Local Action

League of Women Voters^®
San Diego County Inter-League Organization

Local Action discussing matters of San Diego County interest

Food Stamps. Food Stamps. End Hunger. Water Quality. Sunrise Powerlink.

ESTABLISH AN EASIER APPLICATION PROCESS FOR FOOD STAMPS

Another County League letter has been presented to the San Diego County BOS for the Food Stamps program.
April 21, 2009
Re: Agenda Item # 7 - April 21st meeting

Dear Supervisors,
The League of Women Voters of San Diego County wrote you a few weeks ago concerning the food stamp program. See attached page.
We agree with the Caring Council and SPIN that the efforts you have made thus far are baby steps in the right direction, but we need much more. Further evaluation needs to be done on the plan and we therefore agree that the vote today should be postponed until the SPIN study is released and evaluated further by your offices and groups interested in this important poverty issue.
We strongly urge you to make food stamps more easily available to those in need. It is a program where everyone benefits, beginning with those in need as more and more workers are being laid off from their jobs and children and adults are hungry. Businesses benefit from the use of the stamps thus supporting the need for more workers in retail operations. .
Food stamp fraud is not the issue that it was at one time. Economists have also said that food stamps are an efficient way to stimulate our economy.
We must make the application for food stamps an easier process and urge you to further ensure that persons who are unable to work, whose earnings are inadequate or for whom jobs are not available have the right to food, shelter and access to health care.
Nancy McClery Co-President
Kay Ragan Co-President
LWV Inter League Organization Representing East County, Escondido, North Coast, and San Diego City

IMPROVE 2009 SAN DIEGO COUNTY STAMPS ISSUE

In January the LWV County League board decided to participate with the Caring Council organization to make food stamps more accessible to county residents who need them. The League action is based on the LWVUS Social Policy position- Meeting Basic Human Needs. A letter was sent to the San Diego County BOS February 6 regarding the Food Stamps program enrollment procedures in San Diego County. The letter expressed that effective social programs should be designed to prevent or reduce poverty.
February 6, 2009
RE: The Food Stamp Program enrollment procedures in San Diego County

Dear Supervisors, The League of Women Voters believes that one of the goals of social policy should be to promote self-sufficiency for individuals and families and that the most effective social programs are those designed to prevent or reduce poverty. Persons who are unable to work, whose earnings are inadequate or for whom jobs are not available have the right to an income and/or services sufficient to meet their basic needs for food, shelter and access to health care. The federal government set up the SNAP program and bears primary responsibility for financing the program to help meet the basic food needs of poor families. The secondary role played by state and local governments, along with the private sector, in financing the food supplement program in San Diego County has been shown to be an embarrassment for San Diego by showing us as dead last in enrolling eligible residents.
The League believes eligibility should be established through simplified procedures such as declaration of need, spot checked in a manner similar to that used in checking the validity of income tax returns. The privacy of participants should be protected. All administrative procedures should be conducted with respect for the rights and dignity of the individuals.
The California state policy requiring participants to prove their eligibility every three months is beyond the pale in its stupidity. Nutrition advocates say the eligibility could be determined only twice a year and would save administrative costs as well as easing the burden on applicants with transportation and other hardships. When people in San Diego County go to apply for food supplements they are too often made to feel as though they are almost criminals for being there. The effort to stop fraud is so unreasonable and complicated that many needy people just give up and suffer in silence.
The deep recession has increased the numbers now enrolled, but San Diego County has a long way to go. The League urges you move quickly to provide application assistance in places that low-income people are likely to visit, including community clinics and food pantries. San Diego Hunger Coalition and the San Diego City Schools are looking at how the food stamp enrollment can be done on school sites with high numbers of low income families. Trained volunteers would screen parents, answer questions, and fill out paperwork. Those school children who already qualify for free and reduced district meals are a good place to start. And their parents are comfortable going to their neighborhood school site. The BOS should work with these community efforts to improve enrollment and preserve the dignity of our less fortunate neighbors.
Nancy McClery Co-President
Kay Ragan Co-President
LWV Inter League Organization Representing East County, Escondido, North Coast, and San Diego City

End Hunger

Find Out What You Can Do to End Hunger in San Diego County As reported to LWV San Diego County June 20, 2009 By Bill Oswald from Caring Council

