board director

Joshua Green

Joshua Green’s involvement with California’s water issues dates back more than forty years. It’s part of a family tradition: his mother, the late Dorothy Green, was a co-founder of the California Water Impact Network.

“My mother was an activist by nature,” Joshua recalls, “and she instinctively opposed any policy she found unfair or corrupt. And water distribution in California fits that bill – it’s incredibly inequitable. She used me as a foil to talk through her thoughts and positions, and my own interest and commitment grew out of our conversations.”

Joshua enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, initially majoring in engineering and later switching to economics. Prior to getting his degree in 1981, he served as an intern in the California State Senate.

“I was there in 1980 when [Senator] Ruben Ayala pushed legislation for the Peripheral Canal,” recalled Joshua. “At that point I was already pretty well versed in water issues, and it was obvious it was a horrible project that would serve corporate agriculture at the expense of average ratepayers and the environment. I knew we had to stop it.”

But Joshua also knew the fight would be tough—especially when the enabling legislation for the canal passed in the Assembly Resources Committee.

“At that point it was clear that it probably was going to go all the way,” Joshua said. “But then the Los Angeles Times came out with an exposé that showed the cost of the canal would run about $23 billion – four times the original stated cost.”

Northern California residents were aware of the size and scope of the project and very angry that options for appeal were limited, observed Joshua – so he and two like-minded colleagues conferred and decided to do something about it.

“In conducting our research, we discovered the referendum process, something that had not been tried in California since 1928,” he said. “The process is similar to the initiative process in terms of getting legislation on the ballot. We had to gather the same number of signatures on petitions, but we had to do it in a fraction of the time. If successful, we could put the Peripheral Canal to an up-or-down vote by state residents.”

The friends found they needed to collect 540,000 signatures from qualified voters to get their proposition on the ballot.

“Under the rules, we had 90 days to collect 540,000 signatures from qualified voters,” said Joshua. “However, when we ran it by the Secretary of State, they added an extra burden—we only had 65 days to gather the signatures. Their rationale was the local Registrar of Voters in each county needed the balance of the 90 days to certify the signatures. So, the pressure was on.”

Joshua’s job in the joint effort was to shuttle the petitions to couriers, who fanned out across the state collecting signatures. The group didn’t get 540,000 signatures in the required 65 days, though – they got 842,000.

“We didn’t have to convince people,” Joshua said. “The Northern California press was very vocal, and people were aware of the issue. The pols in Sacramento may have fast tracked the Peripheral Canal, but the voters could now make their feelings heard. They weren’t taken in by all the hype. All we had to do to get people to sign was emphasize the doubt they were already feeling.”

But Joshua and his fellow activists faced a security issue prior to presenting the signed petitions to the Secretary of State’s office.

“Frankly, we were worried about them getting destroyed or somehow ‘disappearing,’ given how high emotions were running,” Joshua recalled. “So, we very quietly stored them in my mother’s house until we were ready to submit them. In the end, the Peripheral Canal got on the 1982 ballot, and the voters unequivocally rejected it.”

Joshua took a number of jobs after graduating from UCLA, then went back to the university to study photography.

“I loved photography, but unfortunately I turned out to be allergic to the chemicals that were used to develop film back then,” Joshua said. “A professor I knew said I should get into software development, which was really starting to take off at that point. I found I had a real knack for it, and I became adept at designing largescale corporate data systems.”

Joshua’s reputation as a corporate software savant grew steadily through the 1980s and 1990s, and he enjoyed his work. But in 2000, he changed careers.

“The short version is that I was needed back at my family business, which is commercial real estate investment and property management,” he said. “I’ve been doing that ever since.”

But while he’s utterly at ease in the realm of high finance, Joshua’s activist inclinations remain. Through the years, he has served as a C-WIN board member and its leading advisor on fiduciary matters and fundraising strategies; he became the organization’s treasurer in 2012.

“C-WIN is making real progress with both its legal strategy and its public education program,” said Joshua. “My main priority at this point is bringing in enough money to take us over the finish line. When 46% of the water from the Colorado River is used to raise cattle feed in a desert environment, you know something fundamental is wrong. There are huge structural impediments to changing the system – but one way or the other, we have to change it. I’m applying my 40-plus years of institutional knowledge of water policy, corporate management and fundraising to contribute to that change.”