McLerran Cleared for Puget Sound Leadership Council

McLerran Cleared for Puget Sound Leadership Council

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. After a rather unusual confirmation hearing ends in a "no decision," former EPA regional director, Dennis McLerran will serve on the Puget Sound Leadership Council.

Save Family Farming director Gerald Baron says yes, it is disappointing, and McLerran is NO friend of farmers, but it's not a real surprise ...

GERALD BARON ... "However, Mr. Manning, the Chair of the Puget Sound Leadership Council, has met with farmers and farm leaders and has restated the commitment of the leadership council to preserving agriculture and to working with farmers. And we're going to accept that as an honest commitment, but we're also going to be watching it very, very closely because there's certainly a loss of trust that has occurred because of this appointment and we need to be carefully observing what the Puget Sound Partnership is going to be doing."

Baron says whether intentional or not, they left a potential out by doing nothing with the confirmation ...

GERALD BARON ... "Whether that's intentional or not, I think the result of that is, in effect, a probationary period for Mr. McLerran because it's my understanding that that confirmation hearing can be called at any time. And that's happened in the past with heads of agencies where they hadn't been confirmed earlier, but a confirmation hearing was called after they had served for some time and they were removed from office."

Baron says McLerran's record shows support of groups like the What's Upstream campaign and where his allegiance may lie.

Listen tomorrow for more on what his appointment means going forward.

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