Our 2021 Priority Bill List is Released
White Paper Highlights 3 Cases of Persistent Parks Mismanagement
At the beginning of each new legislative year, just as bills start their journey through policy committees, Sierra Club California releases a list of our priority bills.
The list, posted here, reflects just a fraction of the bills that the Sierra Club California staff lobby on throughout the year. But it also reflects our best assessment of which bills will require strong effort to pass or block.
Our positions on bills are determined by a committee of experienced volunteers who bring expertise about issue areas and the law to their work. Once a year, after the bill introduction deadline, these volunteers review bills and finalize positions.
Our staff recommends positions for bills, but the volunteer legislative committee has the final word. The committee members are careful to ensure that the positions we take are consistent with Sierra Club policy, are in the best interest of the planet, and will support equity and environmental justice.
The legislature moves rapidly between now and early September when this year’s session ends. Periodically, we will be updating the priority list. To stay on top of the list as it is updated, watch our website legislation page where we post updates.
How can volunteers use this list most effectively?
One way is to write a letter to your legislators and share a few bills from the list that you are most concerned about.
Another is to coordinate with your local chapter’s political committee to become part of an in-district lobbying effort. You can learn more about in-district advocacy on our website.
Going forward, you’ll see emails from us alerting you to the progress of some of the listed bills and urging you to act by sending an email or making a call. Your calls and emails make a difference, so please do respond to our alerts.
Last year saw many Californians seeking refuge in California’s state parks system to escape the COVID confinement. And while most of these state parks bring joy to those able to explore them, the entity in charge of managing those parks - the California Department of Parks and Recreation (State Parks) - often brings frustration to Sierra Club activists.
Earlier this month, Sierra Club California staff and volunteers released a white paper highlighting State Parks’ abandonment of its mission to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protect its most valued natural and cultural resources, and create opportunities for high-quality outdoor recreation.
The paper, titled “Wasted Time and Resources: Three Examples of State Parks’ Abandonment of Its Mission,“ offers three examples of State Parks’ failure - or inability - to resolve long-standing issues of mismanagement. These issues could be easily resolved if State Parks acted based on science, ecosystem values and the public interest.
Washoe Meadows State Park in El Dorado County is rich in native wildlife, including black bear, pine marten, long eared bats, northern goshawk, and migrating birds. But Washoe Meadows remains at risk after more than a decade of conflict with park activists as State Parks resists public input about the best ways to protect all of the park’s resources.
Oceano Dunes in San Luis Obispo County is one of the most extensive dune systems on the west coast. But years before environmental awareness became part of land use decisions, California decreed that the dunes should be a playground for off-highway vehicles (OHV). Now, State Parks has a woeful plan to continue OHV use at the dunes even as evidence mounts that doing so threatens endangered species and public health and safety.
And finally, Tesla Park is a richly biodiverse area in southeastern Alameda County that has drawn naturalists, ecologists, zoologists, and other life scientists for more than 100 years to study nature and natural systems. But State Parks has a plan to open the area up to OHV use that will certainly disturb the landscape and endangered and threatened wildlife and rare plant communities.
Sierra Club has a rich history of advocacy for parks and public access to the outdoors and nature. As such, we are the California Department of Parks and Recreation’s (State Parks) most natural ally.
With the release of this paper, we hope that State Parks, the commission that advises it, and the Newsom administration that oversees it, will take action to resolve long-festering problems at the three parks highlighted. Such action will help ensure that future generations can appreciate the state parks, and the biodiversity they harbor, as we do today.
Sierra Club California water organizer Molly Culton is expanding her work with volunteers in the Loma Prieta Chapter to help stop the Delta tunnel.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District is one of the investors in the tunnel.
Learn more about the Delta tunnel and Valley Water District by attending Molly’s webinar at either of these two times:
Tue, Mar 23, 2021 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM (Register)
Wed, Mar 31, 2021 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM (Register)
And if you’re in Southern California and want to help organizer Caty Wagner phone bank to inform others about the problems posed by the tunnels, you can sign up for these times:
Wed, Mar 17, 2021 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (Register)
Thu, Mar 18, 2021 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Register)
The big news in the Delta tunnel this month is the scandal surrounding the largest proponent of the #DeltaTunnel—Metropolitan Water District (MWD). Several women and LGBTQ+ people came forward last year saying they had suffered abuse and discrimination at MWD and managers and executives ignored it.
The story first broke to the public by the LA Times in early February, and was then followed up by another story, and most recently, an editorial detailed a suicide by an MWD employee, in one of their buildings, with a note talking about the workplace.
As the news articles rolled out, Nury Martinez, president of the Los Angeles City Council, sent a letter of inquiry to the MWD board chair, indicating that the Los Angeles delegates may leave MWD. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors joined the CA Labor Federation, Democratic Caucus Chair Mike Gipson, Assistant Speaker pro Tempore Laura Friedman, and Public Safety Chair and Founder of Progressive Caucus Reggie Jones-Sawyer, as well as International Union of Painters & Allied Trades District Council 36 calling for a state audit of MWD.
MWD hired an external investigator late last year to look into the way MWD has handled complaints over the years. The investigation is expected to wrap up in April or May.
The revelations of MWD’s behavior is no surprise to the activist community who have fought MWD over its long-held support and financing of the Delta tunnel project over the years. Restore the Delta’s Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla wrote a blog entry that hit home with many SoCal Sierra Club members who are familiar with the MWD board’s callous attitude towards them. Barrigan-Parilla describes glaring looks from the board, a lack of seating for disabled volunteers, and the presence of menacing armed guards at meetings.
Next month, Sierra Club California will ask MWD not to once more raise property taxes to be wasted on additional tunnel planning.
A recent statewide poll we commissioned indicated that Californians from every background opposed the Delta tunnel as they learned more information about it. Join us in our now weekly phone banks to Southern California residents to educate them about the harmful effects of the tunnel, and how to organize against MWD and the other tunnel proponents. To learn more, email Caty at caty.wagner@sierraclub.org.
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