In-fighting on 'Legacy' council

Conflict between Rep. Rick Hansen and other members of the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council ratcheted higher Thursday when a member of the group's executive committee requested a meeting to consider Hansen's ouster from the 12-member panel.

It's doubtful Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, can be removed because the council's two Senate and two House members serve, essentially, at the pleasure of their respective chamber leaders.

But even the possibility of the council's five-member executive committee meeting to consider an expulsion, and possibly recommending it, would be embarrassing to Hansen -- while also bringing to light the conflict that at times has divided him and some council members.

Hansen has clashed occasionally with some of the council's eight citizen members dating to the group's first meetings in early 2009, following passage by voters of the Legacy Amendment in November 2008.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Hansen defended himself, saying his job as a council member is to ask tough questions about project proposals.

But executive committee member and council Vice Chair Jim Cox -- who requested the expulsion meeting -- said Hansen's actions often are counterproductive, and that some council members have lost trust in him.

Particularly bothersome, Cox said, was a Star Tribune story on Sunday quoting Hansen that, Cox said, unfairly impugned Chairman Mike Kilgore, a U natural resources professor, and impugned also, by association, the council at large.

Hansen and Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, who appointed Hansen to the council, were quoted in the Star Tribune story. (Wagenius couldn't be reached Thursday.)

The story explored a possible conflict of interest by Kilgore in voting for a multi-year, multimillion-dollar northern Minnesota forestland conservation project the council approved by an 11-1 vote in 2009. Only Hansen on the council objected.

The Star Tribune story made no conclusions about the possible conflict, which Kilgore strongly denied. Since then, council member David Hartwell has published an op-ed piece in the newspaper defending Kilgore and the project, and on Tuesday, nine council members forwarded a prospective letter to the editor to the newspaper making similar defenses.

Of council members who heard the project proposal, only Hansen and former member Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, declined to sign the letter.

Hansen said Thursday that, contrary to what some council members inferred from reading the story last weekend, he doesn't believe Kilgore had a conflict of interest when the forestland project was considered and voted on.

Hansen said he declined to sign the letter to the editor supporting Kilgore because, as a public official, he has to be selective about what he affixes his name to, and because in the letter, the council members said they were correct in voting for the forestland project, and would approve it again, if given a chance.

Because he didn't vote for the project originally, Hansen said, the letter would have mischaracterized his actions. Therefore, he couldn't sign, he said.

Meanwhile, Cox, who originated the letter, said that he gave Hansen the same deadline to sign it as he gave the other council members, but didn't hear back from him.

Sen. Anderson said Thursday that when she was a council member, she supported the forest project and Kilgore's leadership, and still does. "I'm not aware of any conflict of his," she said, adding that she didn't sign the letter to the editor because she was concerned portions weren't factually accurate or legally correct.

In addition to Hartwell and Cox, both business owners, and Kilgore, the council's executive committee consists of Darby Nelson, a retired college professor, and Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria.

The council also is forming a 25-year statewide conservation plan, as instructed by law, that will guide future council recommendations.

"Legacy" fish and wildlife projects, in most years, likely will average more than $80 million. The Legacy Amendment is funded by a fractional increase in the state sales tax, and also funds parks and trails projects, clean water, the arts and cultural heritage.