State to UFWS: It's over
The controversy between the US Fish and Wildlife Service the state of South Dakota has hit the boiling point. According to a report at rapidcityjournal.com - it's over:
South Dakota’s long-standing agreement to help federal officers enforce laws protecting migratory birds and other wildlife will end Tuesday because controversial U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent Bob Prieksat has not been fired or reassigned, the chief of staff for Gov. Mike Rounds said Friday.
Rob Skjonsberg said FWS officials failed to meet their obligation to respond within 60 days to his demand that the agency replace Prieksat as the three-state law enforcement supervisor in Pierre. Skjonsberg said he will now make good on his threat to end the agreements that authorize state Game, Fish & Parks Department officers to work with Prieksat and other FWS agents in enforcing federal wildlife laws in South Dakota.
and...State officers can still enforce a variety of state laws and regulations affecting wildlife. But federal laws will be the federal agents’ job alone, Skjonsberg said.
“We’ll focus on state law enforcement. They can enforce their own laws.”
Read it all here.
That certainly ups the ante between the federal government and the state. It remains to be seen whether the federal government will retaliate in other areas of cooperation such as the BIA, US Marshalls, the FBI, or the corps of engineers.
But would that be assuming a lot, that some of those areas of the federal government might take an interest in how the fish and wildlife cooperation takes place.
Wouldn't it?
That certainly ups the ante between the federal government and the state. It remains to be seen whether the federal government will retaliate in other areas of cooperation such as the BIA, US Marshalls, the FBI, or the corps of engineers.
But would that be assuming a lot, that some of those areas of the federal government might take an interest in how the fish and wildlife cooperation takes place.
Wouldn't it?
Comments
A personnel issue is stopping the state from enforcing a law that apparently was well worth enforcing before the chief of the fws started bugging Round's administration buddies.
I wonder what other federal laws that the Gov felt were worth enforcing but now won't because of a personnel conflict?
I'm all about federalism but this is just being childish. If I were the Bush administration I would say so what?
I know there are some officers that abuse their power but it also sounds like there may have been some "connected" people they've crossed...
It looks like this "can of worms" hasn't been emptied, yet...
As far as the Feds retaliating, I doubt it. When your kid is pitching a fit you don't make things better by pitching a fit yourself or by caving in to the brat.
Let's say after being informed of the aforementioned the federal system chooses to do nothing. Sees no problem. Protects its own. What then? Ignore it? Condone it?
People outside of Pierre don't know how bad this guy is. How many people he's run out of the state for good. If he was a highway patrolman, city cop, or DCI agent, he'd have been gone a LONG time ago. He's protected by a federal bureacracy. Nothing more.
They're acting like teenage girls instead of a state's chief executive and his staff.
I tend to think the complaints against Prieksat are founded. What other way does the state have to get rid of a bad melon?
The federal government has no right to ignore the state when challenged on an issue dealing with state sovereignty, which this is. Prieksat is not the only USFW agent available and if the feds didn’t feel that the state has no say in its own internal affairs, they need to be booted out until they can learn to work with us.
I have personally had dealings with Prieksat and have had occasion to hear his profanity laced tirades directed at someone who had broken no laws. Is this the kind of law enforcement we want reflecting South Dakota values? I think not!
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/04/08/news/top/news01.txt
/articles/2007/04/08/news/top/news01.txt
This didn't come thru the first time. Hopefully it will now.
As a U.S. Senator, he would surely have the federal contacts to help bring this issue to a compromise.
Has anyone bothered to contact him or is everyone just standing around stomping their feet?
Other than rounds and skjonsberg, credible, upstanding citizens have said prieksat has been a badge heavy, profanity laced, cop for years. Tainting the wannabe cops in GFP along the way I'd add.
In one of the articles Skjonsberg said, "maybe a few random complaints can be overlooked, but no one in their right mind can discount hundreds of people saying the same thing." For certain. Maybe Rounds and Skjonsberg don't know first hand details, but many of our neighbors and people that have had face contact with Prieksat do. I choose to put stock in my fellow SDan's and hunting bretheren. I don't have any faith in the USFWS. They all seem to be bad cops. Prieksat is responsible for his own actions and shouldn't be looking for a scapegoat. If John Cooper is the trigger man on this, so what? That ain't no conspiracy. If anyone can be pissed off at SDGFP and the USFWS it should be cooper.
As far as the agreement being dissolved, yes this is very unfortunate. Maybe even dangerous. But, folks, this is 4plus years in the making. Diplomacy didn't work.
A state has the inherent right to refute the federal government's actions within its borders. If it didn't, we may as well turn the damn reigns over to the feds. FEMA and USFWS running SD. Wouldn't that be great?
Even if the USFWS doesn't take action, Prieksat's effectiveness and reputation is severely damaged and he'll go down as the guy not wanted by a governor, senator, and thousands of people. He's washed up and should choose to leave and salvage whatever career he has left.
Until he does, voluntarily or as directed, the slug fest continues and nobody wins. But the state is ascerting its rights on behalf of the majority of its interested citizens and that we should support.
Thanks!
The feds don't get rid of Prieskast, so Rounds and staff pack up their Legos and head home? Are they serious?
In the interest of fairness, all of the people who complained to the Governor's office should have their names released.
Some people act like this is a hasty reaction to a problem. However, as previously noted, issues related to Prieksat have been surfacing for the last 4 years. After 4 years of "no-response" from the Feds, the state finally did the only thing they could and ended their relations with the problem.
Again, the complaints levelled at Bob may or may not be justified, regardless the state is well within its right to stop cooperating with the feds on the matter.
You got what you wanted--the special treatment of not having your little liberal law breaker getting prosecuted. What else do you want?
This guy couldn't have caused all of GF&P's problems single handedly. Apparently, the administration has conceeded that it is limited to the Pierre area. This is just Rounds reacting to the state employees union people in Pierre who just want to avoid the law after their thirty hour weeks--Rounds' relatives. Nothing more!
Do you KNOW if a Rounds is even one of those who complained? Attack with facts please.
Yes, Cooper and Washburn should have been arrested, but that fact doesn't make Prieksat pure as the driven snow.
This man needs to be sent packing. It's just too bad that Rounds didn't give Cooper his walking papers too. Lord knows both Cooper and Prieksat should have been canned a long time ago.