‘We will have to tighten our belts’

By Mary-Justine Lanyon

Weather, mountains, beautiful topography, lakes, desert, resources, food, entertainment industry, education.

Those are some of the positives of California that Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh pointed to at her recent town hall in Lake Arrowhead.

She asked her constituents who were present about their concerns.

Homeowners insurance, parental rights, clean drinking water, homelessness, the cost of living, green waste, needs of seniors, roads, college protests, drugs and crime, legislative outreach.

Those were the issues called out by the audience members at Rim of the World High School.

The senator tackled several of the issues in the two hours allotted for the town hall.

Insurance companies, she explained, work off a risk formula. California companies were being subsidized by out-of-state companies who couldn’t afford it anymore. They pulled out.

“We’re in a pickle,” she said. “The governor put pressure on the insurance commissioner, saying he had to figure it out and fix it. We are waiting to see what that looks like.”

Noting that she had just been appointed to the Insurance committee, Ochoa Bogh said she was told that, in order to fix the system, rates will have to be increased even further.

Realtor Brenda Meyer, who has been active on the insurance front for several years, responded that “we have had to deal with the Fair Plan since 2005 when we saw the big companies pull out.” She added the Department of Insurance has been doing what it can. “Meanwhile, we’re all suffering. Other fires throughout the state affect us. We live in the forest – we have forest fires – we are in a high fire severity zone – we live with Bambi and Bambi has forest fires.

“We have a higher responsibility of weed abatement,” Meyer said. “We have a better understanding of what it takes to protect ourselves from fire, more than anywhere else in the state.”

Meyer added a claim with the Fair Plan takes over two years. “Should we have a major fire outbreak in the state, we’ll have a big problem on our hands.”

Turning to homelessness, the senator said it is one of the biggest issues across the state. “The state has spent $24 billion in the past five years to address homelessness in various capacities. Last year we submitted a letter to the state auditor to follow up on that money spent,” she said.

Among the key findings: The state has not tracked funding since the 2003 assessment. There are no plans to do a similar assessment.

Home Key – a program utilized by the Mountain Homeless Coalition on the mountain – is one of the few programs that has been effective, she noted, adding she is currently the vice chair of the Senate committee on housing.

A key problem in California, Ochoa Bogh said, is that we are a “housing first” state. “Nothing is required of the person – there are no accountability measures. People getting sheltered are not required to seek behavioral health services. What happens? It’s a revolving door. We are not fixing the issue.”

Various factors come into play with housing costs, a huge issue, she noted. “We are building a lot of houses but not enough to meet the need. It’s expensive to build in the state. One of the root issues lies with the face we have CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act). It’s well intended to protect open spaces. However, since it was introduced, it has become convoluted and very expensive. 

“CEQA has been used by groups to halt construction for various reasons – some good, some self-serving – often under nondisclosure agreements, often in exchange for land or labor agreements. All of that costs a lot of money, which we have to pay for.

“We need to address the issue at the core: We have to have CEQA reform. Many of my legislative colleagues don’t want to touch it as it’s a beast. It will be hard. We don’t have time to chip at it. People are struggling. We are losing a lot of our work force – people can’t afford to live here. People are retiring and moving out of state because the quality of life will be better.”

The state is currently facing a $60 billion deficit. “We are waiting for the May revise of the budget,” the senator said. “We need to assess need versus want. We will have to tighten our belts.”

There are two things we’re not supposed to talk about, she said: religion and politics. “That was the worst counsel ever received. We are not teaching our young adults how to have a conversation about ideas. It is important to teach them.

“I don’t vilify my colleagues. They may carry a bill they don’t agree with but their constituents want it. It takes all of us having conversations to change things in the state. We can be civil, don’t have to attack.”

Turning the conversation to clean drinking water, Senator Ochoa Bogh said her understanding is that PFAS have always existed in our water but now we have the technology that allows us to test for it. “I also understand we have the technology that allows us to clean it up at the residential level,” she said.

She asked Steve Keefe, a member of the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District board of directors, if he would comment.

“I’m not authorized to speak for the board,” Keefe said. “I’m speaking from my own knowledge. It’s a very real issue. It was brought to the board’s attention in the fall, fairly recently. Testing revealed we have it in the lake at a fairly high content. The district is working closely with state regulators. A lot of testing is going on to understand where it comes from, how to treat it.

“We are developing a protocol for how to treat it. It will be a costly project but we are fast-tracking the process. It’s a global issue – it’s everywhere, it’s in all of us,” Keefe said.

The senator said her office had met with the district to see how they can work together.

As the town hall drew to a close, the senator said that “we have to ensure our families are whole. We have to heal, educate and inform every single human being. It is easier to do that when they are young than deal with a broken spirit.

“My district is like my family,” the senator added. “I care. The root of all anger is fear – we have to ask what that fear is. Don’t let toxicity enter the space.”