14 CapitalPress.com
February 24, 2017
Watchdog: What’s Upstream apparently spent too little
PDC staff finds
no violation of
Washington law
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A Puget Sound tribe’s
six-figure
Environmental
Protection
Agency-funded
campaign to limit farming in
Washington state didn’t spend
enough money on one key
element to be seen as grass-
roots lobbying, according to
a Public Disclosure Commis-
sion staff report.
The report released Friday
concludes that a “take action”
link on the tribe’s What’s Up-
stream website “could have
been considered a grass-roots
lobbying expenditure.”
But, according to the re-
port, spending on the link
apparently didn’t exceed
$1,400, the threshold for trig-
gering reporting requirements
to the PDC.
The link was part of a
six-year, $655,000 campaign
plotted by the Swinomish
Indian Tribe to change state
regulations, according to pre-
Don Jenkins/Capital Press File
A What’s Upstream billboard shows cows in a stream as part of
the group’s campaign against Washington farmers. The Wash-
ington Public Disclosure Commission staff has decided against
recommending that the full panel fine the Environmental Protection
Agency-funded attacks.
viously released EPA records.
The link facilitated a let-
ter-writing campaign to legis-
lators in 2016, making a pitch
for 100-foot buffers between
farms and waterways.
PDC Executive Director
Evelyn Fielding Lopez said
that regardless of how much
was spent specifically on the
link, the staff did not consid-
er it a lobbying activity. The
form letters generated by the
link did not advocate for a
specific bill or ballot initia-
tive, she said.
“It’s not really a good pol-
icy that you would have to be
registered with the state every
time you’re discussing ideas,”
Lopez said.
The website remains up.
The “take action” link was
active for about five months
before and during the 2016
legislative session. The EPA
asked the tribe to take down
the link in April after some
federal lawmakers accused
the EPA of financing illegal
lobbying. The EPA’s inspector
general is auditing whether
the tribe and Northwest In-
dian Fisheries Commission
broke federal laws.
The PDC staff was to rec-
ommend Thursday that the
agency’s citizen commission
clear the tribe, EPA and Se-
attle lobbying firm Strategies
360 of breaking state law by
failing to register What’s Up-
stream as a political commit-
tee or grass-roots lobbying
organization. The PDC staff
also will send the report to the
state attorney general’s office
for review.
“I don’t think it was grass-
roots lobbying, and the staff
doesn’t think so, but there’s
always a little room for indi-
vidual opinions,” Lopez said.
The PDC investigated in
response to a complaint by
Save Family Farming. The
group alleged What’s Up-
stream tried to influence leg-
islators and researched the
chances of passing a ballot
initiative. The tribe presented
the idea of actually filing an
initiative, but withdrew the
plan after the EPA balked.
“Apparently, the (PDC) be-
lieves that spending $600,000
of public money for the stated
purpose of influencing leg-
islators to pass very specific
measures and to build public
support for a citizen’s initia-
tive are not concrete steps,”
Save Family Farming director
Gerald Baron said in an email.
“We are left wondering, what
is concrete?”
An EPA spokesman said
the agency had no comment
Friday.
The tribe’s environmental
policy director, Larry Was-
serman, the campaign’s lead
organizer, and Strategies 360
Vice President of Communi-
cations Jeff Reading did not
respond to requests for com-
ment. Reading worked on the
campaign and responded to
the complaint.
Although it’s unclear how
much was spent directly on
the “take action” link, previ-
ously released EPA records
show that developing and
promoting the website cost far
more than $1,400.
An original and a re-
vised website cost more than
$34,000 to build. The tribe
purchased more than $60,000
worth of billboard space and
radio advertising to promote
the website in late 2015 and
early 2016. The tribe spent an
undisclosed amount of EPA
funds to hire Strategies 360
to poll voters and develop ad-
vertising material over several
years.
The PDC report describes
Strategies 360 as “a vendor.”
Save Family Farming’s
complaint specifically named
former EPA Regional Admin-
istrator Dennis McLerran, but
the investigation concluded
that McLerran didn’t autho-
rize or engage in lobbying.
Investigators noted that the
tribe hired an Olympia lobby-
ist, who registered with the
PDC, to represent it during the
2016 session on a narrowly
focused bill that would have
required property owners en-
rolled in a voluntary farmland
preservation program to leave
riparian buffers.
The tribe and EPA had
both argued that the state’s
PDC had no jurisdiction over
them. Lopez said the staff
cleared What’s Upstream on
other grounds. “From my per-
spective, that is still an open
question,” she said.
(Above, Courtesy of Kathy Keatley Garvey/UC-Davis) The Tremont Countywide 4-H
Service Learning Project delivered hand-made Christmas stockings to children at the
Opportunity House homeless shelter. From left are 4-H’er Alaina Austin, Opportunity
House residents Manuel Martinez, 11, and his sister, Itzel Martinez, 8; 4-H teen leaders
Ryan Anenson and Erica Hull; and 4-H’er Allison Schroeder.
(Left, Courtesy of Kathy Keatley Garvey/UC-Davis) Bearing gifts, teen leader Ryan
Anenson leads the Tremont Countywide 4-H Service Learning Project into the Opportunity
House in Vacaville, Calif., to deliver hand-made Christmas stockings, filled with gifts, for
homeless children. Behind him are Alaina Austin and teen leader Erica Lull. At far right is
Allison Schroeder.
DIXON, Calif. — Some 4-H members in this Sacramento
Valley community spent the holidays providing cheer for the
homeless.
The Tremont Countywide 4-H Service Learning Project
delivered hand-made Christmas stockings filled with gifts to the
dozens of children in homeless shelters in nearby Vacaville and
Fairfield.
Leaders, teen leaders and members showed up with stockings
containing age-appropriate gifts along with bags filled with
presents for children at the Opportunity House in Vacaville and
Heather House in Fairfield.
“This year, we saw a need among the youth in our local
shelters,” said teen leader Ryan Anenson, a four-year member of
the 4-H Service Learning Project.
“We designed patterns, received felt material donations and
began sewing and decorating stockings — one for every child
living at the Heather House and Opportunity House shelters,”
Anenson said in a news release.
The group used gift donations from club families and the
community to fill the stockings generously, he said. Delivering
the gifts was his favorite part of the project, he said.
“Helping others, especially other youth, has been a very
rewarding and heart-warming experience,” Anenson said.
The 4-H’ers attended a Wreaths Across America ceremony at
the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon before going
to the shelters.
The younger homeless children received such gifts as
barrettes, hair brushes, pony tail holders, toys, mittens, hats,
scarves, puzzles, miniature cars, socks, slippers, chapstick and lip
gloss and small craft kits, according to the release.
The teen-agers received movie tickets, gift cards, jewelry kits,
arts and crafts kits, and stationery and pens. All the stockings
included candy.
The Christmas project is one of many humanitarian efforts the
Tremont group has worked on throughout the year. The group
has also participated in the Cuddle Me Close blanket project for
nursing mothers, a hygiene kit project for Mission Solano and a
gardening project for the Heather House.
The club is one of 11 4-H clubs in Solano County.
(Courtesy of Kathy Keatley Garvey/UC-Davis) Christmas stockings filled with
gifts for homeless children were delivered to homeless shelters by the Tremont
Countywide 4-H Service Learning Project in Dixon, Calif.
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