01/08/07 New faces in the Statehouse

Members of the Idaho legislature have returned to Boise for the annual session. They don't lack for issues like elk farms, field burning, sales tax on groceries or anything to do with water. But there's been a change over in some of the top positions in state government. Butch Otter is Governor and he's replaced several department heads. Celia Gould is the new Director of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. She was only on the job a couple of days when we talked about department direction and policy. GOULD "The governor wants full accountability in the Department of Agriculture. He wants us to be a customer friendly operation and instead of telling people 'no' if there are situations where we can help them help address their needs help them walk through the regulatory side of things." What about employees at ISDA, especially those who were part of the management team of former director Pat Takasugi. GOULD "No promises will be made one direction or the other until there's a thorough evaluation of the department. In about a month's time we'll kind of see where we're at and go from there." There are 30 new members this year in the 105 person Idaho legislature and three new members to the five-person Idaho Land Board, plus the aforementioned new department heads. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott