Two city officials lobby on the Hill

Jenny Marder

City Administrator Ray Silver and Mayor Connie Boardman spent two

days last week lobbying on Capitol Hill for money for unfunded

mandates and city programs.

They met with Assemblyman Dana Rohrabacher, officials from the

Environmental Protection Agency and aides from the offices of Dianne

Fienstein and Barbara Boxer to reinforce what the city’s lobbyists

have been fighting for and to garner federal funding.

Huntington Beach has two lobbyists, one in Sacramento and one in

Washington, D.C., who are pushing for state and federal funding.

“We wanted to hammer the point home and let them know what’s

really important to us,” Silver said. “The purpose [of the trip] was

to show the flag and emphasize that what we’d been told by lobbyists

is where we’re at.”

Huntington Beach is requesting $4.7 million from the federal

government this year, which includes $2 million to reduce pollution

in the Santa Ana River, $1.5 million for a new gun range and $475,000

to finish the Alabama storm drain, Boardman said.

The city is also requesting $169,000 for an emergency operations

center that would consist of a backup power supply and a better radio

communications system, $338,000 for a constructed wetlands treatment

system and $200,000 to replace the Talbert Bridge after the county

widens the flood control channel.

The city received more than $900,000 in federal funds last year,

Boardman said.

“A lot of capitol improvements are funded by state and federal

funds,” Silver said. “That’s how we’ve done about $30 million of

capitol improvement projects.”

Every fall, the City Council meets to decide on topics for

lobbyists to focus on. Water quality and storm drain issues topped

the list of priorities this year as they have in years past.

The city is hoping to receive state and federal dollars to fund a

water quality master plan, the first of its kind, Silver said.

The cost of maintaining water quality has skyrocketed since a

federal mandate passed in 1999 that increased the variety of tests

that are performed at beaches and introduced stricter standards for

posting public health warnings.

Since the passage of Assembly Bill 411, the cost of maintaining

water quality has jumped from $85,000 to more than $700,000, Silver

said.

“We’re very concerned about water quality issues,” Boardman said.

Part of the city’s master plan would involve creating a

constructed wetland that would divert 4-million gallons of urban

runoff daily from the Wintersburg Channel to the Talbert Lake in

Central Park, Boardman said.

Much like the Talbert Marsh, the runoff from the channel would be

naturally treated before being released into the ocean, thus

improving water quality.

“We went back [to D.C.] to emphasize points and see if they had

any questions,” Boardman said. “They appreciated the fact that we

made the effort to go back and make the pitch.”