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Posted by: thepinetree on 11/08/2009 02:18 AM
Updated by: thepinetree on 11/08/2009 02:21 AM
Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00 AM
Governor's Remarks at the Signing of Legislation to Reform and Rebuild California's Water System
Los Angeles, CA...MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: Good morning, everybody. Oh, no, that's not good enough. Good morning, everybody! AUDIENCE: Good morning! MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: I'd like to acknowledge the business and labor, the state and local elected officials who are here today, beginning with the Latino Water Coalition. Paul Rodriguez, California Latino Water Coalition, is here with us here today, hopefully with a few jokes. Danny Curtin, the California Conference of Carpenters; Jeff Kightlinger with the MWD; Pankaj Parekh with the LADWP; Gary Toebben, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce; and there are many other elected officials who will be speaking and so they'll be introduced.
Let me just say that today we commemorate an historic achievement, legislative action that will bolster California's water supply and its reliability. And I want to acknowledge the Governor, because about a year and a half ago the Governor buttonholed me, like he likes to do from time to time and he said, "We've got to do something about the water shortage issue here in Los Angeles -- about the water in California, rather -- the water infrastructure issue." He said, "We've got to bring Democrats and Republicans together." And back then when he raised the issue there was a lot of opposition. Everybody was staking out their positions, everybody was saying this is what I need and not recognizing that we had to find common ground.
I'd also like to acknowledge my friend, the Speaker of the California State Assembly Karen Bass, because Karen Bass early on understood that there was an opportunity here, an opportunity to do something historic, an opportunity for us to address the needs of the entire state. And while she represents the entire state, she comes from the city that's the largest city in California, the economic engine of California and that's the Los Angeles metropolitan area. And she stood up early on for L.A., for San Diego, for Fresno, for big cities and I want to acknowledge her and her leadership and her friendship as well. (Applause) These two people, more than anyone, are a big reason why we're here today.
And I'd also like to acknowledge my friend Jerry Sanders, the mayor of San Diego. Early on the mayors got together, of the 10 big cities and said that we had to weigh in here, our needs have to be addressed; yes, we have to balance the needs of the entire state. And I want to acknowledge him for his leadership and his friendship as well.
I don't have much more to say except to say thank you to all of you. I know what it takes to do historic legislation. When I was Speaker I was a part of a few initiatives as well. But this thing that we do today is going to have an impact far beyond the next couple of years. This is essential to our needs as we grow. It's essential to the needs of the state as we begin to conserve, as we recycle, as we acknowledge the needs of agriculture but cities and people as well. And so, on behalf of the city of Los Angeles, I want to thank my friend the governor, Governor Schwarzenegger, who also happens to be an L.A. native, I may remind you all. And, of course, my friend and our representative, the Speaker of the Assembly Karen Bass.
And with that, I get to introduce a man that is the man of the hour right now. And you know, I'm a Democrat and he's a Republican but I've worked with him over the last few years and we've done a lot together here in Los Angeles but all across the state as well. Help me in welcoming the man who kind of drove this truck, if you will and was early on an advocate for the kind of major investment in infrastructure and conservation that this represents, the governor of the state of California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Applause)
GOVERNOR: Here, don't forget your piece of paper.
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: Oh, thank you. Like I used it. (Laughter)
GOVERNOR: Now, I know that you have to run off to go to an important appointment.
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA: I have to be with the chief right now but thank you all so much.
GOVERNOR: Exactly, that's right. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you.
Well, I think that I see this not as a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. I think this is a California issue and it's an issue about having enough water, safe and reliable water for the future of California. And it's a health issue and I'll talk about that as I get into this speech here, why it is so important that we clean our groundwater. And this is, of course, the kind of work they're doing right out here and that's why we are here today.
But besides all the people that were mentioned, I just want to just add one thing and that is Assemblyman Huffman, who is standing behind us here. (Applause) I just want to say that a special thank you goes to him also, because sometimes the people that work very hard, you know, sometimes get forgotten. But I personally have seen him coming down and doing the up-and-down to our office and upstairs again and bringing the environmentalists together. And, you know, this is his expertise, environmental law and he has worked on that for so long, so we needed an expert like this as part of the team.
