In his short story “Harrison Bergeron,” the writer Kurt Vonnegut described a dystopian society where the strong had to wear body weights and the beautiful had to don face masks.
This is the situation facing California’s new Delta Stewardship Council, which, as originally envisioned, was supposed to be a powerful voice for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Created last year by lawmakers as part of their water reform deal, the Delta Stewardship Council has the twin mission of restoring Delta habitat while also ensuring that water reliability is a “co-equal” goal.
Yet to meet this mandate, a strong Delta Stewardship Council would need to have a stable source of funding, created by assessing fees on water users.
It doesn’t.
It would have a board relatively unencumbered by conflicts of interest.
It doesn’t.
By design, lawmakers and water interests that want to retain control over Delta decisions have ensured that the Delta council will be handicapped by body weights, with little independence or autonomy.
The council’s immediate challenge is Gloria Gray of Inglewood. On her way out of the Assembly speaker’s office, Karen Bass used her appointment to the council to select Gray, a board member of the West Basin Municipal Water District, a Los Angeles County water agency. Gray has a clear conflict of interest.
How can she represent a Southern California water district that depends on the Delta for its supplies and also enforce the co-equal goal of protecting the Delta? It a clear violation of the law.
Despite an opinion confirming her conflict by the Legislative Counsel, Gray still hasn’t said if she will resign from either the West Basin water district or the stewardship council. If she were wise, she’d follow the example of Phil Isenberg, who ended his relationship with his Sacramento lobbying firm when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to the Delta panel.
Environmentalists are heated up over another appointee to the council – Richard Roos-Collins, an attorney who works for the Natural Heritage Institute – but on this score, there is more smoke than fire.
Roos-Collins is clearly qualified to serve on the council, and in that role, he will be a strong advocate for restoring the Delta and assessing all options for water reliability.
The stewardship council has much work ahead of it, especially with the body weights lawmakers have left it with. The sooner it has a sitting membership free of conflicts and manufactured controversy, the better off it will be.