Local officials received a mixed reception last week when they made a lobbying trip to the State Capitol to discuss local issues surrounding Mule Creek State Prison. The County’s lobbyist Wes Loujan set up appointments for Supervisors Novelli and Forster, as well as County Counsel Martha Shaver to meet with budget staff for both the assembly and senate, and staff from the governor’s office. County Counsel Martha Shaver explained the reason for the trip.

“Our purpose in going down was not to have a particular proposal, but rather before things start getting really hot and heavy in the legislative session to just have these people who are dealing with prison issues and budget matters aware of the particular problems that we are having in Amador County and the commitments that have been made to us by both secretary Tilton (who is the secretary of the CDCR) and the Warden of Mule Creek (Richard Subia) about their willingness to address the problems.”  She continued by saying that, “We wanted to make sure we had that kind of commitment on the administrative side that the legislature would be willing to assist us in backing up those …what we hope are promises that we will see come to pass.”

However, Shaver also said the group of officials got a mixed reception from the staff members on the state level, especially when talking about mitigation dollars if MCSP is expanded. Apparently some staff members were not familiar with additional mitigation monies the County could receive should MCSP be expanded. They also indicated that monies for such a thing are not available. Others however, were aware of Senator Cox’s insistence on extra mitigation dollars for the environmental affects state prisons are causing on local communities like ours. 

Supervisor Forster said he was unhappy with the contradictory message they received from the Governor’s office. “It had changed since our previous meeting with the…7 counties represented when Secretary Tilton was present. One staff member on the assembly side went so far as to say if Secretary Tilton wants to mitigate Amador county’s concerns then let him find the dollars. The governor’s staff members seemed to take the same line,” said Forster. “If they want to continue with expansion and not mitigate the impacts, I’ve had a discussion with Senator Cox already, we are going to vehemently oppose (it)…we want the impacts mitigated when they have not been in the past,” said Forster. Supervisor Novelli commented, “I think everybody down there that we met with got our message loud and clear.”