Again, it had nothing to do being a Democrat or a Republican. We needed that kind of a talent at the table and it was great that he brought that talent to the table. And believe me, he is much more fanatic about all this than any one of us. (Laughter) And so for him to go and to compromise was very difficult to do and he had made that very clear. So I just want to say thank you so much for being such a great leader and let's give him a big hand again for this great, great work. (Applause)
There are, of course, so many others that are in the back. Everyone in the background here was extremely important to make this happen, because not one person can make this happen. This takes a lot, a lot of work over decades to get this done. And you know, if it is Assemblyman de Leon, who has come in and was very helpful, Assemblyman Cedillo, who is over here to the right, who -- Senator, Senator. Sorry, Senator Cedillo -- that was very helpful in bringing everyone together at the last minute. So I just want to say thank you to everyone.
I just want to say that Mark Twain once said that whiskey is for drinking but water is worth fighting over and I think that this is exactly what has happened over the last few decades. We have seen that, where everyone has fought here in California and, because of that, nothing got done. You know, we are now stuck with a water infrastructure that's for 18 million people but in the meantime we are 38 million people and very soon we're going to be 50 million people, by the time all of this infrastructure is built. So people have fought and fought and fought, Democrats against Republicans, businesses against labor, farmers against environmentalists, rural against urban, the north versus the south. And this is how it went on and on and for decades these divisions have blocked California from investing in its water infrastructure.
And so I'm very proud to say that we fought through those minefields and on Wednesday at 6:00 o'clock in the morning the legislators finally came to an agreement. And let me tell you, it is a historic agreement, it's an agreement on a water package that is the most comprehensive water package in the history of California. So let's give them all again a big hand for accomplishing that on Wednesday morning. (Applause)
And, of course, I have been fighting for that since early 2006 when I, at my State of the State speech, talked about that we must rebuild California, if it's our transportation system, if it is our schools, if it's our levees, affordable housing, prisons, all of this needs to be rebuilt. And all of this has been accomplished over these last few years. The only piece of the puzzle that was missing was this one here, was water infrastructure. So this is why I'm so excited that today we are signing some of those bills, two of those bills right here and we're happy that everyone worked together.
I also want to point out to you that Karen Bass, our speaker, has been such an outstanding leader on this whole thing. She was in my office day after day after day and working very hard from morning to night, late, at midnight and worked tirelessly and has become an authority on the water issue. And it was wonderful to work with her, so let's give her a big hand for the great job that she has done also on the water infrastructure. (Applause)
Now, this water infrastructure consists of five bills, two of which I'm going to sign here today and let me just go through some of the important points here.
* The lynchpin, of course, is the $11 billion bond. That is $11 billion that will leverage another $30 billion, so altogether this is a $40 billion project. So it's important for people to know not to call this an $11 billion but a $40 billion project; $11 billion is the bonds but the rest of it is leveraged, it's local money and it is federal money that we are going to get. So this is a huge, huge undertaking. And what we get for that and what is part of that, is below-the-ground and above-the-ground water storage and also the canal and fixing the Delta, fixing its ecosystem.
* And what is very important here in this whole thing is also that we are tackling conservation. We made a commitment that we require 20 percent of reductions per capita water consumption by the year 2020. And as you know, California is very good when we make a commitment about consumption. We have seen it in energy. You know, in the last 30 years we have not increased our energy use per capita. And really, I think, we are leaders in that. We are more energy efficient by 40 percent when you compare it to the rest of the nation. So we will do the same thing also with water.
* And we will also crack down on those who illegally take water, which happens many times here in California. So we will monitor also, of course, groundwater, just like we have monitored surface water.
* And we are very determined to clean up our groundwater once and for all, because as you know -- and this is one of the bills that I'm going to sign here later on -- we have a major, major problem. Millions of southern Californians depend on groundwater from the Los Angeles basin but the problem here is that some of the groundwater is contaminated with chemicals and pollutants such as perchlorate and hexachrome. Now this, just to make sure that you understand what that means, this causes liver and kidney damage, testicle cancer, infertility, miscarriages and the list goes on and on and on. And this is why we fought until the last minute to make sure that we get enough money not just to build the infrastructure but to clean our groundwater once and for all, not only in Los Angeles but all over the state of California.
