Capitol Basement

Opacity

2013-06-19T16:31:02Z

Gov. Brown, who has a mixed record supporting the public's access to government decision-making, has a bill on his desk that allows local governnments to take an end run around the Public Records Act.

From the LAT's Anthony York: "Gov. Jerry Brown is poised to sign legislation that could reduce the public's access to basic government records that have long been used to scrutinize the actions of elected officials."

"The proposal, a late insert into the state budget that lawmakers passed last week, would allow local officials to opt out of parts of the California law that gives citizens access to government documents."

"Under that law, officials now must respond to a request for records from a member of the public within 10 days and are required to make the documents available electronically. The change, which Brown requested as a cost-cutting measure, would allow the officials to skip both requirements with a voice vote. The same vote would permit them to reject requests without explanation and would no longer require them to help citizens identify existing information."

Good-government groups, journalists and newspapers and others are urging Brown to toss out the bill.

From the Bee's Dan Walters: "However, it's doubtful that Brown will respond to those calls. It was his own Department of Finance that proposed the change to reduce the number of "mandates" for which the state must compensate local governments."

"It's rather ridiculous that the state should have to pay local governments to obey such an obviously beneficial law, but another provision of the constitution requires compensation for such mandates."

"That requirement was a part of Proposition 4, a 1979 spending limit measure sponsored by Proposition 13 co-author Paul Gann. The governor of the era, Jerry Brown, enthusiastically backed the measure and even called a special election to get it passed so that he could run for president in 1980 as an advocate of a balanced federal budget."

The 128-year-old Skunk Train, the iconic railway that carries passengers along 40 miles of spectacular Mendocino County, looked like it was coming to a halt but a last-minute reprieve is in the works.

From the Chronicle's Peter Fimrite: "The world-famous Skunk Train, stopped in its tracks earlier this year by a tunnel collapse, was given a new lease on life Tuesday after San Francisco's Save the Redwoods League stepped up with fix-it money."

"The nonprofit conservation group purchased a $300,000 option to establish an easement protecting redwoods and ensuring public access along the 40-mile Skunk Train route in Mendocino County - exactly the amount the cash-strapped Mendocino Railway needed to fix the tunnel."

"Robert Pinoli, the owner and CEO of the railroad, said debris removal and repairs will begin immediately. He expects the train to be up and running from Willits to Northspur by the beginning of next month, with full service restored by mid-July."

With the San Onofre nuclear power plant out of commission, utility officials are asking people to conserve their electricity usage this summer to guard against power disruptions.

From the LA Daily News' Kevin Smith: "As Southern Californians prepare for summer, Southern California Edison is asking customers to be especially conservation-minded to help keep the electric grid stable and reliable during hot weather when energy use spikes, particularly without the power generated from the San Onofre nuclear plant."

"Last summer, SCE customers saved 300 megawatts through conservation measures -- enough to power about 200,000 homes."

"While Edison has been doing all that it can to prepare to supply power without help from the San Onofre plant, customer conservation is still a must," said Erwin Furukawa, SCE senior vice president for customer service. "Now is the time to enroll in our conservation programs and start practicing conservation behaviors that can make a big difference for the grid."

Derek Cressman, a former vice president of Common Cause, says he is running for secretary of state, the vast office that manages California's election system.

From the Bee's Jerem B. White: "Cressman joins a field already populated by Republican Pete Peterson, who heads a public policy school at Pepperdine University, and two Democratic state senators, Alex Padilla of Los Angeles and Leland Yee of San Francisco. Like Peterson, Cressman is positioning himself as an outsider with no interest in ascending the political career ladder."

"I'm running for secretary of state only to be secretary of state," Cressman said in an announcement on the south steps of the State Capitol, promising that if he were elected, he would not run for other public offices while serving as secretary of state."

"With the growing concentration of political power in the hands of an elite few," he added, "it too often feels as if our government has been conquered by an army of special interests, lawyers, lobbyists and career politicians who no longer act on our behalf."

And finally from our "Rainbow's End" file comes a word of advice to those who are young, broke and single: Go to Des Moines, Iowa.

