LANSING (AP) -- Agriculture and environmental advocates this week asked Gov. Jennifer Granholm to rethink her executive order giving her the right to appoint two department directors now named by commissions.
Granholm issued an executive order Oct. 8 merging the natural resources and environmental quality departments into a new Department of Natural Resources and Environment. The order also gives her the right to name the new department's director as well as the agriculture director.
Two concurrent Senate resolutions have been introduced disapproving of the order, which takes effect unless rejected by both legislative chambers within 60 days.
Former agriculture commissioner Douglas Darling, who opposes the order, testified at a subcommittee hearing on one of the resolutions. He said letting the governor appoint the agriculture director would lead to abrupt policy changes and inject more politics into decisions.
"The commission is bipartisan, but many times was nonpartisan in its actions" when he served between 1995 and 2007, Darling said.
Sen. Liz Brater, D-Ann Arbor, said she had a hard time buying the argument that a director appointed by the governor would be more political than a director named by a board comprised of gubernatorial appointees.
"The argument is somewhat misguided," she said.
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said the governor wants to make the directors more accountable to the public, not less.
"The governor is ultimately held accountable by the citizens for the actions of the departments and therefore the governor should be ... appointing the directors," Boyd said.
Michigan is the only state where the agriculture director is appointed by a board rather than being elected or appointed by the governor. The state Agriculture Commission includes Don Coe, of Black Star Farms winery based in Suttons Bay.
Don Wyant, who was agriculture director for nine years under Democrat Granholm and her predecessor, Republican John Engler, said Michigan governors usually get the directors they want even though they can't directly appoint them. He supports keeping the system intact because the commission provides a good balance "between politics and policy."
Mitch Irwin, agriculture director from 2005-07, also opposes the executive order.
Many of those testifying praised the governor's move to rejoin the departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality, which were one department until Engler separated them in 1995.
But they don't want the commissions to lose their right to appoint the department directors, even though Granholm's order keeps them intact as advisory bodies.
"Keeping politics one step removed from management of our state's resources is a valid goal and should be preserved," said Dennis Schornack, of the Michigan Recreation and Parks Association.
Sen. Michelle McManus, R-Leelanau, wants the governor to withdraw the order and submit a new one that doesn't give her the right to name the two department heads. McManus said Granholm also could withdraw the order and let the environmental quality and national resources departments be consolidated through legislation McManus has proposed.
"The agriculture community has pretty much drawn a line in the sand," McManus said. Among lawmakers, "there is growing support to reject the governor's executive order."
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