Ag- revamp bill riles 2 on Plant Board

Draft legislation revamping the state Department of Agriculture and the Plant Board is aimed at efficiency, according to its sponsor, but detractors say the proposal is rooted in the building of political power.

One critic, Ray Vester of Stuttgart, was appointed to the Plant Board two years ago by Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Another critic, George Tidwell of Carlisle, served on the Plant Board for nearly 28 years, from 1987 to 2015, including 15 years as chairman.

The proposed legislation, Vester said, will turn the Plant Board, which was formed in 1917, “from an agency that makes decisions based on sound science into an agency that makes decisions on political science, because the governor and his secretary of agriculture will have the power and the purse strings.”

Vester said his two- year term expires in March and likely won’t be extended by Hutchinson, especially after making comments critical of the plan.

Vester served under Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican, and Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat. After Beebe left office because of the state’s term limits law, Vester was reappointed to the board by Hutchinson, a Republican. “I love the responsibilities of the Plant Board and love what it does. Governors of both parties have appointed me, so I don’t think I’m partisan,” he said.

Tidwell, owner of Tidwell Flying Service east of Lonoke, said farmers will lose out in any changes to the Plant Board’s operation. Debate on the matter needs to be in public, not between just Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward and a few agriculture groups, Tidwell said.

Rep. Dan Douglas, RBentonville, chairman of the House Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee, said Monday the bill will be filed before the ses-

sion’s deadline. “We’ll have a full, open and honest hearing on the bill,” he said.

He said politics isn’t driving his legislation. Douglas acknowledged that supporters of the bill already have been working with such groups as the Arkansas Farm Bureau, the Agriculture Council of Arkansas and the Arkansas Poultry Commission. He said he doesn’t recall any Plant Board members being part of the early discussions.

SUPPORT FOR BILL

The executive committee of the Ag Council of Arkansas voted unanimously Friday to support the bill, its executive vice president, Andrew Grobmyer, wrote in an email to members. “My general suggestion for the organization was … that it’s probably in our best interest to work with the Governor and the Secretary on this specific proposal as written rather than get in their way,” Grobmyer wrote.

A draft of the bill supplied to the group was accompanied by commentary of a little more than four pages by Ward, who was appointed by Hutchinson to lead the agriculture department.

Douglas said another much longer draft bill, of some 250 pages, is dead for the session.

“I want to emphasize that there is absolutely no change in the boards and commissions of the agri department, in how they’re appointed or how they operate,” Douglas said. “What this is all about is administrative changes and some streamlining,” he said.

The Department of Agriculture was established by the Legislature 12 years ago. It is composed of several divisions, including the Plant Board, the Arkansas Forestry Commission, the Livestock and Poultry Commission and the Arkansas Aquaculture Division.

Douglas’ bill will put those divisions under control of the agriculture department through a “type 4 transfer,” which gives the department more supervisory, and regulatory, authority.

It also transfers three lesserknown entities — the Arkansas Farm Mediation Office, the Veterinary Medical Examining Board and the state Board of Registration for Foresters — from the Arkansas Development Finance Authority to the agriculture department.

Douglas insisted the composition of the Plant Board and other panels of the agriculture department won’t change.

The Plant Board was in the news last summer and fall in dealing with the illegal spraying of the herbicide dicamba and efforts, eventually unsuccessful, by Monsanto Co. to have a new dicamba- based herbicide available for use this growing season in Arkansas. The Plant Board voted to restrict all dicamba herbicides — a recommendation Hutchinson backed in early January.

PLANT BOARD MAKEUP

The board has 18 members, representing an array of agriculture interests.

Two nonvoting members represent the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s departments of entomology and plant pathology. Those members currently are Rick Cartwright, interim vice president of the UA Division of Agriculture and director of the UA Cooperative Extension Service, and Craig Rothrock, head of the UA plant pathology department.

Nine members are elected to the Plant Board by the membership of their respective trades: horticulture ( Thomas Post of Altus), nursery ( Russell Black of Fayetteville), seed growers ( Terry Fuller of Poplar Grove), pest control ( Jerry Hyde of Paragould), seed dealers ( Marty Eaton of Jonesboro), feed manufacturers ( Russell Bragg of Fort Smith),

pesticide manufacturers ( Otis Howe of Little Rock), aerial applicators ( Dennie Stokes of Earle) and forestry ( Greg Hay of Conway).

Five members are appointed by the governor to represent specific industry for farmers: cotton farmers ( Danny Finch of Jonesboro); fertilizer and cotton oil mills ( Larry Jayroe of Forrest City); rice farmers ( Vester); livestock ( Robert Campbell of Witts Springs), and forage ( Walter “Bruce” Alford of Lewisville).

Two members, also appointed by the governor, are supposed to be farmers, representing farmers at- large. Those two appointees are Jammy Turner of Gillett and Kyle Baltz of Pocahontas. Turner is a sales representative for Monsanto. Baltz is a peanut grower and owner of Baltz Feed.

Douglas said Plant Board members will continue to be selected by their memberships, but Vester and Tidwell said they believe Hutchinson will have considerable sway in that procedure.

Each division of the agriculture department has its own human resources department, finance directors and information technology offices. “Each one doesn’t need all of that,” Douglas said. “This is not some sinister, underhanded power grab.” Douglas also said the issues surrounding Monsanto and dicamba have no bearing on the bill.

The changes could save as much as $ 600,000 a year, Douglas said, and possibly bring savings to the many industries that pay into the various boards and commissions. Pesticide manufacturers, for example, pay fees to the Plant Board for every chemical registered for use in Arkansas.

Douglas said the respective boards and commissions in the agriculture department will continue to hold control over those funds, but Vester and Tidwell said control really will be in the hands of the agriculture secretary. The Plant

Board’s director already has lost control to Ward in expenditures, they said.

Ward echoed many of Douglas’ comments in a telephone interview Monday.

He also said the change will result in his department issuing one annual report to the Legislature. Now, the Forestry Commission and Plant Board issue separate reports.

EFFICIENCY PLANS

Ward said he and others have known for months that the Hutchinson administration was looking at changes to make government more efficient. “I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and I hate that. But I think the draft bill will answer many of those concerns,” Ward said.

Tidwell said he believes Ward has a conflict of interest: last summer Ward married Lauren Waldrip, an employee of Noble Strategies, a consulting firm that has Monsanto among its clients. Lauren Waldrip Ward attended hearings of the Plant Board, or its pesticide committee, throughout the summer and fall as officials discussed dicamba use and Monsanto’s new dicambabased herbicide. She also is the daughter of Mark Waldrip, a banker, seed dealer in Moro ( Lee County) and member of the University of Arkansas board of trustees.

“I would say my wife is not a lobbyist, first of all,” Ward said. “Second, to the people with those concerns, those recommendations [ on dicamba] came from the Plant Board. I didn’t change its regulatory authority. The Plant Board had that process. The Plant Board’s regulations were approved.”

Ward said he didn’t think there was anything wrong with his wife attending the meetings, and he was never asked by anyone about a potential conflict. “If the governor hadn’t approved [ Plant Board recommendations], I think people would have had concerns and rightfully so.”