Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "california legislature"

Newspaper publishers: Brown Act not enforceable

2011-03-24T01:25:39Z

The Brown Act is not currently enforceable, according to an attorney and lobbyist for the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Thomas Newton discussed the status of the state’s law on transparency for local government meetings at a forum on open government held at Pacific McGeorge School of Law Wednesday.

About 30 people attended the talk, which was a Sunshine Week event. Local library associations and the Sacramento County League of Women Voters sponsored the event. Sunshine Week, which technically ended March 19, is an annual effort to promote transparency in government.

Newton said the state is not currently reimbursing local governments for the costs of creating and posting meeting agendas and reporting decisions made in closed sessions to the public.

Without $20 million in funding to the local governments, the law isn’t enforceable, he said.

“The Brown Act’s optional right now,” he said. “Most agencies are still posting their agendas … But if they don’t, in our opinion, there’s no way for the public to enforce that law.”

With the state’s budget crisis, Newton said he doesn’t think the state Legislature will fund the local governments for the Brown Act compliance.

“There’s no way they’re going to put that $20 million back in, faced with a $26-plus billion deficit,” he said.

To respond to the issue, the newspapers’ association is backing a California constitutional amendment proposed by state Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco, Newton said. The amendment would require local governments to notify the public of their meetings and the actions taken at the meetings.

Yee’s proposed amendment, SCA 7, will be heard by the state Senate’s judiciary committee on March 29.

The city and county governments of Sacramento continue to post public notices of their meetings and follow the Brown Act.

Susan Jimenez, a librarian for the California Energy Commission, attended the event. She said she thinks about open government in the terms of the public’s access to electronic information.

“Electronic records management is a big bugaboo that’s going to be something that needs to be solved and figured out for agencies,” Jimenez said.

Watch a Sunshine Week webcast in which panelists discuss electronic records and public access here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City protests Brown's redevelopment plan

2011-01-22T01:58:59Z

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash redevelopment agencies spurred a protest and press conference at the Convention Center Friday, bringing together Sacramento leaders and about 100 officials from cities throughout the state.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, said that cities may consider suing the state if it disbands redevelopment agencies.

Brown’s office contends that local services, such as schools and public safety, could receive the funding currently used by redevelopment agencies if the agencies shut down. But city leaders in Sacramento and throughout the state argue that ending redevelopment agencies would seriously harm jobs and local development projects.

McKenzie said the governor’s proposal was ”seriously flawed” from a legal perspective.

“We would hate to have to take the state to court in order to uphold the will of the voters,” he said. “But we will do it, if we are forced to do it.”

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby presented figures on how Sacramento city and county would be affected if the two local governments no longer had redevelopment funds.

The city and county would lose 19,000 jobs, and $170 million in redevelopment project funds, according to Ashby and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

A loss of $1.3 billion in economic activity would also be incurred, Ashby said. Affordable housing projects would lose millions of dollars, she said, and the city and county would lose $129 million in state funds that were leveraged with redevelopment funds.

Ashby pointed out that the Boys and Girls Club in Alkali Flat and the McClellan Business Park in Sacramento County are redevelopment projects.

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn, who also appeared at the press conference, said, “I understand what a tough job the governor and the Legislature have in balancing the state budget, but it is bad policy to cut the very programs that generate revenues for local and state government.”

In an effort to short circuit a possible state decision to cut redevelopment agencies, many California cities have acted to safeguard their redevelopment funds over the past several days, according to multiple media outlets.

The city of Sacramento has not taken any action to bypass possible state action on redevelopment, but Mayor Kevin Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday that the city should consider doing so.

Brown’s administration continues to voice its support of the proposal to throw out redevelopment agencies. It is time “for everyone to act as Californians first to address the state budget deficit,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance.

He asserted that the governor’s proposal is “legally sound.”

In the first year of Brown’s proposal, $1.7 billion would help repair the state’s general fund, and the remaining $200 million would go toward local governments, according to Palmer and the text of Brown’s proposal.

In the second year of the plan, $1.9 billion would go to local entities, Palmer said.

Meanwhile, local players in Sacramento, such as the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, are worried that the proposal could stymie development close to home.

Michael Ault, the partnership’s executive director, said at the press conference that redevelopment funding has benefited Central City projects, such as the IMAX Theatre and the Citizen Hotel.