So this is where this money is going. (Applause) And I want to have the action not only here in Los Angeles; like is said, all across this state.
Now, the important thing I want to mention in the end is, even though great work was done but now is the second half and that is the people have to approve those bonds. The people, we need the people's approval. Now, the people have been great partners in the past. They have approved the bonds in 2006, the have approved just last year the bonds for the high-speed rail.
So they understand the difference between spending -- because we don't want to spend more but we want to invest in the future of California -- and this is the best investment that we can have. And this is why I want to urge the people to look at that…
So with that I want to say thank you to all of you and I want to bring up our next speaker, which is 'The Speaker,' Speaker Karen Bass. Please welcome her. (Applause)
SPEAKER BASS: Thank you very much, Governor, for your leadership in this issue and your leadership overall in the rebuilding of California's infrastructure, whether we are talking about water, the roads, high-speed rail but what you have done over the years, laying the basis for a new California that will be prepared to accommodate 50 million Californians over the next 20 years.
As the Governor mentioned, Assemblymember Huffman, who took the lead in the State Assembly, along with Anna Caballero, who were our lead negotiators on the Democratic side and the effort that they did in pulling this package together, that actually began over a year ago. I want to acknowledge and thank Senator Cedillo for the work that he did as the chair of the Latino Caucus, (Applause) in pulling all of the members together to make sure that we were able to have the votes we needed to pass the bond.
On the Republican side in the Assembly we had Assemblymember Jean Fuller and also Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, who provided the expertise to allow us to have bipartisan cooperation to pass the measures as well as the bond. I'm also joined by Assemblymember Mike Feuer, who was the author of one of the bills for conservation and played a vital role throughout this entire effort; Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield; Assemblymember Kevin de Leon, who we will hear from next; Assemblymember Audra Strickland and Assemblymember Anthony Adams, who are all joining us here today to celebrate this historic day.
For me personally -- (Applause) Thank you. Oh, I see I'm also joined by Senator Dean Florez, Assemblymember Paul Krekorian and Assemblymember Steve Bradford, the newest member of the State Assembly. (Applause)
For me personally, the passage of the bills after a 22-hour session on Tuesday -- where we lost track of which day of the week it was, frankly -- really represents the fulfillment of a commitment that I made when I was sworn in as speaker last May and we established a working group within the Assembly. Right away I went to the Central Valley and for the first time -- two Assembly members invited me there -- and for the first time I was able to see the conditions of the farm workers. And I was surprised that I was in California, I frankly felt like I was in a third world country. For me, that began my commitment to really want to see this package come together as it did on Tuesday.
I've always been proud to have been born and raised in Los Angeles and I'm very proud of the fact that Los Angeles, under the leadership of Mayor Villaraigosa, has led the way for the state in conservation. And so I think, after all of our years in the Assembly and after all of the years of wanting to have a comprehensive package of legislation on water, we accomplished that. And to know that it was the first time in a half century that such a comprehensive package was approved, I feel we have taken an extremely important first step.
But, as the Governor said, this is just the first step. The challenge begins now to make sure that we can keep our state together, whether we are talking about northern California, southern California, the rural areas, the urban areas, all of the different sectors in our state that have historically fought over this issue, that came together with their representative the other day and passed this comprehensive package. We will begin our journey to make sure that Californians, number one, understand how vital this legislation is, understand how vital the Delta is and that right now the Delta, in its current condition, is a potential Katrina for California if there is a major earthquake. So we have a lot of work ahead of us to do. We have to educate Californians and we have to prepare to put this on the ballot and make sure that it passes and we can begin to rebuild the water infrastructure in the state of California.
