Lawmakers Push Harebrained Bills

Katy Grimes: A ridiculous bill which would have California condo and home owners replacing lawns and traditional grass with astro turf, was just vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Thankfully.

SB 759, authored by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, which would have required homeowners associations to “allow” people to replace their lawns with artificial turf, was sponsored by the San Diego County Water Authority and supported by the Association of California Water Agencies, and the City of San Diego.

“A decision to choose synthetic turf over natural vegetation is best left to individual homeowners associations, not mandated by state law,” Brown, a Democrat, said in his veto message.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year  (AB 1793), authored by Assemblywoman Lori Saldana (D-San Diego), and said in his veto message that Common Interest Developments (CIDs) should not be micromanaged by the State Legislature.

Thankfully.

However, none of these bills should ever have even made it to the governors’ desks. What a colossal waste of time, brought to you by lawmakers with God complex issues.

This bill and others like it is what California lawmakers spend their time on. And they commit the time of their large staffs, and the staff members of the legislative committees, using up hundreds and thousands of hours of valuable time on incredibly stupid legislation.

Both houses of the Legislature passed these bills, ostensibly as water saving measures, despite documentation proving that some of the turf products contain lead and lead chromate, substances which have been banned in California.

But saving the climate apparently is more important than honoring older laws that save the environment.

Schwarzenegger is responsible for signing California’s global warming and climate change legislation (AB 32) into law, which created a huge bureaucracy including the Green Building Standards Code. This department may be responsible for encouraging artificial turf in new construction projects.

Do staff analysts even check existing laws before new laws are pushed?

JULY 20, 2011