Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill into law on Oct. 11 but recently a firearms trade association asked the California Attorney General’s office to look into a potential conflict of interest.

Mike Sutton, the commissioner of the California Fish and Game Commission, will be implementing the legislation. But he is also the paid director of Audubon California, one of the two sponsors of AB711.

Lawrence Keane, the senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, last Monday, sent a letter (reproduced below) to California Attorney General Kamala Harris requesting a formal investigation into Sutton’s income and activities.

Keane wants a legal determination on whether Sutton has violated, or is in violation of, any state laws or policies respecting his public and private positions.

The best known responsibility of the commission is its general regulatory powers function, according to the commission website.

For our CalWatchdog.com investigation into the matter we contacted California Fish and Game Commission to ask about Sutton’s alleged conflicts of interest and requested Sutton’s Fair Political Practices Commission Form 700, Statement of Economic Interests reports.

Sutton’s Form 700 (shown below) shows he is compensated by Audubon California and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Copies obtained of Sutton’s FPPC Form 700s (shown below) for 2012 have some added language not typically on such forms: “Disclosure of this source of income is not legally required, but made voluntarily.”

In response to that statement on the disclosure form  Keane said “I think it speaks for itself.” He added: “This is why we requested the investigation into his income and activities.”

The National Audubon Society appointed Sutton as vice president of the Pacific Flyway the same time he was appointed executive director of Audubon California in May 2012.

Sutton’s FPPC Form 700 disclosures

Sutton’s bio on the California Fish and Game Commission website says:

“President Michael Sutton, of Monterey, was appointed to the Fish and Game Commission on May 3, 2007. … He was reappointed on March 25, 2009 to a six-year term. Sutton currently serves as Executive Director of Audubon California and Vice President, Pacific Flyway with the National Audubon Society.  Previously, he founded the Center for the Future of the Oceans at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2004 and served as program officer for the conservation and science program at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation from 1999 to 2004. Prior to that, Sutton worked at the World Wildlife Fund from 1990 to 1999.  He also served as special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 1984 to 1990. Sutton worked for the National Park Service as a park ranger from 1980 to 1984.

“His term on the Commission expires January 15, 2015.”

According to the Form 700 disclosure reports, Sutton currently receives more than $100,000 annual income from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation. He also received a seven-year loan in 2010 of more than $100,000 from the aquarium foundation, with a 3.5 percent interest rate, for a personal residence.

Sutton also received more than $100,000 in income from the National Audubon Society in 2012, and income from the Monterey Bay Aquarium up to $100,000.

Audubon California was one of the sponsors of AB711.

Sutton had a paid summer faculty job at Vermont Law School, for which he was paid up to $10,000, the FPPC Form 700 disclosure report shows.

Questions

After contacting Fish and Game Deputy Director Adrianna Shea about Sutton’s alleged conflicts,  Shea  requested the questions were sent to her in an email.

Here are the questions for Shea:

* “Given that Sutton is appointed to Audubon California as its Executive Director, and the Pacific Flyway while also appointed to the Fish and Game Commission, do these conflicts speak for themselves?

* “Audubon California was a chief sponsor of AB711, the bill signed in October to ban lead ammunition. But AB711 requires the Fish and Game Commission, by July 1, 2014, to certify, by regulation, non-lead ammunition.

* “Commissioner Sutton takes income from Audubon California and Audubon, his employer, lobbies state government.

* “Commissioners are prohibited from making or participating in or using positions to influence commission decisions in which the commissioner has a financial interest.” 

Shea sent me a copy of a March letter from the FPPC (shown  below), which said,

“It is not reasonably foreseeable that Fish and Game’s decision implementing the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act will have any financial effect on the commissioner’s employer, the Audubon Society.”

While the FPPC letter said Sutton and Audubon claim that the lead ammo ban bills would not affect their funding or fundraising, the Audubon Society continued to send out fundraising emails and post requests on its website for funding during the legislative debate over AB711.

On its website, and in an email request, Audubon said:

“With your help, Audubon is leading the charge to get the lead out from coast to coast:

“Audubon has led a years-long effort to require non-lead ammunition for hunting in California. Just this month the legislature sent a ban bill to the governor’s desk, despite unprecedented opposition from the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups. Audubon and its partners have mustered tremendous support among state lawmakers and countered the avalanche of fear tactics and propaganda from the gun lobby. If you live in California, please ask Gov. Brown to sign the bill.”