Thank you very much. And now let me proudly introduce Assemblymember Kevin de Leon, who is the author of one of the bills that will be signed today. Thank you. (Applause)
ASSEMBLYMEMBER DE LEON: Good morning. First of all, I'd like to thank the Governor for his dogged determination to reach an historic deal and to bring our decaying water system into the 21st century. I know it's been said on several occasions but I do want to say this one more time because I can't say it enough. Our Speaker of the California State Assembly, Ms. Karen Bass, it was her leadership, because one thing is getting the policy intact and trying to find consensus among Democrats as well as Republicans. As you know, the Democratic caucus is not a monolithic caucus, there are many different points of view. But it was her leadership in the wee hours of the morning who brought this all together. And again, I just cannot emphasize, again, her leadership and her skill set in forging a common cause among all the legislators, Republican or Democrat. So let's give an applause one more time in recognition for our Speaker Karen Bass. (Applause)
And one last note and in special recognition, I would like to give a recognition also to the Latino Caucus. If it were not for the Latino Caucus, quite frankly, we wouldn't be here today. Under the leadership of Senator Gil Cedillo, who helped tremendously in both sides of the Houses, I want to give a special recognition to the Latino Caucus also too. (Applause)
We've been fighting for water for over 60 years, about what to do with this very polemic and polarizing issue while. In the meantime, our water delivery infrastructure has deteriorated and our population has exploded, leaving that crumbling system incapable of keeping up with the water demands of our state. Simply put, we need to modernize our water systems and recognize the need to make great strides in conserving water.
This is what Mike Feuer's bill was all about. Every drop of water that goes unaccounted is simply a drop of water that is lost and is lost forever. We can't make it rain in California, so storage alone won't solve our drought problems. Therefore we must stretch our resources, our existing resources, further for the good. This groundbreaking package of water reforms does just that. With a growing economy and a fragile ecosystem, a fragile watershed on the verge of collapse, California needs to fix its leaking faucet.
Now, to put this in context, it's estimated that around 1,800 in-Delta farmers take up to 8 percent of fresh water flows from the Delta. That's about 2 million acre-feet. An acre-foot is measured about 325,900 gallons -- that's enough to fill one acre up to a depth of one foot -- that's 650 billion gallons of water a year. Not million gallons but 650 billion gallons a year. The bottom line is no one knows how much water is being illegally diverted from that fragile watershed; it could be millions of gallons, it could be billions of gallons.
But that's why, through the leadership of Madam Speaker Karen Bass, the Governor and my colleagues Mike Feuer and Mr. Jared Huffman, we have put together this package. My piece will measure exactly who is taking water and by how much. To put this in context -- so I can finalize my comments, to put this in context -- the entire southern California economy -- that is Los Angeles County, Ventura County, Orange County, San Diego County, Riverside County as well as San Bernardino County -- we purchase up to 4 percent of water flow from the Delta. That's equivalent to roughly about 1 million acre-feet and that is about half, about 325 billion gallons of water. We purchase this in a legal manner. Now we can find out who is taking water above and beyond their permit. It will help California as a whole. That's 18 million people, that's half of the state, southern California's economy, in comparison to 1,800 in-Delta farmers.
So therefore, again, this is a package of reforms that ensures we know exactly who is diverting water from the Delta illegally and by how much. It has taken us decades to get where we are today. Many thought it was impossible. But through the leadership, again, of the Governor, of Karen Bass as well as Darrell Steinberg and the great courage of Anna Caballero and Jared Huffman and Mike Feuer and other colleagues, we will know be able to serve California's needs in a much better fashion. Thank you very much. (Applause)
It is my pleasure and honor now to introduce the mayor of the second largest city of California, of my hometown, that is Jerry Sanders. (Applause)
MAYOR SANDERS: Well, today is a great day for California and it's a great day for a lot of reasons. This is a historic accord that our legislature and our Governor have put together and I admire their courage and I admire the fact that they stood together to do this.
But it's even a greater day, because I think the people all over California have seen our legislature and our Governor and a lot of other folks work together very closely on an issue that affects every single one of us every day. So I wanted to especially thank the Governor, he has led on this and the Speaker and all of our Assembly and Senate leaders that are up here. It's really heartening for all of us to see all of you working together so hard on such a difficult issue.
