Conservationists question wildlife board appointment

By David McGrath Schwartz (contact)

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 | 2 a.m.

NEVADA LEGISLATURE

Daryl Capurro

CARSON CITY — Gov. Jim Gibbons hasn’t lost his knack for making controversial appointments.

The governor has named to the Nevada Wildlife Commission Daryl Capurro, the former head of the state’s trucking industry association who left the group in 2006 amid allegations he used $116,000 in association money for personal purposes.

Capurro will fill a seat on the nine-member wildlife board that, according to Nevada law, must be occupied by someone who is “actively engaged in the conservation of wildlife.”

But conservationists are questioning Capurro’s environmental credentials.

“I don’t see how he fits the bill as a conservationist. I see his only qualification as someone who shoots things,” said Bob Fulkerson, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.

Kyle Davis, policy director of the Nevada Conservation League, said Capurro “is certainly not what most people in the conservation community think of as a conservationist.” At Wildlife Commission meetings and in legislative testimony, Capurro has spoken in favor of aggressive predator control — killing mountain lions and coyotes — to rebuild deer herds, instead of relying on scientists’ recommendations to rebuild habitat and control wildfires, Davis said.

Capurro said he is a member of the Izaak Walton League of America, Audubon Society of America and the Sierra Club. “I follow their newsletters, write letters to Congress ... when they request them,” he said.

Joe Johnson, co-chairman of the legislative committee for the Toiyabe chapter of the Sierra Club, said Capurro “may be a member, but he’s not active in the association. He doesn’t participate in our group meetings, nor in our activities.”

There is no chapter of the Izaak Walton League in Nevada; members of the local Audubon Society could not be reached for comment.

Gibbons’ spokesman, Dan Burns, dismissed the criticism of Capurro’s conservation credentials. “What does he have to do, pick up trash?” Burns said.

Capurro’s appointment is part of an almost wholesale remaking by Gibbons of the Wildlife Commission, which oversees and sets policy for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

Gibbons’ appointments have over the past year alienated mainstream sportsmen’s organizations, such as Nevada Bighorn Unlimited, in favor of groups that critics say are obsessed with boosting the mule deer population. Gibbons’ appointees have said they want to rebuild the mule deer population by reducing the number of predators.

Capurro, the former head of the Nevada Motor Transport Association, agreed in late 2006 to repay the organization a lump sum of $80,000 for travel expenses, and to return two shares of the Nevada Transport Insurance Co., valued at $36,799.

The association had alleged that “Capurro improperly used Companies funds, resources and insurance for his own benefit or the benefit of his family,” according to the severance agreement filed in Washoe County Court and signed by Capurro and transport association directors.

Capurro, 66, who spent 37 years with the association, blamed his dismissal on internal politics. The $80,000 in travel expenses were for legitimate association business, he said.

“Over that time, I don’t want to say I created enemies, but there was some dissension,” he said. “I developed some non-friendlies in officers and members, and I felt the same way about them.”

Asked why he signed the agreement to repay the money, he said three years of receipts and records justifying the expenses had been lost. Without that documentation he felt he would lose a legal fight.

“On the advice of my attorney, without the financials to back me up, there was no way I could prevail,” he said. “It was their word against mine, their auditor’s word against mine.”

The severance agreement stipulates that the transport association wouldn’t pursue any lawsuit against Capurro, that the transport association was prohibited by its own policy from contacting law enforcement and that it had no reason to do so.

The contract also has a confidentiality clause, which requires both parties to make public statements restricted to a list of six benign answers, from “Mr. Capurro left to pursue other opportunities” to “Mr. Capurro wishes to dedicate his time to other ventures.”

Paul Enos, president of the Nevada Motor Transport Association, said: “We adamantly disagree with Mr. Capurro’s characterization of the events. We had an agreement on how we were going to resolve the issues, on what we could say. I do believe he has violated the agreement. I will not do so.”

Capurro said the agreement was supposed to be confidential and he is upset that it has become a public document.

Despite the controversies, Burns said the governor stands behind the appointment, noting that no criminal charges were filed related to the trucking association’s allegations.

“The governor was aware that there was a severance agreement at the end of his employment with the trucking association,” Burns said of Capurro. “The question was asked, ‘Was he ever charged with a crime?’ The answer was no. So we moved on.”

Capurro said Tuesday he was never interviewed for the wildlife board position and was never directly notified that he was appointed.

“I put in an application for it six or eight months ago, and I’ve not talked to the governor at all,” Capurro said. “If the press release (announcing his appointment) is accurate, I’m honored to serve as a member of the Wildlife Commission.”

Burns said due to staff turnover, the call notifying Capurro of the appointment might not have been made.