"The actual Money Under 30 criteria for landing such an august ranking included everything from number of bars to unemployment levels to average commute time to number of singles ages 18 to 44. Essentially, “cheap food, cheap beer and cheap thrills,” according to the site."

"Hallelujah. Finally, someone who understands us, said local actor and “Iowa Nice Guy” Scott Siepker."

“In terms of having the ring of truth, we do have cheap beer,” said Siepker, 30. “Being a hit on YouTube is not the amazing money outputter you would imagine it would be, so from an artist’s perspective it’s great to be here.”

As for me, I'm heading to San Francisco ...

Safety first

2013-06-18T13:49:27Z

Last year's Richmond refinery fire has prompted lawmakers to approve a sharp increase in the number of refinery inspectors and the governor is poised to sign the new law.

From the Chronicle's Jaxon Van Derbeken: "The state would nearly triple the number of oil refinery safety inspectors under a proposal on the governor's desk that backers say would help close regulatory gaps that federal investigators found played a role in the fire at Chevron's Richmond refinery last year."

"One of more than two dozen budget-related bills - all expected to be signed by Gov. Jerry Brown by the end of the month - would require Cal/OSHA, the state's main agency overseeing refinery safety, to make refineries in California pay for at least 15 new plant safety inspectors. Four more would be hired with existing funds."

"Currently, the state has just seven inspectors. The added help would bring the total to 26 under the new budget. Still, even a beefed-up staff would likely struggle, critics say, given the huge task of assuring safety at the state's 15 oil refineries and 1,600 other chemical processing plants."

Housing prices, which have been struggling for years as the Great Recession waxed and waned, are coming back -- in spades.

From the LA Daily News' Gregory J. Wilcox: "The median price of a previously owned house in California soared 31.9 percent in May, the largest year-over-year increase in more than three decades as sales of more expensive properties increased and inventory remained tight, a trade group said Monday."

"Last month, the state's median home price increased to $417,350 from $316,460 in May 2012, according to Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors."

"The association reported that the year-over-year price increase is the biggest since February 1980, when it rose 29.1 percent to $94,4890 from $75,520 a year earlier."

The Public Records Act, which was intended to provide public access to the documents of government, is likely to be weakened dramatically, under legislation awaiting the governor's signature.

From Capitol Weekly's John Howard: "Tucked away in the state budget package on Gov. Brown’s desk is a provision that makes it easier for local governments to avoid complying with Public Records Act requests."

“The bill essentially makes a portion of the Public Records Act optional for local governments – that’s the long and short of it,” said Phillip Ung of California Common Cause, which tracks government transparency."

"The bill, SB 71 by the Senate budget committee, allows cities, counties and other local entities such as school districts and planning commissions, to decide whether to comply with requests. The measure is one of dozens of bills accompanying the main budget bill that contains agreements, changes in law and details related to the primary bill."

The Brown administration's plan to move more northern California water south through the Delta east of San Francisco is taking its share of heat -- in court.

From the Bee's Matt Weiser: "A plan intended, at least in part, to resolve decades of water conflict in the Delta has instead spawned a flood of lawsuits, with at least five separate suits filed against the plan in recent days."

"The Delta Plan, as it is known, was required by 2009 state legislation, which also created the Delta Stewardship Council, the organization that adopted the plan on May 16."

"Environmental groups, local organizations and water users have filed at least five lawsuits in recent days against the plan. They claim, among other things, that the plan fails to satisfy the legal requirements laid out for it and also violates the California Environmental Quality Act."

A peculiar glitch in state funding left four newly incorporated cities -- all in Riverside County -- in the lurch, but legislation to fix that problem after years of budget turmoil is getting its first hearing in the Legslature.

From the Press-Enterprise's Jim Miller: "The measure, Senate Bill 56, essentially mixes past and future in crafting a statewide policy for incorporations and annexations."

"It would put any city incorporated after 2004 – all four of which are in Riverside County – in the same funding pool as cities that have been in place for much longer. Those cities and counties receive a share of property tax revenue designed to make up for what they previously received in vehicle-license fee revenue, a voter-approved change known as the “VLF swap.”

