(November 13, 2009) Dave Penry and his company, Pacific Landscapes Inc., rely on water. “It affects my business; without water we don’t have anything,” Penry said.

This reliance pushes Penry, a 2009 recipient of the California Chamber of Commerce Small Business Advocate of the Year Award, to work at the local and state levels on water policy issues in the Northern California communities his company and chamber serve.

Dave Penry with Sue Nelson, chief operating officer of the Santa Rosa Chamber.

Pacific Landscapes, a 75-employee operation headquartered in Sebastopol with a satellite office in Napa, serves Napa, Solano, Marin and Sonoma counties.

The company provides high-end commercial landscaping, and Penry has spent the last several years establishing himself in the community and throughout the state as a leader in the water arena.

“I’d rather be at the table than on the menu,” Penry said.

With water issues front and center in California politics, Penry works as a diligent water advocate through the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce Environmental Resources Committee and Advocacy Council.

Water Advocacy

Penry, along with co-owner Darryl Orr, opened Pacific Landscapes Inc. in 2000 and soon joined the Santa Rosa Chamber. After attending a few chamber breakfast meetings, Penry asked if he could get involved in the chamber’s Environmental Resources Committee.

“I saw the water issue coming down the road and wanted to be involved in the political side of the community,” he said.

In 2007, in coordination with the Environmental Resources Committee, he helped put on a water summit that included the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and the Sonoma County Water Agency.

Over the last few years, Penry and other businesses in the Sonoma County area struggled against a summer ban on turf irrigation by the SWRCB.

The reasoning behind the ban: three endangered fish species in the Russian River. This in turn would affect the amount of water being released out of Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma.

In April 2009, the SWRCB allowed parks and their facilities to use the irrigation, but all other commercial turf was restricted from the water.

Penry moved into action by joining a business alliance group with several business park owners and contacted a fellow representative in water from the California Landscape Contractors Association (CLCA) of which he is a longtime member and a past president.

The alliance began working on an industry response.

The entire group, along with a water rights attorney, went to the SWRCB and persuaded the board to loosen the regulations. Penry and his associates marked it as a victory.

City Concerns

Noticing how outspoken Penry was on issues such as water, the Santa Rosa Chamber invited him to join the Advocacy Council four years ago.

While sitting on the Advocacy Council, Penry has worked with the city of Santa Rosa on redevelopment projects and recently helped stop a sales tax that the city intended to use to help fill a budget shortfall.

“Dave represents what is best about small business leadership in our area: tireless advocacy for sensible business and demonstration that a company that cares about its employees and the environment can be successful and profitable,” said Mari Featherstone, 2009 chair of the Santa Rosa Board of Directors.

Penry is still active on both the Environmental Resources Committee and Advocacy Council.

Federal Immigration Efforts

At the federal level, Penry has been an active advocate on immigration. In 2006, he was called upon by the Manhattan Institute in New York City as a representative from the CLCA to join Karl Rove, Rove’s chief of staff and several other business owners across the country for a dinner meeting.

At the time, President George W. Bush was interested in hearing from small business owners about immigration reform. Penry worked closely with the Bush administration on this issue and even lobbied members of Congress.

As a result of his comments at that dinner meeting, Penry was asked to be a TV spokesperson and gained national attention for the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition.

Pacific Landscapes Inc.

Penry and his company have been leaders in other areas as well. Pacific Landscapes won the 2008 Sonoma County Business Environmental Alliance Best Practices award for the company’s work in creating the Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper Training Program.

The program was the second such to be nationally recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Pacific Landscapes has several waste reduction programs in place and uses environmentally friendly pesticides and compost.

The company also was named “one of the best places to work for in the North Bay” by the North Bay Business Journal. This is the fourth year in a row the company has the won the employee-based survey award.

Asked why Pacific Landscapes is such a good place to work, Penry points to a set of company beliefs: Proud to be Pacific Landscapes, Integrity above Profits, 100 Percent Accountability, Community Respect and Leadership, Industry Respect and Leadership, Flexibility, and Having Fun.

“Those values are woven through just about every decision we make,” he said.

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