Riverside County Supervisors to Adopt Positions on Federal, State Issues

By PAUL J. YOUNG, City News Service:

Riverside County supervisors Tuesday will consider whether to take positions on frivolous lawsuits, environmental regulations, the Salton Sea, drones, veterans services and other issues as part of the county’s 2016 legislative platform.

Both federal and state priorities will be on the agenda during the Board of Supervisors’ first meeting of the year. County staff from multiple agencies drew up a 78-page list of proposals that the board is likely to direct its lobbyists to advocate for or against.

As in previous years, the Salton Sea ranked near the top of the list. The 360-square-mile lake is in rapid decline as a result of natural evaporation and draw-downs from various sources, hastening an ecological threat to the region.

The board’s proposed platform calls for support of increased Proposition 1 Water Bond funding, as well as access to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s $330 million in unallocated Small Reclamations Project monies, for projects to restore the dying sea.

“Because the federal government owns a significant portion of the land around and under the sea that will be exposed as dry lakebed due to water transfers ... the federal government is a major stakeholder in partnerships that can generate positive outcomes in lieu of liabilities for the deteriorating environment,” according to the platform narrative.

The advocacy template also seeks to expedite passage of state legislation curbing Americans with Disabilities Act civil actions. Often criticized as “shakedown lawsuits,” the actions stem from findings that business owners have not constructed ramps, automated doors or other means that permit disabled individuals from gaining easy access to a location -- whether or not they patronize it.

The board favors laws that blunt “predatory litigation” and provide “a reasonable time period in which a business is allowed to ... come into compliance” with ADA standards, according to the proposed platform.

Another target of reform: the California Environmental Quality Act. The 2016 platform backs “measures that clarify and streamline CEQA” to limit “frivolous lawsuits” that utilize the law as a pretext to stall projects for “non-environmental reasons.”

The board’s list includes support for regulations to rein in unmanned aerial systems, or drones. Gov. Jerry Brown last year vetoed a bundle of measures that sought to criminalize the use of remote-controlled drones where firefighting aircraft are in operation and in the vicinity of prisons, jails and schools. The county’s 2016 platform backs a proposal to make it a crime to fly a drone over a juvenile detention facility.

“Noting the vulnerability of these types of facilities and the recent successful attempt to drop contraband into a prison yard via drone, juvenile institutions (should be protected from) this method of intrusion,” county staff wrote.

The proposed lobbying list, like last year, named veterans support services as a priority. Officials noted that the state budget only makes $5.6 million available for Veterans Services Offices in its 58 counties, leaving many under-funded. According to the county, the current funding level needs to be doubled to ensure local offices, including Riverside County’s, have the necessary resources to meet veterans’ needs.

Other state and federal priorities include:

• support for federal funding to complete the 100-mile Santa Ana River Trail;
• support for enacting state laws that increase criminal penalties for individuals who assault social workers handling elder abuse cases, as well as creating provisions for those workers to access law enforcement records to check the victims’ relatives’ backgrounds;
• support for Medi-Cal expansion to cover more mental health patients;
• opposition to any federal moves to close the March Air Reserve Base in Moreno Valley, or the U.S. Navy’s Surface Warfare Center in Norco;
• support for “Extended Producer Responsibility” regulations that would make the manufacturer of an electronic product -- or any other device barred from landfills -- responsible for paying to cover disposal costs of the discarded products, instead of the public;
• support for laws prohibiting family members of a sexually exploited child from having first custody rights over the victim if there’s evidence showing relatives were aware of what was happening and encouraged it, or did nothing to prevent it;
• opposition to further cuts in state health realignment funding, which declines yearly as a result of lawmakers’ inaction toward adjusting reimbursement formulas established in 2003; and
• support for increased federal and state grants that help local jurisdictions cope with emergencies stemming from natural disasters, acts of terrorism and public health threats, such as a flu pandemic.