Former House Agriculture and Natural Resources Chairman Dave Hall Appointed to New Senior Advisory Role

Source: The Hannah Report

Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger has asked Rep. Dave Hall to serve in a newly-created senior position to assist committee chairs and vice-chairs, according to Rosenberger spokeswoman Brittany Warner.

“Rep. Hall is a valued and well-regarded member of our caucus,” Warner told Hannah News. “The speaker anticipates this to be a very busy General Assembly and having an experienced leader like Rep. Hall will allow for more guidance and fluidity during the committee process. Unofficially, he is the ‘chair of the chairs’ and the speaker is thrilled that he has agreed to help the caucus in this capacity.”

Hall had been chairman of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee for the past two legislative sessions. Rosenberger has split the committee in two for the 131st General Assembly -- the House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, chaired by Rep. Brian Hill , and the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Rep. Al Landis.

“This allows him to stay involved not just with those two committees, but more in a senior advisory role to the entire caucus,” Warner said.

In an interview with Hannah News Wednesday, Hall said he is “fully supportive” of Rosenberger’s choices to chair the committees and is “ready to take on” his new senior advisory role.

“He made some great choices, splitting them up and putting excellent people in there to run the committees,” Hall said. “You’re not going to be a chairman forever here because of term limits. It was time for transition into new leadership. I’m not going away. I’ll still be involved in committee work and my ideas helping out members and Speaker Rosenberger any way I can.”

He said Hill and Landis are both good friends of his, and his aim will be to succeed in any way he can. He said he will also be focusing more on policy during this General Assembly, noting he is eager to make the change. He said being in charge of the committee dealing with agricultural issues and the shale boom was a “heavy lift” that was very time consuming.

“You were dealing with so much -- coal, oil and gas, wind mills, bio-digesters, agriculture and animal issues,” Hall said. “It was a brilliant move on the speaker’s part to split the committees up.”

Hall said the number one issue on his policy agenda is water quality, noting he is aiming to have a stand-alone bill addressing the issue passed as soon as possible. He said he would like to see the bill adopted by March. He said it will include provisions on water quality basically identical to what was proposed in 130-HB490 (Hall-Thompson), the agriculture and environmental portion of the mid-biennium review (MBR). The bill failed to move in the Senate after being bogged down with controversial last-minute provisions address telecommunications and oil and gas issues. (See The Hannah Report, 12/9/14.)

He said the bill will address restrictions on spreading manure on frozen ground, data collection and dredging. He said he will also propose measures in the budget to fund programs that help to mitigate harmful algal blooms, which can make water undrinkable.

He said he has also broken down some of the items addressing the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and oil and gas law into three separate bills, and may also include provisions addressing animal issues such as orphan fawns and cockfighting. He said he will not introduce legislation addressing puppy mills, which was included in the MBR.

“I’m not going near that one,” Hall said. “I tried to fix it but I’ll let somebody else do that.”
He noted he will also not be addressing telecommunications or anything having to do with the Lake Erie Compact. He said other members may take those issues up.

He said in his final term, he wants to “make sure he is passing down the right things” to junior members of the House.

“I want to mentor and educate as many as I can about what it’s all about,” Hall said. “I want to reach out to as many as I can and be as open to passing on what others have passed on to me and transition to another group of people who will be leading the state for the next four, six or eight years.”

He said he has “not even thought about” what he will do after he is term-limited in 2016.

“I probably won’t think about that until about the last day,” Hall said, laughing. “People bring it up everywhere I go. I still have two strong years left of working down here. I think my wife and kids ask me that more than anyone. … ‘Are you coming back home?’

“I figure I have two years -- it’s a long time, but it will go fast. There’ s a lot of work ahead to keep Ohio moving in the right direction and I want to be a part of that.”