Originally Posted By: Bay wolf
Originally Posted By: FleaFlickr02
Thanks for setting me straight on who appoints whom.

Perhaps I should have simply said the commission, for whatever reason, has not been effective, despite what appears to me as being willing to stick up for us. I suspect politics are to blame for that outcome at some point....

I recalled from involvement in North of Falcon that the Commission somehow delegates season-setting to the WDFW Director. I found it.

If you look at the 2017 NOF Policy, you'll see the Delegation of Authority at the bottom. You'll find that in all their policy docs, and I think it does a lot to explain why what we hear from the commission is so seldom reflected in the resulting rules.


Correct, the "delegation" is an interesting twist. They delegate the "authority" to conduct the negotiations, but they do not delegate away the responsibility for oversight and supervision of the Department in those negotiations. There certainly are politics involved, but the bottom line is, we the public voted on and passed an initiative giving the Commission the authority over policy, and that seems to now be in danger from the Department and perhaps even the Governor. We must stand firmly and back the Commission, but we must also remind them they represent US, not the Department, nor the political whims of the Governor, and certainly not any special interest groups.


Ah, but they also are charged with being the voice of the other stakeholders. The commission members are a mix of sport fishing, commercial fishing, and wildlife advocates. I would argue that all the stakeholders in commission proceedings are special interest groups, seeing as 90% of the citizens are non-fishers/hunters.

I personally believe that delegation of authority was the commission's chosen method of making sure they would never be held accountable for unpopular outcomes from policy implementation. Indeed, NOBODY is held accountable for our opportunity, and that's why it keeps on shrinking.