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April, 2006
ORBA President testifies in Sacramento
By Roy Denner
I was in Sacramento in April for two very important meetings. I truly believe that I–testifying before state committees for the first time ever on behalf of the OHV industry in CA–made a difference to the point that we won on four significant issues!
On Tuesday morning three bills that we endorsed were heard in committee:
- The Garcia Bill: Makes one of the Senate and one of the Assembly appointments to the OHMVR Commission each a member of the Senate and a member of the Assembly. It also adds a representative from the Resources Department and a member from the Finance Department to the Commission. This should bring about better balance and accountability which should help us with a more balanced distribution of our OHV funds.
- The Niello Bill: Requires that OHV funds can only be used in State facilities where OHV use is allowed. Places like Angel Island-a State Park island off of Tiburon in the San Francisco Bay with no OHV opportunity-received funds from the OHV program in the past. It also requires non-SVRA's (that allow OHV use) to go through the grant application process to receive funding.
- The Parra Bill: Extends the sunset of the CA OHV program for one more year to wait for the results of the fuel tax study.
In spite of the enviro-oriented chairperson's recommendation that the committee vote "no" on all three of these bills, they each squeaked by with the necessary eight votes to get out of committee. I believe I turned a democrat from L.A. County when I gave estimates of the number of businesses we have as members in his county, the number of people they employ, and the total dollar contribution they make to the economy in his county. I met him in the hall afterwards and he said he is going to catch total "hell" from the enviros but I convinced him that it was good for him to vote for these bills.
On Wednesday morning the Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing on the OHMVR Division/Commission audit was heard. Neither the current Chair of the Commission (Brissendon) nor the past Chair (Spitler) saw fit to attend. They sent the next most enviro-oriented representative, Hal Thomas, who is also a lawyer. Senator Morrow, an ex-Marine prosecutor, ripped the Commission rep to pieces. Chairperson Parra (Democrat) expressed disbelief that the Commission has virtually ignored the audit and the requirement to respond to the audit. I testified that the total disconnect between the Division and the Commission is tantamount to one of the businesses that I represent opening a separate branch office, giving that office a bucketful of money, telling the branch staff to distribute the money in any way they see fit (whether it is in the interest of the company or not) and then having the home office accept the responsibility to implement the funding of the branch office and be responsible for the work and the accountability associated with that funding. A sure recipe for disaster in any company! I said that we believe that the current Commission is responsible for the mess that the OHV program is in.
Chairperson Parra stopped me as I was leaving the podium and assured me there will be more hearings on this issue that will involve panels of interested parties-like me-to be able to give more detailed input to the committee. She could not believe that the OHV program in California is so dysfunctional!
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