December 1, 2017
DOT grants waiver to livestock haulers
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Capital Press
Courtesy of Tim O’Byrne/Working Ranch magazine
11 hours of active driving.
Once a driver hits those max-
imum hours, he must stop
and rest for 10 hours.
Industry groups contend
those restriction are incom-
patible with transporting
livestock and have ques-
tioned whether the ELD de-
vices can accommodate agri-
cultural exemptions.
“The ELDs regulation
poses some serious challeng-
es for livestock haulers and
the animals in their care,”
Ken Maschhoff, president of
the National Pork Producers
Council, stated in a press re-
lease.
“Drivers
transporting
livestock have a moral obli-
gation to care for the animals
they’re hauling,” he said.
The waiver will give DOT
time to consider NPPC’s re-
quest that livestock haulers
be exempted from the ELD
mandate, he said.
Both organizations have
maintained there is a lot of
confusion about the agricul-
tural exemption on hours of
service and a lack of outreach
from DOT to the agricultural
community on the new reg-
ulations.
They contend the live-
stock hauling industry is not
prepared and needs more
training on ELD technology
and education on the rules.
They also question wheth-
er local law enforcement is
aware of the agricultural ex-
emption.
Lack of clarity on the rule
is one of the reasons for the
waiver, and DOT told in-
dustry it wants time to take
comments on the exemp-
tion and how it will work
best for livestock haulers,
Cooke said.
“We want to make sure
that not only our local law
enforcement know about
this exemption but that our
haulers are using it correctly,
and we need formal guidance
from DOT,” she said.
NCBA will continue to
push the petition, and DOT
could grant the requested ex-
emption for livestock haulers
for up to five years.
It will also continue its
conversation with DOT on
the long-term needs on hours
of service, she said.
It is also going to continue
to push appropriations lan-
guage for a one-year delay
and is working on letters to
that effect from House and
Senate leadership to mem-
bers of the congressional ap-
propriations committees, she
said.
Environmentalists claim EPA
foiling manure air reports
Court asked to
clarify ruling
FORT HALL, Idaho —
Certified public accountant
Ryan Mathews has developed
a profile of the typical Eastern
Idaho employee who commits
fraud against his or her com-
pany.
Mathews, with Cooper
Norman in Pocatello, ex-
plained the region’s typical
perpetrator of fraud is likely
married, active in a church,
educated beyond high school,
has no arrest record, is in his
or her 40s, conforms to social
norms, has been employed by
the company from one to 20
years and acts alone 70 per-
cent of the time.
Mathews offered steps
for businesses to avoid fraud
while speaking during a re-
cent meeting of the Idaho
Grower-Shippers Association.
He said most business owners
tell him his criminal profile
could aptly describe the per-
son they have overseeing their
own books.
“The bottom line is given
the right pressures, opportu-
nities and rationalizations,
many people are capable of
committing crime,” Mathews
said, adding business owners
in Eastern Idaho tend to be
trusting and often don’t have
adequate preventive controls
in place.
Mathews believes fraud
is on the rise regionally. His
company investigates about
10 to 20 fraud cases per year
in Eastern Idaho, mostly in
the Idaho Falls area. He said
common reasons for work-
ers committing fraud include
gambling or drug habits, debt
or poor credit, a significant
financial loss and pressure to
succeed.
Mathews offered statistics
from a recent Association of
Certified Fraud Examiners
report. According to the re-
port, the typical organization
loses 5 percent of its revenue
to fraud annually, and poor
internal controls are the great-
Colonel Kedrick R. Wills
Director
Larry A. Hayhurst
State Brand Inspector
est contributor
to losses. The
report found
55.7 percent
of U.S. fraud
cases involved
males,
and
Ryan
the greatest
Mathews
losses came
from work-
ers with the most access and
knowledge of internal proce-
dures. The median loss was
$573,000 by owners and ex-
ecutives, $180,000 by man-
agers and $60,000 by general
employees.
Mathews said records
reviewed by tax preparers
seldom include the level of
detail needed to detect fraud.
Fraud is discovered based on
a tip roughly 40 percent of
the time, so Mathews advis-
es companies to establish in-
ternal hot lines for accepting
anonymous tips. He said com-
panies should also cross-train
workers to do multiple jobs
and strive for a separation of
duties to prevent a single em-
ployee from having too much
control over managing money.
He advises business owners
to make certain workers use
vacation, and that they don’t
continue working remotely on
their laptops while they’re off.
