Environmentalists Push California to Cut Ties with Prosecutor Association Over Misspent Funds
By Kevin Stark
Tanker trucks are loaded with gasoline at the Kinder-Morgan tank farm August 19, 2003 in southwest Phoenix, Arizona. A major settlement with a subsidiary of the company in 2005 over a spill in Suisun Marsh helped the California District Attorney’s Association secure $100,000 to pay for future environmental court fights.
Environmental groups last week pressed state lawmakers and officials to cut ties with the California District Attorneys Association after an internal audit found the group misspent millions of dollars earmarked for environmental and worker safety litigation.
The coalition, which includes the Sierra Club California, the California League of Conservation Voters and at least eight other groups called the association’s actions a “dereliction” of public duty in a letter addressed to Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, and various committees.
“We call on our government to not only demand redress for what is, for all intents and purposes, a theft of funds from the people of California, but to take all necessary steps to terminate the partnership between CDAA, CalEPA, and the legislature,” the group wrote. Officials with CDAA, an advocacy and training group for prosecutors across California, say their mistake was failing to adequately […]