I also want to congratulate Mayor Villaraigosa. I'm sorry he left, I was going to ask him what part of Austria, which is where I thought you were from, is in Los Angeles, (Laughter) because I'm not sure the Governor, although we love him, is a California native. But Antonio, in his zeal to let all of know how much he likes us, has told all of us we're the best and now he's claimed the Governor for his very own. (Laughter)
I'd also like to thank Mayor Swearengin from Fresno, who has been on this all along. And we have had had a lot of help from a lot of people. In San Diego the realization to us, with the biotech and the high-tech and life sciences, is water is life to San Diego. We literally couldn't exist at the end of the pipeline with the economy that we've been able to build in all of those areas that are so important to everybody in the world. And that's the reason I am so pleased about this landmark legislation.
And I wanted to finish up by just thanking all the people that are standing behind me, once again, for their tremendous leadership. (Applause)
And now I'd like to introduce Paul Rodriguez, who I understand might even tell a joke or two, I don't know.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: That's going to hard, following you. (Laughter) A lot of you are wondering what I'm doing here but I'll tell you, not Deukmejian, not Reagan, not Wilson, not even Gray has been able to do this. This has been the holy grail of all the governors. Since Pat Brown none of this has happened. It's really a momentous moment here. We would like to thank Governor Schwarzenegger, as everybody does.
Some of you are wondering, what the hell am I doing here? I ask that myself. I farm a little outside of Fresno and when the water problem became very acute we got together, a bunch of us formed the Latino Water Coalition and figured out what we can do.
We found a friend in Sacramento. The Governor was able to use his muscle, both figuratively and metaphorically, to wrangle these people together. And this is historic legislation and I think there will be something that this will truly be -- he will be remembered. I think we're going to name one of the dams after you. It's going to be a big dam, Schwarzenegger Dam. I can see it now. (Laughter)
We started to lobby, the Latino Water Coalition -- by the way, you don't have to be Latino to join, you just need $5. (Laughter) Very easy membership. One of our members is Caucasian, we use him as a co-signer. (Laughter)
We got together, we lobbied the 26 Latinos of the Latino Caucus and got them together. This is a group that you couldn't get them to agree on lunch but when it came down to it water was important, so important they got together. And we're very, very proud of all of the members of the House and the Assembly. We're very happy to be part of this day.
And a person I should remember that's not here, really responsible for the Latino Water Coalition, is Mario Santoyo. He's the guy that really put it together and I just commend him.
And I'd like to now introduce Mr. Jeffery Kightlinger. (Applause)
MR. KIGHTLINGER: Thank you very much. Three years ago the Metropolitan Water District Board Of Directors made a couple of commitments and they were led by Chairman Tim Brick, who is over here and I want to thank him for all of his work on this. Chairman Brick, thank you. (Applause)
We made two commitments, not more water out of northern California but more reliable water out of northern California and our board of directors also committed to ecosystem restoration in the Delta. And from that commitment came a coalition of environmental groups, water agencies, business, labor and cities and much broader than just water districts. If it were just water districts we wouldn't be here today. And so we were able to put this together with a broad collation for all of California and this is a great moment for us to be here.
There is one person I want to thank. Obviously, we have to thank the Governor. It was his determination for years now to do this. Speaker Bass, who worked so hard on this and all of the legislators. But one person really pushed this hard and worked with us from the beginning and that was our President pro Tem of the Senate Darrel Steinberg, who comes from the Sacramento area. And many of his constituents -- (Applause). Every time I'd go up to Sacramento they'd say, "Why are you working to send water around to southern California?"
And he said, "Because California needs it."
So thank you much, it's a great day to be here. I'm now going to introduce Gary Toebben, the head of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. Gary? (Applause)
MR. TOEBBEN: Well, on behalf of the millions of businesses in the state of California I want to thank the Governor, Speaker Bass, the distinguished members of the Senate and the Assembly who are here today for their leadership on this monumental legislation. I also speak on behalf of the millions of employees who work for those businesses and for their children and their grandchildren, because you have provided jobs for them in the future.
