ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – A Delta County Commissioner is calling for a state investigation into a potential “confidentiality violation” involving the Delta Conservation District.
On Tuesday, the Delta County Board of Commissioners continued its discussion on a proposed day-use area project at O.B. Fuller Park. While some members of the public have raised concerns about the project, Commissioner Bob Barron brought a new issue to the board involving the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP).
“One of the big components of it is its confidentiality,” Barron said. “This program is administered through the Soil Conservation District locally. It’s my understanding that the chair of the Soil Conservation Board has directed the technician that before they can work on any county project about MAEAP, they have to get clearance for that. That’s not part of this program. It violates the confidentiality, and it’s also very discriminatory that we would have an agency that’s supposed to be delivering this in a confidential matter discriminate against the county as being a landowner.”
Barron recommended that the board draft a letter “of complaint and protest” to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), calling for an investigation.
“The strength of the program is in the confidentiality, and this is the start of a violation that which could bring the entire program across the state into jeopardy,” he said.
The board debated bringing Conservation District Board Chair Joe Kaplan up to address the issue during their discussion, but the majority voted against it. Kaplan approached the board during public comment to give his version of events.
According to Kaplan, he realized the map of the project was the same as a map from the Conservation District a few years ago. He says he asked the MAEAP representative for information about the County’s enrollment in the program.
Kaplan said, “‘Her response to me—if it was you guys, would’ve gotten her fired…but I respect my staff and I respect my manager and I respect their ability to say—‘You know what, Joe? I don’t feel comfortable giving it to you because there’s confidentiality issues.’ And I said, ‘Please, go ahead and vet them.'”
Kaplan told the board that he looked into the confidentiality issue himself and challenged Barron’s accusation.
“There is no confidentiality between a technician and the person who’s elected to be in charge of this,” he said. “The confidentiality comes on me that when I realize that information, that I don’t just disclose it like you just did… Our staff has confidentiality, so I don’t know how you even got that information… You are relaying details of a private conversation that happened in our office.”
With a majority of the commissioners requesting more information before they could make a decision, the motion to draft a letter to MDARD was withdrawn.
