Fish And Game Boss Insists He Leaves On Good Terms With Batt

Outgoing Fish and Game Department Director Jerry Conley is again discounting suggestions that Republican Gov. Phil Batt was after him - this time as Conley prepares to leave Idaho for the Midwest.

Conley, who has headed the Idaho department since 1980 and will take over the Missouri Department of Conservation next month, said he told the governor just that in a recent courtesy call.

“I thanked him for being very consistent in his public comments and in his private ones,” Conley said. “He has never once said anything about being after my job, and I appreciated that.”

During his 16 years at the head of the Idaho department, Conley has been commended and castigated for the decisions he has helped guide the independent Fish and Game Commission toward making. And the department’s rocky relations with the Batt administration, while seemingly more pronounced, only mirror the hot-and-cold relationship his agency has had with the two previous Democratic governors.

While Batt was generally believed to be interested in changing the leadership of the department after taking office in 1995, he has repeatedly denied that, and many who know him have reinforced the governor’s statements.

After calling for the resignation letters of all six commissions on being sworn in, Batt admitted that was premature and ill-advised. But since then, he has replaced three of the six members with his own appointees and has filled the new seventh seat created this year, giving his appointees a clear majority.

And it will be that majority that will decide on Conley’s successor, possibly as early as this winter.

Batt and Conley agree on the basic qualifications for the new director - being a good administrator of both people and money, knowledgeable to a point on fish and game issues with a solid science background and strong abilities in public relations to operate among disparate interests.

And Conley throws in another quality - a strong conservation ethic to manage Idaho’s fish and wildlife for the benefit of the resource and not for the various groups demanding some approach that benefits their short-term goals.