~by Janice Harbaugh
The Background: At a public hearing for Stumpf Finishers, LLC held by the Greene County board of supervisors on May 11, allegations were made by the public that Becky Sexton had attempted to intimidate residents of the county over their exercise of free speech. Allegations were also made that the master matrix scores submitted by Sexton to the Greene County board of supervisors were inaccurate.
Sexton is an owner of Twin Lakes Environmental Services, LLC located in Rockwell City. The for-profit business contracts with clients wanting to apply to the Department of Natural Resources for permits to construct CAFOs, concentrated animal finishing operations.
Twin Lakes Environmental advises clients concerning their construction plans and walks them through the requirements of the master matrix, a scored list of requirements formulated by the DNR.
The business website states, “Twin Lakes Environmental Services, LLC, specializes in writing Manure Management Plans (MMP) and Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMP) to ensure environmentally sound agriculture practices and manure application in compliance with all state and federal regulations.”
The Interview: This reporter contacted Becky Sexton at the office of Twin Lakes Environmental on May 14. Sexton returned the call and agreed to an interview. This reporter offered the interview as a way she could express her side of the issues.
When asked about what had happened to make residents speak out at a public hearing, Sexton said, “I sent emails that were in very poor judgement, grade-school actions, to a lot of people. I was mad at (a named person working in a business separate from Twin Lakes Enviromental) and I thought he shouldn’t be talking to the landowner.”
Sexton said she believed, at the time she sent the emails, that residents of the county who spoke about opposition to the Stumpf Finisher LLC application for a permit to build a CAFO were against her and she felt they should not be speaking openly about it.
Sexton said, “It seemed like people were going behind my back. I handled it poorly. I hope I never do anything like that again.”
Becky Sexton scores the master matrix as a courtesy for her clients based on the plans she helps her clients develop. The master matrix is a set of regulations formulated by the DNR and applicants earn points for meeting each requirement listed on the matrix. A perfect score would be 880 points. The passing score for obtaining a permit to construct the CAFO is 440 points.
After scoring her client’s construction plans, Sexton then sends the scores to the county board of supervisors in the county where the proposed CAFO might be located.
“Supervisors are supposed to verify each score before they send it on to the DNR,” she said.
When asked about who can score a plan using the master matrix, Sexton said that anyone can do scoring if they understand the requirements. Twin Lakes Environmental is hired by client-applicants to help with plans and then score the matrix for them as a prediction of whether county supervisors will approve.
This reporter asked if Sexton had any comments about the members of the public at the hearing who disputed the scoring done by Twin Lakes Environmental. Several people had challenged specific scores in specific categories which caused the total scores earned by Stumpf Finishers, LLC to fall below passing.
While the verification of the Twin Lakes Environmental-generated matrix scores rests with county boards of supervisors, Sexton said her business is dependent on clients passing the matrix.
“Todd (Stumpf) hired me. I guaranteed him he would pass.”
“People just don’t like the matrix in general,” Sexton said. “Everybody is upset about the matrix.”
Sexton again apologized. “It was horrible, a horrible situation. I want to apologize to everyone.”