Lead ammo ban

Discussing the bill and the activities of the Humane Society and Audubon California, with Keane in September he told me the science proves there is not one species impacted by lead ammunition, and the existing lead ban has not had an impact on California condors. “This is just an effort to restrict the use of ammo in states,” Keane said.

And according to Keane, the animal rights groups needed the California Legislature to pass the bill in order to pressure other states to do the same.

My Dec. 16, 2013 article, “Condors thriving before new lead ammo ban,” provides more background on AB711.

But the recent report from the U.S. Department of the Interior found that the Condor Recovery Program “continues to increase the number of condors in the wild in Arizona, Utah, California and Baja California.

As of the end of July, according to the report, “there are 429 condors in the world of which 224 are free flying (California 123, Arizona/Utah 71; Baja California 30).”

The number is up from only about 55 condors as recently as 1990. The following graph shows the steady increase, which is expected to continue.

Bullets

Concern has been advanced in California that lead from hunters’ bullets has been killing off the condors. The federal condor report was submitted from the U.S. Department of the Interior to the California Fish and Game Commission on Oct. 29. That was 18 days after Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 711, by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-South Gate. The bill bans using lead bullets in hunting in California beginning in 2019.

According to the bill’s language:

“California passed a successful law preventing the use of lead ammunition in condor habitat. However, because these restrictions only apply in certain areas or to the hunting of particular species, many species of wildlife remain threatened by the use of lead ammunition and more protections are needed. These successes have shown us how to extend protection from lead poisoning to other wildlife.”

In his signing statement, Brown wrote:

“Lead poses a danger to wildlife. This danger has been known for a long time. … Since 2007, California has prohibited it in the eight counties within the condor range. In fact, at least thirty other states regulate lead ammunition in some manner.”

However, the federal report found that the increase in the condor population began well before a 2007 ban by of the use of lead bullets by hunters in condor areas. The above graph clearly shows a steadily increasing trend line that did not jump upward beginning in 2007.

One hypothesis the paper offers is that “there are other sources of lead in the environment that condors may be accessing, including 5 individual condors apparently ingesting chips of lead-based paint on a fire tower.”

The authors point to a recent study that found 8 percent of the birds had exposure to lead that “did not match the isotopic signature of ammunition, background levels, or paint, indicating an unidentified source of lead in the environment.” 

Caring for condors

Of the “other sources” of threats to the condors, micro trash especially can be deadly. According to the Santa Clarity Community Hiking Club, which has taken the lead in cleaning condor habitats:

“Micro-trash consists of little bits and pieces of glass, metal and plastic. The Condors are attracted to these items because they sparkle and shine. They eat it, and feed it to their chicks. Both the adults and chicks die. In the last 5 years, we have picked up more than 5,000 lbs of micro-trash in the forest.”

Indeed, it is human involvement that has saved this mighty symbol of California. Every condor is tagged, as you can see in the picture of the condor at the top of the page.

According to the federal study, every condor is captured once a year — twice a year in California — examined by veterinarians and if necessary treated with medicines or more invasive procedures. “Virtually all condors are equipped with VHF telemetry units, and each site regularly tracks the condors that come from that site,” according to the study. Some condors even “are equipped with GPS units,” so they can be closely tracked.

Perhaps if these facts had been better known, AB711 might have had a harder time passing during the rush to pass dozens of bills in mid-September. The votes included many Democrats crossing the aisles to vote Nay, such as state Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana.

As the 2019 deadline nears, it’s possible the Legislature might revisit it, in particular if it looks as if the state’s hunting industry will be hard hit by the ban on lead bullets, leading to the loss of jobs. In his signing statement, Brown also promised, “the least disruptive phase-in, including incentives for hunters to make the transition.”

The gun control measures signed Friday include strict limits on magazine capacities, add more paperwork for law-abiding gun owners who wish to buy or sell a gun, establish stiffer penalties for law-abiding gun owners who store a gun in a home or storage facility where a child could have access to it, and add a new ban on lead ammunition used by hunters, so that it does not endanger animals.

Lead ammo ban

One of the most controversial bills, AB 711 by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, will ban lead ammunition in hunting. Many believe this will kill the hunting industry in California.

“Lead poses a danger to wildlife,” Brown said in his signing message. But then, technically, so does hunting.

