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The Governor and the Legislators

Like any other state, North Carolina has regulatory institutions to safeguard the interests of citizens, the environment and the industries that bring revenue and jobs into the state. The North Carolina State legislature enacts the laws and the state government headed by the Governor, implements them.

North Carolina has a huge hog industry which provides significant employment in the state. That industry has however been facing several challenges in the last few years as appears from the media and other publications. The state needs the investment and wants to maintain its current industry going as well as it can and that includes the hog industry.

To increase production and reduce costs, hog production has been changing over the years. Producers have moved away from free run or pasture farming, which required large spaces and could only carry limited numbers of hogs. Production is now predominantly in hog barns; buildings that can house higher numbers and reduce labour as the barns are highly mechanised. The increased production brought processors into North Carolina because with the higher numbers, it became more profitable to bring the processing plants nearer to the producers. That brought jobs into the state and for a short while you were all relatively happy.

Unfortunately the higher production brought unwelcome side effects. Environmentalists and animal rights activists descended on your state, ganging up with residents and academics and pointing to the detriment to the environment and animals. The effluent from hog barns is smelly and too high in nitrogen and so it is leaching the soil and fouling up the water. The effluent ponds smell like hell and affected residents are now up in arms. The residents organized themselves into groups and campaigned for the state to take responsibility and buy them out so they can relocate. They even dumped a hog bomb at the governor’s office and to be honest, the smell is terrible. However, the state does not have enough money to buy out the residents. To make matters worse, the flooding from Hurricane Matthew was catastrophic, with ponds bursting their banks and even hogs getting drowned.

In an effort to respond to the residents’ concerns and keep the industry going, the last administration implemented legislation to stop any new hog barns, but the problem just will not go away. Because of the moratorium on any further developments of hog barns, the industry has been moving into consolidation of existing hog barns under pretty much one corporation, Smithfield, which maximizes the scales by having control of almost all the hog barns. Other corporate players have a smaller stake and they include Tyson.

The residents, environmental and animal rights activists were totally unsatisfied with the moratorium and some residents filed law suits asking for closure of some of the hog barns and claiming compensation from Smithfield and Tyson for damage to their quality of life. The residents were assisted by the environmentalists, but it’s a free country and you cannot do anything legally about that. Besides, it was part of that anger that led to the last governor (a Republican) losing in the 2016 elections and a new governor (a Democrat) being voted into office. The North Carolina legislature remains majority Republican however.

The state cannot afford either the demands from the residents or those of the environmentalists who want to effectively cut hog barns by 50%. That is patently unreasonable but in a democracy, populism can do strange things. The governor wants to find a compromise solution, i.e. act on the environment without killing the industry but also responding to residents. The majority of legislators are pro-industry and have enacted legislation limiting the amount claimable as damages from hog producing corporations and they had to override the governor’s veto to do that. However, the Republican majority legislators are also worried that the combination of activists and residents might swing the vote against them resulting in losing their seats and control at the next election. Already, they have lost the governor’s mansion and they now have to work with a Democrat!

The governor’s imperative for a negotiated settlement is to bring this long running conflict to an acceptable conclusion. Emotions are high and each group seems to be going for the jugular. To avoid that, the governor has persuaded legislators from both sides of the aisle (Democrats and Republicans) to participate in negotiations that you hope will head off a court ruling which is after all, an all or nothing option.

Your leverage with residents is jobs. Leverage with industry is that they can indeed end up getting shut down. Legislators’ concern is votes and very angry residents/voters are not a good base.

At RI you will have some preparation time in the morning to develop a consensual negotiation platform before engaging with the residents, producers and environmentalists. Use the time well. It would be best for state governance if the governor and the legislators can work out a united front and/or form alliances with other parties before the negotiation meeting. Preparation is critical to achieving your goals. Remember the environmentalists are a confrontational crowd so preparation is critical. Your team comprises of the governor and an assistant to help manage the negotiations, one Republican legislator and one Democrat.