Still Imperiled, Still Important: the Little Hoover Commission's Review of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program (Report #183, Novemb

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Still Imperiled, Still Important: the Little Hoover Commission's Review of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program (Report #183, Novemb State of California LITTLE HOOVER COMMISSION November 17, 2005 The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger Governor of California The Honorable Don Perata The Honorable Dick Ackerman President pro Tempore of the Senate Senate Minority Leader and members of the Senate The Honorable Fabian Núñez The Honorable Kevin McCarthy Speaker of the Assembly Assembly Minority Leader and members of the Assembly Dear Governor Schwarzenegger and members of the Legislature: CALFED was forged from a crisis, and to a crisis CALFED has returned. A decade ago, a persistent drought and collapsing fisheries escalated a dispute among state and federal officials over water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Through the leadership of Governor Pete Wilson and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, a settlement was reached and a state- federal plan known as CALFED was crafted for shoring up water supplies and Delta levees, improving water quality and restoring the ecosystem. But the winds of Hurricane Katrina have reached California – blowing out the flicker of confidence that officials had in the ability of Delta levees to withstand earthquakes, rising sea levels and inevitable winter floods. Some $3 billion have been spent trying to fix the Delta. But the Delta smelt that some consider to be the estuary’s coalmine canary are even harder to find than stakeholders who are willing to put up their own money to continue funding CALFED. For years, the “CALFED way” referred to coordinated government, collaborative decision- making and balanced progress that kept adversaries from pursuing unilateral initiatives. To a new generation of officials, CALFED is costly, underperforming, unfocused and unaccountable. As part of an effort to revitalize CALFED, the Commission was asked to review the “governance” of the program and the role of the California Bay-Delta Authority. The review affirmed both the importance of CALFED and the need to fundamentally change how it is managed. Frustration with CALFED is warranted. Because of a faulty design, the CBDA cannot effectively coordinate activities, push agencies to perform, or provide rigorous oversight. It is unable to control or cajole. To resolve those problems, the Commission recommends replacing the Bay-Delta Authority with a governance structure that is better capable of managing a complex program and resolving conflicts, while at the same time involving the public in meaningful ways and providing more effective external oversight. Specifically: 1. Policy-makers should better integrate efforts to restore the Delta with the overall state plan for meeting water needs while protecting water quality and the environment. Using the principals of the CALFED Record of Decision as a basis for moving forward, state and federal leaders must define specifically what CALFED will accomplish, how it should pursue those goals, and who will help pay the tab. 2. CALFED needs an organizational structure that enables a strong leader with clear authority and consolidated responsibility. That leader needs to forge a stronger relationship with federal partners, engage stakeholders in a renewed effort to resolve conflicts, and direct the state agencies responsible for CALFED activities. 3. CALFED cannot lose sight of one of its primary purposes: to get agencies to work together to accomplish what they could not do alone. Agencies need to deploy management tools that can improve performance and better integrate science into decisions. 4. CALFED has demonstrated the value of public involvement, but that involvement must become even more meaningful. The general public must understand the importance of the Delta to their everyday lives and the future of California. Interest groups and stakeholders need more effective ways to understand and influence government decisions. Ultimately, public support is needed to prompt traditional stakeholders to compromise and provide the financial support needed to restore the estuary and ensure reliable and safe water supplies. The Legislature also needs to play a more consistent and effective role. Policy–makers need to explicitly endorse specific objectives so that government officials have a clear mandate to pursue progress. Lawmakers need to be clear about what they expect of state agencies, and then hold them accountable for outcomes. And by rewriting the California Bay-Delta Authority Act, the Legislature needs to ensure that the Governor has the authority to get the job done, and then independently and expertly assess progress. During the Commission’s four-month review, the administration has been exploring ideas for how to best advance and pay for a statewide water strategy, including some basic restructuring of government functions. Changes on that scale would provide more options for how to govern the CALFED program. But those ideas have not matured to formal proposals and state water officials only shared that information with the Commission in the last few days. The Commission’s recommendations – as requested by the Governor – seek to improve the governance of CALFED in the context of the State’s existing agency structure. The most important factor in CALFED’s success will be leadership. Because of term limits and the multiple demands on policy-makers, CALFED’s sponsors were right to be concerned about the need to institutionalize the program so it could endure the normal transitions in power. But one lesson of the last five years is that CALFED will require an amount of political capital and leadership that can only flow directly from the institution of the Governor. Furthermore, state leaders will need to assertively pursue solutions to the Delta regardless of the degree of federal participation. In conducting this review, the Commission received tremendous cooperation from state and federal officials and many stakeholders. It appreciates their advice and dedication to the issue. The Commission is confident these recommended reforms will help California achieve its goals. Sincerely, Michael E. Alpert Chairman Still Imperiled, Still Important The Little Hoover Commission’s Review of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program Table of Contents Executive Summary...........................................................................................................i Introduction.....................................................................................................................1 The Delta Defined: From Swamp to Quagmire.................................................................3 In Pursuit of a Solution...................................................................................................13 Evolution of Governance................................................................................................19 Delta Check-Up..............................................................................................................31 Vision and Mission .........................................................................................................35 CALFED and the CBDA are Guided by Broad Objectives ........................................................ 36 Managing to Goals Requires Managing Goals.......................................................................... 36 Resolving Tensions and Evolving the Governance Structure .................................................... 42 The Elements of Governance Reform....................................................................................... 43 Leadership......................................................................................................................49 The Current Leadership is Defined by Structure ....................................................................... 51 The Structure Dilutes Authority and Masks Responsibility ....................................................... 52 The Leadership Structure Needs to be Strengthened ................................................................ 57 Performance Management .............................................................................................61 CBDA Coordinates Agency Actions ......................................................................................... 61 Management Structure Undermines Performance .................................................................... 63 Toward Performance-based Management ................................................................................ 67 Public Involvement ........................................................................................................75 Two Formal Public Venues ...................................................................................................... 76 CBDA – Process Over Progress................................................................................................ 76 The Stakeholder Committee is Restricted by Federal Law ........................................................ 81 Bolster Public Involvement and Resolve Conflicts.................................................................... 83 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................87 Appendices ....................................................................................................................91 Appendix A: Governor’s Letter Requesting a Review of CALFED............................................. 93 Appendix B: Public Hearing Witnesses .................................................................................... 95 Appendix
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