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COURT MANDATES GREATER MLPA TRANSPARENCY
Jim Matthews, Outdoor News Service 7oct10
Last Friday, the California Supreme Court issued a ruling mandating that the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force and Science Advisory Team must comply with the Public Records Act and share information with representatives of angling/conservation organizations working to protect recreational ocean access. The court ruled they are effectively state agencies and must comply.
A lawsuit filed by Bob Fletcher, former president of the Sportfishing Association of California, a member organization in the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans, forced the decision by the court. The ruling is likely to send many members of the task force and advisory team scrambling for cover as the light of public access is shined on how and why they’ve made the decisions they’ve made -- most behind closed doors without public input or access -- in the MLPA process.
“Now we’ll get to see information that has been previously hidden from us about key decisions,” said Steven Fukuto, president of non-profit United Anglers of Southern California.
This lawsuit was an important first step in unraveling the Governor’s web of corruption in the MLPA process.
PROOF OF SCHIZOPHRENIA: Seemingly to prove that he’s schizophrenic, Schwarzenegger signed legislation this past week that would prevent hunter-generated revenues from tag and stamp fees non be used for non-game or non-hunting programs within the Department of Fish and Game.
Before the bill was passed only 62 percent of deer tag money, 64 percent of wild hog tag money, and 48 percent of all wild sheep auction tag money was used to support those game programs. Now, 100 percent of all big game tag and upland stamp dollars have to for big game and upland birds.
“The bill's approval will annually reallocate an estimated $3.6 million of hunter-generated dollars back to their intended game conservation and hunting-related uses,” said Mark Hennelly, vice-president of the California Outdoor Heritage Alliance, which pushed for passage of the legislation.
You’d have thought the Governor would have vetoed this bill so he could try to steal the money to fund the MLPA. But this is a governor who also apparently doesn’t understand that furloughing most state Fish and Game employees just put the money back into those dedicated accounts, and not the general fund.
No one who cares about the outdoors will miss this governor.
Jim Matthews, Outdoor News Service 7oct10
Last Friday, the California Supreme Court issued a ruling mandating that the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force and Science Advisory Team must comply with the Public Records Act and share information with representatives of angling/conservation organizations working to protect recreational ocean access. The court ruled they are effectively state agencies and must comply.
A lawsuit filed by Bob Fletcher, former president of the Sportfishing Association of California, a member organization in the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans, forced the decision by the court. The ruling is likely to send many members of the task force and advisory team scrambling for cover as the light of public access is shined on how and why they’ve made the decisions they’ve made -- most behind closed doors without public input or access -- in the MLPA process.
“Now we’ll get to see information that has been previously hidden from us about key decisions,” said Steven Fukuto, president of non-profit United Anglers of Southern California.
This lawsuit was an important first step in unraveling the Governor’s web of corruption in the MLPA process.
PROOF OF SCHIZOPHRENIA: Seemingly to prove that he’s schizophrenic, Schwarzenegger signed legislation this past week that would prevent hunter-generated revenues from tag and stamp fees non be used for non-game or non-hunting programs within the Department of Fish and Game.
Before the bill was passed only 62 percent of deer tag money, 64 percent of wild hog tag money, and 48 percent of all wild sheep auction tag money was used to support those game programs. Now, 100 percent of all big game tag and upland stamp dollars have to for big game and upland birds.
“The bill's approval will annually reallocate an estimated $3.6 million of hunter-generated dollars back to their intended game conservation and hunting-related uses,” said Mark Hennelly, vice-president of the California Outdoor Heritage Alliance, which pushed for passage of the legislation.
You’d have thought the Governor would have vetoed this bill so he could try to steal the money to fund the MLPA. But this is a governor who also apparently doesn’t understand that furloughing most state Fish and Game employees just put the money back into those dedicated accounts, and not the general fund.
No one who cares about the outdoors will miss this governor.