The state of California is blessed with an abundance of rainfall and snowmelt in most years, so much that the majority of our water ends up flowing into the Pacific Ocean. But the leadership that you displayed this last week will allow us to store more rainfall and snowmelt during the wet seasons, it will stabilize the flow of water during dry seasons. It will conserve water in our homes and our businesses and in our fields. It will recycle more water to use it over and over again and it will restore the environmental integrity of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
We thank each of you for your leadership and we look forward to working with you to pass that bond measure one year from today. Thank you very much. (Applause)
And it's now my pleasure to introduce Pankaj Parekh, who is with the city of Los Angeles and he is the Director of Water Quality for the city of L.A. (Applause)
MR. PAREKH: Thank you very much for this opportunity, Governor, to address this crowd. I can't help but start with something I learned in Africa many years back. There is a saying there that says, "When elephants fight, the grass dies." And it is wonderful to see the elephants resting to give a chance for the grass to grow again. So it's awesome.
You are all standing on perhaps one of the most extensive aquifers around in southern California. There are close to a million people that could be served from this aquifer every year. It is a jewel for our city. It's tarnished. Over the years we have had some careless industrial, perhaps ignorant use, on top of the aquifer and it has resulted in blemishing our aquifer. We need help cleaning it up. We are working very closely with EPA, Department of Public Health, the Regional Board, as many state offices as we have to, to try to clean up these sites.
But we also need to do something ourselves. Cleaning up the sites is not enough. The plume spreads and it has begun to affect our production wealth that we have to an extent that in 10 years, if we don't do something about this, we won't be able to use a single drop out of this aquifer. So we need it now and this is momentous for us. We really, really are thankful for what you have achieved for us and the leadership of the state.
We are studying the latest technologies for purification. This site is an example of it; behind you, you see a whole bunch of different industrial products and machinery and a complex to look at the best ways to treat this water. We want it to be cost efficient, we want it to be clean and we want it to be green. And that's our purpose and we're going to do that.
You know, our mayor has had a great vision. He wants us to be self-reliant, self-sustainable. This is our mission. We believe in it and we want to do it now and everything you have done is going to go a long, long ways in helping us get that started. So thank you very much, sir, thank you very much, leadership of California. We appreciate it. (Applause)
And at this time I'd like to introduce Mr. Danny Curtin, who is the director of the California Conference of Carpenters. (Applause)
MR. CURTIN: Hey, thank you very much. And for all of you who are wondering, I am the last speaker. So I'll take a little while but not too long.
I have the great honor, once again, of being at an event like this but this one is one of the most impressive I've been to in a long time. I represent the Carpenters Union. I'm always proud to have my Carpenter representatives here; they've been in this fight every step of the way. (Applause) We have representatives of the workers in this facility as well, from the Department of Water and Power.
So on behalf of the working people in California I want to thank everybody here. By extension, on behalf of the people who are raising their families in California, who all have to work for a living in one capacity or another, I want to thank everybody here for doing what they did. The last speaker laid it out pretty well on a technical level. Without action soon we're going to be in tremendous trouble, not just with the drought but with the underground aquifers. This passage of this legislation is historic in many, many ways but it's timely as well.
I want to specifically -- as the Governor said, the old saying is whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting. I want to specifically and especially thank the Speaker for the incredible leadership but not just the leadership. I mean, you're not in Sacramento most of the time. On any given issue to get two-thirds vote is almost impossible. To get a majority vote is not always easy. As Kevin de Leon said, the caucus doesn't always agree and a majority vote would be just Democrats. It's like herding cats. You pick up a couple here and they said something -- with teeth, yeah. Well, cats, some cats, are pretty big. So it slips and it slides. And putting this particular package together was very, very impressive.