“We know first-hand the impacts that redevelopment has played in the progress in the Central City,” Ault said.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for California Senate President Darrell Steinberg, told The Sacramento Press that Steinberg doesn’t want to act on the governor’s proposal immediately, but the idea of stopping redevelopment funding is not off the table.

“He’s not going to pursue an immediate freeze on redevelopment activities,” Hedlund said.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Profile: Assembly candidate Andy Pugno

2010-10-15T23:58:25Z

Andy Pugno drafted the California law that prohibits gay marriage, but his Assembly campaign website does not mention Proposition 8.

Pugno, a Republican and the attorney for Prop. 8 supporters, is competing in a tense race with Democrat Richard Pan for the District 5 Assembly seat. Read a profile of Pan here.

In an interview on Friday, Pugno said he’s not running on the issue of same-sex marriage. Rather, the Folsom resident said he is focusing on the issues of state spending, job creation and local governments’ relationship with the state.

The Sacramento Press asked Pugno if he’s trying to distance himself from Prop. 8 by not mentioning it on his campaign website.

“I’m not trying to distance myself at all,” he said. “Prop. 8 is an issue that has already been decided, and now ultimately rests with the courts. And so, it is not one of the top issues the Assembly is facing. And it is not the purpose of my campaign.”

While he said Prop. 8 is not central to his campaign, he added that his views on Prop. 8 are in line with the views of his district.

Pugno, 37, said he wants to spur job creation in the state by lessening government regulation that hampers employers. He said he wants to “get government out of the way of an economic recovery.”

He criticized wage and hour laws and environmental rules, saying that they hamper businesses. When companies consider whether to buy new equipment, “they can have almost no confidence that the government won’t tell them to replace it next year at great expense,” he said.

Pugno supports Prop. 23, which would overturn the state’s climate change law, AB 32, until the state reaches an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent or lower for four consecutive quarters.

He said it “makes sense to wait until we have a healthier economy to be imposing new mandates on the California businesses.” That could take a long time – California’s unemployment rate was at 12.4 percent in August, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In addition to job creation, another one of Pugno’s priorities is limiting state spending. California’s spending is “out-of-control,” he said, adding that the state needs to “get real” about its revenue projections.

Pugno also wants local governments to have more decision-making power than the state. Decisions are “better made when they are made locally,” he said. He contended that the public has more direct access to local leaders than to state leaders.

The contentiousness in the fight for the District 5 seat is apparent in the two campaigns’ views of Pan’s television ads.

The television ads make comments about Pugno’s views on abortion that Pugno said were “outright lies.” Pugno said the claims used in the ad were not true. He does, however, acknowledge his pro-life position on abortion.

For example, an ad claims that Pugno “spent years working to outlaw” abortion, according to the text of the ad. While he takes a pro-life position, he said he did not work on the abortion issue. The ad also claims that he’s opposed to stem-cell research. He told The Sacramento Press that he is not opposed to stem-cell research.

“I am 100 percent pro-life and I’ve always been very clear about that,” he said. “But the other claims in the ad are false and are designed to portray me as some kind of an extremist.”

Photo courtesy of Pugno's campaign.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Profile: Assembly candidate Richard Pan

2010-10-15T01:51:44Z

Physician Richard Pan supports gay marriage.

Attorney Andy Pugno is the author of Proposition 8, which prohibits gay marriage in the state.

Democrat Pan and Republican Pugno, the top two California Assembly candidates seeking to represent Sacramento and its surrounding areas, don’t have much in common.

Voters will go to the polls Nov. 2 to choose a winner for the District 5 seat. Roger Niello, who formerly held the District 5 seat, is now a candidate for state Senate.

Pan, a North Natomas resident and pediatrician at the University of California, Davis, Children’s Hospital, sat down with The Sacramento Press last week to explain his ideas and priorities. The Sacramento Press will feature a profile of Pugno on Friday.

Pan, 44, said his top three priorities in the Legislature would be jobs and the economy, access to high-quality education, and access to high-quality and affordable health care.

He said he wants to see investment in public schools, colleges and universities in the state.

“The community college system is the one I’m most concerned about,” he said.

Pan said community colleges are crucial because they simultaneously provide a path toward an associate’s degree, entry into the University of California and the California State University systems, and retraining opportunities for working people.

