Methinks the only folks gassing up their black helicoptors are the deer police posting on this board,
i.e. publichunter and Happy. They seem to be the only people who see the dark aircraft hovering overhead.
This fiasco with Prieksat has little to do with hunters or landowners and a whole lot to do with a turf war between USFW, GF&P and the governor.
We think that both Prieksat and Cooper should have both been fired a long time ago, but what does the average voter have to say about this? You're right. Nothing!
Here's an interesting article from the RCJ:
Game warden: Gov's attack stems from Cooper probe
Former head of GF&P was investigated for elk-hunting irregularities
By Kevin Woster, Journal staff
Federal game warden Bob Prieksat said Thursday that the public attack against him by Gov. Mike Rounds and his chief of staff is at least partly rooted in a 3-1/2-year-old investigation of former state Game, Fish & Parks Secretary John Cooper in a Black Hills elk-hunting case.
"Yeah, it was directly related," Prieksat said Thursday, during a rare interview on the issue.
But Chief of Staff Rob Skjonsberg denied that Cooper was behind the push to oust Prieksat from his job as three-state law-enforcement supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Pierre.
"If Coop had wanted to push it three years ago, I very likely would have supported it then," Skjonsberg said Thursday. "Coop never brought that threat to me, then or now."
But according to documents acquired by the Journal through the federal Freedom of Information Act, Cooper did threaten in 2003 to end the GF&P working relationship on wildlife law enforcement with the federal agent in much the same way Skjonsberg and Rounds are doing today.
According to a summary of a Nov. 3, 2003, interview with another federal wildlife agent, Cooper threatened to limit the ability of GF&P conservation officers to refer cases to USFWS for further investigation, which is how Prieksat took over the investigation of the elk-hunting case. At that time, Cooper said, "There is not going to be any more relationship with (Prieksat) either personally or professionally."
Prieksat's name is blacked out in the report, as are the names of others in the case file, including some GF&P officials.
Federal prosecutors decided not to bring charges in the case involving Cooper and Washington, D.C., area resident Eric Washburn for their elk hunt near Pringle in October of 2003. Washburn, who worked as an aide to former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, was using resident hunting privileges granted — on questionable legal grounds — by former Gov. Bill Janklow several years earlier. After the decree came to light, Attorney General Larry Long determined that it was not valid, and Rounds officially rescinded it.
But Prieksat's investigation, which was initially revealed in a Journal story, ignited extensive media coverage and led to some calls for Cooper's resignation. It also led to the threat by Cooper to sever GF&P ties with Prieksat. And it was followed by a meeting in January of 2004 among Cooper, Rounds, Skjonsberg and Gary Mowad — Prieksat's law-enforcement supervisor in Lakewood, Colo. — to air complaints against the agent.
Skjonsberg and Rounds contend that Mowad pledged to work with Prieksat to improve his demeanor and discretion. But Skjonsberg said Prieksat didn't change over the next three years. And when complaints continued, Skjonsberg made good on the threat Cooper issued more than three years earlier.
Last February, about a month after Cooper retired from GF&P, Skjonsberg blasted Prieksat publicly for lack of discretion and abusive tactics in law enforcement. He also ordered GF&P officers not to work with the agent except in special cases approved by new GF&P Secretary Jeff Vonk.
Skjonsberg also demanded that Prieksat be fired or reassigned and began collecting and soliciting complaints about the agent, who supervises FWS law enforcement in the Dakotas and Nebraska. Eventually, Skjonsberg compiled about 60 complaints and hundreds of petition signatures supporting his move against Prieksat.
"Personally, I don't think reassignment is enough. Sending him somewhere else only sends the problem away," Skjonsberg said. "I'll accept either (firing or reassignment) even if it makes him somebody else's problem."
Skjonsberg also set today as a deadline for FWS to oust Prieksat. If there is no action, he will begin dismantling law-enforcement agreements between the state and FWS.
Prieksat, who typically declines interview requests, said Thursday that he hasn't been notified that he will be transferred or fired. He also said many of the signed complaints compiled by Skjonsberg were from people who had broken wildlife laws.
"A lot of them seem to forget to mention in their letters that they were violators, or that their contact with me was the result of a violation," he said.
Prieksat believes Skjonsberg's actions against him had their roots in his 2003 investigation of Cooper, an assertion backed up by Cooper's own words during a Nov. 3, 2003, interview with another federal agent involved in the elk-hunting case.
According to a summary of the interview, Cooper angrily castigated Prieksat for poor judgment and a lack of law-enforcement discretion that was rubbing off on GF&P officers. Cooper said he was angry at both Prieksat and some of his own GF&P enforcement officers for investigating him in the elk case without his knowledge, the report said.
"Cooper said he was so mad at his people for being irresponsible and unprofessional," it said. "Cooper said he was so upset that he was going to take some action."
When the federal agent doing the interviews cautioned Cooper against making "major policy decisions" that might jeopardize the working relationship between GF&P and the FWS, Cooper said "there is not going to be any relationship with (Prieksat) either personally or professionally."
Cooper also said during the interview that Rounds had been unhappy with Prieksat and his law-enforcement techniques in South Dakota for several years. Cooper said Prieksat was "just acting like a cop" and was trying to influence GF&P officers to act the same way, the report said. It also said that "Cooper mentioned several times that he had to jump his people to not be so tough nor follow in (Prieksat's) ways."
Since his retirement, Cooper has declined to comment on the story. But Skjonsberg has jumped to Cooper's defense.
"The level of integrity that Coop has had in his federal job, state job and yet today is something missing from the current USFWS agent," Skjonsberg said.
Before his appointment as GF&P secretary by Janklow in 1995, Cooper was FWS enforcement agent for more than 20 years, including years of working with Prieksat. When Cooper joined GF&P, Prieksat replaced him in Pierre.
Asked if the elk case ended their relationship, Prieksat said: "Did it change how I felt about John Cooper? No. Obviously, it changed how he felt about me. I have a job to do, and I do it in spite of who you are."
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or
[email protected].
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/05/24/news/top/doc46565f8bd08fe014573188.txt
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