When Attorney General Phil Weiser takes the governor’s office in January, he must immediately address the chaos of the latest round of appointees to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to assure stakeholders he’s willing to put pressure on the bleeding wound. The keys to the kingdom have fallen into the wrong hands and Weiser needs to change the lock.

The latest Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting began with five commissioners — Richard Reading, Peter Maguire, Jessica Beaulieu, Rebecca Niemiec and James Tutchton — voting on record to squelch public comment. And it went downhill from there. Finally, Commissioner John Le Coq said the quiet part out loud. He doubts he’ll be here past the January meeting, so the issues important to the activist class must be slammed through before the administration of Gov. Jared Polis leaves office.

Dr. Niemiec is one of the newest Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission appointees and has not yet been confirmed by the Senate after facing the Senate Agriculture Committee and being sent to the full Senate with a recommendation. Her actions are those of a woman trying to jam as many special-interest issues that are less a priority for her actual stakeholders than those of the activist class whose key to the kingdom is about to no longer fit the lock.

Commissioner Niemiec pushed against CPW staff about what she thinks was a lax punishment for the hunter who accidentally shot a wolf. Public commenters, of course, were calling for the man’s head, demanding his identity be released so he could be hung in the court of public opinion.

Niemiec again asked why the shooting of the wolf was not forwarded to the District Attorney’s office for prosecution and added she would like a direct answer by the next meeting “so she doesn’t have to go to the District Attorney’s office myself.”

Petersburg said he did offer a direct answer, as did Clellan. He explained again the two options in a situation like the accidental take of a wolf are regulatory or statutory. He said CPW opted to pursue the regulatory path that offers the defendant the option to pay a fine or appear in court. Had CPW sought the statutory option, whether to pursue charges would be at the discretion of the district attorney.

Niemiec asked if the motivation to take regulatory action was to “get it over with quickly” for the defendant.

“No, ma’am, it’s not that we wanted to get it over quickly, we wanted to get it over with efficiently and we thought it was the most appropriate charge given the situation,” he said. “What I would ask in this case is reasonable minds can disagree on what the right thing is. And, a human being made a mistake here that he was truly remorseful for, so I hope that we all would avoid wanting to air each other’s worst moments out in the public.”

The alternate route, he said, was an automatic court summons with the potential of a $100,000 fine and a year in jail.

“In our view, that was not reasonable for the circumstances,” he said. He added the case was forwarded to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and that agency handed it back to CPW because “it was not an investigatory or prosecution priority for the federal government.”

Petersburg said there are numerous comments online suggesting a fine and five license points is a “cheap license to go kill a wolf.” He said he has a team of investigators monitoring those comments, and if an animal is poached, CPW will investigate and prosecute aggressively.

Chair Jay Tutchton allowed the meeting to completely go off the rails with multiple motions on the floor. The motions a group of commissioners didn’t favor were railroaded, prompting Commissioners Dallas May and Silva Blaney to begin the second day on the record voicing their thoughts. This, of course, came after May’s motion was seconded by Silva Blaney and Commissioner Rich Reading would be seen on camera saying “oh, f*ck.”

CPW Commission Chair Tutchton said he received a great deal of negative feedback on his unilateral decision to limit public comment, including from elected officials and randomize who is able to speak rather than first-come, first-served. He went on to say, “I know I received some negative criticism for that, I’m not sure I got any positive feedback, but I’m still going to do it.”

The public comment began with Chair Tutchton clarifying the packet containing photos of 13 dead buffalo that thirsted to death were not on the Southern Plains Land Trust and were not owned by SPLT. An outburst came from the crowd with the commenter saying the chair was out of order. Because the chair’s attempt to squelch public comment did not pass, elected officials were allowed to speak first beginning with state Sen. Rod Pelton, the ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee.

“This meeting has been out of control,” Sen. Pelton said. “I’ve wasted two days, but I’ve gathered a lot of information. I’m the ranking member on the Senate Ag Committee. Every member on this commission comes before Senate Ag to be confirmed. My fellow members will hear from me about what I’ve seen and heard at this meeting. I expect you guys to rise above it. You guys are supposed to all represent different segments, not just one person that sits on the first floor of the state Capitol. It’s very evident he has had a big role to play in this meeting and that’s out of place.”

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication.