This is a brief review of the last three days of the Cal. OHMVR division and Commission meeting.
In previous posts here, I've tried to motivate you, the users of the OHMVR system to attend the meetings. It was very sad to see the turnout of our community of OHVers. There were only a couple of us that were not part of a statewide organization that spoke up during the many public comments segments of the meeting. There was so much CRAP carried out by the commission that Jerry Springer and Judge Judy would have had a field day there. The commission violated many statutes of law even when warned that they would be in violation of said statutes. The commission sat back and pretended to listen to public comment and then went ahead and voted in favor of their own personal agenda.
Several of the proposals by chairman Spitler have been on the OHMVR website for several weeks and they were also mailed out to the members of the public that requested them. On Wednesday, Dec. 7th, the contents of some of the proposals was changed on the website, NOT ALLOWING SUFFICIENT TIME FOR THE PUBLIC TO BE NOTIFIED OF THE NEW CONTENTS. The meetings started on the following day. Actions, (votes) on some of these proposals took place in the meetings. Insufficient public notification of agenda contents is a violation of the Bagley-Keene open meeting act. This is the same legal procedure that chairman Spitler used to cancel the earlier scheduled OHMVR grants meetings on the day the meetings started. Many (at least 200) government agency Representative personell from all over the state and members of the public were in attendance and had to go back home and reschedule for this weeks meeting.
The commission is made up of seven appointed members and is supposed to represent a diversity of the public. However, 4 of the 7 are pro-environmental in back ground. Of the other three, two are pro-OHMVR and one represents the law enforcement. One of the pro-OHMVR commissioners, Mr Chavez, has not attended any of the last 6 days (four different meetings) of commisson meetings so we only had ONE member of the commission that truly represented the OHMVR community. Surprisingly, commissioner Prizmich, the law enforcement Representative, spoke with rational and common sense.
During the second half of the meetings, commissioner Judith Anderson, a Sierra Club member, started speaking up and actually spoke against the extreme pro-environmental threesome of Mr. Spitler, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Brissenden.
Almost all of the restoration grants (trail closure) got bumped up by the commission to the maximum allowed dollar amounts, while the other grants that actually pertained to OHMVR use enhancement underwent tight scrutiny and many dollar reductions or eliminations.
In Saturdays meeting, funding for minor capital outlay projects took place. This is not part of the grants process and is only for support of the SVRA areas. Of the seven projects submitted by the OHMVR division, the only one that received funding by the commission was for restoration of a severely damaged trail at the Hollister SVRA. New and replacement toilet facilities, environmentally correct cleaning station at Oceano Dunes, and other similar projects did not get approved by the commission.
At this point, public input does not matter to the commission. They are going to keep persuing their personal agendas. The only power left for us is to persue legal and legislative action against the OHMVR commission and to a minor extent the OHMVR division to get them both to comply with the original intent of the "Green Sticker" funding process.
If you have read it this far into my post, I thank you for your interest. The next OHMVR commission meeting is scheduled for late January. A couple of the agenda items were tabled until that time. PLEASE try to attend. Even if our public comments don't have much affect on the decisions of the commissioners, at least our voice will be put into public record, a tool that may be used in the future to try to rectify the damages being done.

Ride on
Brewster
CERA.......assistant LAO

Please tell us what we can do to change the makeup of this board.

Mike in Fresno said:

Go to this OHV commission website and see who appoints the commissioners and contact them, IN WRITING, with your concerns. The folks that appoint them are the only ones that can make changes.

http://www.ohv.parks...p?page_id=21853

The commissioners are automatically reappointed at the end of their terms without action form the folks that appointed them. I have no problem with having a diverse representation on the commission. It's the abuse of the position to further their personal agenda that is upsetting.

Keep informed and active

Ride on
Brewster
CERA.........assistant LAO

Also support the Blue Ribbon Coalition and CORVA.
www.sharetrails.org
www.corva.org

brewster said:

Where (what city) are the meeting's usually held?

This year, the final OHV grant request meetings have been in the Sacramento area. In past years, they split the meetings between north and south CA. The preliminary grants requests meetings were split between north and south Cal. The third day of this weekends meetings was also in the Sac. area and this is the meeting where the commission can start and enact agenda items to set the stage for next years grant request program, vote for funding of minor (less than $500,000) capital outlay for projects within the SVRA. The meeting next month will be somewhat of a continuation of this last part. I believe that it will be on a Saturday to make it more available to the working public. Just the entertainment provided by the actions of the commissioners and public make it worth attending.

Keep informed and active

Ride on
Brewster
CERA..........assistant LAO

thanks brewster for your efforts, I couldnt do the OHV funds meeting. I went to one last year. Never felt I could have any effect..that process is entrenched and it would take regular attendance like your doing to even know when its time to speak...and its so convoluted..calling it trail restoration which is closure. I don't get the OHV funding meetings. I hear your call for attendenace, personally can only do so much. I do understand the trail designation EIR process and I will make the Dec 14th EIS meeting in Placerville.

You're welcome Bob. I understand your feeling of not being able to make a difference at the OHV meetings. It's very frustrating to have members of the public, both OHV and environmental, speak in favor of a grant request and then have the commissioners deny any funding for it.
At least you're attending the meetings with the forestry department. I heard some talk that we, the OHV community may be getting through to the Eldorado forest supervisor about the winter closure. PLEASE be sure to keep us posted as to how the meeting goes next Wed.

