Quick Arguments for Restoring
the Intervenors
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The Intervenors cost only 5 cents per person each year. It was a
small, low-cost office.
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The Intervenors were cost-effective. They nipped problems in the
bud before the government or business leaders invested time and money in
losing ideas.
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The Intervenors helped clarify the law and keep government on its toes.
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Lawsuits were not the Intervenors’ main activity. They spent the
majority of their time giving people advice, information and referrals.
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Regular citizens generally don’t have the legal, technical, or political
knowledge to protect themselves when complex environmental issues affect
them --- like contaminated wells, pesticide drift over their homes, river
contamination, damaging developments, closed fishing access, or choking
air pollution.
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Regular citizens don’t have an experienced voice in Madison arguing for
public rights, now that the Intervenors are gone. Instead, legislators
and agency bureaucrats are bombarded by powerful lobbyists from special
interests. And elections are dominated by big money.
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The potential or threat of a lawsuit was often enough to force agencies
or special interests to listen and address the public rights concerns of
the Public Intervenors. Actual lawsuits were rare, and were only
used in cases where agencies were clearly violating state law and public
rights.
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The legislature and governor broke their promise to the public when they
eliminated the Public Intervenor Office and gave the governor direct control
over the DNR (see related section). The Intervenors and citizen Natural
Resource Board were created specifically to balance development interests
in 1967 when the legislature and governor merged the Conservation Department
with the Department of Natural Resource Development. Now we’ve lost
the balance; and as predicted, development interests are now dominant over
Wisconsin agencies.
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Wisconsin government spends hundreds of millions of our taxdollars promoting
business interests. The least we can expect is a tiny office of 2
attorneys to watchdog government for public rights in natural resources.
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Why should small private environmental groups be expected to do all the
work of protecting public rights in natural resources? The air, water,
forests, wetlands and wildlife of Wisconsin belong to ALL Wisconsin citizens
and our government should include strong advocates for those public rights.
Environmental groups don’t have the money, staff time, political stature,
or sometimes even the skills to do the job that the Intervenors did.
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The DNR is a typical government bureaucracy which needs occasional nudges
to stay on track. It’s healthy to have a small watchdog agency to
keep the DNR honest and responsive to public concerns. Otherwise,
the DNR gets pressure mostly from corporate lobbyists for special interests,
and this can affect the attitudes of agency staff.
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The Wisconsin Dept. of Justice can’t do the Intervenors’ job, because the
Dept. of Justice is required by law to defend the DNR and other state agencies.
For more arguments, visit “Frequently
Asked Questions”
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