Darrell Ticehurst/Fisheries Issues
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PSO Exposes Secret Meetings
Feb. 8 2011, 2:06 AM
Feb. 8 2011, 2:06 AM
PSO Exposes Secret Meetings
Coastside Fishing Club, United Anglers of Southern California, and Bob Fletcher, all members of the PSO, (Partners for a Sustainable Ocean) filed suit in San Diego Superior Court last month alleging violations of the law by the Fish and Game Commission. The suit cites the behavior of the commission's Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) that has been inconsistent with the transparency requirements of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) during its hearings on the MLPA closures, and asserts the BRTF has been in violation of the understanding that set up the privately-financed "MLPA Initiative". Then this week George Osborn, speaking for the PSO at the February 2nd meeting of the Fish and Game Commission in Sacramento, fired both barrels as he testified:
Coastside Fishing Club, United Anglers of Southern California, and Bob Fletcher, all members of the PSO, (Partners for a Sustainable Ocean) filed suit in San Diego Superior Court last month alleging violations of the law by the Fish and Game Commission. The suit cites the behavior of the commission's Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) that has been inconsistent with the transparency requirements of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) during its hearings on the MLPA closures, and asserts the BRTF has been in violation of the understanding that set up the privately-financed "MLPA Initiative". Then this week George Osborn, speaking for the PSO at the February 2nd meeting of the Fish and Game Commission in Sacramento, fired both barrels as he testified:
“After reviewing the documents turned over to us, which previously the BRTF had improperly withheld from the public, we now have evidence, indicating that the public meetings of the BRTF have been an elaborately staged Kabuki performance, choreographed and rehearsed down to the last detail, even to the crafting of motions, in scheduled private meeting held before the so-called public meetings of the BRTF," said Osborn. "Clearly, this has not been the most open and transparent process, as it has so often been described.”
“The BRTF’s behavior taints the regulations that are the end product of its work, and these regulations must be reversed,” he emphasized. “The PSO respectfully requests that the Commission begin the process to un-do these wrongs committed against California’s recreational anglers and as all Californians, see that the MLPA is implemented properly, and reverse actions that unnecessarily close areas to fishing.”
To support these allegations Mr. Osborne submitted to the Commission copies of agendas of scheduled non-public meetings, emails and various correspondence showing secret meetings of the Blue Ribbon Task Force were held in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The PSO now awaits the Commission’s action response. We’ll see if they have the guts to clean their own house.
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February 8, 2011, 10:49 pm
Darrell - You are correct. George nailed it the last Fish & Game Commission meeting. The squirming was visible
Take a look at the Cal-Span video here on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7_04BC1acA to see George in action.