DFG may be split up, renamed if Schwarzenegger's plan is approved

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | August 18, 2004 | Tom Stienstra

[hedgetrimmer]

California's Department of Fish and Game would be split up and renamed as part of a larger Department of Natural Resources if a plan proposed by Gov. Schwarzenegger is approved.

The DFG's force of game wardens would be reassigned to a new Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security, along with state park rangers, California Highway Patrol, state police and other emergency services.

The proposals are contained in a 2,500-page document called the California Performance Review, written by a consortium of 250 people appointed by the governor.

"First and foremost, the report is just that, a report, and it will go to the Little Hoover Commission, public hearings, and to the legislature," said Mike Wintemute, the new head of public affairs for the DFG. "We don't know what the final document will look like." If approved, however, he added, "It could probably be done pretty quickly."

[hedgetrimmer]

The California Performance centralizes huge government agencies under unelected appointees by the governor, who all report to the governor. The elected officials end up with no organizations underneath them. This proposal, not legally developed by legislators but written by unelected appointees of the governor, actually changes our California State Constitution, without undergoing an amendment process, and is a power grab on a gigantic scale, centralizing power with the governor and rendering the peoples choice, the elected officials that traditionally ran these departments without any authority.

The CPR is an blatant socialization of a constitutional government, and will in effect install a council system as the governing body for the state of California, just like the old soviet Union.

[hedgetrimmer]

PING

[SierraWasp]

You are right, but something needs to be done about the vast land-grabbing being done by the DFG's Wildlife Conservation Board!

That's the tool that non-profit GANG-GREEN groups use to enrich themselves and abuse things like the Santa Monica Mountains CONservancy, and now, The wonderous new Sierra-Nevada CONservancy, all with bondage money that GANG-GREEN Groups like The Urban Planning & CONservation League have fooled the voters into voting for, for decades!!! (you know, all those "Parks & Water Bond extreme measures)

[Tamzee]

"One point likely to be detailed at the hearing, Wintemute said, is that consolidating game wardens within a new enforcement agency would cut budget overhead without reducing effectiveness. That is because the new agency could use a single training academy, rather than paying to run separate academies in different locations for each service.

He's trying to cut government waste and redundancy... just terrible of him, yes. There will be public hearings starting on Friday before anything is done.... just go and state your case if you happen to disagree with any aspects of the proposal.

[hedgetrimmer]

You don't seem to understand that the issue isn't cutting goverment waste, it is the establishment of a council system in place of an elected government.

A dictatorship can cut goverment waste, but it is not the form of government that California elected to establish when it became a state. If you haven't read any of the CPR yet, please do, then lets talk.

[hedgetrimmer]

There will be public hearings starting on Friday

The public hearings will not be run under Roberts Rules, they are run by facilitators. They do not fall under governmental proceedures because they are not run by elected officials. The Brown act does not apply to these hearings because a "committee of volunteers" is running them and they do not have to keep minutes, or provide records to citizens requesting them. Please read how a constitutional government is supposed to work. You will see this process is something completely different altogether.

[hedgetrimmer]

FYI another end run around the constitution in the works.

[hedgetrimmer]

See related link

Schwarzenegger Secrecy Assailed, Records Demanded for 'California Performance Review' Process

[Mike Darancette]

I worry about DFG license fees being used for emergency room care for illegal aliens.

[hedgetrimmer]

Also what is behind the state creating a "department of homeland security"? How does the state defend a homeland? Why is this particular language being used? We are a nation of states, not a conglomeration of "homelands". This term reflects the dissoulution of state sovereignty in a way, IMO.

[Mike Darancette]

How does the state defend a homeland?

Well Nevada does have way more WMD (including nukes) than CA so maybe a preemptive strike is in order.

[hedgetrimmer]

Good thing we have Vandenberg. But Alaska just got six new missile silos this month. I hope they're friendlies!

[Mike Darancette]

Good thing we have Vandenberg

But NV has Nellis AFB, the stockpile in the bunkers at Hawthorne and Area 51 (God knows what is there - maybe alien spaceships).

[hattend]

Other proposals in the Performance Review include revamping and renaming the Resources Agency and splitting off the Department of Boating and Waterways.

The state's Resources Agency, which now oversees eight departments, would be reformed into a new Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The DNR would include a Wildlife Management Division, State Parks, History and Culture Division, and a Division of Forestry and Management.

The Department of Boating and Waterways, now run under the Resources Agency, would be shifted to a new Department of Infrastructure, which would also include Water Resources, Energy and Transportation.

