Twin Falls, Idaho – When his boss here at the Bureau of Land Management made a personal business deal with a farmer cited for plowing up public land, Mike Austin, 52, thought he was doing the right thing by reporting a conflict of interest.
Now he says he’s being punished for it.
Austin, a realty specialist with the agency’s Twin Falls office for the past six years, thought his boss, Ray Hoem, breached BLM’s code of conduct. He reported this to District Manager Jerry Kidd in March, but nothing happened until late June. That’s when Austin got a letter transferring him to the Boise office by Aug. 18. The letter also said he would be fired if he refused to go.
Austin, who was hoping to retire to Twin Falls, says the reassignment is a payback for blowing the whistle on Hoem, a BLM area manager. The BLM says the events are not related.
In an interview, Austin said he had “long questioned Hoem’s ethics,” but there was nothing serious enough to blow the whistle about until he overheard his boss talking to local farmers about buying a grain silo. The farmers, owners of JBD Farms, were still paying off a $28,000 BLM fine for farming public land illegally in an 11-year-old case; they were fined for similar trespass violations in 1978 and 1979.
Austin told BLM District Manager Kidd that he heard Hoem and one of the JBD owners strike a bargain on the silo, with the owner saying the corrugated steel structure, about 25 feet in diameter and 10 feet tall, was good only for salvage. Hoem said he would pay for it. A week after he heard the conversation, Austin said, the BLM boss reduced the payments owed by JBD Farms. The owners, who had made 17 payments to the BLM over the years, still owe nearly half the $28,000 fine.
Austin said he knew the agency’s code of ethics specifically bars private business dealings with people involved in disputes with the BLM. He said he feared for his job and some kind of reprisal, and went to his district manager “with some trepidation.”
The man he spoke to, Jerry Kidd, insists “Mike did the right thing” and that the transfer came about because Austin was needed in Boise.
For his part, Hoem acknowledges buying the silo, but says he did no wrong. He says the agreement with JBD Farms reducing payments on the trespass fine was signed before he paid for the silo. One owner, Ferrell Jones, said he would have given the silo away “just to get it off the property.”
Frank Frymire, a personnel officer with the state BLM office in Boise, said the agency report of its investigation of Austin’s complaint is under review and not available to the public. As for Austin’s transfer, he said that is on hold for at least a month.
The reporter works in Twin Falls, Idaho.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline BLM gives trespassing farmers a break.
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