Pan’s campaign website says he would “strongly oppose” hikes in college tuition.

Green jobs are a central part of his economic strategy.

He opposes Proposition 23, which would overturn AB 32, the state’s climate change law. In Pan’s view, AB 32’s focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions helps the development of green jobs.

“We’re going to try to develop the green jobs of the future. We need to have a stable market for those jobs,” he said.

Californians have the potential to create and sell environmentally friendly technologies that could spur the state’s economy, he said. “When we develop those technologies, those will be technologies that the rest of the country and the rest of the world will want,” he said.

Pan also wants to pursue health care coverage for all of the state’s children, according to his website.

The tone of the race between the two candidates has been controversial. Pan’s recent television ads on Pugno’s pro-life stance on abortion came under fire from Pugno’s campaign, according to an Oct. 5 Sacramento Bee article. The Pugno campaign called the ad’s examples “bogus,” the Bee reported.

But Pan said that Pugno’s views on Prop. 8 and abortion are “things that characterize his work and his career.”

Photo by Kathleen Haley.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Johnson, SMUD official protest Prop. 23

2010-10-15T01:16:13Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson and representatives from public agencies and small businesses said Thursday that ballot measure Proposition 23 would harm the environment, green businesses and air quality.

The November ballot measure would overturn the state’s climate change law, AB 32, until the state reaches an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent or lower for four consecutive quarters. AB 32, which the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger passed in 2006, aims to cut California’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Backers of Prop. 23, officially called the “California Jobs Initiative,” argue that AB 32 hurts businesses that must pay the expense of making mandatory changes to comply. The Sacramento City Council, which includes Johnson, unanimously opposed Prop. 23 in a symbolic vote in August.

Texas oil companies Valero and Tesoro are high-profile financial contributors to Prop. 23.

“We don’t want to be addicted to oil,” Johnson said at a press conference on Thursday.

Josh Daniels, who owns an environmentally friendly home materials business called Green Sacramento, also spoke with Johnson. “We’ve definitely benefited a lot in (the green building) industry from AB 32,” Daniels said.

In her comments, Genevieve Shiroma, president of the board of directors for the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, said the utility helps to advance economic development and create jobs through its environmental programs.

Larry Greene, executive director of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, said that passage of Prop. 23 would be the “wrong thing to do for air quality and public health.”

Meanwhile, the Yes on Prop. 23 campaign contends that an overturn of AB 32 would maintain jobs. The campaign’s website says the measure focuses on “protecting jobs, preserving environmental protections, and holding the line on costs for California’s struggling families.”

Photo by Kathleen Haley.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

County fears state may take local social services, public safety funds

2009-06-05T04:36:11Z

Sacramento County’s public safety and social service programs will be harmed if the state advances a proposal to borrow $2 billion from local governments, according to county spokesman Zeke Holst.

The county is planning cuts to close its own $180 million budget gap.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed borrowing property tax revenues from local governments as one of many ways to address the state’s $24.3 billion deficit. Holst noted that Sacramento County’s portion of the $2 billion would be $32 million.

Lending $32 million in county revenues to the state “would directly impact public safety and social programs,” Holst said. “We are watching the state very closely to see what they are planning to do so that we can be better prepared to adjust our services to our communities and minimize the impact of the loss of services.”

In order for Schwarzenegger’s proposal to be enacted, the state Legislature must approve it with a two-thirds vote. California Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said it gives Schwarzenegger "no pleasure" to propose to borrow from local governments.

Palmer noted that Schwarzenegger supported local government authority and the 2004 initiative Proposition 1A, which voters approved. That proposition ensures that local governments maintain control over their property and sales tax revenues.

However, the proposition enables the state to borrow the local government funds in a fiscal crisis. The proposition says the state must reimburse local governments with interest within three years.

The governor made the proposal because of the “severe recession,” Palmer said.

The city of Sacramento would also be affected by Schwarzenegger’s plan. Mayor Kevin Johnson said recently that the city could dedicate up to $12 million in “risk funds” to the state. City staffers wrote in a May 22 report that these funds “are reserved to cover city liability settlements over the life of a claimant.”

Sacramento County expects to release its proposed budget Friday, June 5.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.