LINCOLN - The troubled Nebraska Environmental Trust turned Thursday night to someone with extensive experience in economic development and grants to bring calm to an agency that awards $20 million in grants a year for environmental and conservation projects.

The trust board voted 12-0 to hire Karl Elmshaeuser, the former head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program in Nebraska, as the new executive director. He will be paid $111,900 a year and was selected from a field of 61 applicants. Elmshaeuser, 60, is a former Ogallala City Council member who ran unsuccessfully for the Nebraska Legislature in 2016. His current job is legislative liaison with the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy.

Two performance audits this fall detailed several recommendations to improve the agency, and he said he has experience in "process improvement."

The trust, which awards grants using state lottery proceeds, has been in turmoil since February 2020, when the board voted to defund a handful of conservation, habitat and wetland projects and instead award more than $1 million to install ethanol blender pumps at service stations. The move spawned a lawsuit against the trust board, as well as the formation of a watchdog group, the Friends of the Environmental Trust, who felt that the trust was straying from its original mission.

"The team at Kissel Kohout ES Associates is very excited about the appointment of Mr. Elmshaeuser! We worked closely with him during his tenure at the West Central Economic Development District and supported his campaign for the Nebraska Legislature. He will be a great asset to the Environmental Trust!" - Joe Kohout

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