Embattled State Agriculture Chief Resigns

Embattled California Agriculture Secretary Henry J. Voss, moving to spare Gov. Pete Wilson embarrassment as he runs for President, resigned Tuesday, saying persistent questions about conflicts between his public duties and his private farming have created a “siege” atmosphere in the agency.

Voss, the highest-ranking member of Wilson’s Administration to leave office under fire, resigned six weeks after acknowledging that he failed to properly disclose that his farming businesses received more than $400,000 in gross income between 1989 and 1993.

The 62-year-old Cabinet secretary and lifelong farmer said he welcomes an investigation into his public and private dealings, and denied that he took actions during his six years in office that affected his peach, almond, walnut and prune orchards.

“I’d like to get my name cleared once and for all,” Voss said. “I don’t think that can happen without an investigation.”

Voss, who conferred with Wilson on Monday, said he was not forced to resign. But Voss also said, “I’ve been concerned that my negligence would embarrass him, would embarrass the department.”

Voss said he made his decision Thursday to quit and informed the governor’s staff, but wanted to wait until after an Easter dinner with his family to make an announcement.

“Negative controversy surrounding a government agency does no one any good,” Voss told reporters at the state Department of Food and Agriculture. “It hurts morale. It cripples forward progress, and it limits the agency’s ability to serve agriculture and the people of California. The controversy must be removed. . . . It is time for me to bow out of public life and return to the farm where a person’s word is your bond and a handshake is your contract.”

Even as he accepted Voss’ resignation, Wilson issued a statement lauding him as a “good and honest man.”

“Let me be clear, this Administration requires all appointees to obey the letter and the spirit of the law,” Wilson said. “However, we will not deny the public the kind of experience and knowledge which Hank, as an agricultural expert and a working farmer, brought to the job.”

Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh said he was not sure when a successor would be named, adding that several candidates, including many in farming, would “relish the challenge of running (the department of) agriculture.”

Voss appeared at the news conference with lawyer Ben Davidian, who resigned in January as the Wilson-appointed chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission and who will represent Voss in any proceedings before the commission.

Consumers Union and Common Cause complained in February to the FPPC that Voss failed to disclose his outside income on his annual statements of economic interest and took actions as agriculture secretary that could have helped his businesses.

Voss reacted to the complaint in March by amending his back reports to show that he had received more than $450,000 in gross income from his farming businesses between the time he took office in 1989 and 1993. In recent weeks, at least five other high-ranking agriculture officials have amended their conflict of interest reports to show that they have received outside income from businesses, including farming.

On Tuesday, Voss released a newly amended set of reports showing that he made at least $420,000 in gross income during those years. The sources of income include such major food processors as Tri Valley Growers, Blue Diamond, Sunsweet Growers and Del Monte Corp. The money was in payment for his crops. At the same time, as director of the department, Voss was in a position to make decisions to benefit agribusiness.

At the news conference, Davidian repeated his statement that Voss’ farming interests took a net loss during most of the years when he was in office. One reason for the losses, Davidian said, was that Voss purchased orchards that needed to be replanted with younger trees.

However, Harry Snyder, co-director of Consumers Union’s West Coast office, said Voss’ departure is only a first step toward making the agency more pro-consumer, adding, “We are hopeful that this resignation will not deter a full FPPC investigation.”

“We have to change the culture where the department raises consumer prices to help agriculture, approves pesticides to help agriculture, sprays for Medflies to help agriculture,” Snyder said.

He said he is dismayed that the Wilson Administration took so long to act on Voss. Snyder first told Wilson’s aides in July about what he saw as problems with Voss and the agency. He decided to press the complaint against Voss before the FPPC only after the Administration took no action.

Walsh, the governor’s spokesman, said Snyder raised several consumer issues at the July meeting, but mentioned suspicions about Voss “only in passing. . . . It was never presented to us in any formal manner that would have elicited any review.”

Voss was appointed agriculture secretary in 1989 by Gov. George Deukmejian. Wilson reappointed him on taking office in 1991. Before that, Voss was president of the California Farm Bureau, a major lobbying force in Sacramento.

If Voss was known in urban areas, it was as a strong advocate of spraying malathion to combat Mediterranean fruit flies and prevent them from infesting crops. But in the Central Valley, he was widely known as an advocate for California’s $19-billion-a-year agricultural industry. As recently as last weekend, San Joaquin Valley radio farm broadcasts issued calls of support for Voss.

Farm Bureau President Bob Vice attended Voss’ news conference in a show of support, and said afterward: “It’s a great loss for not just agriculture but the citizens of this state. Henry has been a tremendous asset.”

Richard Douglas, senior vice president of Sun Diamond, a major food processor and, like the Farm Bureau, a large donor to Wilson, said “the people of California lost a tremendous public servant.” Douglas said he spoke to Voss last week and “recognized the agony he was going through, having his integrity questioned.”

“Trying to do one’s job and salvage one’s reputation is almost impossible. He has to fight this full-time,” Douglas said.

State Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco), a member of the Senate Agriculture and Water Resources Committee, said Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren should investigate the Food and Agriculture Department, including the circumstances under which Voss and other executives ignored laws requiring that they report in writing conflicts of interest when they disqualify themselves from taking official action that might affect their private holdings.

Instead, agriculture department officials routinely invoked an informal “honor system” that involved no written record.

At his news conference, Voss defended the honor system, saying: “We’ve hired honorable people. We’ve used common sense. We’ve trusted each other’s good judgment. We’ve always put the good of the whole above any one part.”

He added that in recent days, he has started the process of instituting a formal recusal system.

Voss continued to blame the omissions on his conflict of interest statements on bad advice given him when he took office in 1989. He also refused to say who had told him that he did not need to disclose the income of his farming businesses, which he owns in partnership with two brothers.

“In hindsight, I did not take all the paperwork as seriously as I should have,” Voss said.