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Congressmember Sam Farr: Five Decades of Public Service

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Congressmember Sam Farr: Five Decades of Public Service Congressmember Sam Farr: Five Decades of Public Service Interviewed and Edited by Irene Reti Santa Cruz University of California, Santa Cruz University Library 2017 Congressmember Sam Farr. Photos by Randy Tunnell This oral history is covered by a copyright agreement between Sam Farr and the Regents of the University of California dated September 26, 2017. Under “fair use” standards, excerpts of up to six hundred words (per interview) may be quoted without the University Library’s permission as long as the materials are properly cited. Quotations of more than six hundred words require the written permission of the Head of Special Collections and Archives and a proper citation and may also require a fee. Under certain circumstances, not-for-profit users may be granted a waiver of the fee. For permission contact: Irene Reti [email protected] or Regional History Project, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064. Phone: 831-459-2847. Contents Introduction 1 Early Life 13 Fred Farr 25 Education 30 Growing up in Carmel, California 36 John F. Kennedy 41 Peace Corps in Colombia 44 Two Tragedies 52 An Epiphany: Beginning Political Life 61 Working as Staff for the California State Legislature 66 The Soberanes Fire 72 Becoming a Monterey County Supervisor 73 Organizing a Bike Ride in Support of the California Coastal Act 76 Land Use Planning 85 Issues on the Big Sur Coast 90 Working to Improve Local Government 93 Working to Stop Offshore Oil Drilling and to Establish the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary 96 Sustainable Resource Management 103 Santa Cruz as a Marine Research Cluster 104 The Blue Economy, Ecological Tourism, and Watchable Wildlife 106 The Impact of Proposition 13 at the Local Level 112 Creating the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District 116 The Power of Local Government 127 Running for the California State Assembly 131 Caught in a Political Battle for Speaker of the House 132 Farr’s Staff at the California State Legislature 138 Developing Standards for Wine Grape Growing 144 Passing the Groundbreaking Organic Certification Law 146 Animal Humane Issues 151 Origin Labeling Law 160 Oil Spill Liability Law 165 Divestment from South Africa 169 Breathalyzer Ignition Lock Bill 176 California Assault Weapons Bill of 1990 178 A Time of Transition in California Politics 181 Impressions of California Governors 190 Ending Corporal Punishment in California Public Schools 200 Congressman with a Camera: Farr as Photographer 204 California Oceans Resources Management Act (CORMA) 209 The Impact of Proposition 13 at the State Level 222 The Rise of the Initiative Industrial Complex in California 227 Speaker Willie Brown 233 “The Team of California” 240 Deciding to Run for the United States House of Representatives 242 The Fort Ord Re-Use Authority 247 Arriving in the United States Congress 276 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 282 Defense of Marriage Act 288 Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Terrorists 291 Hillary Clinton’s Health Care Plan 294 Newt Gingrich and the Republican Revolution 296 The Effort to Impeach President Bill Clinton 304 More on the Fort Ord Conversion 312 Serving on the Appropriations Committee 315 The Events and Impact of September 11, 2001 317 The Iraq War 326 The Patriot Act 331 The Iraq Resolution of 2002 335 No Child Left Behind 346 Working for Organic Agriculture on the Federal Level 354 Working on Federal Organic Standards 357 Founding and Co-Chairing the Organic Caucus 359 The Farm Bill 361 Fair Trade Sustainable Coffee 364 NAFTA and the Cut Flower Industry 369 Agri-Tourism 379 Big Sur Wilderness and Conservation Act of 2002 382 Point 16 401 Pinnacles National Park 408 Proposals for Development at Elkhorn Slough 415 National Oceans Policy Act, Oceans 21 422 White House Conference on the Oceans 423 Developing a National Oceans Policy 427 Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act 434 Ocean Acidification Research Bill 437 Reflections on the Elections Process 439 The Importance of Casework 447 Town Hall Meetings 450 Campaign Finance Reform 452 Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi 457 Hastert, Majority of the Majority, Rule 462 Cuba 465 Colombia 474 Obamacare 479 Immigration 496 Gun Control 509 The Farr Family 514 Key Staff 521 Final Reflections 526 Final Interview, After Retirement 529 Veterans—Department of Defense Health Clinic, Fort Ord 530 California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery 538 Fort Hunter Liggett 544 Salad Bar in Every School and School Lunch Program 552 Clear Creek National Recreation Area and Conservation Act 564 Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment Medical Cannabis Amendment 568 Sam Farr Peace Corps Enhancement Act 575 More about President Barack Obama 582 The Election of President Donald