“In a nutshell, it’s treating them similar to how everyone else was treated prior to (Proposition) 1A,” said Jason Gonsalves, a Sacramento lobbyist for the cities of Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Menifee and Wildomar, referring to the 2004 ballot measure."

Andf finally, from our "Science, We Love You" file comes word that Bill Nye the Science Guy is back.

"Mr. Nye had come to talk to them, and a few thousand of their friends, at Iowa State University. If he were a politician, college students would be his base. Instead, he is something more: a figure from their early days in front of the family TV, a beloved teacher and, more and more these days, a warrior for science. They, in turn, are his fans, his students and his army."

"They have gone from watching him explain magnetism and electricity to defending the scientific evidence for climate change, the age of the earth and other issues they have seen polemicized for religious, political and even economic reasons."

"He takes on those who would demand that the public schools teach alternative theories of evolution and the origins of the earth — most famously, in a video clip from the siteBigThink.com that has been viewed some five million times. In it, he flatly tells adult viewers that “if you want to deny evolution and live in your world — in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe — that’s fine. But don’t make your kids do it, because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future.”

Taking aim

2013-06-17T14:11:29Z

Gov. Brown, the scourge of the locals, now is going after enterprise zones, the system in which businesses get tax breaks for hiring employees in low-income regions. One problem, though, is that it's hard to find out exactly who's getting the tax breaks.

From the LAT's Marc Lifsher: "At issue are enterprise zones, which were established to boost employment in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods and rural areas. California is home to 40 of these special districts, in which about 35,000 companies have qualified for tax credits. Last year they reaped an estimated $700 million in credits — a figure that state tax officials project will grow to $1 billion by 2016."

"Giants FedEx Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have availed themselves of these incentives, which are worth as much as $37,400 for each hire. So have small businesses, including two Sacramento strip clubs named Gold Club Inc. and Deja Vu Showgirls."

"But the identities of most beneficiaries are a mystery. Because of the confidential nature of state tax laws, it's nearly impossible to find out which companies got credits, how much they were worth and how the companies qualified for them."

Food stamps are intended to help low-income people get the nutrition they need, but many are leery of applying for the stamps because they fear retribution from law enforcement.

From the LA Daily News' Christina Villacorte: "But Brian Tam, CalFresh's management operations chief for the California Department of Social Services, said many fear - wrongly - that applying for the handout would unleash federal immigration agents on their household."

"Many families continue to fear that they will lose their immigration status or have to repay the benefits, or be subject to deportation or ineligibility for U.S. citizenship," Tam said. "This is simply not true."

"U.S. Customs and Immigration Services' L.A. chief of staff, Martha Flores, said undocumented immigrants can and should apply for benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children without fear of repercussions. "We just want to reiterate: U.S. citizen children are eligible to receive government benefits such as the CalFresh program and other benefits," she said. "That will not have an impact on the future immigration status of their parents."

Apple has taken heat lately for its policies aimed at minimizing its taxes, but in California the huge company plays a critical role in the economy of its home town and the state.

From HealthyCal's Dan Weintraub: "Apple has 16,000 full-time employees in Cupertino, accounting for a remarkable 40 percent of the city’s job base. The company’s payroll in Cupertino has grown by an average of 18 percent per year over the past five years. But even projecting growth at a more conservative 10 percent a year, Apple says it will add another 7,300 local jobs by 2016. That would give the company more than 23,000 workers in Cupertino by the time the new corporate complex is completed."

"Those 16,000 employees in 2012 collectively earned an estimated $2 billion. The company spent another $4.6 billion buying products and services from more than 700 businesses in Cupertino, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale alone."

"It’s no surprise that Apple is the single largest taxpayer to the city of Cupertino, paying an estimated $9.2 million in the current fiscal year, or about 18 percent of the city’s general fund. Apple’s operations last year generated $6.5 million in sales and use taxes for the city, fully 45 percent of Cupertino’s collections – and that’s after accounting for an agreement through which the city rebates to Apple half the sales tax revenue the company generates."

As the economy gathers strength, many are thinking it's time to buy a gun.

