Well, it appears that not everyone is going to be taking a cut to help the state out of its budget quagmire this year.
"The state's independent pay commission Tuesday narrowly rejected a proposed 10 percent salary cut [for elected officials], opting instead for a one-year freeze, writes Jim Sanders in the Bee.
"'As far as I'm concerned, we didn't send a strong enough message,' commission Chairman Charles Murray said of the decision.
"Tuesday's action applies to salaries of the governor, legislators
and constitutional officers from controller to attorney
general.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and incoming Senate President
Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said through aides Tuesday that they respect all decisions
made by the independent panel.
"'Since the Legislature has no control over the commission's actions, we must focus instead on achieving a balanced,
responsible budget,' Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill said in a prepared statement.
"But Ted Costa, leader of People's Advocate, a political watchdog group, characterized
the action as a cop-out with the state facing a projected $15.2 billion budget deficit.
"'It's the thing you do when you don't have the guts to do what you need to do,' Costa said of Tuesday's commission action."
"County officials in at least two California counties
say they'll stop performing all wedding ceremonies by next week, arguing that they don't have enough resources to marry both gay and straight
couples," reports Marisa Lagos in the Chron.
"Officials in Kern and Butte counties cited budget and
staffing constraints as the rationale for halting the
ceremonies. But clerks in other counties say that claim
is specious. Some activists went further, arguing that
the decision to stop the ceremonies amounts to poorly
disguised discrimination against gay and lesbian couples.
"County clerks are required by law to issue marriage
licenses, but the offices do not have to perform wedding
ceremonies. The recent state Supreme Court decision
allowing same-sex marriages takes effect after the business day on
Monday.
"In Kern County, Clerk Ann Barnett announced her decision only after county lawyers told
her she could not refuse to marry gay couples. Butte
County Clerk Candace Grubb, meanwhile, blamed budget constraints, telling the
Chico Enterprise-Record that her decision was made long before the court
ruling."
"A federal judge's ruling that California cannot demand more gaming revenue in exchange for allowing San Diego County's Rincon band to expand its casino reflects a long-standing policy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a federal official testified yesterday," reports James Sweeney in the Union-Tribune.
"'Whenever we see a revenue-sharing provision in a tribal-state compact, it sends up a red flag,' said Paula Hart, director of the BIA's Office of Indian Gaming Management, which reviews
tribal-state gambling agreements, or compacts.
"The Bureau of Indian Affairs has not formally weighed
in on the litigation, but its endorsement of the April
29 ruling appears to add significant new weight to Rincon's case and could make it more difficult for the state
to negotiate lucrative new Indian gaming deals.
"Federal law bars states from imposing “a tax, fee, charge or other assessment upon an Indian
tribe” to engage in Nevada-style gambling, Hart told the Senate Governmental Organization
Committee.
"The key word in that passage is “impose,” Hart said. With that in mind, she said the BIA looks
for 'meaningful and significant concessions' from a state in exchange for gaming revenues for purposes
other than regulatory costs."
Meanwhile, continuing the state's slow bleed, "[t]he California Highway Patrol revealed Tuesday that
it will pay almost $1 million to settle a lawsuit from a former chief who said he was retaliated against for making an
unwelcome bid for the top job and publicizing activities he believed to be improper," reports John Hill in the Bee.
"The $995,000 settlement was made public just as a new element of
the department's treatment of former Deputy Chief Art Acevedo came to light. A private investigator hired by the
state tailed Acevedo in early 2007 to find out whether he was leaking information to
The Sacramento Bee, according to a sworn statement
obtained by the newspaper.
"'The CHP has some explaining to do,' said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, a frequent critic of the department.
"Acevedo, now police chief of Austin, Texas, bucked
the CHP establishment in 2004 when he applied to become commissioner at a time when
then-Commissioner Dwight Helmick was considered vulnerable. Helmick was forced out
a few months later by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"In his lawsuit, Acevedo said he suffered retaliation
for trying to become commissioner and reporting questionable
actions by the CHP, including allowing officers to
stay on past the mandatory retirement age of 60 to spike their pensions."
"The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to slash about $400 million from the state's largest school system by cutting 507 administrative staff and clerical workers and requiring
that all employees take a four-day unpaid leave. The board's action avoids the heavy teacher layoffs and class-size increases that are facing smaller school districts
throughout the state," report Jason Song and Howard Blume in the Times.
"Based on the current state budget, the Los Angeles
Unified School District would have to make more than
$700 million in cuts over the next three years, barring
restored state funding, and could be forced to pack
more students in classrooms after next year, board
members said.
"'I'm concerned about the viability of doing business on
a day-to-day basis' in the future, said Richard Vladovic, one of six board
members who voted to approve the budget reductions.
"Board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte abstained
out of concern that programs targeting minority, low-achieving students would be adversely affected.
