Fresno County's Capitol display to target water crisis

Board lets coalition highlight effect on farms.

Published online on Tuesday, Sep. 15, 2009

Fresno County supervisors agreed Tuesday to turn over the county's display case in the state Capitol to a group of water advocates who want to show a video detailing how the water crisis has hurt Valley farms.

But most supervisors were unaware the video's content included controversial remarks about farmworkers made earlier this year by Lloyd Carter, a Valley environmental activist.

As a result of concerns raised by a supervisor after the vote, the California Latino Water Coalition will present the board with another video for inclusion in the Capitol display case, said Mario Santoyo of the coalition. It will not include Carter's remarks.

Following a statement about "environmental extremists," Carter is quoted as calling farmworkers' children some of the least-educated people who "turn to lives of crime. They go on welfare. They get into drug trafficking and they join gangs." Carter later apologized, saying he regretted the comments.

Supervisors approved a request to play the video for three months in the county's display case. Every California county has a display case on the first floor of the Capitol in Sacramento.

County boards of supervisors determine what goes in the display cases, said Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman at the Department of General Services, which manages the Capitol.

Although the cases are typically used to show off a county's trademark features, two counties used them in 1988 to complain about state funding requirements. Humboldt and Lake counties slapped up banners reading "Going Out of Business Due to Unfunded State Mandates."

Technical difficulties prevented Fresno County supervisors from hearing sound of the video. Only one supervisor, Phil Larson, said he saw the video before approving it for the display case.

Supervisor Henry Perea watched it after the vote and said it wasn't appropriate for the display case.

"The video attacks the president. It attacks environmentalists," he said. "It attacks the very people we need to come to some middle ground on this issue."

The video contains television news clips about the water crisis. It also contains a number of written statements, such as "No water. No hope. No future."

It also says, "None of this matters, according to environmental extremists, because pumping water might endanger a minnow," referring to restrictions on pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Santoyo said the video was produced by Alliance for a 21st Century Water System, and was provided to the Latino Water Coalition for free. A message left for the alliance was not returned Tuesday.

The alliance's Web site was registered by KP Public Affairs, a Sacramento lobbying firm that represents Westlands Water District and other water agencies, among other clients. Santoyo said the coalition decided against using the video after hearing about Perea's concerns, concluding that Carter's remarks would distract from the goal of rallying legislative support.

Steve Evans, conservation director at Friends of the River, a Sacramento-based organization, said the video is biased, and overstates the effects pumping restrictions have had on the farming communities. The communities have been hurt by a number of trends, including three years of drought, he said.