CHEYENNE — Observers anticipated tension when Wyoming officials met early this month to decide the fate of a prized state property at the base of Casper Mountain.
Since early 2024, a group of Natrona County residents has been protesting the development of a state-approved gravel mine on the site. They formed an organization and collected tens of thousands of signatures.
Local office holders quickly amended zoning rules, effectively halting the project. The gravel mining company responded with a lawsuit against the county. A month later, gravel pit opponents filed their own lawsuit.
The feud would boil over at the June 5 meeting of Wyoming’s State Board of Land Commissioners, a standing panel made up of the state’s five elected officials.
The mine operator’s state-land leases were up for renewal, and stakeholders were awaiting the board’s decision on the contentious dispute.
However, one of the most contentious moments of the meeting occurred during an exchange between Gov. Mark Gordon and Secretary of State Chuck Gray, after the latter criticized the chief executive for how he managed the meeting.
“You need to be patient, sir, and allow the process to work,” Gordon told him.
“Mr. Chairman, I’ve been — I would like to respond to that,” Gray interrupted. “I’ve been very patient with you in requesting the parameters for public comment on this meeting, which have never been provided.
So I just, I would really appreciate it if these false accusations against me stopped, thank you.”
The three other commissioners mostly averted their gaze as the governor and secretary exchanged words for the next few minutes. Some members of the audience groaned aloud.
It was not the first time the two elected officials had clashed over a state board issue.
Gray had previously taken to social media to criticize Gordon for voting in favor of a wind farm lease on state lands. Gordon fired back in his newsletter.
Gray also issued a press release prior to the June 5 land commissioners meeting, calling Gordon’s decision to hold the meeting in Cheyenne “a dereliction.”
When the board got to the gravel pit agenda item, Gray expressed his “disappointment that this meeting was not moved to Casper to allow for public comment.”
(None of the subsequent public comments, whether for or against the gravel mine, mentioned the meeting’s location.)
“We smile a lot,” Treasurer Curt Meier chuckled after the meeting when asked how he handles ongoing tensions among his fellow commissioners.
