PORT CLINTON — The most obvious element during the 40th annual Governor’s Fish Ohio Day this past week was the distinct change in the climate.
Without any fanfare or the histrionics associated with the more familiar application of that phrase, there was a different feeling in the air and the environment, and it had nothing to do with the 90-degree temperatures and humidity so thick you had to slice it with a fillet knife.
This climate change has taken place throughout the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and its Division of Wildlife that carries a role so vital in the protection and preservation of Lake Erie’s precious natural resource — walleye.
This Fish Ohio Day with the governor immediately stood out in stark comparison to many of the recent such events, because the governor, Mike DeWine, not only was in attendance, but was present in an enthusiastic and energized mode.
His predecessor, John Kasich, was a no-show the past four or five years, apparently so preoccupied with running for president, criticizing the president, or auditioning for a job with CNN, he could brush off one of the most loyal constituencies he had relied on to land the state’s top job in the first place.
In Kasich’s final years as Ohio’s governor, the ODNR became a place where purges cloaked with acrimony had culled experienced, talented, and passionate conservationists from their posts in one politically charged scalp-taking after another. Sportsmen’s groups were brushed off or ignored, and much of the remaining staff were forced to spend more time flinching at every move or looking over its shoulder than it did managing the crumbling infrastructure in the state’s parks, campgrounds, shooting ranges, and boat ramps.
Then DeWine took over, and in a matter of a few months, the climate has been altered from the debilitating chill of nuclear winter to the invigorating warmth of springtime. This is lesson No. 1,235 in how leadership matters. He admits he does not know everything, but he has surrounded himself with people who know a lot about the lake, the woods, the water, and wildlife.
He took the opportunity presented by Fish Ohio Day to salute the charter boat captains who fight for the lake and their livelihood, a voting block that had been given the bum’s rush by Kasich once his re-election was in the bank. They are too classy a bunch to openly criticize the former governor, but his inability to, year after year, find just a half-day to spend on Lake Erie was a symbolic slap in their sun-burned faces.
On Tuesday, DeWine tread the same ground of recent history, albeit diplomatically.
“Jim Rhodes did a lot of different things when he was governor of Ohio, but one of the things he focused on was to make sure the Ohio Department of Natural Resources was a very well-respected group of professionals across the country,” DeWine opened.
“The last two years, I’ve heard from sportsmen and women from all across the state, ‘That’s what we want. We want a department that is [made up of] professionals and lets professionals do their jobs.’”
DeWine named Mary Mertz to lead a troubled ODNR to stability and productivity. Her credentials as the former first assistant attorney general and former chief of staff to DeWine when he was the lieutenant governor made her a skilled navigator in the halls of the statehouse, and her sailing chops put her on familiar water in the outdoors.
DeWine went on to name Laurie Stevenson to head Ohio EPA, Dorothy Pelanda as director of the Department of Agriculture, and Joy Mulinex as director of the Ohio Lake Erie Commission. He didn’t leave much in the gray area as he described their charge when it comes to Lake Erie and water quality throughout the state.
“We have four directors, four amazing women, who are going to kick some real butt in regards to this,” DeWine said about the effort to protect the lakes, rivers, and streams of Ohio. “They’re going to do it. And as long as I’m governor, we are going to have that commitment every single year.”
One of Mertz’s first major moves was to appoint longtime ODNR staffer Kendra Wecker as chief of the Division of Wildlife. With more than a quarter-century of experience in the division, Wecker came up through the same ranks where the seeds of disarray had been sown by the previous ODNR bosses. She arrived with a more substantial grasp of the division’s mission, and the trust of the rank and file. Wecker is the first woman appointed to the full-time role of chief of the Division of Wildlife, while Mertz is the second woman to lead ODNR.
The climate change was further enhanced by the recognition of the value of institutional knowledge. DeWine and Mertz brought back Mike Budzik, the popular no-nonsense former chief of the Ohio Division of Wildlife, to his post as a liaison between the ODNR and the governor’s office. Budzik, with more than 30 years of experience at wildlife, had resigned under the chaotic and confrontational former leadership team, and on his way out sent a blistering letter to former ODNR director Jim Zehringer, laying out the many failings at the department.
Mertz showed the combination of wisdom and humility when assembling her team, saying, “I’m not an expert, but I want people who are experts on board.” Consistent with that theme, Steve Gray, another former chief of the Division of Wildlife, was brought on in an advisory role under Wecker.
Six months into the DeWine administration, there still are state park picnic tables to be replaced, boat ramps to be repaired, and Lake Erie algae issues to be addressed. But DeWine said he thinks he has the right people in place and they have rolled up their collective sleeves and are getting about the business of righting the ODNR ship.
“Every ODNR person I’m with, I am just amazed at their knowledge and how much they know and what they do,” DeWine said. “And they have that one quality — competency is important — but the one quality that makes the biggest difference in the world, I think, in any job, is passion. They love it and they have a passion for it. You can’t buy that, you can’t make it up, and that’s what they’ve got.”
Now unchained from the pall that paralyzed the department in recent years, the troops should be free to let Ohio’s lakes, rivers, streams, and forests benefit from this radical climate change.
First Published July 5, 2019, 1:00 p.m.
