AP News, September 20th, 2007
For cattle inspector Shawn Hanks, busier work weeks and late-night calls from ranchers are about to become routine.
The Ainsworth-based inspector is gearing up for long days during the busy cattle-selling months of September through March. But the ranchers he helps might should prepare for a slowdown in response time from Hanks and roughly 50 other inspectors in the western two-thirds of the state.
A work rule approved this week requires inspectors to log 40 hours per week year-round. Until now, inspectors often worked more than 40 hours during the fall and winter months, but less in the spring and summer.
With the new rule, inspectors will likely spend less time on call, ready to quickly drive to the site of a sale or other transaction, because the on-call time does not count as work time.
"We'll still provide the service, but unfortunately one of the issues may be producers will have to wait longer for our cattle inspectors to get there," said Steven Stanec, executive director of the Nebraska Brand Committee.
Although inspectors are perhaps best known for helping track down cattle thieves, they also must be on hand to verify that animals being sold actually belong to the person selling them. Often needed on a moment's notice, they are on hand from the sale barn to the ranch.
The decision by the state's Brand Committee follows a legal opinion from Attorney General Jon Bruning. That opinion supported state Auditor Mike Foley's conclusion in June that the brand committee paid 43 full-time inspectors more than $170,000 for more than 10,000 hours of work they never performed.
Brand officials have said that because the inspectors are always on call, they should not be expected to work 40-hour weeks. But Bruning said inspectors are required to work 40-hour weeks under state law.
"It offends common sense to suggest that this agency is operating in a cost-effective manner," Foley said at the time. "The Brand Committee is a poster child for the need for reform of the delivery of government services. The cost of this gross inefficiency is ultimately passed on to consumers and it must be stopped."
The inspectors are salaried employees _ there is no overtime _ and they average $35,000 in annual pay, or 63rd highest among state employees. The money to pay those salaries comes from inspection fees, not state general-fund dollars, Stanec said.
Hanks said that recent publicity over the job has created a misperception that he and other inspectors scattered throughout the state should work the same schedule as most other state employees.
"We're getting compared to a Department of Roads employee or somebody else that clocks in at eight and is done at five," Hanks said. "We might look at cattle from six in the morning to five in the afternoon, go to four or five different ranches and might get called at ten at night to set up appointments the following day."
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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) _ Maine was the No. 1 state in New England for agricultural production in 2006, the first time since 2003 the state has taken the region's top spot, federal officials said.
Maine farmers had $593 million in product sales last year, according to the New England office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Farm sales totaled $524 million in Connecticut, $503 million in Vermont, $433 million in Massachusetts, $162 million in New Hampshire and $66 million in Rhode Island.
Maine took over the top spot in the region from Vermont, which had been the leader for two years. Vermont farm receipts fell from $567 million in 2005 to $503 million in 2006.
In Maine, potato sales grew to $130 million from $98 million the year before, followed by livestock and poultry at $126 million. Dairy sales came in at $84 million, blueberries at $60 million and eggs at $51 million.
The figures represent only sales off the farm, said Maine Agriculture Department Commissioner Seth Bradstreet. As the products move through the economy, their economic impact grows, he said.
