Lobby Days

Per others' request here's my writeup from Lobby Days, 3/19 & 3/20:

Here's my write up for this year's Lobby Days, thanks for sending the Nay Family

This year?s Lobby Days was quite an experience for the Nay Family (Donn, Pam, and Kyle). We flew out of Burbank Airport (all of 2 miles from home) at 10:15 A.M. and arrived in Sacramento at 11:20. Called the Vagabond and the shuttle was there is 15 minutes. While waiting for the shuttle another CLORV attendant heard my call and piggy backed on our call; come to find out we would spend a LOT of time with Paul Kober of CORVA. Arrived at the hotel too early to check in and called an old high school friend who has lived in Sacto. since 1991 and we haven?t seen for MANY years. Walked over to Old Town and had a few beers and lunch. Old Town Sacramento is worth the visit by itself, what a neat place to see with all the old original buildings and wooden sidewalks. Went back to the hotel and checked in and Kyle decided he didn?t want to go anywhere else; I guess he was tired of hanging around with the adults all morning so we left to see the Capitol without him. Walked around the Capitol and enjoyed the grounds and went back for orientation.

Orientation showed that we had a good turnout this year, a pleasant surprise for the veterans of this affair. This is where we started to understand what these two days were all about; if you have ever listened to Ed Waldheim talk about our sport and off roaders? rights you know what I mean. There is no one in our sport that is more passionate than Ed, it is truly contagious. We got some good pointers into what was to come on Monday and met more faces to go with names on the message boards. Had lots of D 37 clubs represented, but not all of them, what a shame. After orientation we went by a reception by the Cal 4 wheeler?s club and saw more dual sport and off road people.

Monday morning started bright and early at 8:00 A.M. in the Capitol basement Cafeteria where we hooked up with even more people who had not been there the night before. After breakfast we adjourned to a committee room for presentations by some members of the State Senate and more talking points for our presentations to the assembly members and senators. Then it was eat again and back for lunch in the cafeteria where we were supposed to hear from Daphne Greene but had to move to another room since we had so many people. It was really interesting to hear what Daphne had to say about the State Parks OHV program and what is wrong with the OHV commission as well as what we can do to help fix it.

After Daphne finished her presentation we broke into our groups of 5-10 people each; our group consisted of my wife Pam, son Kyle, me and Paul Kober of CORVA. Paul turned out to be a veteran of two previous lobby days and was our group leader and very knowledgeable about everything going on. We soon learned that the capitol building is divided into two sides, assembly and senate and that certain series? numbers denotes the new area and the other the old. We had about ten offices to hit including Nunez, speaker of the house and Jack Scott our local State Senator. I had also made an appointment to see a staffer from Paul Krekorian?s office, our local Assemblyman so that was on our list as well. We were generally well received in most offices, didn?t get to see many people above aides except one or two chiefs of staff and then a surprise; while talking to an aide in Mervin Dymally?s office he came out and motioned for us to come on in, which we promptly did. Mr. Dymally was quite cordial and listened to our spiel with apparent interest, he commented on how we could be off-roaders while all dressed up and not dirty, I told him even us off roaders could put on a good front when our best interest was at hand, he thought that was funny. He promised to watch SB742 and look for our input as it came in front of his committee and the senate although I think he was just giving us the usual political responses. But at least he did listen and would know who we are if and when we go back again. We did have another staffer, Ashlie Simpson was her name, who was very aware of off roading, her family participates in the Taft ?invitational? and she knew about our G.P. in Ridgecrest which her family attends, she also said the office was largely ?enviro? but she understood that a balance was needed and recognized we are environmentalists too.

Lastly we went to Paul Krekorian?s office and met with Theo Cline, a high level staffer. Theo was quite receptive and spent a good deal of time with us and was aware that CLORV had supported Mr. Krekorian in his election bid. Theo also was aware of the funding problems that the commission has put us into, she even knew the general figures! She agreed to take our case to the Assemblyman and make sure he is aware of our plight, I told her I would make an appointment to see him when he is in Glendale soon to follow up on our visit and even met the staffer who handles appointments, always good to have a face with a name!

After stumping the halls we congregated in the war room where we reported back to Pete Conaty on our meetings for his records and further follow up, everyone was relatively pleased with our reception in the various offices, not too many negatives at all. Then it was off to the Sutter Club for some more schmoozing, this time alcohol was involved so it was much more pleasant. CLORV gave out some awards to members who had been pro-off-road the previous year and some other members and staffers came by for a drink and some hors-d?-oeuvres. If you have never seen the Sutter Club it is quite an experience, you can only imagine the deals made there since the late 1800?s. With the conclusion of the reception our obligation was over and we retreated to our room for some much needed rest. A busy day but a fruitful day, it was a good type of tired.

Everyone should go to Lobby Days at least once; it is an education that cannot be matched by reading things on the internet. We need to encourage other clubs to participate like we do; there is no excuse for every club to not send at least one representative to Sacramento.