“A lot of times we’ll meet
a person who says, ‘Nobody
can do my accounting job like
I can,’” Mathews said. “We
call that red flag behavior if
they’re not willing to take va-
cation or let anyone else look
at the books.”
Mathews said working odd
hours can also be a sign of
fraud.
IGSA President Shawn
Boyle advised his members to
look into insurance policies to
protect against fraud.
Mathews said managers
should also make certain to
communicate regularly with
employees about acceptable
practices within the work-
place, and to have clear pol-
icies to prevent employees
from rationalizing illegal be-
havior.
C.L. “Butch” Otter
Governor
IDAHO BRAND BOARD
Tom Basabe
Board Chairman
NOTICE OF REFUND ON CATTLE BRAND INSPECTION FEES
By DON JENKINS
On May 18, 2017, the Idaho Brand Board proposed a temporary rule to raise the Cattle
inspection fee by $.25, from $.94 to $1.19. There were several factors that led to the
increase. The Governor’s recommended Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 budget included line
items for increased personnel and equipment costs for the new CS Beef Packer facility.
That, along with rising personnel costs, healthcare and benefit costs, cyber security
liability insurance costs, combined with lower market induced head count numbers has
eroded the Brand Board’s sustainable operating cash. The effective date of the proposed
temporary rule for the increased cattle inspection fee was July 1, 2017. It should be noted
our last cattle inspection fee increase was in FY 2006.
Capital Press
Environmental groups are
asking a federal court to af-
firm that farmers and ranch-
ers must warn local fire and
police departments that their
livestock are emitting hazard-
ous substances.
The groups accuse the
Environmental
Protection
Agency of thwarting a previ-
ous ruling by the same U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia. The
EPA denies the charge and
maintains that a law meant
to alert communities to dan-
gerous chemicals still doesn’t
apply to storing and spreading
manure.
Washington State Dairy
Federation policy director
Jay Gordon said Monday that
he hopes the court rejects the
request by environmental
groups and spares livestock
owners from having to alert
fire halls and police stations
that their animals are releas-
ing gas.
“It seems to be silliness
run amok,” he said.
The pending motion filed
by the New York-based Wa-
terkeeper Alliance and oth-
ers is the latest maneuver in
long-running litigation over
whether animal feeding op-
erations such as dairies, cattle
ranches, and pig and poultry
farms must report gases given
off by decomposing manure.
The D.C. court ruled in
April that operations that emit
more than 100 pounds of am-
monia or hydrogen sulfide in a
24-hour period must report to
federal authorities under the
Superfund law and to local
officials under the Communi-
ty-Right-to-Know Act.
The court last week delayed
the requirement until Jan. 22
to give the EPA more time to
CPA: How to recognize when
someone is ripping you off
By JOHN O’CONNELL
The U.S. Department of Transportation has granted a 90-day waiver of new regulations requiring
livestock haulers to use new electronic logs and tightening rest requirements. Haulers petitioned
DOT to delay the regulations.
5
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Environmental groups accuse the Environmental Protection
Agency of seeking to thwart a federal court decision, arguing the
ruling requires animal feeding operations such as dairies to warn
local firefighters and police officers that their livestock are releasing
hazardous gases.
develop Superfund reporting
forms tailored to agriculture.
The environmental groups
opposed the delay, but more
contentious is EPA’s stance
that farmers and ranchers still
won’t have to register with lo-
cal officials.
The EPA argues that Con-
gress exempted “routine agri-
cultural operations” from the
Right-to-Know Act, and the
court’s ruling didn’t change
that. The court only rejected
the agency’s position that ma-
nure gases rising into the air
would never need an emergen-
cy response.
The EPA says it will write
a rule clarifying whether
storing and spreading ma-
nure is a routine agricultural
operation. Until the rule is
finished, any court challenge
would be premature, accord-
ing to EPA.
The environmental groups
claim that the EPA is misin-
terpreting the April decision.
They argue that releasing am-
monia and hydrogen sulfide
can’t be considered a routine
farming practice.
The court last week set a
schedule that gives the EPA
and Waterkeeper Alliance until
April to submit further written
arguments.
Efforts to obtain further
comment from Waterkeeper
Alliance were unsuccessful.
