New Lessard-Sams council member has hunter's perspective

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New Lessard-Sams council member has hunter's perspective
By Dave Orrick
dorrick@pioneerpress.com

The newest member of the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council will bring a hunter's perspective and a career's worth of political savvy to the panel.

The council recommends how to spend roughly $100 million in annual Legacy Amendment tax proceeds for the outdoors.

On Tuesday, a Minnesota Senate subcommittee chaired by Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, unanimously approved the appointment of Barry Tilley, 70, a retired lobbyist from Inver Grove Heights, to fill the position previously held by Jim Cox, who didn't seek reappointment when his term expired in January.

The 12-member Outdoor Heritage Council consists of four legislators, two from the House and two from the Senate, and eight citizen members. Of the citizen members, four are appointed by the governor, two by the Senate and two by the House. Four of the citizen members' terms expired in January, and three remain unfilled: gubernatorial appointees Jane Kingston and Scott Rall and House appointee Ron Schara. Leaders of neither chamber have announced whether the legislative members of the council will change.

Tilley's appointment needs no further action beyond taking an oath of office.

Cox, a business owner in Carver County and past president of the Minnesota Waterfowl Association who has served on the council since its first meeting in 2008, brought the perspective of a hunter, conservationist and political outsider.

Tilley is similarly qualified as a hunter and conservationist -- but he's hardly a political outsider.
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His Democratic stripes are well established and date to the 1970s when he attended Mankato State College after serving in the Navy during the Vietnam War. In 1972, Tilley attended the Democratic National Convention in Miami as part of the unsuccessful bid by former Vice President Hubert Humphrey, then a U.S. senator, for the presidential nomination.

He worked as a staff researcher for the House Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus until 1984, when he became a lobbyist representing the Dakota County Board of Commissioners.

Tilley, who traces his American lineage back to two brothers aboard the Mayflower, was raised with six siblings -- three brothers and three sisters -- on a dairy farm in Le Sueur, Minn. Under the tutelage of his father, Verle, a World War II fighter pilot, Tilley hunted squirrels and pheasants before taking up ducks in college. The latter became his passion and, while he hunts deer and takes regular fishing trips to Canada, it's clear from the decor of his log cabin-style house on a gravel road in Inver Grove Heights that waterfowl is where his heart is.

His collection -- he calls himself an "accumulator" -- of antique wooden decoys is as ubiquitous -- living room, basement, kitchen counters -- as it is impressive, and he's a frequent face at sporting collectibles shows. He's a partner in a hunting "shack" on Swan Lake north of Mankato, Minn., and he takes an annual trip to North Dakota to hunt ducks on Devil's Lake.

He has two grown daughters from a previous marriage. Tilley lives with his wife, former University of Minnesota lobbyist and former state Sen. Donna Peterson.

Q. Are you concerned your political affiliations will complicate your position on the council?

A. That never caused major problems in the Legislature. While I'm a Democrat, I'm also a Lutheran. My Catholic friends don't hold it against me because they know me.

Being a lobbyist is a funny business. People either believe you or they don't believe you. Contrary to what many people think of lobbyists, your stock and trade is trust -- whether people believe you or don't. People believed me.

Q. Why do you want to serve on the council?

A. I just want to be able to give back a little bit. I watched the (2008 Legacy Amendment) get passed and played a bit role in it -- and I enthusiastically voted for it. This is a great opportunity to do something good. That's why I got involved in politics originally: to do some good and try to do things the right way.

Q. What was your "bit role"?

A. Dakota County wanted the amendment for parks and trails, and another group I represented, AMPERS (Association of Minnesota Public Educational Radio Stations), wanted it for the arts and cultural heritage part. It took all these interests coming together to make it all happen.

Q. Many in the outdoors community feel it was sporting and conservation groups who were the key.

A. They definitely got the ball rolling, but it took the bigger umbrella to get the Legislature on board.

Q. You represented an interesting array of groups, including the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association and Indian gambling interests.

A. I was lucky. I never had to work for someone I didn't believe in. I never got greedy. That can be hard for some lobbyists.

With the MDHA, I had to register as a lobbyist for them because I did work for them, but I was never the head lobbyist. I've always had feelings of affinity for native Indians.

Q. Both tribal proposals to come before the council have been contested. Do you think Outdoor Heritage Funds should go toward tribes to buy land?

A. I don't think the tribes should be automatically included or excluded. They're part of our society, and they do pay sales tax every time they buy something. It doesn't matter who owns the land as long as it's a good project -- and has public access. Ultimately, what we're trying to do is preserve these lands for wildlife and for all Minnesotans. I wouldn't want to buy any land for only private use.

Q. Funding for a White Earth Nation plan recommended by the council was removed in a House committee. And previously, lawmakers have tried to dole out funds differently than the council's recommendations. What are your thoughts on that?

A. It's always going to happen. We saw this with what Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Minneapolis) did a few years ago and the governor had to be the enforcer (by vetoing changes pushed by Kahn). That might be what he has to do again this year. It's interesting though: I haven't heard a peep out of some of the outdoors groups about the White Earth plan, and that's because many support that project being stripped out.

In the end, I always support the process. We need these checks and balances.

Q. How do you assess the effectiveness of the council thus far?

A. I think it's working really well. There's been some controversy because there are strong personalities, and that's natural. But the process that the council decided on works, and look at some of the projects. They're phenomenal.