[env-trinity] Mercury News 1 1 11

[Byron Leydecker]

Report: Former Santa Cruz legislator John Laird named to the top natural
resources post by Jerry Brown


By Lisa M. Krieger, Paul Rogers and Kurtis Alexander Bay Area News Group

Posted: 01/01/2011 03:22:44 PM PST

Updated: 01/01/2011 09:38:38 PM PST

Gov.-elect Jerry Brown is expected to appoint former Santa Cruz legislator
John Laird head of the state Natural Resources Agency, sources said Saturday
-- a role that will give the environmental advocate a powerful voice in
oversight of logging, fishing, farming, parks and water policies.

The appointment, likely to be announced after Brown's swearing-in this week,
suggests the governor-elect is hewing to his liberal principals, despite
much talk about bipartisanship in the face of the state's budget disaster.

If named to the secretary's post, Laird faces an agenda that includes some
of California's most contentious issues. One of the most immediate will be
the decline of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a major link in the state's
water supply; a state bond, designed to address the numerous pressures on
the delta, is expected to go before voters in 2012. 

Other problems include underfunding of the state park system and a shortage
of wildlife wardens.

Brown adviser Steve Glazer would not confirm the news -- announced by the
advocacy group Environment California and confirmed by several sources
familiar with the selection -- saying that all cabinet appointments will be
announced only after Brown takes office Monday. 

Laird, 60, declined to comment.

His political life, which started on the Santa Cruz City Council three
decades ago, has been marked by environmental advocacy. On the council, he
led fights against offshore oil drilling and pushed for the designation of
the Monterey Bay as a national marine sanctuary. 

As a Democratic assemblyman in a district stretching from Morgan Hill to Big
Sur, he co-authored California's landmark climate bill, AB 32; promoted
water conservation; expanded the development of renewable energy and
sustainable building standards; protected oil spill response funding; and
established the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a state agency designed to
protect the mountain region. 

He earned a score of 100 percent from the California League of Conservation
Voters, which called him "hands-down one of the best legislators California
has had this decade." 

Laird also is considered an expert on state finances, having led the
Assembly's powerful Budget Committee.

Only six months ago, he was denied a Central Coast Senate seat in a special
election to replace Abel Maldonado; Laird lost the District 15 race to
Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo. Since then, Laird has been
teaching at UC Santa Cruz.

The position -- which pays about $175,000 a year -- requires confirmation
from the state Senate, and San Jose State political science professor Larry
Gerston predicted Laird will face resistance. 

"Laird is a well-known, outspoken environmentalist," Gerston said. "He knows
his stuff." But, Gerston predicted, people who believe the state is moving
too quickly on environmental issues "will not be happy with John Laird and
will consider it an affront to business."

Indeed, state Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring blasted the move. 

"An appointment like John Laird, to me, is an indicator of how far to the
left Jerry Brown is reaching to populate his administration," said Nehring,
a former member of the state Board of Forestry. "John Laird is an extreme
liberal, and he believes the only way to protect the environment is to make
government as big and intrusive as possible."

Environmentalists, meanwhile, celebrated.

"It is a brilliant appointment," said Ann Notthoff, California Advocacy
director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"John Laird knows resource issues," she said. "And he really knows how the
state budget works, with a lot of innovative ideas about how to stretch
scarce state dollars -- which will be one of the biggest challenges this
year."

Contact Lisa M. Krieger at lkrieger at mercurynews.com.

john laird
Age: 60 
Home: Santa Cruz
Party: Democratic
Career: Analyst, Santa Cruz County Administrative Office, 1974-1978,
1979-1991, 1995-2002; Santa Cruz City Council, 1981-1990; mayor, 1983-84 and
1987-88; executive director of Santa Cruz AIDS Project, 1991-1994;
California Assemblyman, 2002-2008
Personal: One of the first openly gay mayors in the United States and one of
the first two openly gay men to serve in the state Legislature.

 

 

Byron Leydecker, JcT

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 land

415 519 4810 mobile

bwl3 at comcast.net 

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org 

http://www.fotr.org

 

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