Keep informed and active

Ride on
Brewster
CERA........assistant LAO

Is the AMA legal team on this? If they are blatently diregarding laws/rules that govern them why cant they be held accouontable and replaced? It just seems so injust. Has this abuse been brought up in a session, confronting them directly? A story about this situation needs to be in every newspaper in the state...

You are a trooper, thanks for the update!

Links to the three governemet bodies that appoint the commisioners:

Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez

Senate Rules Committee

CA Governor



A 4-5 paragraph letter explaining our concerns, detailing commision abuses/f-ups and a call to investigate the accusations, reorganize and/or recreate the OHV commision if necessary is what these folks need to be overwhelmed with in the postal mail and email. Does a letter like this exist already?

After readint the bios of the comisioners it seems who should be pretty well represeted, how come good things are not happening...

Thanks for the update Brewster. It takes a lot to sit through something like that for three days, knowing that these A-Holes are just ignoring any and all public input.

Looks like I'll be able to attend the meeting in Placerville Wednesday on the Eldorado National Forest trail designation process. Hopefully it will be more productive than the OHV meetings you were at, but so far it has looked like the same sort of thing, with public input and participation just being for show.

gregghealy said:

:confused: :confused:
Fabian Nunez is a harcore liberal... deaf ears there.
The Senate rules committee is two republicans and three democrats, one from the Bay Area, one from Redondo Beach, and one from Imperial County.
Cedillo would just as soon confiscate Ocotillo and turn it into low-cost housing for the illegals that he's trying to give the right to drive.

Arnold? Ya right... he's afraid of pissing anyone off. He has really become quite the politician.

The deck is stacked strongly against us.

gregghealy said:

The AMA legal team might reside in the AMA National section of the AMA. Within the state, we have d36 and d37. Dave Pickett from d36 has been attending these meetings and many others that have to do with OUR riding community. Sadly, there was no d37 representation at the meeting. You S. Cal. folks should ask for an explanation from your d37 personel.
Yes, this abuse was brought up and put in their face by many folks at the meeting, even from the environmental folks. The problem is that it is just "name calling". Until they are brought to justice within the law, they just laugh at us. I know that I will be writing a few letters to the state officials that have the power to do something about it. Some will go out sooner than others as I have to wait for the minutes of the meeting to be published so that I can quote from them.
For those of you that are taking an active interest in this I say THANK YOU! I can only do so much.

Keep informed and active

Ride on
Brewster
CERA.......assistant LAO

Brewster - Can you please post a link or physical address where we can get copies of the minutes. I am more than happy to right a letter as well, but want to read for myself and keep the letter as pointed as possible.

gregghealy said:

The three commissioners that I feel are out of line and acting only on their personal agenda are Spitler, Thomas, and Brissenden. Anderson, Prizmich, and Waldheim are trying to do their job within the boundaries of the program.
Chavez has been a no-show and should be replaced immediately.

Keep informed and active

Ride on
Brewster
CERA......assistant LAO

Brewster, post when these meeting come up, I would like to attend. Your right, everyone complains about closed riding areas but they won't show up to a meeting. For those of you reading this, get off your back side and make a call, write a letter, send an email. There are more off-road OHV people in this state than there are true environmentalists. The problem is they speak up and are truley a pain in the butt to politicians. Take a lesson from your local tree hugger, speak up for your rights to use public lands. Let the politcians know you "ride and vote". What? you don't vote! If you are not registered to vote or simply don't vote, you are part of the problem. Get involved or don't be suprised when you can't ride anywhere.

stroketilyoudie said:

It will most likely be a couple of weeks before the minutes are available.
You might try sending a request for copies as soon as they are made available to:

ohvinfo@parks.ca.gov

Ask for minutes for the Dec. 8,9, and 10th OHV Grant Funding Request and OHMVR policy meetings.

There will be a LOT of reading for you to do. The minutes were taken by a stenographer so all of the wording will be included, not just a quick summation. The Thursday and Friday meetings went from 9:00am to around 8:00pm. Sat. from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Keep an eye out for comments from the guy from the California Enduro Riders Association :thumbsup:
Pointing to actual comments in the meeting will add weight to any letter you send........Good thinking.

The minutes will not be able to display the level of passion and frustration expressed by members of the public.
THANK YOU FOR WANTING TO BE INVOLVED!

Keep informed and active

Ride on
Brewster
CERA......assistant LAO

WheelsUp said:

the reason politicians don't take us seriously is because we are (in general) selfish and apathetic losers. there are 100's of thousands of dirtbikers in cali and we can't even get 1/1000 of them to show up at a meeting. lame.

we have a similar problem here in eastern nevada, except that 2-3 motivated people can actually get something done. i actually know 2 of the county commissioners personally, and i have sat down and talked to them about some ohv issues and also about some of their issues that i might be able to help with. if a politician feels like he needs us to get elected, he will listen to what we have to say. otherwise, forget about it.

Brewster, I appreciate all of the time and effort you devote to OHV issues and keeping other informed. But I do believe that your statement below is 100% correct. I work with the USFS personnel in the Angeles NF and find them to be quite reasonable. That is often my impression in other NFs too.

The total whackjobs are those responsible for the state SVRAs as you clearly understand.

As a financial supporter of CORVA, OBRA and BRC, I am stunned that a more aggressive legal challenge has not already been mounted against the actions of the commission. IF they really are breaking the rules, then litigation is necessary to stop the abuse. Using reason and writing letters won't be enough. Not trying to be pessimistic. Just realistic. OHV interests IMHO need to be much more aggressive on the legal front.

Quote

I'm under the impression you guys need legal help, not a room full of citizens.