- Joined
- Apr 4, 2002
- Location
- Menlo Park, Ca.
- Moto(s)
- Keep me rocking life
- Name
- Budman
- BARF perks
- AMA Life Member #203453
Last Friday I postponed my run up Hwy 1 on the barf Pit Ho Spring Rally so I could meet with the Senator on the Sustainable Parks Proposal. Item # 3790
This proposal will take 21 Million dollars from the OHV Funding for 5 years.
This is not a loan from the OHV Trust fund, rather a money grab from the Gas Tax funding that the OHV receives as operating capital. There will be no pay back and they already took 10 million last year.
For 18 months the Attorney General has not ruled if this is even legal and the Senator heads the committee that is looking to send it to a full vote.
Butch joined me along with Amy Granat from Corva, Christine Parsley from Cycle Gear and a friend intimately familiar with the operations of the OHV Program.
We had an 1-1/2 meeting in which we had a good discussion with Senator Simitian. However I don't feel he will change his mind.
He is running for County Supervisor later this year and letting him know what you think about taking the funding would be great as I know it will affect your vote!
Here is my summary on the meeting:
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7306910&postcount=22 Lots of other good info in the post along with a letter from a Santa Clara County Supervisor asking him not to do it too!
The email I sent to his office after the meeting is below.
In the email you will note I said I bull dogged him into the meeting.
That was because after 5 weeks or more of trying to get a face to face meeting I sent an email in basically saying meet with me or I will have 500 Riders at your office protesting this and every news agency will be there watching. Guess that worked as I got a reply quickly offering the meeting.
Hello Brock,
Hope your well.
I just wanted to ask you to pass on my thanks to the Senator for taking the time to meet with us on Friday.
I feel I bullied you guys a bit to get the meeting and wanted to make sure you both knew we appreciated his time and yours to listen to our passionate stance on the OHV funding issue.
If you could pass this to the Senator I would appreciate it.!
The big items I brought to his attention as his constituent were:
• There is no determination by the Attorney General that the 21M grab is legal and the LAO is still not sure it is. Based on that I would not want my representative to move forward with this without knowing it is indeed legal.
• There is no Director of the park system in place. Only an Acting Director who could not even come to the meeting. How can the committee provide the funding cart blanche with these funds going into a broken system that has proven to waste the money and is slow to react to the problems at hand? At the same time this would hurt the current operations and leave the OHV communities with the potential limitations of the operations affecting their enjoyment of the system. It growth and popularity should be a primary consideration.
• Per Amy’s input I also urge the Senator to please be aware that the OHV has no say in how the money is to be spent by the Parks. There is no representation within the current structure to allow them input. Amy had suggested that an equal number of OHV people be on the committee to decide how $$ should be spent if it does go to Parks. This is a great consideration and if this is proven to be legal I would urge the Senator and committee to add this action to the bill.
• My biggest fear with taking operational funding away from the OHV system and the grants that are made from it is the potential damage to the OHV system. Because this is operational money is part of what makes the system one of the best of the State Park systems. After 5 years we could find the OHV system broken down when the system comes back for review in 2018. At that point the system could be easily targeted for closure if the State is still in financial crisis.
• By taking away the funds grants will be affected that are for restoration of lands previously damaged and this could affect endangered species.
• Due to the above and the ability to take a loan from the trust I urge you to do that rather than take operational funding that will never be paid back to the system.
It was a good meeting I am happy that the Senator took the time to share his views and allowed us to share ours as well.
Sincerely,
Bud
Denny "Budman" Kobza
Owner: Bay Area Riders Forum - AMA O/MC #01
Founder:1Rider Motorcycle Safety Campaign
www.bayarearidersforum.com
AMA #: 203453~Life Member
**************************
Please email him and let him know this is not acceptable now.. the committee meets tomorrow and he needs to know we care!! If you are a Santa Clara County resident let him know what he does with this will affect your vote. He is running for County Supervisor come fall.
Senator.Simitian@SENATE.CA.GOV
Thanks!!
Budman
This proposal will take 21 Million dollars from the OHV Funding for 5 years.
This is not a loan from the OHV Trust fund, rather a money grab from the Gas Tax funding that the OHV receives as operating capital. There will be no pay back and they already took 10 million last year.
For 18 months the Attorney General has not ruled if this is even legal and the Senator heads the committee that is looking to send it to a full vote.
Butch joined me along with Amy Granat from Corva, Christine Parsley from Cycle Gear and a friend intimately familiar with the operations of the OHV Program.
We had an 1-1/2 meeting in which we had a good discussion with Senator Simitian. However I don't feel he will change his mind.
He is running for County Supervisor later this year and letting him know what you think about taking the funding would be great as I know it will affect your vote!
Here is my summary on the meeting:
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7306910&postcount=22 Lots of other good info in the post along with a letter from a Santa Clara County Supervisor asking him not to do it too!
The email I sent to his office after the meeting is below.
In the email you will note I said I bull dogged him into the meeting.
That was because after 5 weeks or more of trying to get a face to face meeting I sent an email in basically saying meet with me or I will have 500 Riders at your office protesting this and every news agency will be there watching. Guess that worked as I got a reply quickly offering the meeting.
Hello Brock,
Hope your well.
I just wanted to ask you to pass on my thanks to the Senator for taking the time to meet with us on Friday.
I feel I bullied you guys a bit to get the meeting and wanted to make sure you both knew we appreciated his time and yours to listen to our passionate stance on the OHV funding issue.
If you could pass this to the Senator I would appreciate it.!
The big items I brought to his attention as his constituent were:
• There is no determination by the Attorney General that the 21M grab is legal and the LAO is still not sure it is. Based on that I would not want my representative to move forward with this without knowing it is indeed legal.
• There is no Director of the park system in place. Only an Acting Director who could not even come to the meeting. How can the committee provide the funding cart blanche with these funds going into a broken system that has proven to waste the money and is slow to react to the problems at hand? At the same time this would hurt the current operations and leave the OHV communities with the potential limitations of the operations affecting their enjoyment of the system. It growth and popularity should be a primary consideration.
• Per Amy’s input I also urge the Senator to please be aware that the OHV has no say in how the money is to be spent by the Parks. There is no representation within the current structure to allow them input. Amy had suggested that an equal number of OHV people be on the committee to decide how $$ should be spent if it does go to Parks. This is a great consideration and if this is proven to be legal I would urge the Senator and committee to add this action to the bill.
• My biggest fear with taking operational funding away from the OHV system and the grants that are made from it is the potential damage to the OHV system. Because this is operational money is part of what makes the system one of the best of the State Park systems. After 5 years we could find the OHV system broken down when the system comes back for review in 2018. At that point the system could be easily targeted for closure if the State is still in financial crisis.
• By taking away the funds grants will be affected that are for restoration of lands previously damaged and this could affect endangered species.
• Due to the above and the ability to take a loan from the trust I urge you to do that rather than take operational funding that will never be paid back to the system.
It was a good meeting I am happy that the Senator took the time to share his views and allowed us to share ours as well.
Sincerely,
Bud
Denny "Budman" Kobza
Owner: Bay Area Riders Forum - AMA O/MC #01
Founder:1Rider Motorcycle Safety Campaign
www.bayarearidersforum.com
AMA #: 203453~Life Member
**************************
Please email him and let him know this is not acceptable now.. the committee meets tomorrow and he needs to know we care!! If you are a Santa Clara County resident let him know what he does with this will affect your vote. He is running for County Supervisor come fall.
Senator.Simitian@SENATE.CA.GOV
Thanks!!
Budman
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