Kate Hart accused of corruption at water board

Katherine Hart Johns, well known in Merced County for her unsuccessful defense the County's approval of the Riverside Motorsports Park environmental impact report, has been accused of corruption in her office as Vice Chair of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Shocking!

We sincerely hope that the alleged acts of malfeasance in office, if true, were caused by normal political-appointee exuberance at the public trough and not due to financial problems arising from Ms. Hart's involvement with the insolvent racetrack project.

Badlands Journal editorial board

11-12-09

California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
“An Advocate for Fisheries, Habitat and Water Quality”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Information
Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director: 209-464-5067, Cell 209-938-9053, deltakeep@aol.com [1]
Richard McHenry, CSPA Dir. Of Compliance: 916-851-1500, Cell 916-801-1952

CSPA Files Complaint against Regional Board Vice Chair with Fair Political Practices Commission and Attorney General
Alleges violations of Political Reform Act, Water Code and Government Code

The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) filed a 51-page formal complaint with the California Fair Political Commission and the California Attorney General alleging that Katherine Hart Johns, Vice Chair of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board), violated numerous sections of the Political Reform Act, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the California Government Code.

These violations include failures to disclose economic interests, improper eligibility to serve on the Regional Board, failure to disclose conflicts of interest, improper recusal from Board proceedings and failure to disclose ex parte communications.  For example, Katherine Hart Johns failed to disclose, as mandated by the Political Reform Act, that her spouse was a registered lobbyist receiving substantial income from entities regulated under the Porter-Cologne and the federal Clean Water Act.  Since founding California Resource Strategies in 2001, Craig Johns has reported $1,161,429 in income from wastewater dischargers ($352,631 since 2006). Mr. Johns lobbied the Regional Water Board where his wife is the vice chair and has lobbied regarding appointments to the Regional and State Board.  Beyond failing to disclose her spouse's income and investments on Form 700, Porter-Cologne specifically prohibits those receiving significant income (directly or indirectly) from those subject to waste discharge requirements from serving on the state or regional water boards.

“Ms. Hart Johns' blatant conflict of interest provides insight into how the Regional Board, over the last few years, has gone from protecting water quality to protecting polluters from laws enacted to protect water quality,” said Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director.  “The Schwarzenegger administration's approach to protecting water quality can best be described as appointing foxes to guard the chickens,” he said.    

The long-delayed Delta Methylmercury TMDL Control Program (Mercury TMDL) is illustrative of the problem.  USEPA has expressed concern over the extended delay in the Regional Board approving the TMDL.  Mr. Johns has declared that he lobbies for Sacramento Regional Sanitation District (SRCSD) on the Mercury TMDL.  Ms. Hart strongly advocated during the April 2008 Regional Board meetings that a vote on the Mercury TMDL be delayed and the Board should instead establish a stakeholder process to help write the TMDL so that it would be more satisfactory to stakeholders (i.e., SRCSD).  The Regional Board deferred a vote and established a Mercury TMDL stakeholder process. Ms. Hart again, in April 2009, urged that the stakeholder process be given more time.  Both Katherine Hart Johns and Craig Johns attended stakeholder meetings with SRCSD staff and consultants.  Katherine Hart Johns has interacted with numerous other stakeholders throughout 2008 and 2009 but has never publicly acknowledged that her husband is a lobbyist for SRCSD and, consequently, there exists a financial conflict of interest between her obligations as a Regional Board member and SRCSD.

CSPA's Director of Compliance, Richard McHenry who worked for the Regional Board for 20 years before his retirement observed that, “the Regional Board now seems more intent in protecting dischargers than the environment, adding we currently have more than 50 wastewater discharge permits issued by the Regional Board under appeal that violate the most fundamental requirements of the Clean Water Act.”
______________________________________________
CSPA is a non-profit public benefit conservation and research organization established in 1983 for the purpose of conserving, restoring, and enhancing the state's water quality and fishery resources and their aquatic ecosystems and riparian habitats.  CSPA's website is: www.calsport.org [2].