There is hunger amidst plenty in San Diego County.
San Diego County fails to use available resources to address hunger
31% participation rate makes San Diego worst urban area in the nation in use of food stamps.
2 million hungry households in California = about 6 million persons including almost 1 million in San Diego County
Most of these people are children under 18 yrs old
49% of all children will be eligible for food stamps before they reach 18 yrs old
31% of eligible families receive food stamps
Barriers to receiving food stamps in San Diego County
1. Application process can be complex, intrusive, humiliating, and confusing
2. Average applicant must make 5 trips
3. Every adult in household must be fingerprinted
4. Homes subjected to search by Fraud Inspector from District Attorney's office
5. Many potential applicants are verbally denied applications thus preventing them from applying
San Diego is known for using excessive anti-fraud activities that have been identified as costly and ineffective by State Auditor
County loses $135,872,689.00 yearly because 180,000 eligible San Diegans do not receive food stamps
1. $1.00 of Food Stamps generates $1.84 in economic activity
2. $1.00 of Food Stamps generates up to $.47 spent in a grocery store
3. $1.00 of Food Stamps generates $2.25 in local taxes
A loss of $135,872,689.00 in food stamps translates into:
1. A loss to the San Diego economy of $250,057,748.00
2. A loss of up to $63,601,164.00 to grocery stores in the county
3. A loss of approximately $3,057,135.00 in tax revenue to the state
4. A loss of approximately $1,375,710.00 in tax revenue to the county

If the food stamp program helps families in time of need, contributes significantly to the local economy, and does not create a financial burden for the county..... Then why does the County make it so difficult for people to get the help they need?????
What can I do to help?
Write to your County Supervisor. This Sample Letter can be used or another with your own words.
Dear Supervisor_______________________________________

I am writing to express my concern over the extremely low rate of participation in the food stamps/SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] program in San Diego County. As I am sure you know, at 30%, San Diego is among the worst in the nation for participation in the food stamps/SNAP program. You may also know that San Diego County violates the law by failing to process food stamps/SNAP applications within the 30 days required by the state at an alarmingly high rate. The county's noncompliance rate is consistently 5 to 7 times high than the State average [the noncompliance rate for March 2009 was 48%].

The low participation rate and the high noncompliance rate results in over 180,000 people not getting the support they need to feed their families. It also means that the County loses over $135 million a year in food stamps which translates to a loss of over $250 million a year in economic activity, $63 million a year in business for grocery stores in the county, and $1.3 million in additional taxes for the County. By failing to administer this program efficiently we not only hurt people in need [most of whom are children], we hurt the entire County.

I urge you to review the study of Hunger and Food Stamps by Supportive Parents Information Network [SPIN] and the Caring Council. I further urge you to implement the recommendations of that study, particularly:

Remove unnecessary barriers to food stamps/SNAP a. Stop Project 100% b. Apply to the State for a waiver to stop fingerprinting

Invest the resources necessary for the efficient delivery of services a. Reduce Eligibility Technicians caseloads b. Increase Family Resource Center hours to include weekends and evenings c. Reduce face-to-face interviews and increase the number of phone interviews

Humanize the application process a. Minimize the searches at the entrance and remove the bullet proof glass b. Reduce the wait time in Family Resource Centers to under one hour c. Require independent assessments of customer service on a regular basis

Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,

Water Quality

LWV OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY
4901 MORENA BLVD. SUITE 104
SAN DIEGO, CA 92117

Board Members California Regional Water Quality Control Board San Diego Region
9174 Sky Park Court, Suite 100
San Diego, Ca 92123-4340

RE: Tentative Order No.R9-2009-004

Dear Board Members,
The League of Women Voters of San Diego County includes the LWV of San Diego, LWV of North Coast, LWV of East County and LWV of Escondido. We are concerned that an adoption of Tentative Order No. R9-2009-004 would not be in the best interests of San Diego County. Water is a significant vital resource for our County.
The Gregory Canyon Landfill would be built on a valuable and irreplaceable fractured rock aquifer. The vital water resources in Gregory Canyon provide crucial beneficial use to local residents and municipalities located near the proposed project. Building a landfill adjacent to the San Luis Rey River would create a significant threat to the water quality and create human health risk.
The League supports the public right to know the potentially harmful effects of substances that they could encounter in their home, workplace and community. The Gregory Canyon's groundwater includes hazardous waste. There is also a potential impact of water contamination by toxins such as lead, pesticides, and mercury from batteries, old thermometers, and compact fluorescent lamps and bulbs.
If the Tentative Order is approved, the landfill will forever remain a threat to valuable water resources that are increasingly scarce. The LWV of SD County urges the California Regional Water Quality Control Board not to adopt the Tentative Order for the Gregory Canyon Landfill.

