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RESOLUTION NO. 76-26 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA URGING THE GOVERNOR AND THE MEMBERS OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE TO RETAIN THE COLORADO RIVER BOARD IN SUBSTANTIALLY ITS PRESENT FORM WHEREAS, the Colorado River Board of California was established by the State Legislature in 1937 to protect California's rights to water and power resources of the Colorado River; and WHEREAS, this action by the Legislature was taken in recog- nition of the great dependence on the resources of the river of the six public agencies represented on the board and their citizens, these agencies being the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the San Diego County Water Authority, the Coachella Valley County Water District, the Imperial Irrigation District and the Palo Verde Irrigation District, and WHEREAS, the board, largely because of its official status as an agency of the State of California, has now for nearly 40 years been highly successful in meeting its tremendous responsibilty, and WHEREAS, in recent years in line with the primary aspect of that responsibility, it has been the main force in creating for the first time a unified and cooperative approach among the seven Colorado River Basin states toward solving the many complex problems the river still presents, and WHEREAS, the Colorado River Board and its staff have pro- vided not only leadership in meeting river problems but also a wealth of expertise that is regularly relied upon by both the other basin states and the Federal Government, and WHEREAS, the Colorado River represents either a full or supplemental source of water for some 11 million residents of California, including those of the City of Santa Ana, irrigates some 800,000 acres of California farmland and makes a significant contribution to the state's energy supply through the hydro-electric power generated at the dams on the river, and WHEREAS, Governor Brown's 1976-77 budget has proposed the elimination of the state's one-third funding for the Colorado River Board as the announced first step toward elimination of the board as a state agency and a takeover of its functions by the State Department of Water Resources, and WHEREAS, said proposal, if effected, would put an end to the highly effective role the board has played in protecting the immense interests of the state in the resources of the river and the overriding necessity for the board to continue to function in substantially the manner it has, and WHEREAS, said proposal cannot be fairly represented as a cost-saving measure since board members have informally expressed the willingness of their agencies to provide the entire funding, and WHEREAS, said proposal would, in a single stroke, destroy the sound and productive working relationship the board, in meeting its basic responsibility, has developed over the many years with the counterpart agencies which exist in all other basin states and with the Federal Government, and