Douglas County native Greg Foley was named acting secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture Friday, but it’s uncertain whether he’ll be Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ ultimate choice to fill the Cabinet-level position.

Foley, who lives northwest of Lawrence on a farm owned by his family since the 1920s, was named to lead the 300-employee state agency until Sebelius and the state’s Agriculture Advisory Board can agree on a new nominee.

State statue requires that the governor choose the agriculture secretary from a list of three nominees compiled by the board. Sebelius on Friday rejected all three nominees the board had sent her to consider.

In a statement she said the nominees, whose names weren’t released to the public, needed to have more experience advocating for agriculture on a national and international basis.

“She wants somebody who is always thinking about how to promote Kansas agriculture,” Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran-Basso said. “She recognizes there is more to do than just what is within the state’s borders.”

The board is scheduled to meet with Sebelius on Friday. Roland Rhodes, a Gardner resident who serves as the board’s vice chairman, said the board would try to find out more about what Sebelius was looking for in a new agriculture secretary.

“We thought we submitted three very qualified people, but we’ll go through the process again,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes estimated it may take up to two months for the group to form a new list of nominees for the governor to consider. Sebelius on Friday also appointed three new members to the nine-member board.

Foley, who has been the assistant agriculture secretary for the past two years, said he would be interested in the position if the governor asked him to serve but mainly he was interested in providing continuity to the department during the early stages of the new administration.

“I’ll have a few more discussions with the governor and see what she thinks is the best role I can serve,” Foley said.

Corcoran-Basso said the governor hadn’t approached the board about making Foley a nominee.

“He has just been gracious enough to take that position and lead the department at an important time, but that’s about as far as we’ve went with it,” Corcoran-Basso said.

Foley, who is a registered Republican, said he did agree with Sebelius that the agriculture secretary needed to be ready to deal with issues outside the state’s boundary. For example, he said he would be working closely with the state’s congressional delegation to help it push for federal drought disaster aid.

“It is essential that we have some disaster relief for our farmers,” Foley said. “It could be the difference in whether we’re looking at farm sales and foreclosures or allowing people to continue farming.”

Foley, 36, said if he did end up in the running to be the governor’s nominee for the position, he thought he had the right mix of legislative and agricultural experience.

He began working for the state in 1991 at the Kansas Conservation Commission, then was the chief of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Livestock Waste Management Program before joining the Department of Agriculture in 2000.

As for his agriculture experience, Foley said he operated an approximately 40-head beef cattle operation, was a regular team roper at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds, and ran a custom haying business in his spare time.