Published: February 23, 2008 11:41 pm            

Geologist’s dual role in gas leases causes concerns

The geologist offering his paid services as an agent to area landowners to help them get the best gas lease also is an executive with the Pennsylvania Game Commission who is in charge of, among other things, gas leases on state gamelands.

Some question whether this moonlighting poses a conflict of interest.

In his day job in Harrisburg, William Capouillez is director of the Bureau of Wildlife Habitat and oversees oil and gas and mining leases on 1.4 million acres of gamelands.

After working hours, and described only as a geologist and not as a state employee, he conducts seminars for landowners who have been approached by natural gas companies wanting a lease.

If they sign with him as their agent, he will get them higher lease income and better terms, he says. In return, he and his private company, Geological Assessment and Leasing of McVeytown, would get 25 cents of every dollar Capouillez negotiated for the landowner above the rate first offered by the gas company, plus 50 percent of royalties above the set rate.

For the Game Commission manager, it’s an extra income above the approximate $70,000 annually he earns from the state. For the landowner, it’s a better lease than expected.

But for some gas companies, a state official wearing these two hats poses, in the words of one, “a sensitive situation.”

They must please a state official who controls gas leasing on state gamelands, and who at the same time is a private consultant to landowners negotiating their own gas leases – often with the same gas company.

Capouillez says his outside activities are on record and sanctioned by the Game Commission and that he has no conflict of interest or dubious ethics area.

In fact, the only reason he does not disclose his state employment when conducting seminars is to avoid a conflict of interest.

“If you print in the paper that a Pennsylvania Game Commission director is working for private landowners, and a person called me to act as their agent, I could not represent them,” he said.

“I could have a conflict of interest because they would expect favors,” he said.

But Capouillez said he is aware of the gas companies’ concern.

“I have had at least three gas companies complain to the governor’s office because they felt that my presence there (at private negotiations) influenced how much the companies had to pay, but they couldn’t prove that I advertised,” he said.

The dual role of state gamelands leasing overseer, coupled with private lease negotiator, is raising the eyebrows of natural gas company representatives who have heard his seminar presentations.

Capouillez is aware of that.

“I guarantee that if you print anything about my affiliation with the Game Commission, it will cause me grief. There would be repercussions. Anybody there would think that my presence would influence higher prices,” he said.

“So if, let’s say, there’s Western Land Services and they’re leasing for $20 an acre, and anyone comes and does what I do, the landowners are going to reap the benefit, at the cost of the industry,” he said.

“But I do not advertise my affiliation with the Game Commission,” he said.

Officials at Western Land Services, a Michigan firm that is soliciting area landowners for natural gas leases, declined to comment.

Capouillez said that he has approval for his outside employment through the governor’s office, so that his activities do not pose a conflict of interest.

But Chuck Ardo of the governor’s press office said that the governor’s office does not approve supplemental employment for Game Commission workers.

“I can tell you, though, that the governor does not look with favor on employees who seek personal gain based on their work experience,” he said.

Game Commission officials say that Capouillez’s activities are approved by the commission itself, not the governor.

“As a bureau director, he is required to file annual reports with the state Ethics Commission, as well as having received approval for supplemental employment,” said spokesman Jerry Feaser.

“If all those boxes have been checked off, all that is perfectly legal,” he said.

A 2001 complaint from a company alleging that Capouillez had a conflict of interest was investigated by the Game Commission and dismissed as unfounded, officials said.

Pennsylvania’s Ethics Act defines a conflict of interest as “use by a public official or public employee of the authority of his office or employment of any confidential information received through his holding public office or employment for the private pecuniary benefit of himself, a member of his immediate family, or a business with which he is a member.”

Capouillez repeatedly said during an interview that his private gas leasing services are not connected to the Game Commission or its gas leasing.

He said he was concerned that publicity about his state job would harm him.

Commenting on the Ethics Act, he said, “My concern here is that I am a public employee and my employment affiliation when noted in your article may cause pecuniary benefit to me through my business,” he said.

Feaser said the issue of Capouillez’s outside job is a dead one.

“It’s not new, it’s something that’s been there. I know it’s been brought up as an issue of concern, but it’s been reviewed by the Game Commission so I would have nothing to add.”

Cambria County Farm Bureau President Robert Davis, who has organized the seminars for landowners being offered a gas lease, said he was aware of Capouillez’s role with the Game Commission and had been assured that it is “approved and legal.”

        

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