And Karen Bass is so dignified in the process. She's so gracious about the way she operates. And I have to tell you, it's a very, very important characteristic in Sacramento and it's not a very widely utilized talent in Sacramento. Dignity and graciousness in the middle of this fighting, especially after 22 hours, where people were slaphappy from not getting any sleep and everybody was angry and oh my God, it's going to fall apart. Very, very impressive. Calm demeanor, dignified, gracious. It really brings a statement to the institution itself and I really want to personally thank you very much for that. (Applause)
This issue, as everybody has said, almost defies coming together. I mean, there are north/south issues, there's the coast and the inland issues, there's urban/rural disagreements, there's labor/management disagreements. And I just want to say I've been with Gary Toebben on this issue so many times and other infrastructure issues, some of my friends are beginning to talk about us, Gary. So I think it's a good thing, labor and management and really, with the leadership of this Governor, it's become a regular happening.
But there's another development also. Senate/Assembly, there are differences among the Senate and the Assembly, just the same parties. But most importantly, to bring the Democrats and Republicans together. This group behind us is too rare. And I'm not saying that anybody individually is responsible. America has been split down the middle on so many issues they call it the Blue/Red Divide. This overcame all of those issues. Conservatives, liberals, everybody got together and worked this one out.
But I do want to say especially for the Governor, there's a phrase -- and by the way, this is hard to believe but I'm going to resort, or refer, to a proverb from the Bible. Again, anybody who knows me, this is a magnificent accomplishment, if I have to dig into this, because it's not normally my style. "Where there is no vision the people perish." And I have to say that the Governor, on this issue particularly -- not just this issue and we could go into a variety of them -- but he has never wavered from one absolutely critical element of this issue. It must be comprehensive, that was his mantra, not just a portion of the fix.
And every member back here has certain representations that they need. Groundwater cleanup, groundwater storage, surface storage, environmental concerns, you've heard the litany. It's easy to get one piece and put a working majority together. It's very hard to say we need it all and put a two-thirds majority together that holds through a variety of these issues.
And I believe it was the Governor's vision initially that kept everybody on that focus so that everybody knew they couldn't pick their piece off and run with it and get it done and move on and we'll worry about the next piece later. So I do want to say, once again, thank you very much for that vision.
There is one little corollary I want to say. Not only, "Without vision the people will perish," without water the people will perish. Everybody back here came together to help solve that problem.
I'm really looking forward once again, on another critical issue, you name, it, to being at an event like this with a group like this, because that's what we need to move California forward. We're not the blue or the red California, we're the golden California, as the Governor has said and this is what makes it that way. (Applause)
Now, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to bring you back up or just have the pleasure --
GOVERNOR: No, we're going to sign the bills.
MR. CURTIN: We're going to sign the bills. I have the honor of announcing that.
SPEAKER BASS: But actually, before we go to sign the bills -- we've already mentioned Senator Steinberg but I just wanted to take another moment, because I think he should be mentioned again. He worked absolutely tirelessly on this issue and anybody that has been around him over the last few months knows that this was front and center to everything that he was doing.
But he did that, though, in the face of tremendous opposition from his own constituents. Every day this week when we drove into the Capitol we'd drive into the parking lot and there were banners there attacking him, from his own constituents, saying that they didn't want to see any water deal happen at all.
So I just want to compliment his leadership. He wasn't able to be here today but the work that he put in always needs to be acknowledged.
Thank you. Now we can go to the bill signing. (Applause)
GOVERNOR: I think that the Speaker is right. Sometimes we forget those that are not here. And, you know, I think that Senator Steinberg is one of them and he has done an extraordinary job. And I also want to say thank you so much to Senator Hollingsworth --
SPEAKER BASS: Yes.
GOVERNOR: -- and to Assemblyman Blakeslee.
SPEAKER BASS: Yes, that's right. That's right.
GOVERNOR: Because they are not here, so we don't think about them.
SPEAKER BASS: Absolutely.
GOVERNOR: And then Senator Cogdill. There were, like I said earlier, there are so many that worked tirelessly on this whole thing and I think we want to recognize their work and say thank you to them. Thank you. (Applause)
(Bills signed, applause)
GOVERNOR: Are there any questions about any of this? I think that you have heard what this is about. I think that you've also gotten the marching orders to make sure to go and talk about it, to make sure that we pass the bonds. Are there any questions? Thank you very much and you all have a good day.
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