The Delta Stewardship Council officially opposes Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to move it under the auspices of the state Resources Agency.
Read Council Chair Phil Isenberg’s letter here.
The take-home message: “A merger would undercut public confidence that the Council is an ‘independent’ body that will determine whether the Department of Fish and Game has correctly concluded that the BDCP complies with state and federal law.”
Resources Secretary John Laird has also weighed in with prepared remarks prior to Wednesday’s hearing before the Little Hoover Commission. Laird says the proposal to move the council is all about government efficiency and saving money.
“It will in no way alter the independent, policy-making abilities of the Delta Stewardship Council,” he wrote.
And finally, here is the written testimony of Delta landowner Tom Zuckerman, who says the governor’s proposal “smacks of criticism of the DSC’s work to date and loss of the very independence that was at the heart of (its) creation, a sort of ‘taking behind the woodshed’ if you will.”
Complete agenda and details about Wednesday’s hearing here.
