Tag Archives: Texas Department of Agriculture

political news, State news

What’s with this agriculture commissioner?

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There must be something about serving as Texas commissioner of agriculture that brings out the weirdness in some of those who hold the office.

Sid Miller is the guy in the office at the moment. He’s a Republican who seems to look for ways to make himself look silly. He makes goofy pronouncements, goes off on state-paid junkets and then spends public money on matters that should be financed out of his own pocket.

In a strange way he reminds me of another agriculture commissioner. Do you remember Jim Hightower? He served a single term as head of the agriculture department in the late 1980s. Rick Perry got elected to the office in 1990 and he was succeeded by Susan Combs, who then was succeeded by Todd Staples. Those three individuals managed to serve with a degree of decorum and dignity.

Hightower, though, was a jokester. The Democrat was quick with the quip and managed to say things just to get a laugh out of those who heard him say them.

Miller, though, is presenting some unusual problems.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/04/22/sid-millers-tenure/

As the Texas Tribune reports, Miller is making a spectacle of himself:

“Millerā€™s conduct in office has ranged from the cartoonish ā€” revamping inspection stickers for the stateā€™s more than 170,000 fuel pumps to more prominently feature his name ā€” to the potentially criminal ā€” allegedly bankrolling two out-of-state trips with public funds to receive whatā€™s known as a ‘Jesus Shot’ and to compete in a rodeo.”

Miller won the office partly by campaigning as a fiscal conservative. So what does he do? He boosts the pay of top staff jobs.

He seems to look for ways to make headlines, to get his name out there. Remember how he lifted the state ban on deep fryers and soda machines? Why does an elected agriculture do something like that?

I much prefer that these folks simply do their job quietly. There’s no need to create spectacles.

The agriculture commissioner has a big job. The state has a gigantic farm and ranch community — and much of it exists out here on the High Plains.

Can’t this guy just promote the value of Texas’s myriad agricultural produces without being such a buffoon?

 

media news, political news, State news

Communications director quits at TDA … here’s why

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They go by any number of terms.

Public information officer; spokesperson; communications director; press secretary; media representative.

A less-flattering term is flack.

Whatever they’re called, theseĀ individuals — particularly when they work for a government agency — fulfill an important task. It is to communicate accurately what’s being said to the public. After all, it’s the public’s business, given that these agencies spend the public’s money.

Are we clear … so far?

Lucy Nashed has just quit her job as communications director for the Texas Department of Agriculture. Here’s the kicker: She left without having another job.

Seems that her boss, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, kept sending out mixed signals to the public. He couldn’t keep his story straight, it appears, about a trip he took to take part in a rodeo.

Did he spend public money to rope and rassle cattle … or did he reimburse the public?

Here’s part of the Texas Tribune’s account of what happened:

“The Houston Chronicle reported over the weekend that Miller took a state-paid trip to Mississippi to participate in the National Dixie Rodeo but later repaid the state with campaign and personal funds. He told the Chronicle that the intent of the trip was to meet with agriculture officials there, making it a legitimate state-covered business trip. Miller said after those meetings fell through, he repaid the state for the trip.

“More than a week before the Chronicle story, Nashed told the Tribune that the Mississippi trip ā€” which was always designed to be a personal trip ā€” was mistakenly booked by a staffer as a business trip.Ā Once the staffer realized the trip was personal, Nashed said, Miller repaid the state for the trip. Nashed said Monday that was the information she was originally given.”

Miller has become something of a loose cannon since taking over as head of the state agriculture department. He’s a bit of a showman, bragging about his good ol’ boy appeal and his ability and willingness to toss aside policies just because he can.

Nashed had a tough job working for the Republican officeholder. Her task was to make sure his thoughts and statements were communicated accurately. However, she complained about a “tremendous lack of communication” within the TDA, a condition she acknowledged made it difficult for her to do her job.

The fact that Nashed quit without having a place to land speaksĀ loudly and clearly as well.

There’s no misunderstanding — or miscommunication — there. She wanted out. Now!

State news

Miller bringing some sizzle to Texas ag department

Sid Miller is becoming rapidly the most talked-about Texas agriculture commissioner since, oh, perhaps Jim Hightower.

That’s really saying something.

