I have received notice that The Final Judgment on the case “Walter Eason vs. California Department of Fish and Game” was signed ON October 24th, 2007. This means that DF&G have only 10 day from the 24th to “take appropriate administrative action pursuant to the APA to address and resolve the conflict found previously as a matter of law by the Court between Fish and Game Code section 5653, subdivision (d), and section 228, subdivision (b), of title 14 of the CCR, within ten days from entry of this Final Judgment.”. We would expect that they will again try to ignore the comment period by calling the change “NONSUBSTANSIVE” along with miss quoting the guide lines for amending a regulation under California Code of Regulations Title 1 Section 100 and making the regulation change effective upon filling it with the Secretary of State. They have already done that one time and they were stopped by a combination of the Judgment in Part not being a Final Judgment and comments that I sent in. Given that we have not heard anything as of yet and today is the third of November, it looks like DFG will/are trying the same approach. (see 1st attachment- form 400 line 5). The Withdrawal Letter of the notice above, does not state why the regulation was being withdrew but does state that they “reserve the right to resubmit the same regulatory package” latter. (see 2nd attachment) ON NEXT POST TITLE "ATTACHMENT"
Remember, California Department of Fish and Game has to file or officially start on the new regulations within ten days of the Final Judgment date which was October 24, 2007 or THEY COULD BE FOUND IN CONTEMPT OF COURT. WE DO NOT EXPECT THEM TO GIVE NOTICE EITHER. This means that the comments need to go out now if they do give notice with a comment period, which I expect they will not, it may only be a 15 day comment period. We expect NO NOTIFICATION OR COMMENT PERIOD.
If we get comments in NOW they may decide that they will have to follow the correct procedures, this would end up costing us and California a lot less money than another law suite.
There is a lot more information at my web site including a comment I already sent in. You are welcome to use all or any part of that comment if you wish. Equal Access to Justice, Inc.
Comments should be sent to :
Office of Administrative Law
300 Capitol Mall, Ste. 1250
Sacramento, CA 95814-4339
Tele.: (916) 323-8915
Fax No.: (916) 445-9515 or
(916) 323-6826
<staff@oal.ca.gov>
Office of General Counsel
Department of Fish and Game
1416 Ninth Street, 12th Fl.
Sacramento, CA 95814
Tele.: (916) 653-6590
Fax.: (916) 654-3805
Thank You
Walter H. Eason, Jr. as an individual November 3, 2007
Board member of:
Equal Access to Justice, Inc. / National Outdoor Recreation Council
America’s Mining and Prospecting Org, Inc.