Brewer Selects Mansell for Commission

[Outdoor Writer]

Governor Jan Brewer has named Robert Mansell of Winslow as her choice to fill the Game & Fish Commission seat being vacated by Jennifer Martin in January 2011. Mr. Mansell was one of three candidates the Arizona Game & Fish Commission Appointment Recommendation Board forwarded to the Governor for consideration. The other candidates were Brian Pinney and Susan Bitter Smith.

 

We anticipate the Senate will consider his confirmation in early January. Mr. Mansell formerly served as Superintendent of the Winslow Unified School District and has been a lifelong Arizona resident and outdoorsman, hunter, fisherman, boater, pilot and community leader. His ancestors date back to Arizona's territorial days. This year, after more than forty years of trying, Mr. Mansell was fortunate to get a desert bighorn sheep tag in unit 16A, east of Lake Havasu City.

 

As a school administrator for 33 years, he supervised as many as 350 employees, a budget as high as $16 million annually and oversaw physical assets of $60 million. He developed the prototype for an outdoor education program for the Winslow Elementary Schools in 1992 which he coordinated with the Arizona Game & Fish Department and U. S. Forest Service.

 

Mansell grew up in Cornville, Arizona living on a small farm. His Father and Uncle (now deceased) retired as Arizona fish hatchery superintendents, so he has a unique perspective on preservation and harvesting of wildlife and fish. As a pilot he flew various aircraft, including bush planes, and volunteered for numerous search and rescue operations.

[TLH]

I think this is a good pick and i think he will support the hunting sports and will be able to keep politics away from biological decisions--time will tell.

[SunDevil]

sounds like a good guy.

[CouesWhitetail]

Thanks for posting this. This is the first commissioner to come out of the new "AZ Game and Fish Commission Appointment Recommendation Board" process. This process was pushed for by sportsmen's groups so that sportsmen could have a greater role in recommending commissioners. The new board is made up of sportsmen and other user groups and its job is to assist the Governor in locating and reviewing applicants for the commission. The process worked very well, the board received 73 applicants for the commissioner's position(which I believe is an all-time record for people applying for a commissioner position, normally only a handful apply). They then reviewed all the applicants and narrowed it down to 5, which they then interviewed in a public meeting. Then they narrowed the list to 3 candidates and presented those names to the governor. The Governor then selected Mansell. The legislature still has to approve the Governor's selection.

[EBB]

Wish they would have chosen me.

EBB

[CouesWhitetail]

Wish they would have chosen me.

EBB

 

 

did you tell them you were a member of CouesWhitetail.com??? Surely that would have made all the difference!

 

 

[EBB]

Actually Amanda, I failed to mention that. There was a time not so long ago where I know they watched to see if people were saying critical things about the Department. They are very sensitive to what the avid sportspersons think. They culled the original 73 down to 19 from the resume's and I made that first cut. Unfortunately, I'm not very impressive on paper. Heck, I'm not that impressive in person either now that I think about it.

EBB