IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ about CA OHV Commission

[KTMrad 516]

Dear Off Roaders,

SITUATION

You may have heard about the recent & past problems with the Green Sticker Funds & the OHV Commission. Blue Ribbon Coalition has filed a letter of complaint against the OHV Commission.

http://www.sharetrails.org/uploads/P...t_12-14-05.pdf

At the end of this email is a letter from Commissioner Waldheim, a tireless advocate for OHV recreation, lamenting the problems with the OHV Commission, of which he has been a staunch supporter for decades.

Well it is time for each of you to take action by sending a letter of your own or the below form letter. If we all speak out we have a good chance of making a positive change for enhancing OHV recreation as well as the environment.

Please take moment & send the letter to the email addresses listed below.

The momentum is here. The time is now.

Thanks

Chris Horgan / Stewards of the Seqouia

__________________________________________________ ______________________

FORM LETTER to cut & paste or write your own

PLEASE EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO THE BELOW OFFICES

Be Sure to insert your name & address at the end of the email

TO: governor@governor.ca.gov

CC: Mary.Delaney@Resources.Ca.Gov

CC: ohvinfo@parks.ca.gov

CC: Trudy.Thomas@SEN.CA.GOV

CC: funding@stewardsofthesequoia.org

CC: dnicholpca@sbcglobal.net

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

As an Off Roader I am very concerned about the current way in which my Green Sticker funds are being mis-appropriated. I care a great deal about the environment & Off Roading, but find that the OHMVR commission has not, and is not following, their mandate to enhance OHV opportunity. I know when trails are closed, families who enjoy OHV recreation are forced onto an ever smaller & smaller trail system, which cannot handle the increased use. This harms the environment.

I urge you to abolish the OHV commission. They have far overstepped their authority as an advisory board. They have ignored public & staff input. They have been making regulations. It is not the place of appointed commissioners, unaccountable to the public, to make regulations. We have legislators whose job it is to make regulations. Extremely stringent regulations are already in place, it is unlikely that we need more & certainly not created by an advisory board.

The OHV commission is supposed to enhance OHV opportunity; instead they have authorized funding of projects that will harm the environment as well as OHV recreation. They have also funded projects for areas that have no OHV opportunity, while halting or reducing funding for areas with OHV recreation. They have funded projects that scored lower in the grant process & offer little or no OHV opportunity, over projects with higher scores & greater need to enhance OHV opportunity.

The current grant process allows grants written by a professional grant writer to score higher & get more funding than other projects whose grants were not written as well, yet are more worthwhile.

I urge you to adopt a non-subjective grant process based on miles of OHV trails, number of users, number of volunteers & matching grants. In place of the OHV commission hire professional trail consultants to audit the grant work & make recommendations.

These changes would go a long way toward having an OHMVR division whose hands are no longer tied by an appointed commission & to once again be able to enhance OHV opportunity. The current situation is bureaucracy run amok & has little connection to the purpose, the land, or the people.

Thank you for your time.

YOUR NAME & ADDRESS

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This following it is a letter from Commissioner Ed Waldheim, President of CORVA & tireless volunteer for OHV recreation.

Please feel free to distribute this e-mail to anyone you wish.

After this last Commission meeting 12/8-10,2005, I have to tell you that I am finished working with these Commissioners. It has become a Non-OHV Commission, which is not what it was originally set up to be in 1972 with subsequent law changes in 1983.

Mr. Spitler has taken it upon himself to develop policy, develop criteria, and completely disrespect the Division for anything they do in public.

He chastised Ms. Greene because she went to Northern California to help with State Park OHV issues. These are issues that State Parks Director, Ms. Coleman, asked her to attend.

He refused to listen to me when I asked him not to pass any policy or criteria at the Commission meeting today because the general public and OHV Division have not had a chance to review it. He pushed through policies that are detrimental to the OHV Division and OHV program, today on votes of 4 to 1, (I was absent after 11 a.m. today due to a prior commitment that everyone knew about.) with Judith Anderson voting "No" on the Criteria only.

Mr. Spitler killed all Minor Capital Outlay ... except restoration.

Mr. Spitler did not allow the public to make substantial comments, because it is impossible to react to a continually changing policy and criteria by the Commission. As chairman, he pushed for a vote on it without allowing the public or Division any input on the Commission's changes. (Clearly there has to be a violation of public process here)

During the Grant process, Mr. Spitler and his allies continually over spent on issues that had no benefit to OHV. So much was over spent that we could not fund the acquisition in Redding or the addition to Jawbone Station visitor's center. Both had to be denied.

In testimony, on the record I put in a resolution that we move 4 million from Restoration to the Support Budget, yet the chairman never brought this up after I left.

I asked that Attorney who represents the Commission not to let policies be voted on as they did not have proper hearing, especially since the ones that went out in the packet are different from the ones Mr. Spitler passed out at the meeting.

Mr. Spitler is in a continual fight with the Division, especially Ms. Greene where he publicly admonished her even after the Deputy Director asked that we work together. It is clearly certain this is never going to happen.

Mr. Spitler is out of control, and we need to do everything we can to get our OHV organizations motivated to replace anti-OHV Commissioners, or eliminate the Commission entirely.

I have been involved with the Commission since 1983, and it really pains me to have to say this. The commission as it presently is, is totally dysfunctional and is a detriment to the California OHV program. It has to be abolished, taken to court, Commisioners removed, or find whatever method there is available to us to make changes. We can no longer accept this as it is.

I know lot of you wanted me to do this long time ago, but I am always the optimist. I like working within the system with public participation. This clearly is not what Mr. Spitler has in mind, so I am finished with Mr. Spitler and his allies.

I will no long dialog with him or his allies, except in public meetings or at Stakeholders meetings or whereever Ms Greene or Ms Coleman want me to be.

Our program is too important to us to have an over zealous chairman try to run our lives and our OHV program that we are all so proud of.

Merry Christmas!

Ed Waldheim CORVA