That would likely solve the problem of past raids on the budget for Boating and Waterways to pay for perennial deficits for state parks. Boating and Waterways is typically flush from registration fees and a piece of state gas taxes, and provides grants and loans for improved boating access, and literature to promote boating safety.

Nowhere do I read "so and so will be disbanded or shifted to private enterprise".

I don't see this saving money or improving service and just see more little fiefdoms being set up that need to be flush with cash.

[Tamzee]

Your link is to a press release from the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a leftist, rabidly anti-corporate, anti-capitalist site. They've been trying to smear and sabotage anything Schwarzenegger does, as they would any Republican.

Here's their board... http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/ftcr/staff.php3

[hedgetrimmer]

Sorry, it is USNewsWires link. Many articles on the topic are referring to this freedom of information act request.

Now if you will look at this letter, you will see that the governor plans to eliminate many elected offices and replace them with appointees who report to the governor. The consolidation of power in the governors office is unprecedented and effectively gives him dictatorial powers over most of the state government. A free system cannot survive this consolidation of power. Our US Constitution guarantees us the right to a representative government, not a socialist council system. Some people decry California as the most socialist state in the union, if we are not there now, this CPR will surely get us there.

**

Governor shouldn't be dictator

There's one big power grab going on. That's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review, a so-called reform that would centralize vast powers in the office of the governor. Arnold's plan would abolish the county-elected school superintendents and the county-elected boards of education. Their functions would be centralized in Sacramento into a new Department of Education. Also abolished would be the statewide elected state superintendent of public instruction, a nonpartisan office.

Local control of education would be eliminated, put under control of a governor who is elected on a partisan basis, either a Republican or Democrat.

The county boards of education and the elected county superintendents of education play important roles. They oversee local school districts and boards, fiscally, curriculum-wise, and can offer emergency certification of teachers when necessary.

An education dictator in Sacramento may be cheaper. But we would lose our democratic controls locally.

What Schwarzenegger would do to education is but one example of this proposal for centralization. Abolished would be the Franchise Tax Board, the state's tax collection agency; Board of Prison Terms, the state's parole board; and the California Transportation Agency, which oversees highway development, mass transportation, railroad and bus transportation subsidies. All these agencies and many more would move to the governor's office.

That's Arnold's innovative spirit.

Walter Dodd, Corning

http://www.chicoer.com/Stories/0,1413,135~27922~2334394,00.html

[farmfriend]

He's trying to cut government waste and redundancy

What rock have you been living under? He has created two new huge bureaucracies. He has done nothing but increase the size of government. AB2600 and AB 2631 are prime examples of this.

[Tamzee]

Looks like the same Walter Dodd of the Democrats of Tehama County... why do conservative Arnold-bashers eagerly jump on leftie criticism of him?

http://democrats.tehamacountry.com/

It looks like Arnold is looking to eliminate layers and layers of useless mid-level bureaucrats and maybe bring a clearer line of accountability with waste and management.

I don't know enough about his proposals without spending a great deal of time reading them but conservatives should be the LAST folks to eagerly believe whatever the left is whining...

[hedgetrimmer]

The CPR has its roots in the National Performance Review by Al Gore that fundamentally changed the federal government away from its constitutional functions. Arnold hired a democrat to "ramrod" the CPR through. One of the democrats , for your information, that created the National Performance review for Al Gore. If you are such a partisan Republican, how can you support this democrat's plan? And because another democrat sees through this socialist usurpation of the government you complain about his comments to me? The CPR is designed to wrest power from the people of California and concentrate it in the office of the governor, not through elected officials, but through appointed bureaucrats. Don't you see how unAmerican that is?

Arnold's plan eliminates elected officials and elected offices, not bureaucrats. The people of California can vote elected officials out when they do bad things, that is the source of our power in our government. If Arnold puts unelected bureaucrats in their place, he is wresting power from the people. He is setting up a behemoth soviet- a system of commissions and councils to govern the people of California. He is hiring democrats to do it. Those are the facts. No conservative can support this outrageous usurpation of authority, even you.

Let's talk about the CPR, don't attack the people who have valid concerns about the bill.

[hedgetrimmer]

I don't know enough about his proposals without spending a great deal of time reading

You have fallen into his trap. He is banking on the fact that most Californians will not exercise their civic authority by reading and understanding the 2500 pages of laws he is passing in the CPR. Or maybe you agree with the governor that California, once a free state, should suffer under a socialist bureaucracy for a government?