From the Bee's Phillip Reese: "Gun sales boomed in Sacramento and across California to record levels last year as horrific mass shootings reignited the gun control debate, new state figures show."

"A growing number of Sacramento-area gun dealers – about 200 and counting – sold a total of 74,000 firearms in 2012, roughly 20,000 more than in the previous year..."

"Statewide, dealers sold almost 150,000 guns in April and May, up about 25 percent from the same months in 2012, Department of Justice figures show. "As long as demand is like this," Lewis said, "I think we are going to be a little bit behind."

The FBI probe into Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, includes subpoenas from federal prosecutors to an LA-area water district with ties to the Calderon family.

From the LAT's Hector Becerra and Richard Winton: "Federal prosecutors have served a subpoena for contracts, emails and other documents from the Central Basin Municipal Water District, which has come under scrutiny amid an FBI probe of state Sen. Ron Calderon."

"Law enforcement sources on Friday confirmed issuing the subpoena, which one district official said included requests for records that include documents related to contracts awarded by the water district, invoices, purchase orders, voicemails and information related to how officials there accepted or rejected bids. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly."

"It’s unclear whether the subpoena is related to the FBI’s investigation of the senator, but two local city officials and a utility contract told The Times last week that the FBI interviewed them about legislation written by Ron Calderon and about water district consulting contracts held by the lawmaker’s brother Tom."

And finally from our "Justice is Blind" file comes the tale of the man who spent 24 years in prison for a crime and he didn't commit and now is getting hassled by the woman who divorced him when he was behind bars.

"Phillips spent 24 years in prison before DNA tests connected another man to the rapes and prompted the courts to declare Phillips innocent. In 2009, the state awarded him lump sum payments totaling more than $2 million, and a monthly annuity of more than $11,000. In total, his compensation package for the time he spent in prison is worth nearly $6 million, not including health care and education benefits he is also eligible to receive."

"His ex-wife, now Traci Tucker, is arguing that she is entitled to a portion of that money. The two are locked in a legal battle that her lawyers say is the first of its kind in the nation. Tucker sued Phillips, and last year a Dallas County state district judge awarded her about $150,000. “He was a victim of a wrongful justice system, and his family was also,” Tucker said."

"Phillips is appealing the decision, and both sides expect the case to make its way to the Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil court, for a decision on whether former spouses of exonerees are entitled to compensation. It is a question that one legislator who helped write the compensation law said lawmakers had not considered."

A shot across the bow

2013-06-14T14:11:13Z

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones says Anthem Blue Cross should be barred from the new health-care reform program that provides coverage to some small businesses, citing the company's past rate hikes.

From the LAT's Chad Terhune: "Thursday, Jones asked Covered California, the state agency implementing the federal healthcare law, to prevent Anthem Blue Cross from participating in a new market for employers with fewer than 50 workers."

"I have determined Anthem Blue Cross has had a practice of excessive or unjustified rate increases," Jones said."

"The state has already picked Anthem Blue Cross for its larger exchange for individuals that will sell policies next year to an estimated 5 million Californians who don't get health coverage through work."

Gov. Brown's environmental trifecta -- tapping cap-and-trade auction money, diverting Prop. 39 funds and apparently going along with hydraulic fracturing -- is raising the eyebrows of environmentalists.

From Capitol Weekly's Alex Matthews: "When Gov. Brown and legislative leaders announced their budget agreement at a press conference Tuesday, the tone was victorious: The budget was on time and balanced, and the Legislature had caved on a number of Brown’s more cautious fiscal proposals."

"But it was evident the governor still had something of a political Achilles’ heel – his environmental record."

"I want to believe that Jerry Brown is the same as Arnold Schwarzenegger and says, ‘Look there’s no conflict between the environment and the economy,’ Schwarzenegger made that clear, Jerry Brown hasn’t made it as clear,” said Bill Allayaud of the Environmental Working Group. “But perhaps part of his term is tempered by the fact that he inherited a terrible economy, so his prime directive was to get the state budget fixed and get the economy moving, and I don’t think anyone can say he’s done bad job on that.”

