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ESCANABA -- The Delta County Conservation District voted last week to ask the state attorney general to look into the actions of Conservation District Manager Rory Mattson.
While the newly seated board of the conservation district had a number of grievances related to Mattson's management, the chief concern for the board Wednesday was Mattson's request made at the Aug. 15 Delta County Board of Commissioners meeting to modify an easement across his property that accesses the county forest in Cornell. At that meeting, the commissioners voted in a 4-1 split vote, with only Commissioner John Malnar dissenting, to modify the agreement to only allow the county to access to the easement for the purposes of fire suppression and timber harvesting.
Mattson told the board of commissioners that the easement was never intended to allow public access and the change in the easement was necessary, as someone had threatened to rip out the gates he had on his property that block the easement road. During Wednesday's conservation district meeting, Mattson said the threat came last winter and law enforcement was not called.
The county commission's decision to allow the modification drew ire from multiple conservation district board members, who disputed Mattson's claims that the easement -- originally given by land and timber management firm Weyerhauser Company prior to Mattson's purchase of the land adjoining the county forest -- was not intended to allow for public access to the property. They argued any changes to the easement could affect the Michigan Department of Natural Resource Trust Fund Grant used to purchase the county forest property.
Delta County Administrator Ashleigh Young, who was present at the meeting, told the board the state was aware of the change in easement terms, but it had not been determined if the easement was part of the terms of the trust fund grant.
Newly elected Conservation District Board Chair Joe Kaplan asserted that the easement was part of the grant terms.
"I'm not OK with this. I think that we should turn this over to someone who can vet it. The agreement over that trust fund was between the county and the state of Michigan, and we're involved because Rory's involved as a private property owner," he said.
Board members also stated Mattson had been using the easement as a private access to an otherwise-inaccessible food plot on the county land and had used his position as the conservation district's CEO to negotiate terms that would be favorable to him and to others -- including former District Board Chair Jack Herrick, and Gary Stanek, who jointly own land adjacent to the forest with Mattson.
The easement that is the primary concern for the board is located on a 40-acre parcel solely owned by Mattson.
Throughout the meeting, Mattson contended that he did not have a conflict of interest, as he did not purchase any land around the forest until after the easements and the purchase of the county forest were finalized.
"When you were negotiating that, you were negotiating as a public official through a public body, but you were also negotiating, you had a side agreement to buy that in the future. You said it at that podium. I heard it with my own ears, I've listened to it again. You eventually bought that. You never disclosed you had a conflict of interest," Kaplan told Mattson.
This is not the first time the easement or gating off the county forest has been an issue or that Mattson has been the central figure in the discussion. The county forest was dedicated on Aug. 14, 2018, and during that dedication, protesters with signs rallied against the gates that blocked access to the forest. In November of 2019, Delta County Sheriff Ed Oswald said at a county meeting that he had repeatedly asked for keys to the forest and been denied -- Mattson said he later provided keys to allow access for Delta County Search and Rescue. In January of 2020, Cornell residents opposing the gates called for Mattson's dismissal at a county meeting but were reminded that Mattson is a conservation district employee and not under the direct supervision of the county.
Under the state's conservation district law, the attorney general may, at their discretion, look into issues for conservation districts. The decision to ask for the attorney general's involvement to review the easement and any potential issues related to it was passed unanimously.