December 1, 2017
CapitalPress.com
9
Washington
Stemilt sues ex-employee for big loss
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE,
Wash.
— An employee of Stemilt
Agriculture Services has
been fired and sued by the
company for allegedly bill-
ing it more than $1.1 million,
through a pass-through com-
pany, for services she was
paid for as an employee and
for work no one did.
Elizabeth Hernandez, who
worked in human resources
for Stemilt Ag Services, and
her company H2 Global are
defendants as are Kennewick
farm labor contractor, Ever-
green Agricultural Services,
and its manager Abraham
Larios. The lawsuit was filed
last month in Chelan County
Superior Court in Wenatchee.
The defendants’ attorney, Jef-
frey Sperline, Kennewick,
could not be reached for
comment.
Stemilt Ag Services is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of
Stemilt Growers, a large tree
fruit company in Wenatchee.
Stemilt Growers packs and
sells its own fruit and that
of independent growers.
Stemilt Ag Services manag-
es more than 8,000 acres of
company-owned and leased
orchards. The company was
authorized by the U.S. De-
partment of Labor to hire
2,082 H-2A guestworkers in
2017, the sixth largest em-
ployer of H-2A in the nation.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Mike Miller conducts his last Washington Grain Commission meet-
ing as chairman on Nov. 16 in Spokane. He is running unopposed
for re-election to the board. He is also chairman of U.S. Wheat
Associates.
Miller ends term as grain
commission chairman
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
SPOKANE — Mike Mill-
er didn’t have big plans for
the Washington Grain Com-
mission when he took over as
chairman.
“I had no agenda, I had no
real goals,” said the Ritzville,
Wash., wheat farmer. “I hope
I kept the ship going in the
same direction.”
Miller conducted his last
meeting as chairman of the
commission board on Nov.
16. His two-year term expires
Dec. 31 but he will remain on
the commission. He is running
unopposed for re-election.
The next chairman will be
selected at the Jan. 4 commis-
sion meeting.
Fellow commission mem-
ber Dana Herron believes
Miller has had a positive im-
pact. He credited Miller with
taking advantage of every op-
portunity for the industry.
“He has sacrificed a lot of
family time and farming time
for the growers,” Herron said.
“As long as I’ve been there,
in the last 11 years, he’s been
by far one of the most active
chairmen we’ve ever had.”
Miller believes the com-
mission must continue to
maintain its reserves to ac-
complish its goals during a
time when federal funding is
uncertain. The Trump admin-
istration has proposed reduc-
ing the budget for marketing
programs the commission
uses.
Dan Wheat/Capital Press File
The corporate office of Stemilt Growers and its orchard man-
agement subsidiary, Stemilt Agriculture Services, in Wenatchee,
Wash. The company is suing an ex-employee for breach of
contract for losses of more than $1.1 million.
Shortly after she was
hired by Stemilt Ag Services
in 2009, Hernandez helped
the company recruit and hire
H-2A foreign guestworkers,
according to the lawsuit al-
leging tortious interference
and breach of contract.
In 2016, while still em-
ployed at Stemilt Ag Ser-
vices, Hernandez formed
H2 Global to recruit, trans-
port and hire seasonal H-2A
workers. Hernandez arranged
for Stemilt Ag Services to
contract with Evergreen Ag-
ricultural Services for H-2A
recruitment, hiring, transpor-
tation and related services,
the lawsuit states.
Hernandez provided in-
voices from H2 Global to
Evergreen for work she per-
formed in recruitment, hir-
ing and transporting H-2A
workers for Stemilt Ag Ser-
vices. Evergreen then pre-
pared separate invoices for
the same work and billed
Stemilt Ag Services, the
lawsuit states.
Stemilt Ag Services paid
Evergreen for services Her-
nandez should have per-
formed as an employee of
Stemilt Ag Services, for
“services not provided” and
Hernandez used Stemilt Ag
Services resources for con-
ducting her business as H2
Global without compensat-
ing Stemilt Ag Services, the
lawsuit states.
In the summer of 2017,
Stemilt Ag Services admin-
istrative staff discovered the
potential that the company
paid for services provided
by H2 Global that had been
billed to it by Evergreen. It
further discovered that Her-
nandez was a 50 percent part-
ner in H2 Global, the lawsuit
states. Following an audit,
Stemilt Ag Services fired
Hernandez on Oct. 17.
Subsequent to the firing,
Stemilt Ag Services learned
Hernandez and Larios re-
cruited approximately 50
H-2A workers away from
Stemilt Ag Services — many
of whom they hired — to
work elsewhere, resulting in
the likelihood the company
would not be able to harvest
all of its crop and having a
“significant economic im-
pact,” the lawsuit states.
