembly Church of God. God stewards the earth, after all. Maybe she's got His plan for how the DNR should conduct its business. And she graduated from Oak Creek High School. "Oak" and "creek" are both nature words...
With the upcoming election, either Bill McReynolds or John Lehman will be an improvement over his predecessor, who was a huge improvement over her predecessor. Just goes to show how low the 21st Senate District set the bar after they threw George Petak out of office.
Dick Wheeler posted a timely account of the hearing. One exchange was particularly interesting.
According to Wheeler...
Committee member Sen. Cathy Stepp told the hearing there are abuses in the system. She said the DNR, in some cases, has "a general disdain for the legislature. Sometimes they don't want to be accountable to the legislature. They don't want to take their direction from us."In her 3 1/2 years with us, it appears as though Sen. Stepp has both mastered the arrogance of a legislator along with a complete misunderstanding of separation of powers.
For those of you playing along at home, please take out your flow chart of state government. The reason the DNR doesn't take direction from the Legislature is because it is not a part of the legislative branch.
The DNR, like all the other state agencies, is part of the executive branch of government. It reports to a secretary (nominated by the Governor, confirmed by the Legislature) and to the Natural Resources Board (nominated by the Governor, confirmed by the Legislature). The Legislature can also temporarily suspend rules proposed by the DNR. But that's about the extent of the Legislature's direct interaction with the DNR.
This, of course, does not stop legislators from constantly trying to tell the DNR what to do, something DNR employees are undoubtedly grateful for. Surely, the hundreds of pages of statutory language and rules are not adequate guidance. They need a natural resources expert like Cathy Stepp to guide them. She probably took many classes on land and resource management in colle... oh wait, her Blue Book bio makes no mention of a college degree, or even attending college for that matter. Perhaps her time on the Wisconsin Builders Association Board of Directors afforded her the balanced perspective necessary for effective stewarding of our state's resources? Otherwise, her website says she's a member of the Racine Assembly Church of God. God stewards the earth, after all. Maybe she's got His plan for how the DNR should conduct its business. And she graduated from Oak Creek High School. "Oak" and "creek" are both nature words...
With the upcoming election, either Bill McReynolds or John Lehman will be an improvement over his predecessor, who was a huge improvement over her predecessor. Just goes to show how low the 21st Senate District set the bar after they threw George Petak out of office.
5 comments:
The mention of Petak makes me hurl.
Screw him, screw the Seligs, and screw Tommy Thompson.
....thought we got over that Stadium Tax crap, eh?
Great post. I don't think Stepp is capable of anything more than spewing right wing talking points. Great to see her called out, when her talking points are not only weak, but incorrect.
Great pull on the fact that she doesn't seem to have a degree. Nothing like the best and brightest running our state.
Great blog. I don't agree with all of the few positions you have shown, but your inside scoop is some of the best political reading I have encountered in some time. Keep up the good work.
The Recess Nanny must think the DNR rules by divine right. The people, through their elected legislators, have no say. The rabble should sit back and take it.
The Recess Nanny wrongly assumes that a college degree is the only path to knowledge. I know people with more than one advanced degree that I would not hire to wash my car. Perhaps the Nanny is one of these people, working in the mailroom and still trying to pay off the loan he took to get that master of philosophy degree.
Stepp, the Nanny fails to mention, served on the DNR Board. College degree or not, I'm guessing Stepp picked up a thing or three about natural resources from her experience there.
The Recess Nanny clearly graduated from an incredibly prestigious university. How else would he have been able to come up with such an incredibly witty and original headline for his post? "A Stepp in the Wrong Direction" Get it? The word is really spelled "step" with one P, but he added the second P because thats how the Senator's name is spelled. Gosh, I laughed out loud when I had someone who went to college explain it to me.
You clearing don't understand the concept of "separation of powers" in that it is a system of shared authority with checks and balances. You also fail to grasp that DNR employees are NOT answerable to the Secretary, they are answerable to us taxpayers who pay the salaries. Hooray for legislators like Stepp who are willing to remind the bureaucrats who they really work for.
You need to spend less time on the playground, and more time in the classroom reviewing Civics 101. Your knowledge of government is a mile wide and an inch deep.
Cathy Stepp can complain about the DNR all she wants, but for her to get whiny because the agency isn't listening to the Legislature can only show arrogance or misunderstanding of the very separation of powers you mention. No other options.
The Legislature's check on the DNR is that it gets to pass laws regarding the DNR and review rules promulgated by the DNR. And with few exceptions, that's where the Legislature's oversight stops. I clearly *do* understand the concept of checks and balances. You are clearly whining that the Legislature doesn't have more control over the DNR. Here's a word of advice for you - go get a Republican governor elected.
Please show me one civics textbook - one - that says that executive branch agencies report to taxpayers. I would love to find a political scholar who'd put your argument in writing.
If you worked for a company that made widgets and someone asked you who you worked for, would you really say that you "work for the people who buy the widgets?" Because that's the argument you're making - that bureaucrats are responsible to the people who pay the money that pays their salary.
Sorry, buddy, taxpayers get their say from politicians. This isn't Athens. You don't get to sit on the hillside and vote on DNR policy. You can complain about it. You can submit testimony. But you have zero direct influence over anything except the politician that the DNR answers to - the Governor - and you only get a say there once every four years. Such is life in a representative democracy.
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