February 22, 1995
Idaho Mountain Express
Is Secretary of State Cenarrusa in Conflict?
by Dick Dorworth
Documents made available to the media last week by Jon Marvel of the Idaho Watersheds Project indicate that Idaho Secretary of State Pete Cenarrusa may have a conflict of interest. That conflict may involve the use of state land within Blaine County, according to the docurnents Marvel obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Cenarrusa is a member of the State Board of Land Commissioners, which manages 2,629,633 acres of Idaho land. Cattle owned by Cenarrusa's Biskay Land and Livestock Co. graze on the Iron Mine Allotment northeast of Carey in Blaine County according to David A. Koehler, area manager of the Monument Resource Area of the Bureau of Land Management.
State, private and public land is intermingled and grazing occurs throughout the allotment. State land is not fenced off and, according to Koehler, "We have no knowledge of which permittee actually grazes on the state land within the Iron Mine Allotment." The Biskay Land and Livestock Co. has grazing permits with the BLM and U.S. Forest Service in the Iron Mine Allotment. It does not have leases for state endowment land in that area although, until "about five years ago," according to Cenarrusa, the state leases in that allotment were held by his brother, Luis. At that time, according to Pete Cenarrusa, in order to remove the perception that he might have a conflict of interest, his brother gave up his state leases. The issue had become "politcally embarrassing" to him, Cenarrusa said.
Even without leases, it appears Commissioner Cenarrusa's, as well as his brother's, livestock are currently dining free of cost on school endowment land that until five years ago they paid for, the reports show. The "Ethics in Government Act of 1990" states: "A public official shall not take any official action or make a formal decision or formal recommendation concerning any matter where he has a conflict of interest and has failed to disclose such conflict as provided in this section."
Cenarrusa, as a member of the State Board of Land Commissioners, regularly votes and participates in discussions regarding the leasing of school endowment lands for the grazing of domestic livestock, state records show...