Say Anything Blog

Last night the Burleigh County Commissioners held a meeting, and on the agenda of that meeting was a discussion about the 5 county, 4.7 million acre National Heritage Area land grab including state Senator Tracy Potter who, along with Senator Byron Dorgan, was instrumental in securing the land designation.  You’ll remember in pasts posts here on Say Anything (view all past posts here), I’ve been pointing out with the help of groups like the North Dakota Policy Council and the North Dakota Farm Bureau that Senator Potter was wrong when he told Congress that there was unanimous support for the federal land designation among the local state entities.

During the Burleigh County meeting, Commissioner Doug Schonert was outspoken in repudiating Senator Potter’s testimony saying, specifically, that he never approved this land designation:

Potter told the US Senate Subcommittee on National Parks, “In public hearings before city and county commissions have unanimously provided their encouragement.”

The Burleigh County Commission only approved a feasibility study; they did not pass any type of resolution supporting the designation itself. Schonert was not pleased.

“You’ve [Potter] lost credibility,” Schonert told Potter. “I never approved anything. It’s hard to trust you.”

“We have made a publicity blunder. Your point is well-taken,” Potter admitted.

“Made a policy blunder” is apparently a euphemism for “lied before Congress.”

Not only did Potter’s actions opt-in thousands of land owners to a land designation many of them had never heard of until after it was put in place by Congress, but he also undermined the authority of local governing entities like the Burleigh County Commission by lying to Congress.  Which, last time I checked, was a crime (and not the only one Potter committed during this process).

Also, at the commission meeting Tracy Potter was pitching a plan to get public involvement in the land designation.  The problem?  He was supposed to do that before the designation:

NPHF board member Tracy Potter explained that the NDHF has put together a plan to gather public input, which will be used to write the management plan for the area. The problem, however, is that he was required by law to gather public input before the designation was made. The NDPC has previously reported that Potter was less than truthful about how the process of the designation was carried out.

The Burleigh County Commission should have ended the presentation right there.

This land designation is illegitimate.  It needs to be rescinded, and those in favor of it need to try again.  And this time they need to respect the law and the people.