The workers were used
at other orchards where the
workers were not authorized
to work under federal law
and it was a breach of Ever-
green’s contract with Stemilt
Ag Services, the lawsuit
states.
About 30 of the work-
ers were found working for
Columbia Fruit Packers in
Quincy and had been offered
as domestic workers to Co-
lumbia by Larios, accord-
ing to an affidavit of Zach
Williams, Stemilt human re-
sources director.
State favors tagging every cow with
radio ID; ranchers don’t see need
WSDA says move
will help contain
animal diseases
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
A cow in Washington wears a number. The Washington State
Department of Agriculture favors tagging all cows with radio-fre-
quency identification to transmit movements to a database. WSDA
says the high-tech tags will help contain animal diseases. Some
ranchers see the tags as intrusive.
vaccinated for brucellosis or
introduced into a breeding
herd.
“I think those are big
steps,” Washington State
Dairy Federation policy di-
rector Jay Gordon said. “They
certainly deserve careful
thought and consideration.”
Gordon said some dairy
farmers already electroni-
cally track the health and
performance of each cow to
improve their herds. Some
producers may question the
need for additional tracking,
though others may see market
advantages in being able to
verify to consumers where the
cows were born and raised, he
said.
To track the movements of
more cows, WSDA early last
year set up an online system
for dairies to self-report small
sales. Previously sales be-
tween private parties of fewer
than 15 head of dairy cows
didn’t have to be reported.
So far, only three small sales
involving 49 head have been
reported.
Stevens County ranch-
er Ted Wishon said WSDA
should plug gaps in the sys-
tem before putting more rules
on beef cattlemen. “Let’s fix
the holes. Let’s not put ev-
erybody in the same bucket,”
said Wishon, past president of
the Cattle Producers of Wash-
ington.
WSDA collects brand,
health and transaction re-
cords, and Wishon said that in
an emergency he could readi-
ly provide WSDA with writ-
ten details on the movements
of his cows. “I can sit down
and show you everywhere ev-
ery one of my cows has been,”
he said
But Wishon said he oppos-
es having his cattle’s move-
ments recorded in a govern-
ment database.
“There’s certainly infor-
mation I call propriety that
I don’t think government
should have at a push of a but-
ton,” he said.
“It sounds pretty good,
like it’s for the public good,
but it puts more burden on the
producer. It just keeps getting
more and more cumbersome,”
Wishon said. “I do not see the
cost-benefit to the producer.”
WSDA Director Derek
Sandison said that brands
identify herds, but ra-
dio-frequency identification
is needed to track single
animals.
Grass Expertise.
LET’S TALK!
GREENWAY SEEDS
Caldwell, Idaho • Alan Greenway, Seedsman
Cell: 298-259-9159 • MSG: 298-454-8342
Over 40 Years
Experience
Alan Greenway,
Seedsman
48-1/108
OLYMPIA — The Wash-
ington State Department of
Agriculture may adopt rules
requiring producers to tag ev-
ery cow with radio-frequency
identification, a level of elec-
tronic monitoring opposed by
some ranchers.
The department says the
tags will help follow a cow
from birth to slaughter, help-
ing animal-health officials to
speedily respond to diseases
and bringing the state in line
with coming USDA stan-
dards.
“These (the rules) are all
intended to track an animal
within hours rather than with-
in days,” State Veterinarian
Brian Joseph told the Senate
Agriculture Committee Nov.
14. “It’s very important we be
able to do that rapidly because
the more rapidly we can do
that, the less economic impact
there is.”
WSDA continues to work
on its ability to trace animal
diseases more than a dozen
years after the first U.S. case
of bovine spongiform enceph-
alopathy appeared in Wash-
ington, The state currently
records changes in livestock
ownership, though the depart-
ment says the system, partly
based on self-reporting of
sales, has gaps.
WSDA reports that only
5 percent of the state’s beef
cows now have radio-frequen-
cy identification. Although
80 percent of dairy cows are
electronically tagged, they
come from a minority, 40 per-
cent, of the dairies.
The department envisions
that by no later than 2023 ev-
ery ranch, dairy and farm with
cattle will have a “premises
identification number” and
that every cow that leaves the
premises will have a radio tag.
“We need an official iden-
tification number for that cow,
that’s unique to that cow,” Jo-
seph said. “The most efficient
way to do that is with elec-
tronic identification.”
WSDA hasn’t made any
formal proposals, but it’s also
considering requiring all cat-
tle in a public livestock mar-
ket to have a radio tag before
being presented for sale. An-
other requirement could be
requiring all female cattle to
be fitted with a radio tag when
48-1/100