Trump 590 About the Interviewer 594 Endnotes 595 Congressmember Sam Farr: Five Decades of Public Service 1 Introduction I’m in a large, wood-paneled room in the beautiful Gabriel de la Torre adobe building in historic downtown Monterey, California. This structure was California’s first federal courthouse (circa 1841) and now houses the Big Sur Land Trust. The walls feature evocative and magnificent photographs of the Big Sur coast. I sit at a massive conference table, nervously sipping coffee. The Big Sur Land Trust has graciously given me use of this room to conduct an oral history with Congressmember Sam Farr and today is our first interview. I thumb through my topic outline for what must be the tenth time. The front door opens and I hear the staff warmly greeting Congressmember Farr. They usher him into the room and we shake hands. Within a few moments I have completely forgotten that I was nervous and we embark on what will become a nearly 25-hour oral history journey conducted over eight different sessions between July 2016 and March of 2017. From that first moment, I am completely engaged by Farr’s gift for telling a good story. My question, “Where were you born?” elicits this wonderful tale: “I was born in San Francisco on July 4 in 1941,” Congressmember Farr (who soon tells me to just call him “Sam”) tells me. “And my father [told me] that there was another fellow in the hospital waiting for a delivery, who was a very conservative Republican. My father was a Democrat. They were both of them excited about having babies on July 4. He was having a son, too. And this father, the Republican father, was just really into everything, and had all Fourth of July red, white, and blue stuff. I was born just before midnight on July 4 and his son Congressmember Sam Farr: Five Decades of Public Service 2 was born just after midnight. So my father got joy out of at least a Democrat preceding a Republican on the fourth of July. His son was born on July 5 and I’m July 4th.” Samuel “Sharon” Farr was born into a family that extends back five generations in California. His father’s grandfather was the brother of Senator William Sharon, who arrived in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. On his mother’s (Janet Haskins) side, Farr also has deep California roots; his mother’s father, Sam Haskins, was a regent for the University of California and a prominent liberal lawyer in Los Angeles. Sam’s father, Fred Farr, was an attorney and served as a California state senator from Carmel from 1955 to 1966. He was the first Democrat in forty-three years elected to represent the Central Coast. Senator Fred Farr was a pioneer in both social justice and environmental protection and well-known on the national political scene. He established California's scenic highway program; prevented the state from building a freeway along the Big Sur coast; and halted the construction of an oil refinery in Moss Landing on what is now Elkhorn Slough Natural Reserve. Fred Farr is also known for sponsoring a law requiring toilets in the fields for farmworkers. He died in 1997. Sam Farr was very close to this father and discusses his father’s accomplishments throughout his oral history. While Farr was inspired by both of his parents, he had no early aspirations for a career in legislative politics like his father. He was mostly raised in Carmel, California (after the family spent some time on the East Coast and in Puerto Rico) before it became an expensive tourist town. Farr recalled, “It was such a Congressmember Sam Farr: Five Decades of Public Service 3 wonderful growing-up experience. Nobody locked their cars, locked their houses. There was no fear.” The young Sam Farr discovered a love for the natural environment while roaming through the hills and along the beaches of the Monterey Peninsula and Carmel Valley. His mother gave him a love for the outdoors and for gardening. At Carmel High School, he found a mentor in his biology teacher, Enid Larson. His life plan at that time was to study biology in college and return to Carmel to teach high school. Farr struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia during his youth and later became a passionate advocate for people with this then-unrecognized disability. He graduated from Carmel High School in 1959 and journeyed north to earn his BA in biology at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. After graduation, Farr served in the Peace Corps in Medellín, Colombia in 1964, where he honed community development skills in an experience that was to be one of the most formative of his life. They called us “Hijos de Kennedy because Kennedy invented the Peace Corps,” he said. “That was life-changing for me. I found my own identity, and found my self-esteem, and found my passion for trying to eliminate the root causes of poverty, now really understanding what those causes were.” But it was also while he was in the Peace Corps that Farr’s life was forever altered by two terrible tragedies that afflicted his family.
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