Willie Brown, the longest-serving speaker the Assembly ever had at a time when the speaker was the second-most powerful elected official in sate government, may get his name on partt of the $6.4 billion, newly built Bay Bridge.

From the Chronicle's Wyatt Buchanan: "Bay Area residents may have to get used to a new name for an iconic structure, or at least a part of the structure. How does the "Brown Bridge" - as in Willie Brown - sound?"

"A resolution introduced at the Capitol this week by Assemblyman Isadore Hall III, D-Compton (Los Angeles County), would name the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge the "Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge."

"That's right, only the western span of the bridge - the one connecting San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island - would be named for Brown. Left unnamed would be the new eastern span, which has been the subject of scrutiny over faulty bolts and other problems."

Speaking of the Bay Bridge, the contractor building the span will get a $20 million bonus if the bridge opens to the public on Sept. 3, as planned.

From the Contra Costa Times' Lisa Vorderbrueggen: "American Bridge/Fluor Enterprises and the three government agencies overseeing the construction agreed to the incentives in September 2010 as part of a plan to get the long overdue bridge back on track."

"The extra cash is small potatoes relative to the $1.43 billion overall contract with the consortium of international mega builders. And the state, not the contractors, will make the final call about when the bridge opens."

"Incentives or no incentives, the bridge will open when it is safe and not a day before," said bridge spokesman Andrew Gordon."

There had been talk about California using the national standards in the state's K-12 science curriculum, but it turns out the state already exceeds the national level.

From Cabinet Report's Tom Chorneau: "Plans in California to replace the state’s existing science curriculum standards with a new national set recently released for public review would be analogous to trading in a Cadillac for a Chevy, according to new analysis from the Fordham Institute."

"The new national science standards come as part of an effort being led by the Obama administration to get schools throughout the nation teaching common content goals."

"Hailed as one of the biggest advances in K-12 science curriculum in more than a decade, the Next Generation Science Standards were developed over the past two years by a consortium of states in a process similar to that which produced the common core standards in math and English language arts now being introduced into California schools."

And from our "Weeds" file comes word that goats from Wisconsin are heading to Iowa.

"Managers of a wetlands area near Davenport are turning to goats to rid the area of invasive plants."

"The Quad-City Times reports (http://bit.ly/14zBMiy ) facilitator Brian Ritter decided to give goats a try after failing at other efforts to remove invasive plants that crowd out native varieties in the Nahant Marsh area."

"Ritter says the 24 goats that arrived from Wisconsin in late May have made a huge difference."

Onward

2013-06-13T14:12:31Z

The new Bay Bridge should open as planned, and the problem of weakened bolts is nothing in comparison with the bridge's overall safety, scientists say.

From the Contra Costa Times' Lisa Vorderbrueggen: "The remaining punch-list items -- including the bolt-by-bolt examination that began in March when three dozen anchor rods snapped on the span -- are "minuscule compared to the overall seismic safety of the new bridge," said Frieder Seible, chairman of the Toll Bridge Seismic Safety Peer Review Panel. "There is no reason to keep traffic off the new bridge until after every last bolt has been 100 percent absolutely checked."

"There is every reason to believe (the new bridge) will open by Labor Day," added fellow peer review panelist John Fisher.

"Transportation authorities are still one month and many test results away from a go/no-go decision on the opening. But Seible and Fisher said the critical findings are already in: The bridge relies on the broken bolts only during an earthquake, they said, and even if seismic repairs are incomplete Sept. 3, the new span is far and above the safest option for the 280,000 vehicles that will cross the bridge daily."

The state Supreme Court has denied review in a major case in Alameda County, in which a school district raised money through a parcel tax. The issue is of statewide importance.

From the Contra Costa Times' Peter Hegarty: "Owners of commercial properties of less than 2,000 feet were taxed at $120 annually under the measure -- the same as residential property owners. But those owning parcels more than 2,000 square feet were taxed at 15 cents a square foot, capped at $9,500 annually."

"The ruling in the Alameda case is expected to have far reaching consequences for school districts throughout the state as similar lawsuits over parcel tax structures have been filed in Yolo, Contra Costa and Los Angeles counties."

