Unanimous vote clears measure of its first legislative hurdle
Source: editor@cslea.com
Date: 4/22/2010
Chalk another one up to the CSLEA Legislative Affairs team. One day after winning a unanimous vote on a bill for its hospital police, it succeeded again in helping move a proposal for additional Fish and Game Wardens out of an Assembly subcommittee--by another unanimous vote.
Along with their Department's chief, Coby Pizzotti, CSLEA's legislative and political liaison, testified on behalf a proposal for seven new Fish and Game Warden positions that would request $2 million for the 2010-2011 fiscal year and a continuing augmentation of $1.4 million from the non-dedicated Fish and Game Preservation Fund for coast enforcement.
There are currently 322 funded warden positions, according to the chief, and although a 25 percent salary increase won for wardens by CSLEA in 2006 and the current economic situation have helped stop the exodus from their ranks, more wardens are still needed.
"Fish and Game Wardens are the front-line force in the protection of our state's most beautiful natural treasures," said Ricardo Sanchez, Fish and Game Warden trustee. "Because of the incredible amount of terrain they must cover, we will always lobby for more of them."
Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, chairman of the budget subcommittee on resources, asked his colleagues for unanimous support to move the proposal for warden funding along, and was given it. Other members of the subcommittee are Anna Caballero, Danny Gilmore, Jared Huffman, and Jim Silva.
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