John Williamson Filed: October 12, 1998 by Vic Pollard, Bakersfield Californian (vpollard@bakersfield.com)

The gentle, mild-mannered Williamson has long been hailed as a giant in the legacy of the California conservation movement. His creation of the Williamson Act, which provides property tax reductions to farmers who agree not to sell their land for development for at least 10 years, is praised to this day by both environmentalists and development interests. "Not many people leave their mark on the landscape like John Williamson has," said Erik Vink, California director of the American Farmland Trust, which works to preserve prime agricultural land. "Over half of the agricultural land in the state is covered by Williamson Act contracts."

When Williamson was elected to the Assembly in 1958, farmers in the Central Valley and elsewhere already were complaining that the traditional policy of assessing property taxes on the basis of the "highest and best use" of land was putting them in an economic squeeze. Particularly near the fringes of cities and towns, the highest and best use usually was for development of housing tracts, and farmers said they couldn't resist the pressure to sell to developers unless their taxes came down.

In Sacramento, Williamson went to work on the problem. It wasn't easy, but he finally won passage of the law, known officially as the California Land Conservation Act of 1965. It was signed by his good friend, former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown. Today, almost 16 million acres of farmland are under Williamson Act contracts, including most Kern County farms.

The Williamson Act did not put an end to urban sprawl or the debate over how to control it. But it did give many farmers the chance to keep working their land. The law always has had its critics who say it is not effective enough. However, it had remained unchanged until this year, when another Kern County lawmaker, Democratic Sen. Jim Costa of Fresno, pushed through legislation allowing a conversion of Williamson Act contracts from 10 years in length to as much as 30 years. Vink said Williamson believed in agricultural and open space preservation "in his bones."

After he was defeated in a bid for a fifth term in the Legislature in 1966, he went to work as a consultant to a special Senate-Assembly committee created to oversee implementation of the new law and push for other programs to preserve open space. He also was a founding director of the Yolo County Land Trust, dedicated to preserving open space in the area around Davis, the university town west of Sacramento where Williamson lived for a number of years after leaving the Legislature.

Williamson was born in Oskaloosa, Kan., and he arrived in Bakersfield in the early 1920s when his family came west looking for a better life. He attended UCLA and UC Berkeley, studying political science. Just short of graduation from Berkeley, he came down with a kidney abscess and returned home to Bakersfield to recuperate. When he got better, he went into business with his brother, Alvin, who operated a service station in Bakersfield. The pair remained in business together for many years, and eventually owned three stations.

John, however, took time out to work in the art department of 20th Century Fox studios in the early 1940s and to enlist in the Army during the latter stages of World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant and serving in the Philippines, his son said.

John Williamson was an avid Democrat who served as a member and chairman of the Kern County Democratic Central Committee in the 1950s. He told a Sacramento Bee reporter late last year that friends on the central committee urged him to run for office after he complained about the way the local presidential campaign of his idol, Democrat Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, had been run in 1952. "That's how I got into politics, I guess," he said. "By talking too much."

He won the Assembly seat in 1958, which was a landslide year for Democrats in California. There, in addition to sponsoring the Williamson Act and creating the Kern County Water Agency, he also co-authored the bill, written by the late state Sen. Walter Stiern, that authorized establishment of Cal State Bakersfield. He also chaired the Assembly Agriculture Committee for several years and sat on other major committees. Williamson ran for a fifth term in 1966 but was defeated by Republican William Ketchum, who later went on to Congress and died in office.

After serving as staff to the open space committee for five years, Williamson became the chief administrative officer for the state Senate, a post he held from 1971 until he retired in 1976.

Williamson is survived his wife, Jean, a daughter, Sally Carter, and three sons, Robert, John and Richard, as well as nine grandchildren. Family members said in a statement they are intensely proud of the legacy he left. "Well documented are his years of dedicated public service to the people of the state of California," the statement said. "Through his extraordinary ability to bring logic and fairness to controversial issues, he earned the deep respect of his peers. He also brought wisdom, gentleness and unfailing devotion to his family, and he will be greatly missed by all."