ORBA on Developments in California
SANTEE, CALIFORNIA (February 6, 2006) –On January 26, 2006,
Daphne Greene, Deputy Director, of the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle
Recreation Division (OHMVR), issued a memo to the OHMVR Commission
stating that at its meeting of December 8-10, 2005, the Commission had
improperly rescored certain grant applications and cooperative
agreements, and that the Division, therefore, would not be funding the
grants and cooperative agreements in question. According to Ms.
Greene’s memo, Division had reviewed the transcripts from the December
2005 meeting and determined that the Commission, in rescoring the
grants and cooperative agreements, had failed to apply the “competitive
grant” evaluation criteria required by OHMVR regulation.
The Division is charged with implementing the competitive rules
established to ensure grants and cooperative agreements provide
sufficient benefit to the OHV community. Since the Commission’s actions
were not consistent with these competitive rules, Ms. Greene concluded
that the Division has no legal authority to fund the grants and enter
into the agreements in question.
Deputy Director Greene’s memo lends support to the lawsuit filed on
January 27th by EcoLogic and its co-plaintiffs -- the Off-Road Business
Association (ORBA), the San Diego Off-Road Coalition (SDORC), the
California Off-Road Vehicle Association (CORVA), the American Sand
Association (ASA) and the American Motorcyclist Association, District
-- alleging the OHMVR Commission violated California law when it denied
a number of grants that had been recommended by the OHMVR Division and
would have provided benefits to the OHV community, even though no new
information or testimony was presented to support the denials.
The Commission also chose to approve some grants that would close roads
and trails permanently, even though Division staff had determined that
the projects did not merit funding. In both of these
circumstances, the Commission’s actions were arbitrary and capricious
and not supported by evidence in the record, as required by statute.
At that same meeting, the OHMVR Commission adopted a controversial
policy with regard to desert riparian areas without consulting with the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages the majority of areas
covered by the policy. In a memo dated January 25, 2006, Mike Poole,
head of BLM’s California office, stated that he would have appreciated
an opportunity to review such a significant and far reaching policy
prior to its adoption. He also requested that the Commission reconsider
this policy and allow the BLM, the public, and all affected parties to
provide input as required by state law.