"We believe we are heading in the right direction toward refunding tax-payers their money," David Brillant, the attorney for the property owners, said Wednesday."

As health care reform takes place in California, the expectation and the reality are different for low-income children with autism.

From HealthyCal's Dan Weintraub: "When the state decided to transition low-income kids from state-subsidized private insurance — known as Healthy Families –to the state-run Medi-Cal program, families of children with autism were promised that their kids’ treatment would not suffer. But those families soon learned that one especially promising (but expensive) form of treatment was not going to be covered by Medi-Cal."

"Since then, those families and other supporters of autism treatment have been lobbying the Legislature to require Medi-Cal to cover the treatment, known as Applied Behavior Analysis. State senators added $50 million to the proposed budget to pay for the treatment for the coming year. But the latest version of the budget approved by budget-writing conference committee deleted that money."

"The cut was especially hard to take because state regulators and the Legislature had already required private insurance companies to cover the therapy as part of their mental health benefits. So the state won’t do what it says the private sector must do."

A crucilal vote looms in Sotckton in the wake of that city's bankruptcy, but one person won't be there to see it -- the city manager.

From Calpensions' Ed Mendel: "A key planner of the Stockton bankruptcy, City Manager Bob Deis, plans to retire on Nov. 1, shortly before what could be a crucial public vote on a sales tax increase that has split the city council."

"Deis battled with a police union that bought a house next to his home and subpoenaed his wife, oversaw deep staff cuts and structured an orderly bankruptcy that was a sharp contrast to San Bernardino’s emergency bankruptcy."

"But the Stockton bankruptcy plan, which cuts bond payments but not pensions, has drawn well-funded opposition from bond insurers, who complain of unfair treatment because the city’s largest creditor, CalPERS, is untouched."

Buying home-grown goods sounds like a good idea, but there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

From Greg Lucas in Capitol Weekly: "Perhaps a strongly worded memorandum to the procurement officers of California’s more than 1,000 school districts, various state agencies, 32 prisons, 10 UC campuses, 23 state universities and 112 community colleges. Or would the honey of a warm, handwritten note with hearts over the I’s and a pithy thought-for-today at the bottom be more encouraging? Certainly a more personal approach."

"This encouragement doesn’t appear to take the form of financial inducement. In fact, the original eight-paragraph bill would have cost taxpayers more by requiring school districts and those state-run or state-owned entities to buy California agricultural products if “California grown products or the prices quoted for them do not exceed by more than 5 percent the lowest bids or prices quoted for products produced outside the state.”

"While 5 percent doesn’t sound like much, there are 6 million kids in California public schools, 2.4 million community college enrollees, 235,000 University of California students, 436,000 state university pupils, 235,000 University of California students, some 125,000 prison inmates. When feeding a minimum of 9.5 million persons, 5 percent begins to add up."

And from our "Oh no, Now What?" file comes word that the NSA may be getting a lot more than phone-call data.

"Among the small circle of outsiders who closely follow the NSA, the agency's close, long-standing relationship with AT&T, Verizon, and other telecommunications providers is an open secret -- so it would come as little surprise to find they're serving up exabytes of daily e-mail and Web-browsing logs as well. The Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing former government officials, that the NSA "obtains access to data from Internet service providers on Internet use such as data about e-mail or Web site visits."

"What prompted Wednesday's Senate exchange was a disclosure last week by the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper of a top-secret order from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. It allows the NSA to obtain daily records of all domestic calls made by Verizon customers. Subsequent reports said AT&T and Sprint are also involved."

"The Justice Department obtained that order by claiming it was permitted by Section 215 of the Patriot Act, 50 USC 1861, better known as the "business records" portion. Section 215 allows FBI agents to obtain any "tangible thing," including "books, records, papers, documents, and other items," which some of the Patriot Act's supporters have said was never intended to cover every American's phone call logs. (Section 215 orders are far less privacy-protective, and therefore more legally problematic, than traditional search warrants backed by probable cause and signed by a judge.)"

Time to go back to paper mail ...