Animal rights groups, including the Humane Society, and Audubon California, led the crusade for California to be the first state in the nation to kill wild game hunting.

Humane dog-sitting

Jennifer Fearing, the California senior state director of the Humane Society of the United States, apparently lobbied Gov. Brown on AB 711 at the dog park. A recent story in the Sacramento News and Review told how Fearing dog-sits for Sutter Brown, Gov. Jerry Brown's Pembroke Welsh corgi.

“'I had this kind of random idea to take him out on the road for [Proposition] 30,' explains Jennifer Fearing, the Sacramento-based California senior state director of the Humane Society of the United States,” the Sacramento News and Review reported in “How Sutter Brown saved California.”

“Fearing had dog-sat Sutter often, and even escorted him to Los Angeles once for a spay-neuter advocacy event. So last fall, when she wanted the governor’s tax-increase measure to pass, both personally and for her organization, she suggested bringing Sutter into the spotlight.”

While Gov. Brown was considering signing the most comprehensive ammo ban in the country, the Sacramento newspaper published the story about how the California Humane Society lobbyist dog-sits for Gov. Brown's dog.

This could go a long way in explaining how the Humane Society has achieved favored environmental group status than any other environmental group in the last 3 years. It makes sense — their California lobbyist is the free doggy daycare sitter, and former Prop. 30 publicist, using the governor's dog.

But AB 711 was amended at the 11th hour in a secret deal to postpone the effective date until 2019. If, according to the Humane Society, the need for the bill is really over concerns about poisoned Condors, what about the thousands of great birds which will have died by the time the bill finally goes into effect six years from now?

Alas, Brown signed the bill. Perhaps we should blame Sutter Brown.

 Assault weapon bill

“Make no mistake this is the most draconian set of gun control measures in the nation,” said Assemblyman Tim Donnelly in a press statement. “While I am grateful that the Governor vetoed SB 374 (Steinberg), this remains the single greatest assault on the 2nd Amendment in California history.”

“The 2nd Amendment clearly states that no government entity shall infringe on our rights,” said Donnelly.  “I wonder how the millions of lawful gun owners in the State of California feel about having their rights infringed today.”

Brown vetoed SB 374, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, which would have expanded the definition of “assault weapons” to ban the future transfer of all semi-automatic rifles that accept detachable magazines. SB374 would have required new “assault weapon” registration, and the registration of all those semi-auto rifles currently possessed, in order to retain legal possession in the future; and subjects these firearms to all other “assault weapon” restrictions.

Steinberg claimed the bill would have closed a “loophole” in California's assault weapons ban by preventing rapid reloading using replaceable magazines.

“This bill goes much farther than banning any semi-automatic rifle with a detachable magazine,” Brown said in his veto. Brown said he vetoed SB 374 because the bill covered many rifles used in hunting, as well as collectible guns. And, hundreds of thousands of gun owners would have to register their weapons as assault rifles in California, if SB 374 had been signed into law.

“There is no legitimate reason for hunters or sportsmen and women to have battlefield-style rifles that can quickly spray dozens and dozens of rounds through the rapid reloading of detachable magazines,” Steinberg said during the committee hearing process. “These types of weapons have in fact been used in many of the mass killings our country has suffered over the years. In nine out of ten of those mass killings, the shooter had no serious prior criminal history. It’s time to reduce the carnage. It’s time to close the loopholes.”

But Brown disagreed. “I don't think this bill's blanket ban on semi-automatic rifles would reduce criminal activity, or enhance public safety enough to warrant this infringement on gun owner's rights,” Brown said in his veto.

Assembly Bill 711 passed largely because of concern over the poisoning of the California condor. But the bill was amended at the 11th hour in a secret deal to postpone the effective date until 2019. If the need for the bill is really over concerns about poisoned Condors, what about the thousands of great birds which will have died by the time the bill finally goes into effect six years from now?

But not all of the state's Democrats voted for  AB711; representatives of rural areas in the state voted against the bill, or abstained.

Motive: A total ban on hunting

The bill isn't really about concerns over condors or lead poisoning, according to two opponents. They are Mark Gagliardi, a trustee of the Contra Costa Central Labor Council; and Lawrence Keane, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the shooting, hunting and firearms industry.

Gagliardi, a labor union leader, is very frustrated with Democratic Assembly and Senate members he helped get elected, but who voted for passage of AB711. “This bill will hurt the shooting industry, retailers and hunting,” Gagliardi told me in an interview. “They are making hunting unaffordable, and killing California jobs.”

