Sen. Lois Wolk, wasn't shy about her disdain for the water package passed last fall -- or Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's role in crafting the agreement.
The Davis Democrat emerged from last week's reorganization of Senate committee rosters with just two of the seven committee assignments she previously held.
Coincidence?
Wolk, who withdrew her authorship from a bill to create a Delta Conservancy when she learned it would be amended into provisions she opposed, criticized the process for passing the package as "incredibly awful," saying Westlands Water District and the Metropolitan Water District "wrote (the package) in private meetings, and then it emerged in the middle of the night."
Wolk, miffed that a peripheral canal could be built under the plan, also slammed Steinberg's role in the deal as "disturbing" and said he threw Northern California Democrats "under the bus."
When Steinberg released a list of slimmed-down committee memberships last week, Wolk retained the chairmanship of the Revenue and Taxation Committee and a spot on the Natural Resources and Water committee and picked up one assignment -- a seat on the Food and Agriculture Committee.
But she was stripped of seats on Appropriations, Budget and Fiscal Review, Health, Transportation and Housing and Local Government.
Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost said Wolk was not specifically targeted in the committee reorganization.
"It's consistent with our overall goal of reducing workload so members can focus on specific issue areas," she said.
Another member who lost a significant number of seats was Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa. Wiggins, who has said she won't seek a second term amid reports of declining health, lost six assignments and her spot as chair of the Local Government Committee.
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