Hightower used to make reporters laugh out loud with his jokes and quips when he led the TDA in the late 1980s. Miller is making someĀ waves of his own now, but many observers aren’t laughing.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/04/01/sid-miiller-backed-then-nixed-ag-agency-remodel/

Miller is having to explain why heĀ gripes aboutĀ deep budget cuts while at one time supporting expensive renovations to his department’s offices in Austin. He requested the flashy improvements shortly after being elected in November, then pulled back on the request. According to the Texas Tribune: “According to agency spokesman Bryan Black, Miller halted the renovations after realizing the extent of the departmentā€™s financial woes. ‘After learning of the serious budget challenges facing the Texas Department of Agriculture, Commissioner Miller put a stop to renovations at the agency,’ Black said in an emailed statement. ‘Commissioner Miller is committed to being fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars.’ā€

The Tribune reports further: “Among the requested items for Miller’s own office were 6-inch ‘hand scraped flooring,’ crown molding, indirect lighting, wooden blinds and custom ceiling tile. Items that don’t mention specific locations at the department’s Austin headquarters include a request for ‘office redesign/remodel, install shower’ and another order to remove carpet and replace it with tiles that resembled the ‘thin set terrazzo w/state or agency seal’ in the elevator lobby of the eighth floor of the Stephen F. Austin building.”

No one should expect our state officials to vow to work in squalid conditions … but holy mackerel!

Meanwhile, Commissioner Miller said deep budget cuts in previous legislative sessions have made it hard for the TDA to perform some ofĀ itsĀ core services, such as ensuring grocery store scanners work properly. Yet the commissioner wanted initially to gussy up his offices?

Let’s take a deep breath at the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Uncategorized

Do as we say, not as we do

What a revoltin’ development!

It turns out that five men seeking to become Texas’s next agriculture commissioner all are highly critical of federal “intrusion” into state affairs, all the while taking money from those dreaded feds in the form of farm subsidies.

Who knew?

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/02/14/farm-subisides-go-anti-federal-govt-candidiates/

The Texas Tribune reports that the five Republican ag commissioner candidates received $1.3 million in payments from the feds during the past 20 years.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

President Obama recently signed the new farm bill into law, which reduces aid for food stamp recipients by $8 billion. Two of the GOP candidates, Sid Miller and Eric Opiela, said the food stamps cuts didn’t go far enough, according to the Tribune.

Miller told the Tribune that he favors “good legislation, not expedient legislation,” and that the farm bill fails the “good” standard.

He and several other candidates said they would have voted against the farm bill. I wonder.

A fellow with some farm and legislative experience of his own, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm, sees it differently. “I’ve had this request made to me many times. Farmers say, ‘Charlie, just separate the farm portion from the food stamp portion.’ I say, great, we’ll have no farm bill,” Stenholm told the Tribune.

The salient point, though, is that these individuals seeking to run the Texas Department of Agriculture are talking a good game but are playing a different one. I am fully aware that politicians of all stripes do one thing and say another. Hypocrisy doesn’t adhere to a political monopoly.

However, if you’re going to campaign on a pledge to keep the federal government out of the state’s business, shouldn’t you at least have the courage to reject the feds’ money when they seek to fatten your own bank account?

Uncategorized

Texas ballot just got hilarious

Texans will have no shortage of entertainment next year as the midterm election gets into full swing.

The latest bit of entertainment news to hit the Lone Star State is the pending announcement that Kinky Friedman will run next as a Democrat for state agriculture commissioner.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/10/12/kinky-friedman-ag-commissioner-democrat/

Is he a successful farmer and rancher? No. Does he have extensive agriculture business experience? Um, no. Does he sell livestock at auctions? Again, nope.

Friedman is a humorist, author, sometimes politician and philosopher. He’s run for Texas governor, as an independent and once sought the agriculture commissioner’s office as a Democrat just four years ago.

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing him, back in 2006 when he ran for governor. He was so entertaining and engaging and, frankly, forthright with most of his answers that my boss suggested he might actually consider recommending him for the governor’s office. Kinky didn’t get our newspaper’s endorsement.

He says he’s running this time as a Democrat because of state Sen. Wendy Davis’s gubernatorial campaign. Friedman thinks Davis is going to breathe excitement in the party this coming election year and he wants to be a part of it.

It remains to be seen, of course, whether he’ll be able to articulate a serious and sensible agriculture policy for the state.

I will bet real money, however, that Kinky Friedman’s campaign promises will not be carbon copies of what we’ve heard from Todd Staples, Susan Combs or Rick Perry. I’m thinking he’ll sound more like the last true-blue character we’ve elected as agriculture commissioner, Jim Hightower.

Bring it, Kinky.