Gagliardi said he goes to the Capitol two to three times each year to meet with lawmaker on labor issues. One day early in 2013, he was at the Capitol and noticed AB711 and a couple of other anti-gun bills were being heard that day in the Senate Public Safety Committee. So he went to the hearing and sat in the front row. Gagliardi said Democrats on the committee he helped get elected acted uncomfortable seeing him sitting there. Several asked him what he was doing at the Public Safety Committee hearing, and suggested he was out of his element.

While Gagliardi is a labor leader, that reaction promoted him to put together a large coalition of labor leaders to fight AB711. “Unions represent business in America, including the manufacturers of lead ammunition,” Gagliardi said. “We elect these people to go to Sacramento to create jobs, not to make them go away.”

Condor “science” 

“I am very much opposed to the Humane Society attempt to ban hunting in California, and the position of the head of the Department of Fish and Wildlife,” Keane told me.  According to Keane, Chuck Bonham, the department's director, completely caved under the pressure of the Humane Society lobbying and agreed to support the lead ammo ban.

“You can’t tell me with a straight face the Humane Society is okay with hunting as long as there is no lead in the ammunition,” Keane said.

Keane said the science proves there is not one species impacted by lead ammunition, and the existing lead ban has not had an impact on California condors. “They are still getting lead, but it’s from paint on water towers, and micro-trash,” Keane said. “This bill is solely about preventing hunting in California. The Humane Society doesn’t care about animals dying. There is no justification for delayed implementation of the bill. This is just an effort to restrict the use of ammo in states.”
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And according to Keane, the Humane Society needs California to pass the bill in order to pressure other states to do the same.

Keane said to be wary. If the Humane Society succeeds with AB711, the next ammunition under attack will be on shooting ranges.

Union members are sportsmen and hunters

Gagliardi also leads “Shoot for a Cure,” a national nonprofit that raises money for leukemia and lymphoma research through sport-shooting events. And he is a sport shooter and hunter. Gagliardi told me more than 65 percent of union members are active sportsmen, fishermen and hunters, and participate in many outdoor activities. The fees from hunting licenses and excise taxes on firearms pay for the conservation programs in the country and California, Gagliardi said.

“Hunters buy the licenses, and they clean up after themselves,” he said. “Not the Sierra Club or Humane Society. We can fix this the right way. We just need to get labor and industry together. The Humane Society has no stake in California other than to suck money from the state.”

Is lead really the culprit?

The ammo breakdown is interesting: 95 percent of the traditional ammunition is made with lead projectiles, 4 percent is steel for waterfowl hunting, and only 1 percent is alternative metals (copper, brass and tungsten), according to Keane. “There is no consumer demand for alternative ammo.”

As for the taxes which pay for conservation programs, Keane said there is an 11 percent federal excise tax on long guns, and a 10 percent federal excise tax on hand guns — all of which goes to pay for conservation in the U.S., and in California, based on the number of state gun purchases and licenses issued. “The California politicians who voted for this bill are demonizing the ammunition that pays for conservation programs.”

While all of the gun sales taxes and licensing funds go directly into conservation efforts, Keane noted the national Humane Society actually donates only 1 percent of its proceeds to animal shelters.

“Why does the Legislature have to micromanage the department head of the Fish and Wildlife Department?” Keane rhetorically asked. “Because the department took a look at the politics and decided, ahead, the bill would pass.”

Politics versus policy

Michael Sutton, President of the California Commission for the Department of Fish and Wildlife, also is the Executive Director of Audubon California, the sponsor of AB711.

“We've known about lead's toxic nature for decades,” Audubon California said in a fundraising email. “We've been fighting to get the lead out for years. And we're still experiencing its insidious effects on wildlife and people. Let's finish this job once and for all!

“We have rightly spent millions of dollars to bring these spectacular flyers back. It’s time to snuff out the lingering threat of lead poisoning while there is still time.”

However, according to Keane, extensive research has shown that traditional lead ammunition does not pose a health hazard for condors. A recent study found that, despite 99 percent hunter compliance, a ban on using lead ammunition in certain areas of the state under AB821 of 2008 failed to reduce lead poisoning in condors.

Keane added, “Wildlife management by politics, rather than science, is never a good thing.”