FWC SEEKS INPUT ON
RULE CHALLENGE PROCESS

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will convene eight public workshops around the state to examine citizens’ options for challenging the agency’s rules.  The first workshop will be 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Aug. 8 in Tallahassee.

Recently, the FWC has fielded comments from individuals who asked the agency to explore alternatives to the current procedure for challenging its rules.

“We plan to use these workshops to explain the rule-challenge process to conservation and industry leaders and the public and evaluate whether we can or should make changes,” FWC Executive Director Ken Haddad said.  “We’ll report our findings to FWC Commissioners during their Sept. 13-15 meeting in St. Petersburg.”

The FWC adopts rules under authority it has under the state constitution and Florida statutes.  Often, new rules aren’t subject to administrative challenges, unlike rules adopted by other agencies.

“Commissioners realize many people are affected by the rules they adopt, and they’d like to make sure the rule-making and rule-challenge processes are respectful of individuals’ rights and in line with meaningful standards of due process,” Haddad said. “They have directed staff to host these workshops to find out what people think about the current process, and if needed, consider suggestions to improve it.”

The Tallahassee workshop will be at the Farris Bryant Building, 620 S. Meridian Street.        Roland Garcia, the FWC regional director spearheading the first workshop, said “Conservation and industry leadership participation in these workshops will help frame some of the discussions at subsequent workshops.  Also it will help them digest important information and inform their organizations’ members who we’ll invite to later workshops to ensure a variety of perspectives.

This article originally published on July 18, 2006.

Written by :

mkwestmark

 

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