FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, September 6, 2013
Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546;
steve@hopcraft.com; Twitter: @shopcraft
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053; barbara@restorethedelta.org;
Twitter: @RestoretheDelta
Brown Administration Bars News Media from Public meeting on Delta Residents’ Tunnels Concerns
Sacramento, CA- Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build Peripheral Tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today blasted the Brown Administration for barring members of the news media from recording a public meeting to answer Delta residents’ questions and concerns about the project. RTD released a video shot by a business reporter who attended the BDCP “office hours” the Brown Administration held at the Brentwood Library on September 3rd. The “office hours” were public meetings advertised as an opportunity to get answers to Delta landowners’ concerns.
Central Valley Business Times reporter Gene Beley joined local residents at the Brentwood Library public meeting and was told that no press was allowed, even though it was a public agency in a public setting. Beley stayed and attempted to record the questions and answers in order to report them to the Delta business and landowners who comprise the publication’s audience.
“The video demonstrates extreme steps the Brown Administration is taking to avoid accountability for their lack of answers to simple questions from residents whose farms, homes and communities would be harmed by this boondoggle,” said RTD Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla. “First, they confiscate our opposition signs, then they bar the media from reporting on public meetings; their next step is condemning and seizing our land to benefit a few mega-growers.”
The video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X75_29xUiGc.