Gov. Kasich relieved Daniels of his duties Friday
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A policy disagreement may have led Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s to replace David Daniels as the director of the state’s Department of Agriculture.
Upon arriving to a Friday meeting with the governor, “I was informed that I serve at the pleasure of the governor, and my services would no longer be required,” Daniels said in an interview with Ohio Public Radio yesterday. He has served in this role since 2012.
Daniels sided with farmers in the face of the governor’s July executive order which allows the ag department to set requirements for manure storage, handling and applications.
The order is part of Kasich’s goal to reduce phosphorous runoff entering Lake Erie by 40 percent by 2025.
“There are concerns the current proposal is unworkable,” Daniels told The Columbus Dispatch yesterday. The governor’s office was “clear about the direction they wanted to go and I expressed my concerns.”
State farm groups wouldn’t speculate on the reasons behind Daniels’s dismissal but thanked him for his time in public office.
“We don’t know anything more than what’s out there,” Joe Cornely, senior director of corporate communications with the Ohio Farm Bureau, told Farms.com. “There have been times where Mr. Daniels and the Farm Bureau disagreed on issues, but he was always thoughtful and fair. He always had the best interests of Ohio agriculture at heart.”
Gov. Kasich named Tim Derickson as the interim director. He served as the assistant ag director under Daniels.
“As a farmer, businessperson, member of the Ohio House of Representative and as part of our Administration, Tim has always demonstrated the integrity, loyalty and command of the issues that are the hallmark of a natural leader,” Kasich said in an Oct. 19 statement. “I’m grateful for his willingness to step up, get us across the finish line and hand-off the Department the right way to the next Administration.”
David Daniels/Ohio Department of Agriculture photo