ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

February 15, 2006

State Names New Pesticide Chief

By William R. Levesque

Rankling some environmentalists, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson's office has hired a former executive with the U.S. Sugar Corp. to oversee a division of his department that regulates pesticides.

Anderson "Andy" Rackley, formerly U.S. Sugar's general manager of technical operations, has been named head of the Agricultural Services division, a $100,000 job within the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Rackley, 54, who worked just more than 10 years at U.S. Sugar before resigning in April, starts this month. He replaces Steve Rutz, who is retiring.

"We're very pleased to have this guy," Terry McElroy, a spokesman for Bronson, said Tuesday. "I guess any time you hire someone, you run the risk of someone taking a shot at them for any reason. But he'll be a real asset to the department. He comes from the private sector. But that's where you get people who have expertise."

McElroy said Rackley's duties at U.S. Sugar included managing staff responsible for the application of fertilizers and dealing with farm worker training issues, making him a perfect fit for the department.

But David Ludder, president of Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation in Tallahassee, called the appointment "a disappointment" and said industry executives often find it difficult to shed their allegiance to their former employers.

"Someone with his background can certainly bring his experience to government and do a good job," Ludder said. "But they really have to abandon their loyalties to the industries from which they came and adopt a new loyalty to the public interest. I think it's not entirely easy to do that."

Rackley, however, said working for U.S. Sugar gave him experience inside one of the most-regulated agriculture entities in the nation, one in which every step and misstep was monitored by government.

He said it taught him to put the environment and worker safety first. "I think my background prepared me more than any other candidate.,"

Rackley's job will put him in a position to oversee the regulation of pest control companies in Florida, along with oversight of Florida's mosquito suppression program. His department regulates the registration and use of pesticides and handles farm worker safety issues, such as making sure workers are trained properly in the use of pesticides.

Before joining U.S. Sugar, Rackley worked for Union Carbide, BASF and the SDS Biotech Corp.