The Grannis firing indicative of Albany’s DEC priorities

As many of you know from reading my columns, I’ve never been a fan of the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation, and that opinion dates back to 1972, when it was spawned to replace the NYS Conservation Dept. Although I’ve voiced my reasons in past columns, what occurred last week, with the firing of its commissioner, Pete Grannis, typified one of my primary reasons.
Grannis, a NYC Democrat, was appointed to run DEC by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007. Prior to that, Grannis served as a member of the Assembly representing the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island for more than 30 years. He also served in the early 1970's as a Compliance Counsel for DEC. Grannis wasn’t Spitzer’s first choice for the DEC’s top position and also came under fire by the state’s sportsmen groups, who felt his urban background didn’t qualify him for the position.
However, once Grannis took over, his efforts to support conservation programs and projects, as well as environmental ones, gradually began winning over his detractors. Under Grannis, the pheasant program was salvaged, the minimum age for youths to hunt big game was lowered, and a new NYS salt water fishing license was created (none existed before, unlike fresh water fishing). Despite his urban background, he seemed to take his position seriously and listened to what sportsmen and his fish and wildlife staff professionals suggested. He was also a three-time winner of the Legislator of the Year award from the Environmental Planning Lobby and was accorded similar honors by the Audubon Society, the Environmental Action Coalition and Environmental Advocates.
Sounds like he was doing a fine job, right? Well, in Albany politics, it’s their way or the highway, especially for appointees. The turning point in Grannis’ commissionership began when the state’s fiscal well being began to become increasingly troubled, and agency budgets began being pared and shuffled by the NYS Dept. of Budget’s “rob Peter to pay Paul” approach, which had worked in previous fiscal years, but the impact of the national recession, made even worse by New York’s failing economy, began to blow away the smoke-and-mirrors budget manipulating, revealing just how bad the state’s fiscal health was.
As many of us had warned in the early ‘70s, the creation of such a vast bureaucracy as the DEC would be would eventually stretch its ability to function effectively if sudden economic or environmental changes occurred. After all, when you place conservation, the environment, and all that fall under these categories under one bureaucratic roof and budget, you’re asking for trouble. You’d end up with all the various divisions fighting for survival.
The divisions that were responsible for conservation often bumped heads with those charged with environmental issues. Funding and personnel were often saddled with multiple tasking, and increasingly more regulations were created, adding to the work and budget loads. Grannis was apparently getting increasingly frustrated to see his DEC being steadily pared and shrunken by the Albany powers, led by the Paterson administration. Then last Tuesday an unsigned, undated memo was leaked to the news media that warned that “fewer polluted sites would be cleaned up, fewer regulators would be available to oversee the potential natural gas drilling boom in the Marcellus Shale, and stocking of game fish could halt. In order to avoid cuts to programs that protect human health or address immediate environmental damage, the memo suggests the most logical places for deep cuts would be outdoor recreation and sports including skiing, fishing, hunting, camping and hiking. Many of our programs are hanging by a thread. The public would be shocked to learn how thin we are in many areas,” the memo stated. “DEC is in the weakest position that it has been since it was created 40 years ago.”
Grannis protested that the memo was not leaked with his knowledge and later said that apparently facts don’t sit well with this administration. On Wednesday the governor demanded his resignation over the memo becoming public. Peter Iwanowicz, a Democrat from Albany and Deputy Secretary for the Environment, will be responsible for representing the Governor on a range of environmental policy matters, including climate change, natural resource protection, and clean air and water. Prior to that he served as Director of the Climate Change Office. Note, no where is the term “conservation” used.
Almost anything can be considered to fall under the environmental umbrella, and as New York’s political power has increasingly been taken over by downstate politicians and appointees, all with an eye on votes from large urban areas, the priorities given to conservation have increasingly given way to those of environmental. Since conservation issues important to many upstate residents are being bypassed in favor of general environmental ones, programs involving fish, wildlife, forest management, etc. will take a backseat until the state’s fiscal woes subside, whenever that may be.
To those of us who questioned the wisdom of creating a mega agency such as DEC is, it now seems that our worst fears are being realized, and Pete Grannis’ dismissal last week proved that basically anyone who questions the reasons our Albany leaders place higher priorities on some divisions at the expense of others may be in jeopardy of getting a pink slip. Now, license-buying sportsmen can truly ask: “Is the increased license monies being spent on appropriate conservation projects, or are they supporting general environmental programs?” Apparently, that’s a question even a DEC commissioner shouldn’t ask.