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State pulls money for off-roading enforcement
By Mark Wheeler / Hi-Desert Star
MORONGO BASIN - After a cliff-hanger decision in December by the Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission in favor of approving a $67,000 grant application for OHV enforcement in the Morongo Basin, the local sheriff's department was dismayed to learn later that the award had been overturned by the California State Parks Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division.
The commission is a politically appointed committee of seven who award grants from the OHV Recreation Program. This program is administered, in turn, by the Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division.
“If we lose this money,” said Morongo Basin Sheriff's Capt. Jim Williams, “we lose all our resources for addressing OHV complaints in the Basin.”
This includes the money his department uses for OHV enforcement in Yucca Valley.
Why the grant award was overturned is alleged by community action and policy-watch groups to be the result of political in-fighting between the commission and the division.
Wonder Valley activist Phil Klasky, who has spoken from the capitol in Sacramento to local meeting rooms in the Basin on the need for more OHV enforcement, explains the alleged in-fighting as a result of differences in interest group loyalties. In his estimation, the division is more responsive to OHV industry and enthusiast groups, whereas the commission is more responsive to opponents of off-roading abuse and law enforcement.
Less incriminating in his assessment of the differences, Jason Fried, desert field organizer for the California Wilderness Coalition and coordinator for the Alliance for Responsible Recreation, does recognize the commission's willingness to consider public comment in its award selection process.
The division, on the other hand, he believes is too rigid in its insistence on the criteria it uses to decide who is awarded money.
Fried suggests that many programs with demonstrated success rates and historically judicious use of grant funds, may be denied awards because of technical errors in their applications.
This, he states, is exactly why the commission takes public input into consideration in its decision-making process, and why he claims the division's more standardized approach to the selection process is faulty.
“It doesn't reflect the public needs,” he said.
On behalf of her office, Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division Deputy Director Daphne Greene denies any special-interest favoritism on the part of her department.
“The department made this decision, not any special-interest group,” she insisted.
Exactly why the division denied 46 grants out of 137 which had been approved by the commission in December she explained as a legal necessity.
Pointing out that it is her office which actually administers the program and the money, she defended the action as a duty to the laws governing her office's affairs.
“There was a violation of the regulations governing the competitive process (for award selection),” she stated.
She revealed the matter was raised during a state audit.
That audit was brought, according to division Park Superintendent II Tom Bernardo, on the request of what he identified in a telephone interview as “OHV enthusiasts,” but later changed to “public citizens.”
He went on to say he didn't really know whether the people who requested the audit were organized as an interest group or were just a group of citizens.
During the audit and in subsequent investigation, it was determined that awards had been granted an`d in some cases denied by the commission without proper documentation that regulation selection criteria had been applied evenly in all cases.
This put Greene's office in an awkward position, she said: “We had no legal authority to honor those contracts.”
Fried, Klasky and other critics of the division's reversal declare that the department's insistence on strict criteria in the selection process puts it out of touch with public needs.
They are demanding the office rescind its order, and calling for reform in the office's policies.
From the division's point of view, as expressed by Greene, it is the commission that needs reforming and the selection process must be implemented fairly for all, not subject to what she implied was individual commissioner choice.
Of the 91 grant awards allowed by the division, in Bernardo's account, 22 were for law enforcement. Of the 46 awards denied, 19 were for law enforcement. The other grants, both approved and denied, were written for maintenance, rehabilitation and education relating to OHV use.
On Feb. 27 in Sacramento, the commission will review and rescore the 46 withheld grant applications. Greene expects some will be funded and some won't. Her office will be watching.
“This isn't about need; everyone has need,” she said. What it is about, she emphasized, “is distributing a fixed amount of money fairly and according to competitive standards.”
The commission is a politically appointed committee of seven who award grants from the OHV Recreation Program. This program is administered, in turn, by the Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division.
“If we lose this money,” said Morongo Basin Sheriff's Capt. Jim Williams, “we lose all our resources for addressing OHV complaints in the Basin.”
This includes the money his department uses for OHV enforcement in Yucca Valley.
Why the grant award was overturned is alleged by community action and policy-watch groups to be the result of political in-fighting between the commission and the division.
Wonder Valley activist Phil Klasky, who has spoken from the capitol in Sacramento to local meeting rooms in the Basin on the need for more OHV enforcement, explains the alleged in-fighting as a result of differences in interest group loyalties. In his estimation, the division is more responsive to OHV industry and enthusiast groups, whereas the commission is more responsive to opponents of off-roading abuse and law enforcement.
Less incriminating in his assessment of the differences, Jason Fried, desert field organizer for the California Wilderness Coalition and coordinator for the Alliance for Responsible Recreation, does recognize the commission's willingness to consider public comment in its award selection process.
The division, on the other hand, he believes is too rigid in its insistence on the criteria it uses to decide who is awarded money.
Fried suggests that many programs with demonstrated success rates and historically judicious use of grant funds, may be denied awards because of technical errors in their applications.
This, he states, is exactly why the commission takes public input into consideration in its decision-making process, and why he claims the division's more standardized approach to the selection process is faulty.
“It doesn't reflect the public needs,” he said.
On behalf of her office, Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division Deputy Director Daphne Greene denies any special-interest favoritism on the part of her department.
“The department made this decision, not any special-interest group,” she insisted.
Exactly why the division denied 46 grants out of 137 which had been approved by the commission in December she explained as a legal necessity.
Pointing out that it is her office which actually administers the program and the money, she defended the action as a duty to the laws governing her office's affairs.
“There was a violation of the regulations governing the competitive process (for award selection),” she stated.
She revealed the matter was raised during a state audit.
That audit was brought, according to division Park Superintendent II Tom Bernardo, on the request of what he identified in a telephone interview as “OHV enthusiasts,” but later changed to “public citizens.”
He went on to say he didn't really know whether the people who requested the audit were organized as an interest group or were just a group of citizens.
During the audit and in subsequent investigation, it was determined that awards had been granted an`d in some cases denied by the commission without proper documentation that regulation selection criteria had been applied evenly in all cases.
This put Greene's office in an awkward position, she said: “We had no legal authority to honor those contracts.”
Fried, Klasky and other critics of the division's reversal declare that the department's insistence on strict criteria in the selection process puts it out of touch with public needs.
They are demanding the office rescind its order, and calling for reform in the office's policies.
From the division's point of view, as expressed by Greene, it is the commission that needs reforming and the selection process must be implemented fairly for all, not subject to what she implied was individual commissioner choice.
Of the 91 grant awards allowed by the division, in Bernardo's account, 22 were for law enforcement. Of the 46 awards denied, 19 were for law enforcement. The other grants, both approved and denied, were written for maintenance, rehabilitation and education relating to OHV use.
On Feb. 27 in Sacramento, the commission will review and rescore the 46 withheld grant applications. Greene expects some will be funded and some won't. Her office will be watching.
“This isn't about need; everyone has need,” she said. What it is about, she emphasized, “is distributing a fixed amount of money fairly and according to competitive standards.”
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mandybug wrote on Feb 9, 2009 1:00 PM:
" Sylvia was a very loved friend of mine. I was so blessed to know her in the little amount of time she had. I spent a lot of days at her home with her, and she spent many nights sleeping over at my house. I love looking through my pictures of her. She will forever be missed... "
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simplybohemian wrote on Jan 26, 2009 10:09 AM:
Shalow was heavily involved.
I hope Her family will find the peace they deserve. "