In the last two weeks, many Nevada newspapers have run articles about the accomplishments of Governor Bob Miller. In the fairness of good journalism, the other side of the story should be told. Bob Miller demonstrated for ten years that he was no friend of Nevada sportsmen.

Since he became governor, we have lost 50 to 70% of our deer herds. We are losing our state animal, the desert bighorn sheep at an alarming rate. To prove this, in 1988 when Governor Miller took office, we allowed 29 hunting permits in the Sheep Mountain area for desert bighorn sheep of which 83% were successful. In 1998 when Governor Miller leaves office, only 3 permits were allotted in this same area and only one hunter harvested a sheep.

One of the reasons for this decline in our game numbers is that Governor Miller appointed people to the Wildlife Commission who did not have the knowledge to handle the job. Many of his appointments had never attended a Wildlife Commission or County Game Advisory Board to Manage Wildlife meeting before their appointments. In addition, on numerous occasions, Governor Miller appointed people to the Wildlife Commission who had made large donations to his campaign fund. This was certainly not in the best interests of our natural resources to appoint his political cronies. Time has proven this to be correct.

In the last legislative session, Governor Miller vetoed Senate Bill 127. This bill would have insured that knowledgeable people would have been appointed to the Wildlife Commission. By vetoing the bill, Governor Miller wants to continue government at its worst, that being the practice of political donations taking precedence over experience and knowledge. Governor Miller's sportsman representatives to the Wildlife Commission were so bad that the legislature enacted a list of qualifications before any more commissioners representing sportsmen can be appointed.

Besides Governor Miller's bad appointments while in office for 10 years, he chose to protect an incompetent administrator of the Nevada Division of Wildlife. The sportsmen of our state want to know why Governor Miller refused to do anything when the administrator: 1) had two lawsuits for sexual discrimination that cost the sportsmen $291,000; 2) joked about sexual harassment in an official state department bulletin; 3) failed numerous state audits; 4) allowed the use of state vehicles for semi-private use; 5) had numerous overexpenditures of the authorized legislative budget. This is a clear violation of NRS 353.260, spending money they didn't have. Of course, Bob Miller came to the rescue on this. 6) Took a state agency with more than $1 million surplus, doubling its yearly expenditures in a five year period and creating a need to borrow from the state's general fund to stay afloat; 7) set up one of his own employees which cost the sportsmen $100,000 plus numerous court costs. There was a request from the entire Elko County Commission asking for the dismissal of the administrator and

Governor Miller refused to acknowledge them. The administrator was drinking, driving and fighting while conducting state business using a state vehicle. Instead of prosecuting for a criminal violation, Governor Miller chose to "just put a letter in his file."

Governor Miller was told on many occasions about all of the mismanagement in the Division of Wildlife and he failed to correct it. Nevada Division of Wildlife is funded 97% by user fees or sportsmen Governor Miller has refused to acknowledge sportsmen's concerns for the last ten years. We have proven that this was an agency out of control. Are we to assume that the rest of the state agencies were run the same way under the legacy of Governor Miller. Time will show that Governor Miller was no friend of Nevada sportsmen.

The following article appeared in The Las Vegas Review Journal on January 13, 1999, The Pahrump Valley Times on January 15, 1999 and The Moapa Valley Progress the week of January 20, 1999 and in the Elko Daily Free Press