Life Imitates Art at L.A. Water Board

Dear Governor Brown:

I understand that you are facing California’s budget crisis head on and I agree with your priority setting for the state: digging us out of the budget crisis is priority one through 100. However, on behalf of all of those that care about clean water in the Los Angeles region, we really need your help. Making appointments to boards that don’t necessarily share your views on environmental protection is a high priority and every month that goes by without your appointments could be a series of bad decisions for California’s environment.

For example, the Los Angeles Regional Water Board met on Thursday and one of their first orders of business was the approval of a new board chair. Typically, this is a pro-forma decision. The vice chair gets appointed to the chair leadership. Unfortunately, a Coastal Commission hearing broke out at the Simi Valley meeting with politics getting in the way of traditional policy. Every year for the last ten years (but one – in 2005 vice-chair Tim Shaheen decided to pass on the responsibility), the vice chair has become the chair. Until Thursday.

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