FORMER TOP ATTORNEY FOR CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME IMPLICATED IN CALIFORNIA PARKS DEPARTMENT HIDDEN ASSETS SCANDAL

ON AUGUST 2, 2012. POSTED IN EXPOSE, LATEST NEWS

Sacramento, California — In the wake of the financial scandal over hidden budget assets that continues to spread to other California departments, California Department of Parks and Recreation (Parks Department)’s chief legal counsel, Ann Malcolm has resigned.

Malcolm is a career government employee, and spent more than twenty years in the Natural Resources Agency. Her departure is the most recent fallout of a broadening investigation by the Attorney General’s Office into a coverup involving a $54 million hidden budget surplus that had not been reported to the Department of Finance for at least 12 years. Since the scandal was uncovered and reported by the Sacramento Bee on July 20, 2012, the Parks Department Director resigned and the Chief Deputy Director was fired. Malcolm is the most recent senior official to leave the Parks Department.

Malcolm was formerly General Counsel for the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG). She worked in the Legal Department for the DFG since 1989, and was appointed General Counsel to the DFG in 2005.

Malcolm’s removal from the DFG in 2010 was also suspicious. Many speculated that she was removed from the DFG because of her extreme “environmentalist” advocacy. Her bias may have proven to be too problematic for the California Delta water policy issues that were being addressed at that time.

While serving as General Counsel for the DFG, Malcolm pushed for lead ammunition bans under DFG’s regulatory authority over hunting. She was very involved in the DFG regulations passed as a result of Assembly Bill (AB) 821, otherwise known as the “Condor Zone” lead ammunition ban.

Anti-lead ammunition proponents zealously pushed for the lead ammunition ban, using “faulty science” to support their agenda. In fact, AB 821 was predicated and passed on its proponents’ assurances that hunters’ lead ammunition was the cause of lead related poisoning and mortality of California condors. The public was told that the science regarding the alleged nexus between hunters’ lead ammunition and lead poisoning in California condors was well established. Additionally, the public and the legislature were told that the adoption of the AB 821 lead ammunition ban could not wait for the DFG to independently study the science behind the issue. Legislators were told that, in order to save the condors, AB 821 had to be implemented immediately on an emergency basis, and so took the issue away from the DFG by passing AB 821. As a result of AB 821, lead ammunition is now banned for hunting and recreational shooing in the “Condor Zone.”

The lead ammunition ban, however, has failed. Since the ban went into effect, lead poisoning and mortality in condors has actually increased. In spite of this, anti-lead ammunition proponents are pushing the DFG to expand the lead ammunition ban to upland game hunting in State Wildlife Areas and Ecological Reserves, and for depredation hunts.

Unfortunately, our traditional hunting heritage is under assault on many fronts from several lead ammunition ban proponents. Malcolm is only one of many individuals with a preconceived environmental agenda who have infiltrated and obtained influential positions in our federal, state, county and local agencies, that are suppose to serve their constituency (i.e the DFG and hunters). Our regulatory agencies have been captured by lead ban proponents and the like-minded politicians, regulators and bureaucrats that have hijacked the means and the authority over the regulations that govern ordinary people such as California hunters and recreational shooters.

To combat the misguided efforts by environmental activists and researchers seeking to infringe on hunting and shooting sports regulations, the NRA and California Rifle and Pistol Association Foundation (CRPAF) have collected tens of thousands of documents via public records act requests over the last several years on the use of lead ammunition. Many of these documents raise serious doubts about the veracity of claims that lead ammunition is poisoning California condors, wildlife or humans. In fact, many documents obtained indicate that these claims are based on “faulty science,” and the NRA and the CRPAF have used these documents to debunk the “faulty science” being used to implement various lead ammunition bans across the U.S. The NRA’s efforts are critical in defending the status quo for hunters and recreational shooters nationwide.