HQ Commentary by Don Amador
The Recreation HQ believes the article published today by
the SacBee regarding how certain Park-related non-profits is really on target.
July 25, 2012, SacBee Article on Fear Striking
Park-related Non-Profits
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/23/4653238/state-park-groups-fret-over-secret.html
I believe the CA Parks Foundation and other park-related
non-profits should be afraid of public outrage and blowback from the OHV
community because of their Sustainable Parks Initiative that was based on a
lie. That plan had as its “foundation
block” the complete evisceration of the OHV Program and its grants program to federal
and county partners.
I personally believe that certain non-profits are in fact
nothing more than stealth branches of the Department of Parks and
Recreation. This scandal proves that abuse
by Parks of the OHV Trust Fund has become institutionalized and has been an
accepted way of doing business.
Further proof of OHV being nothing more than a political
football to be kicked around by green groups and their friends at DPR was also
highlighted in a 2005 audit of the program by the Bureau of State Audits. *They only scratched the surface in my opinion.
That report had a lot to do with OHV leadership pushing
for a complete overhaul of the OHV program that was set to expire on Jan. 1,
2008. That effort in 2007 resulted in
SB742, the new CA OHV Program.
BRC News Release on OHV Being a Political Football (with
a link to the 2005 BSA Audit)
http://www.sharetrails.org/news/2005/12/14/ohv-groups-call-disbandment-ca-ohv-commission
Just where this ends up is uncertain. But be assured that this issue has lot of
riders fired up and let’s hope we can turn that energy into something positive
for OHV.
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Posts
Don has just touched the surface on this, as the 2005 Bureau of State Audits is ONLY one of many.
ReplyDeleteIn each case, something seems to always pop up, and is monetary in nature.
Way back in early 70's, a Park Bond was put before the people, and that HUGE park bond passed. Inside of that bond, was a DEDICATED 2 million for OHV, and acquisition of land with that 2 million FOR
OHV recrecation. Guess what, the Director at that time DIRECTED that money into the DEPARTMENT for its use, and NOT for OHV purposes as intended by the voters. Seem quite a few Directors feel OHV money is their money.....
Hmmmm, makes one wonder what Rusty Areais did while he was Parks Director in late 1999 and 2000. Oh Rusty was the guy that canned Glidden when he was Deputy Director of OHV, and replaced him with ZERO OHV exeriance Dave Widell.
Widell is also suspect, but drank himself to death.........
In my opinion, Coleman and Harris, and maybe Hearms, all key people in the leadership FORMERLY at State Parks need to go to jail for criminal activities. $55 million worth the criminal activities..................
PS. Working on getting the Attorney General to take the $55 million and put it into a seperate
"ESCROW" account, so it is safe from people stealing it, and using it for unwanted bullet trains, non-motorized expenditures, or possibly, needle exchange programs of some sort.
If you as an off roader are reading this, then YOU should be madder than hell, and write both you Assemblyperson and state Senator, and tell them this money belongs to YOU AND YOUR FAMILY, and you want it put back into the OHV TRUST FUND from which it was stolen.
Dave Pickett OHV Activist, and really pissed off!
Dave I did not die, I was just buried. Here is a note I sent to Jerry Brown about the public and employee abuse at the hands of corrupt Parks Management and conflicted consultants. I would suggest part of any audit include the insider trading involved in the Parks acquistion processes. I did this under Union Steward freedom of speach and whistle blower protections. Time for educated outrage.
DeleteJerry Brown
I phone banked for you and even defended you on talk radio. I hoped you would be a reformer, but at Parks the corruption still lingers under your watch. I know Mr. Dangermond may be a friend of yours, your old director at Parks, but he did some people dirty. Here is the sad tale of how most of the stashed Park funds came about
It all started the day I was told the set up a 1 million dollars planning grant for the Laborde Project in Riverside. I saw the feasibly report and saw the report was untruthful and misleading. The project is worse than in feasible, it was a huge potential negative liability issue for the State due to toxic contamination. It had no easement access and we had no condemnation authority to get it. The total sum of the access analysis was this and I quote. “Access is feasible if access can be obtained.”
I went to the Chief Tony Perez and told him that plainly the project was not feasible and that the feasibility study was an exercise in public deception. He told me I did not know what I was talking about and to go away.
I knew from the Prairie City Project that toxic’s take time migrate, but in time they would be detected by parts per billion ground water testing.. They wanted to raise the water table which would aggravate the potential for the toxic plume to migrate and touch the elevated water table. They were planning to build several thousand new houses.
Pete Dangermond was on both sides of the deal and was being paid $500 per hour for his help, later he got a pay cut to $250 an hour. He negotiated a 13 to 1 mitigation ratio where we would have to buy 13 acres of land for every acre we bought for OHV use. The developer who Dangermond also was working for under another organization he headed got a 1 to 1 mitigation ratio, they had to sell one acre for mitigation for every acre of houses they developed. No out of pocket expenses for the developer. We would buy 9,000 acres of land for a 600 acre OHV project that would never fly in million years.
Continued
Continued
DeleteDocumentation exist to back my claims.
Yours
Truly
Lowell Landowski