Sincerely,
Nancy McCleary, Co-President
League of Women Voters of San Diego County
1003 Moana Drive
San Diego, CA 92107

SUNRISE POWERLINK PROJECT

April 7, 2008
Dian Grueneich, Commissioner California Public Utilities Commission 505 Van Ness San Francisco, CA 94102
RE: COMMENTS ON SDGE'S SUNRISE POWERLINK PROJECT
Dear Commissioner Grueneich:
The League of Women Voters of San Diego County strongly urges that the CPUC, if it decides that a new transmission line is absolutely necessary, give greater weight to the proposed LEAPS transmission project, which would be shorter, much less expensive, and cost ratepayers less, creating fewer impacts on our environment. We, in addition, strongly oppose all of the proposed transmission line routes that would run through the Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
In 1975 the League of Women Voters of the United States adopted a position supporting the establishment of a national energy policy that includes conservation. The California League's recent update of the State Energy position under Resource Adequacy states:" regulatory and planning agencies, as well as the energy providers, should give primary consideration to conservation and energy efficiency. State regulation and planning should also address the critical need for demand-side management of peak power requirements including real-time pricing."
League positions include planning for Transmission Lines but specify that: "The state should implement an integrated energy planning process that establishes consistent statewide procedures for the set-aside of land that will be needed for future transmission corridors and other associated energy infrastructure, in compliance with California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements", which would preclude SDG&E from running new lines through The Anza Borrega State Park.
Based on these positions the County League assumes a regional public interest leadership role on energy issues. Therefore the League of Women Voters of San Diego County offers the following comments:
The LWV supports the State's Energy Action Plan loading order. Its largest chapter, the League of Women Voters of the City of San Diego, voted to support the current San Diego Association of Government's (SANDAG's) Regional Energy Strategy, calling for increasing the amount of in-basin energy resources to meet the area's growing peak demand instead of depending on fossil fuel power imported from far away regions.
The LWV San Diego County urges the CPUC to join its sister state agency, the California Coastal Commission, in protecting dedicated state park lands in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park on the same grounds that the commission applied to reject a proposed new toll freeway that would have negatively impacted the San Onofre Beach State Park. The Commission found that preserving and protecting dedicated state parks is a higher priority than new toll road projects, a position we supported.
LWV joins the California State Parks Foundation in opposing any incursion of the proposed Sunrise transmission project that would for the first time violate existing constitutional and legislative provisions that protect state parks for our children and theirs. Transmission towers are not only unsightly in a desert state park, but we fear that additional lines into the area would only increase our vulnerability to wildfires that periodically decimate our region, as they did last October.
LWV has concerns over the viability of SDG&E's long term power purchase contract with Sterling Energy Systems, and the whole question of "pie in the sky" renewable contracts that the utilities have signed with contractors that have not met the provisions outlined in those contracts.
LWV thinks that, as part of this proceeding, the CPUC should seriously consider viable regional alternatives like the "Smart Energy 2020" proposal put forward by the Sierra Club, and recognize the public's preference for increased in-basin generation resources, including more renewables and customer distributed generation, as called for in SANDAG's Regional Energy Strategy.
We note that SB 1039 (Kehoe) requires the CPUC and the local utility exhaust all viable and cost effective energy efficiency, demand response, renewable energy and customer distributed generation alternatives within the region before considering new fossil fuel generation and associated transmission projects. LWV believes the CPUC should abide by these aforementioned directives.
LWV is concerned that the proposed Sunrise transmission project would require opening our back country to more new roads, increasing the energy footprint and making more sprawl development in the rural areas of our county inevitable.
We urge the Commission to use this proceeding to take the opportunity to be more innovative, earth friendly as well as bottom line oriented for its consumers, instead of allowing SDG&E to continue pursuing traditional transmission grid expansion practices focused on short term economic gain for the company.
Respectfully,
Nancy Mc Cleary, President League of Women Voters of San Diego County
CC: CPUC President Michael Peevey
Administrative Law Judge Steven Weissman

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