Credited with restoring employee morale and fiscal discipline to a rudderless agency, Mike Knoedl announced Monday that he will retire as director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission effective in July.
A new director will be selected by the seven-member commission that oversees the agency, which regulates hunting and fishing and manages the state's wildlife populations. The agency issues nearly 600,000 fishing licenses and 400,000 hunting licenses a year.
Knoedl, 52, who began his 31-year career with the Game and Fish Commission as a wildlife officer in Perry County, became director in October 2012 when he replaced embattled Director Loren Hitchcock. State Sen. Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan, said that to his knowledge, Knoedl is one of only two state agency directors who began their careers as entry-level employees. Dan Flowers, former director of the state Highway and Transportation Department, is the other.
Knoedl said he has accomplished all of the goals he articulated to the commission when he was hired, and that the time is right financially to retire.
"I started thinking about it pretty serious about five months ago," Knoedl said. "I crunched the numbers, and it was a no-brainer. Part of it was a business decision, but I feel like I completed what I told the commission I would do."
When he became director, the Game and Fish Commission suffered from low employee morale, poor relations with the state Legislature and strained relations with the governor's office. Although it is well-funded from a number of revenue streams, the commission was financially overextended.
The agency's revenues come mainly from licenses and a one-eighth-cent state sales tax, as well as federal funds. The agency has a budget of more than $80 million a year. Knoedl earns about $131,000 a year.
"It was a very tumultuous time in this agency," Knoedl said of when he started as director. "Things were not good. We were viewed as an arrogant agency that had money running out of every orifice. We still have work to do, but it's light-years better."
State Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, D-Fordyce, said that it was refreshing to work with a director who could relate to constituents from all walks of life. He said Knoedl's career as a wildlife officer gave him a perspective that career bureaucrats don't have.
"He's been unbelievable to work with," Wardlaw said. "Hitchcock and I were real close, but Mike's been so much better. Anytime I have an issue, I can call him and he answers his phone. No matter what the issue, he gives me a straight answer that I can give my constituents and move on. That has not always been the case."
Knoedl had some difficult moments with the Legislature. When the commission banned permanent duck blinds and prohibited leaving duck decoys overnight in the Dave Donaldson Black River Wildlife Management Area and St. Francis Sunken Lands Wildlife Management Area, Knoedl bore the wrath of legislators from northeast Arkansas.
To maintain continuity within the agency's divisions, Knoedl established a plan of succession to replace longtime employees who were retiring. Knoedl said the agency traditionally did not anticipate departures of key employees, and that often created confusion.
"Knowing that a large majority of our older employees were going to retire when I became director, it was important to put the right people in the right places for years to come," Knoedl said. "I evaluated every division and asked who's going be running this thing in five years, 10 years. We have people in place to set us up for success for a long time to come."
He also installed strict disciplinary policies that applied equally to all employees, and which resulted in the dismissals of some popular and famous employees. People who were not effective in leadership positions were demoted and replaced.
The agency's perceived misuse of money has long been a source of discord between the agency and the public, and Knoedl said that perception was not entirely misguided.
Traditionally, the commission allocated money to its divisions to spend as they wished, with little oversight or accountability. Knoedl implemented policies that required the divisions to budget to revenue, and to justify expenditures.
"We were giving each division a bucket full of money and telling them, 'Go forth and do your job,'" Knoedl said. "We'd give them that money without any justification and planning, and that's a recipe for disaster."
When he interviewed for the directorship, Knoedl told the commission he would only accept the job with a unanimous vote of approval. Hitchcock was previously hired on a 4-3 vote, which Knoedl said divided the commission and staff into factions and caused infighting.
Even after they voted unanimously to approve him, several commissioners doubted that Knoedl, who does not have a college degree, was capable of leading such a large agency. Commission Chairman Emon Mahony of El Dorado was one of the skeptics, but he said Knoedl has been an effective administrator.
"Mike reminds me of some other really good men who have been in a high position in a company," Mahony said. "When they step into a leadership role, they've got a to-do list in their pocket, things they've seen that needed to be done or be done differently. I think he's worked his way through that list, and he's done a real good job of it."
Mahony, a stickler for fiscal precision, said he appreciates the transparency of the new budgetary policies.
"When I first came on the commission, there was very little information available to anybody about what was going on," Mahony said. "One of the first things he did was start a director's staff meeting. They keep minutes and circulate the minutes to everybody on the commission. For the first time everybody knew what was going on. You have more problems created out of suspicion than you do with reality in any organization, but when you get it all on the table you eliminate a lot of that, and he's done a superb job of that."
Mahony said Knoedl was on the verge of retiring when he applied for the directorship, and he sought the job for the right reasons.
"The openness that he has brought to the commission needed to be there, and I've been very supportive of that from the beginning," Mahony said. "I'm just glad he stayed as long as he did. I don't think he would be leaving if he didn't think the agency was in shape."
Knoedl said he is convinced that the Game and Fish Commission is in excellent shape, and that the policies in place should ensure its future well-being.
"With the employees we have in place, the only people that can screw this agency up and reverse the progress we made is the commissioners," Knoedl said.
Metro on 01/26/2016