Paul Martin Petaluma, California Deputy Director, Permit Assistance California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz)

Please describe your agricultural background.
I have been engaged in the dairy industry for close to 50 years. I started out as a 4-H’er and FFA’er with a dairy project. Then my wife and I operated Paul and Jill Martin Dairy for 30 years. For the last 13 years or so, I worked handing environmental issues for Western United Dairymen.

What are your new responsibilities?
The California regulatory process has become overly complicated. It needs repair. For the most part, the goals of the rules aren’t wrong but the process to get there is burdensome and frustrating. My team and I are charged with taking our “boots on the ground” experience to bring about regulatory rehabilitation.

What previous positions have you held?
I’ve been a member of the USDA Ag Air Quality Task Force for several years and currently serve on the EPA’s Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Committee. Also, like many other farm folk, I’ve done various other voluntary local positions, including a stint as fire chief.

What excites you most about working in your new role?
We’ve got a lot of energy in our office. The people are bright, dedicated and enthusiastic about the opportunity to grow business in California. Regulatory barriers are challenging to navigate but this administration – and our office – is committed to smoothing out that process. And we start by making it more accountable.

Will you still work with dairy producers in your new position? If so, how?
Absolutely! Even though I am responsible to all business types, I admit a certain bias. My heart remains with dairy.

In fact, we are using dairy digester permitting as a case study for consolidated permitting and programmatic environmental assessment. We will be a resource for dairy producers facing permitting difficulties or needing process guidance.

Why did you accept this position?
During my career I have worked from the outside for a reasonable and cost-effective regulatory system. Then I retired – for 53 days. At that point I was invited to abandon my seven-week retirement status to help get this office up and running. I thought, “Here is a chance to further our goals of making the regulatory system more responsive and accountable.”

So I put my boots back on and got to work. And it’s that “boots on the ground” experience I plan on bringing to bear on regulatory rehab.

What goals would you like to accomplish while in this position?
A consolidated permitting process is at the top of the list. Additionally, a universal application tracking system. A project applicant should be able to easily follow the progress of their application – to know whose desk it is on and to know when to expect it to be done.

Finally, there are those especially vexing regulations that may be out of date, duplicative, or just no longer necessary. We hope to identify those and to modernize, modify or remove them as necessary. PD