Mo.. Dept. of Natural Resources Responds to Criticism by Candidates for Attorney General

First posted on 10-30-2008

Responding to recent debate reports, Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers provided more information regarding the agency’s hiring of outside attorneys and the tension between the Attorney General’s Office and the department.

“I want to make you aware of how this relationship developed and explain some background on key issues, including the Boonville Bridge, the Taum Sauk reservoir breach and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations,” Childers said in a letter to Senator Mike Gibbons and Senator Koster, who are both running for Attorney General in the November election.

The Attorney General’s Office has a statutory duty to defend the department, but when it refuses to do so, the department is placed in a position of hiring an outside attorney, according to Childers. The
department only hires its own attorneys as a last resort when the Attorney General’s Office either refuses to represent it or when the Attorney General’s Office has a conflict of interest. The department prefers not to hire outside attorneys because, with the Attorney General’s Office controlling the hourly rate of pay under the Legal Expense Fund, it can be a real challenge, and sometimes impossible, to find an experienced environmental attorney willing to accept the case at what the Attorney General’s Office will pay.

Tension between the Attorney General’s Office and the department has run high based on several high-profile cases, including the Boonville Bridge, the Taum Sauk reservoir breach and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.

The relationship between the Attorney General’s Office and the department has deteriorated, but Childers believes it can be improved: “All we ask is that the Attorney General’s Office treat the department more like the client we are, and communicate with us in a timely manner, consult with us on cases, report developments affecting settlement promptly and include us in negotiations,” his letter said.

There are more than 1,300 department cases on the Attorney General’s desk. These cases were referred by Childers and, in many cases, his predecessors over the past 10 or 12 years.

Childers points out that there are many fine staff attorneys who work in the Attorney General’s Office and that his staff have a good working relationship with those folks on the day-to-day business of enforcing state and federal environmental regulations.

“The hiring of outside attorneys and the tension between the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Natural Resources has existed primarily at the top levels of both agencies,” according to his letter. “The agency is looking forward to an improved working relationship with the Attorney General’s Office in the future.” Childers’ letter is available at http://www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel/docs/SenGibbonsandKoster-ltr-10-24-08.pdf