On Thursday of this past week it was in the news that Corey Rossi, Director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation has been charged with 12 charges of taking bears illegally.
This man was appointed to his position by Gov. Sean Parnell. Essentially, he is charged with poaching. The following day, on Friday, the Governor’s Office had no comment regarding these charges. OK, so here is a comment.
This guy is a unqualified political hack, and our esteemed governor had full knowledge of his lack of qualifications before he appointed him. This is your government at work. More particularly, this is your governor at work. He appointed a poacher to be in charge of the Division of Wildlife Conservation. Good show, Gov.
Ray Preston
Juneau
Comments (12)
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...AN unqualified political hack...
The qualifications don't matter. What matters is content.
A hack is a hack. Steve Jobs didn't have a degree, and he reached the apex in his field. In the field of biology, Charles Darwin did not have a degree when he wrote the Origin of Species and came up with Natural Selection and Survival of the Fittest. Some people with talent do not have 'degrees' and some without talent have degrees. That is the way it is. Look at the content of a person, not the packaging.
It would have been nice if someone had looked into the content of this Rossi guy before giving him a nice job title to wrap himself in. In his time here did he contribute any new thinking that will make a positive long term difference?
@spoorprint
I agree with you in some aspects but if someone doesn't have the credentials they should at least have some reasonable experience to substitute for it. This was blatant cronyism I'm excited to hear what Parnell finally does say about it!
Really?
I thought he was a relic of the Palin administration. I read an article that said he used her parents as references on his job application. I have no proof of that though, so don't ask for any.
'Good old boy' cronyism.
Rossi has made it his living exterminating wildlife. Now, he will sit accused and face the consequences. Question is: With Cora Cambell and that "Deer in the headlight" interview, who will be chosen next? Which family friend of Parnell will rise to the challenge? Hard to imagine anyone more under qualified then Rossi.....but there probably is!
Cronyism
There is nothing inherently wrong with putting unqualified people in charge of government. We regularly elect them, and often they do good works.
But facts are facts.
Rossi got to where he got based not on what he knew, but who he knew.
Sometimes, too, that works out well for everyone. That does not appear to be the case this time.
Bad choice?
Good comment @spoorprint. I have been attending Board of Fish meetings since the Clem Tillion days. In this process I have seen some self-serving and sometimes ridiculous decisions come from managers and biologists… “that were highly qualified on paper”. And, in the same process I have witnessed some absolutely brilliant decisions come from individuals with no related degrees or qualifications, other than a working knowledge of the subject matter and a good mind. In an institution like the State of Alaska it is some times necessary to counter-balance the institutional mind set with an outside influence. In Rossi’s case, if he is guilty, the Governor made a bad decision. It isn’t the first time a Governor has done so and won’t be the last. But, don’t let that influence weather or not a person that would do well in a management position should be considered for the job because they don’t have a fancy diploma to hang on the wall.
Qualifications
So an attorney general or surgeon general with no law or medical degree is just fine.
Watch the Video
Wow, just watched the Campbell video. The fact that she did not even bother to look into the charges she knew were pending against Rossi says loads.
Campbell looks evasive, tongue tied and down right incompetent. Quite embarrassing, actually, for a person of her position. It sure appears that most Alaskans haven't gotten a glimpse of our Commissioner in"action" before this short video appeared.
Like Parnell, Cora only comes out when there is a meeting or scheduled (controlled) presentation. It really raises questions about her competence - and where her real loyalties lie. Clearly, they lie with her cronies/mentors, Paylin and Parnell, and not with the people and resources of Alaska.
Have any of you talked to Cora Cambell? I have & heard her speak publicly, even with a written, prepared text, her speech was a wierd-word-salad!
She tried to be funny about her lack of any higher education, but quickly became defensive & then her speech digressed into a full on attack of SCIENCE & SCIENTISTS!
