Media Alert from Restore the Delta

To read this article on-line click here.

Task force member's water ties questioned

By Alex Breitler

Record Staff Writer

January 06, 2010 12:00 AM

Phil Isenberg, former Sacramento mayor and legislator-turned-lobbyist, worked for a Southern California water district while also serving as chairman of an "independent" task force making key recommendations about the future of the Delta, a Stockton-based advocacy group reported Tuesday.

Isenberg is co-founder of Isenberg/O'Haren Government Relations, which collected more than $224,000 from the Irvine Ranch Water District from 2007 through the third quarter of 2009, according to California Secretary of State records.

Isenberg's Delta task force decided in late 2008 that new facilities - perhaps a peripheral canal - were needed to channel water past the Delta.

Once disbanded, task force members formed a Delta Vision Foundation, which supported the controversial suite of water bills approved in November.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, director of Restore the Delta, said the news about Isenberg raises questions about upcoming appointments to a new seven-member Delta council.

"Will they (the governor and the Senate) consider appointees who truly champion a statewide perspective which includes Delta communities?" Barrigan-Parrilla wrote in an alert to Restore the Delta members. "Or will they appoint representatives like Mr. Isenberg who have financial ties to special water interests like the Irvine Ranch Water District?"

Isenberg said Tuesday that it's no secret who his clients are; a list is posted on the firm's Web site. And he said that when he was appointed to the Delta task force in early 2007, he notified Irvine Ranch that he could no longer lobby for that group on Delta issues. He did, however, continue to work on some water legislation.
"All of this stuff, for me, has been on the record," Isenberg said, although he did not recall the issue ever being discussed at a Delta Vision meeting.

"Everyone in California is affected by these kinds of issues," Isenberg said. "The real battle in this is that people have different solutions. A lot of people who objected to the solutions we recommended ... continue to object."

In a 2006 executive order, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged that the "independent Blue Ribbon Task Force (would) develop a durable vision for sustainable management of the Delta."

Barrigan-Parrilla said Tuesday that what irked her about Isenberg's role as a lobbyist was how often he referred to the Delta task force as "independent."

Irvine Ranch Water District gets about 35 percent of its water from the Metropolitan Water District, which imports water from the Delta and the Colorado River. Irvine Ranch serves portions of seven cities.

Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com.