Investigation of Fish & Game Commission Member Begins over MPLA Votes 

by Dan Bacher, editor of the FishSniffer

May 28, 2009 -- The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) disclosed on May 19 that its Enforcement Division has opened a formal investigation into conflict of interest charges against Fish and Game Commissioner George Michael Sutton regarding his votes on the implementation of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) . 
 
"This action is in response to the sworn complaint against Sutton filed by the Central Coast Fisheries Conservation Coalition (CCFCC) and the CCFCC fully supports the FPPC action," according to a statement from Mel de la Motte, the CCFCC President. 
 
The coalition is charging Sutton with violating the Political Reform Act (PRA) of 1974 because of his conflicts of interest on votes on the MLPA while serving on the Fish and Game Commission. 
 
The investigation is taking place at a time when recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, sustainable seaweed harvesters, grass roots environmentalists, scientists and elected officials are charging the Schwarzenegger administration with conflict of interest, mission creep, lack of transparency and corruption of the democratic process in its fast track implementation of the MLPA. Critics are also questioning why under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the MLPA process has been expanded from a $250,000 process to a $35 million boondoggle at a time of severe financial crisis when the state doesn't have enough funds to pay wardens and biologists to properly manage and enforce existing fish and game regulations. 
 
"The CCFCC has more aggressive legal avenues to pursue if Commissioner Sutton does not resign," said de la Motte. "Such measures could result in civil money damages against Sutton, but we are hopeful that he will do the right thing for California." 
 
De la Motte said Sutton's action in voting to approve the Draft Master Plan of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) violated the PRA because "it was reasonably foreseeable that the decision would have a material financial effect on his own income and on his employer and source of income, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation (Aquarium). As Vice President and founding director of the Aquarium's Center For the Future of the Oceans, Sutton is paid a salary to influence policy and to support efforts to create a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in California and offshore waters, including fully protected marine reserves." 
 
Had Sutton voted to amend the existing MPAs for the Central Coast (which are included in the Master Plan), he would have been voting to gut or weaken a system of MPAs in which, his employer exults, the Center for the Future of the Oceans, under his stewardship, played a "key role" in having adopted, noted de la Motte. 
 
"Sutton's conflicts do not derive solely from the mere fact that he is a salaried employee of the Aquarium," stated de la Motte. "He is in fact closely connected to many of the key players involved in the process of implementing the MLPA and these connections create conflicts under the Political Reform Act." 
 
De la Motte said that Sutton also violated the Fish and Game Commission's own conflict code by failing to disclose as required by law his employment with the Aquarium. 
 
"Sutton's participation in any Fish and Game Commission decision relating to MPAs or to the establishment of limitations on fishing is prohibited under the PRA and a cease and desist order must be issued restraining Sutton from participating in such decisions," he added. 
 
Prominent politicians, including Senator Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Shafter) and North Coast Assemblyman Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata), and grass roots environmental activists are challenging the legitimacy of Schwarzenegger’s fast track MLPA Process in light of “mission creep” and conflict of interest charges. 
 
Florez recently announced that he and other Senators plan to ask some “very tough” questions of Mike Chrisman, Resources Secretary, and Sutton about the MLPA process in an upcoming Senate hearing (no date has been set yet.) These questions include why the MLPA has been expanded from a $250,000 process to a $35 million fiasco that is threatening the economy and fisheries on the North Central Coast. 
 
Other conflicts of interest that fishermen, seaweed harvesters and grassroots environmental activists are urging to be investigated include: 
 
• The role of Catherine Reheis-Boyd, CEO and Chief of Staff for the Western States Petroleum Association, a member of the five-member MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force. John Lewallen, longtime North Coast environmentalist and seaweed harvester, asks, "Is it coincidence that the Point Arena Basin offshore from Point Arena is the area of highest oil industry interest in Northern California, and the only tract here now open to Minerals Management Service offshore oil leasing process?" 
 
• the role of the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a private organization, in funding the MLPA process. 
 
• The role that Gordon Smith, the former President and CEO of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, plays on the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation Board. Does he have a vested interest in removing from North Central Coast waters the most vocal opponents of PG&E's wave energy schemes - fishermen and seaweed harvesters? 
 
Patrick Higgins, 5th Division commissioner of the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District and one of the most respected fishery scientists in California, wrote an op-ed in the Eureka Times-Standard on May 21 slamming Schwarzenegger's MLPA process. "I am both a scientist and a conservationist and favor ocean protection, but the MLPA process is not science-based and, therefore, there is no guarantee that it will achieve its conservation objectives," he stated. 
 
Higgins takes aim at the Blue Ribbon MLPA Task Force, calling it a "corruption of the democratic process." 
 
"This task force was not established by the legislature when they passed the MLPA," said Higgins. "It is comprised of foundation CEOs, offshore oil interests, marina developers and other friends of Governor Schwarzenegger and has been inserted into the process through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between CDFG and OPC. This is a corruption of the democratic process that North Coast communities will be protesting to legislators, whose intent is being thwarted." 
 
"The North Coast community, like other Californians, overwhelmingly supports local, sustainable harvest of seafood and family-run fishing operations," Higgins stated. "These will be greatly diminished if MPAs are haphazardly designed." (http://www.times-standard.com/othervoices/ci_12418376) 
 
At the Fish and Game Commission meeting in Sacramento on May 14, Commission Member Jim Kellogg asked the Commission to request the State Legislature to put Schwarzenegger’s fast track MLPA process on hold in light of the state's economic crisis. 
 
“We are in the process of watching the state’s programs and services being gutted,” said Kellogg. “Where are we going to get the manpower for these MPAs? It is irresponsible to impose new costs on the state when we don’t have the funds for our existing programs.” 
 
After other Commission Members expressed their opposition to putting the controversial process on hold, Kellogg then asked the Commission to send a letter to the Governor asking them how they were supposed to proceed with the process in light of the state’s unprecedented budget deficit. This they all agreed to. 
 
The increasing criticism of the MLPA process under Schwarzenegger must be seen in light of the Governor's unprecedented war on fish and the environment. Schwarzenegger has presided over the unprecedented collapse of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, threadfin shad, Central Valley Chinook salmon, green sturgeon and other species since 2005. The Schwarzenegger administration has helped engineer this collapse by increasing water exports out of the Delta in recent years, as well as allowing agribusiness to pollute rivers and the Delta by refusing to impose agricultural water standards. 
 
The MLPA process appears to be nothing other than an attempt by the worst Governor for fish and the environment in California history to kick sustainable recreational anglers, commercial fishermen and seaweed harvesters, already hammered by the some of the most draconian fishing regulations and extensive Marine Protected Areas in the country, off the water. Are Schwarzenegger and his cronies on the Blue Ribbon MLPA Task Force and Fish and Game Commission trying to remove the strongest supporters of fish restoration and environmental protection from the water to pave the way for offshore oil drilling, wave energy projects and corporate aquaculture - while the administration proceeds with its plans to build a peripheral canal and more dams to increase water exports from the California Delta? 
 
For more information about the CCFCC, call Mel de la Motte, 805-544-2424. To read the scientific peer review of the MLPA methods and to learn more about why sport and commercial fishermen and coastal communities are concerned, visit the California Fisheries Coalition website at http://www.cafisheriescoalition.org.