Payer, Hirsch, Wingate, Johannes, Goeman MN DNR ethics complaint

 April 30, 2004

 Mr. John Guenther

Director of Fish and Wildlife

500 Lafayette Road

St. Paul MN 55155

 Dear Mr. Guenther,

 I would like to file a formal ethics complaint against the following Fisheries staff:  Mr. Ron Payer, Mr. Jack Wingate, Mr. Steve Hirsch, Mr. Roy Johannes and Mr. Tim Goeman.

They continue to violate Minnesota Statute 15.992 causing serious financial damage to my farm.

In 1998 I sent in a new pond approval request for the levee ponds on the east side of the road.  It requested that the ponds be licensed unconditionally for the same species (all) as the ponds on the west side of the road.  Mr. Goeman signed that approval.  Then in 2001 Mr. Goeman with the full support of the staff named above, refused to recognize the approval that he signed or that more than 60 days had passed since receiving in the 1998 pond approval request.  This cost my small farm in excess of $10,000.  My farm is still struggling to recover.  This happened just 6 weeks after filing an ethics complaint against Mr. Jack Wingate.  I believe it is retaliation for filing that ethics complaint.

In October 2003 Mr. Tim Goeman disingenuously stated to the legislative claim committee that there was confusion over which ponds he approved in 1998.  The map I provided with the request clearly shows the location of those ponds is on the east side of the road.  The ponds are clearly visible to anyone driving on the township road.  Mr. Roy Johannes also attempted to say that there was confusion over those ponds in a 3/1/2004 email to me.  There is no confusion only an attempt to cover-up retaliation.

By refusing to recognize that 1998 new pond approval request that was signed by Mr. Goeman and automatically approved by Minnesota Statute 15.992 the named staff are now preventing me from submitting a bid on the sturgeon contract.  My bid for those fish would be $1.00 each.  If the successful bid is above $1.00 each then these staff have unlawfully favored the winning bidder by preventing me from bidding.

I have asked both Mr. Roy Johannes and Mr. Ron Payer to have my license reviewed by the Minnesota Attorney General's office and they have both refused.

I am now formally asking that my license (including permits and pond approvals) from 1996-2004 be reviewed by the Minnesota Attorney General's office.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

 
John Reynolds
Midwest Fish and Crayfish

26385 County Road 3
Merrifield MN 56465