The Superfund law was
inspired by such environmen-
tal disasters as Love Canal, a
chemical dumping ground in
Niagra Falls, N.Y., that de-
stroyed a neighborhood. Ac-
cording to an EPA website,
Congress passed the Right-
to-Know Act in 1986 as a re-
sponse to the chemical leak in
Bhopal, India. That disaster
killed 15,000 to 20,000 peo-
ple, according to Encyclopedia
Britannica.
The EPA under three suc-
cessive administrations sought
to exempt agriculture from
the Superfund and Right-To-
Know laws. The court, howev-
er, ruled manure can give off
dangerous fumes and that the
information would be useful
to firefighters trying to find the
source of foul odors.
Gordon said that about
a decade ago some dairies
thought they had to alert local
responders under the law.
“You were making phone
calls to firefighters and police
stations, and they didn’t know
what to do with it,” he said.
“They seemed pretty upset
about having their phone lines
tied up.”
The Brand Board followed the required protocol through the Division of Financial
Management (DFM) which included, filing an Administrative Rules Request Form
(ARRF) with DFM for their approval. DFM and the Governor’s office approved the
ARRF and forwarded it to the Office of Administrative Rules for publication in the Idaho
Administrative Bulletin for June, 2017.
Unfortunately, the second required document “Notice of Rule Making -Temporary and
Proposed Rule”, which virtually has the same information as the ARRF, should have
accompanied the ARRF to the Office of Administrative Rules. There is serious confusion
on why that second document was not submitted to the Office of Administrative Rules,
but at the end of the day, the State Brand Inspector is ultimately responsible for the
oversight of the Brand Department and failed to seek confirmation. Therefore, the
temporary proposed rule did not get published in the June 2017 Administrative Bulletin.
Because of that technical error, the July 1, 2017, fee increased effective date was
negated. The Brand Board believed everything was in order and it was not until late
September that he Board was notified of the error.
Once the Brand Board was notified, an emergency Brand Board meeting was held and a
new fee increase effective date was set for October 2, 2017. All documentation was
immediately submitted to the Office of Administrative Rules and will be published in the
November 2017 Administrative Bulletin.
The Idaho Brand Board always demands transparency and even though its statutory
authority in Idaho Code § 25-1160 is capped at $1.25 for cattle brand inspection fees, the
Administrative Rules of the Idaho Brand Board, IDAPA 11.02.01, increased the cattle
brand inspection fee of $.94 to $1.19 on October 2, 2017.
Since the Brand Department raised the cattle inspection fee to $1.19 effective July 1,
2017, our customers were technically overcharged $.25 cents per head from July 1, 2017
to October 1, 2017. Therefore, you are entitled to a $ .25 per head refund on cattle brand
inspection fees collected from July 1, 2017 thru October 1, 2017.
If you were a livestock owner and charged a brand inspection fee during this time period,
you may request a refund. You must provide proof of your inspection and payment. The
cuf-off date for refund requests will be January 1, 2018.
Please submit your refund request(s) to: Idaho State Brand Inspector, P.O. Box 1177,
Meridian, Idaho 83680.
Sincerely,
Larry A. Hayhurst
State Brand Inspector
48-4\108
The U.S. Department of
Transportation is giving live-
stock haulers more time to
get up to speed on new regu-
lations requiring commercial
truck drivers to use electron-
ic logging devices and cor-
relating restrictions on drive
time.
The agency has granted
livestock haulers a 90-day
waiver from the require-
ments that go into effect on
Dec. 18.
Cattle, pork, fish and bee
organizations in September
petitioned the agency for a
one-year exemption from
compliance to the new regu-
lations.
They also asked for in-
creased flexibility in the
hours of service rules that re-
strict how long truckers can
stay behind the wheel, citing
the potential negative effects
on animal well-being.
Cattle and beef organiza-
tions were quick to register
their approval of the waiver,
but say they will continue to
push their petition.
“This is definitely a little
Thanksgiving present,” Al-
lison Cooke, executive di-
rector of government affairs
for the National Cattlemen’s
Beef Association, said in a
podcast on Tuesday.
“We’re excited because
this gives us time to contin-
ue our conversations with
DOT about our long-term
needs, but it also gives DOT
a chance to take their time
on our livestock hauler peti-
tion,” she said.
The comment period on
the petition closes at the end
of November, and the waiv-
er will give the agency more
time to go through the com-
ments and make a positive
decision for livestock haul-
ers, she said.
Drivers required to use
electronic logging devices
would be limited to the hours
of service rules, which re-
strict drivers to no more than
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