It was painful to watch! (she blathered on uninterrupted for almost an hour)
It was alarming to realize this unqualified, inexperienced, irrational person HOLDS POWER over our valuable NATURAL RESOURCES!
Illegal Musk Ox Hunt
New allegations surface against disgraced former Alaska wildlife chief
New allegations surface against disgraced former Alaska wildlife chief
Alaska Board of Game shows affection for any predator control program
Solar flare could cause Alaska aurora display Saturday night
Not long after Corey Rossi organized what is alleged to be an illegal bear hunt for a trio of Outside hunters in 2008, he teamed with two members of the state Board of Game in an effort to scam themselves an illegal trophy hunt for musk ox in a subsistence-hunting area on the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, according to present and former members of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
The scheme failed only because a lower-level state biologist refused to play along. Nome area wildlife biologist Tony Gorn told Rossi, Alaska Board of Game Chairman Cliff Judkins of Wasilla and then-Game Board member Bob Bell of Anchorage that he couldn't approve of their bending the law in a way that would allow them to ship the trophy horns of the harvested musk ox south from the coastal village of Shishmaref.
To limit trophy hunting for the 3,000 musk oxen that roam the Seward Peninsula, state hunting regulations clearly state that anyone who obtains a subsistence musk ox hunting permit for the area must agree to destroy the horns. The regulation has served to effectively limit the subsistence hunt to meat hunters -- not head hunters.
State records indicate about 1,700 hunters from across the country now apply for fewer than 100 drawing permits to hunt trophy musk ox in Western Alaska. Head hunting is legal in those drawing hunts, though hunters are required to salvage the meat, too. While many people pay to enter the lottery for just the chance to shoot a trophy, only about 200 people per year pick up subsistence registration permits to shoot a musk ox for meat -- despite the fact that those permits are available to any Alaska resident hunter free of charge.
Rossi's alleged scam came around the time he was moving up the ranks in former Gov. Sarah Palin's Department of Fish and Game. Under current Gov. Sean Parnell, Rossi rose to director of the Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation. Recently, the controversial director was charged with 12 counts related to organizing an illegal bear hunt. His fall has been swift and could spiral even further downward.
'Discretionary authority'
The musk ox drawing hunts involve significant cost. Among the best known is on Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea. Any hunter lucky enough to win a permit to hunt there must pay a license fee of $500 for residents ($1,000 for non-residents, $1,500 for aliens). But that's only a small part of the cost. The full expense of a hunt on the remote island is estimated at $4,000 to $10,000 for airline flights, accommodations and, if necessary, a guide.
Rossi had a plan to beat the system and hold down the costs. By using his influence, coupled with that of the two board members, he hoped to pressure a Fish and Game employee into waiving the horn-destruction requirement for the subsistence hunt on the Seward Peninsula. Subsistence permits were free and readily available, and the coastal community of Shismaref is more accessible than Nunivak Island, 135 miles offshore in the Bering Sea.
All Rossi figured he needed to do was get Gorn to roll over on permit standards imposed per the department's "discretionary authority" over hunt conditions. Rossi apparently figured Gorn would show the discretion, so to speak, to waive the rule for three top state officials. Instead, the biologist said no.
The trio, Gorn said, "put me in a very, very uncomfortable position." Even after he showed them the permit forms they'd signed -- permit forms that clearly stipulated they accepted of the requirement to destroy the horns -- the men pushed the issue. Gorn held his ground.
He did nervously contact his boss immediately after the incident, however. "It is not every day that a fairly young biologist working in one of our most remote areas offices gets a visit from three, high-level state officials," said regional supervisor Steve Machida.
"Any nervousness that Tony felt during the conversation was attributable to the fact that he had an assistant commissioner and two Board of Game members in his office."
Page: 1 2 3 4
Illegal Musk Ox Hunt
New allegations surface against disgraced former Alaska wildlife chief
New allegations surface against disgraced former Alaska wildlife chief
Alaska Board of Game shows affection for any predator control program
Solar flare could cause Alaska aurora display Saturday night
Not long after Corey Rossi organized what is alleged to be an illegal bear hunt for a trio of Outside hunters in 2008, he teamed with two members of the state Board of Game in an effort to scam themselves an illegal trophy hunt for musk ox in a subsistence-hunting area on the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, according to present and former members of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
The scheme failed only because a lower-level state biologist refused to play along. Nome area wildlife biologist Tony Gorn told Rossi, Alaska Board of Game Chairman Cliff Judkins of Wasilla and then-Game Board member Bob Bell of Anchorage that he couldn't approve of their bending the law in a way that would allow them to ship the trophy horns of the harvested musk ox south from the coastal village of Shishmaref.
To limit trophy hunting for the 3,000 musk oxen that roam the Seward Peninsula, state hunting regulations clearly state that anyone who obtains a subsistence musk ox hunting permit for the area must agree to destroy the horns. The regulation has served to effectively limit the subsistence hunt to meat hunters -- not head hunters.
State records indicate about 1,700 hunters from across the country now apply for fewer than 100 drawing permits to hunt trophy musk ox in Western Alaska. Head hunting is legal in those drawing hunts, though hunters are required to salvage the meat, too. While many people pay to enter the lottery for just the chance to shoot a trophy, only about 200 people per year pick up subsistence registration permits to shoot a musk ox for meat -- despite the fact that those permits are available to any Alaska resident hunter free of charge.
Rossi's alleged scam came around the time he was moving up the ranks in former Gov. Sarah Palin's Department of Fish and Game. Under current Gov. Sean Parnell, Rossi rose to director of the Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation. Recently, the controversial director was charged with 12 counts related to organizing an illegal bear hunt. His fall has been swift and could spiral even further downward.
'Discretionary authority'
The musk ox drawing hunts involve significant cost. Among the best known is on Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea. Any hunter lucky enough to win a permit to hunt there must pay a license fee of $500 for residents ($1,000 for non-residents, $1,500 for aliens). But that's only a small part of the cost. The full expense of a hunt on the remote island is estimated at $4,000 to $10,000 for airline flights, accommodations and, if necessary, a guide.
Rossi had a plan to beat the system and hold down the costs. By using his influence, coupled with that of the two board members, he hoped to pressure a Fish and Game employee into waiving the horn-destruction requirement for the subsistence hunt on the Seward Peninsula. Subsistence permits were free and readily available, and the coastal community of Shismaref is more accessible than Nunivak Island, 135 miles offshore in the Bering Sea.
All Rossi figured he needed to do was get Gorn to roll over on permit standards imposed per the department's "discretionary authority" over hunt conditions. Rossi apparently figured Gorn would show the discretion, so to speak, to waive the rule for three top state officials. Instead, the biologist said no.
The trio, Gorn said, "put me in a very, very uncomfortable position." Even after he showed them the permit forms they'd signed -- permit forms that clearly stipulated they accepted of the requirement to destroy the horns -- the men pushed the issue. Gorn held his ground.
He did nervously contact his boss immediately after the incident, however. "It is not every day that a fairly young biologist working in one of our most remote areas offices gets a visit from three, high-level state officials," said regional supervisor Steve Machida.
"Any nervousness that Tony felt during the conversation was attributable to the fact that he had an assistant commissioner and two Board of Game members in his office."
Page: 1 2 3 4
This is all about the true values of the Palin/Parnell crowd
Basically, they feel that people should be able to mine, drill, cut down or hunt whatever they want, whenever they want.
Consequently, they work to remove all regulations, ignore the ones they can't remove, and appoint people who show no respect for the notion of regulating anything.
It's all about saying "we do what we want, and no one can stop us".
Thing is, if they disrepect the rules and get away, tomorrow they will disrespect US, and then we'll be living at their mercy.
Alaska doesn't deserve that king of arrogance-based future.