"The cuts are a result of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest proposed budget, which provides a $193-million increase in state education funding over last
year but does not provide a cost-of-living increase and does not fully fund certain programs,
which will have to be paid for with unrestricted general
fund money."
And the great crusade of the San Francisco Chronicle has led to the resolution of yet another one of the major problems facing the state that keep the state's citizens up at night. "The leader of the California State Assembly has warned legislators that they may not cast "ghost votes" on bills when they are not in the chamber.
Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County), told Democratic lawmakers at a caucus Tuesday that they may cast electronic votes for other members only when they are present on the Assembly chamber's green carpet but simply away from their desks.
"We are going to enforce the existing policy, which means that there will be no voting when a member is off the floor," Bass said in an interview later Tuesday."
In related news, Kevin De Leon is now barred from going to the ATM.
And in the OC, it looks like there's a new sheriff in town.
"In a historic break from a male-dominated, deeply conservative
past, Orange County supervisors on Tuesday named a
woman and former Los
Angeles County cop to lead its troubled Sheriff's Department and help
bury the legacy of its indicted former sheriff," the LAt's Stuart Pfeifer and
Christine Hanley report.
"Sandra
Hutchens, a 53-year-old retired Los Angeles County sheriff's division
chief, becomes the 12th sheriff of Orange County and the first woman to
hold the position. She pledged to be an agent of change
in a department
that has suffered through scandals, criminal indictments
and withering
criticism.
"The vote puts her in charge of California's second-largest sheriff's department, replacing Michael S. Carona in what supervisors hope will signal an era free of the turmoil that marked his nine-year reign. Carona, who resigned in January, is facing federal corruption charges."
And the story of Laura Richardson's Sacramento home keeps getting stranger. The LA Times' Jeff Gottlieb reports, "Rep. Laura Richardson, who lost one home in foreclosure
and has
defaulted on two others, may get her Sacramento home back, even though
the new owner had begun to renovate it.
"The
Long Beach Democrat bought the three-bedroom, 1 1/2 -bath house early
last year for $535,000 after being elected to the Assembly, but it
wasn't long before she stopped making payments.
"She also owed Sacramento County about $9,000 in property taxes.
"Richardson's
loss of the house first reported last month by Capitol Weekly , brought
to light a long history of her falling behind on property
payments.
"Real estate investor James York bought Richardson's house in an
upper middle-class neighborhood on May 7 for $388,000. He recorded the
deed May 19. His crew has painted it, laid tile and landscaped
the
house, he said.
"York
said the lender, Washington Mutual, had contacted him
to buy back the
house and that he gave the bank a price. He said the
next thing he
knew, the lender filed a letter of rescission of the
foreclosure sale
June 2 with Sacramento County and asked him for the keys.
"They took the property back, and they didn't even send back the money," York said.
The investor says he plans to file a lawsuit by the
end of the week against Washington Mutual and Richardson.
"It's clear what's happening is Ms. Richardson is abusing her political
power and using it for her own political needs," he said. "You don't
have to be smart to understand what's happening."
And for our close vote of the season, we turn to Alameda County, where a parcel tax measure still hangs in the balance.
The Chron's Jill Tucker reports, "Students in Alameda are getting a real-life lesson this month on an old civics adage: Every vote counts.
A week after the election, the Alameda Unified School District was just three votes short of the two-thirds voter approval needed to pass a parcel tax on the June 3 ballot.But it's not over yet for Measure H. County officials were still counting an unknown number of provisional ballots cast on election day.
As of Tuesday, there were 11,001 yes votes to 5,502 no votes - or 66.6606 percent in favor. That's not enough if it holds.
The district needs sixes to four decimal places to pass, school board President Bill Schaff said.
Speaking of the election, The Bee's Marcos Breton uses his column to wrap up Christopher Cabaldon's loss for state Assembly, and go after political consultant Richie Ross.
"How did the brightest, most promising young political figure in Sacramento lose an election last week that he seemed certain to win?
It's easy. The unions got Christopher Cabaldon.
They put a bull's-eye on the back of the popular and personable mayor of West Sacramento.
Union muscle trumped all that with a barrage of negative ads that made some of Cabaldon's molehills seem like mountains.
Many of you say you hate negative campaigns. But Cabaldon's loss to Mariko Yamada in the Democratic primary for the 8th Assembly District proves that going negative works.
"It's also true that Cabaldon was cursed by a political
consultant in Richie Ross, whose particular song stylings
spawn the Midas touch in reverse.
"Li'l Richie – a diminutive dude given to making big, empty statements
– also ran Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo's disastrous primary campaign against Kevin Johnson.
Enough said."
Looks like the era of R.E. Graswich really is over at the Bee...
And from our There's No Business Like Monkey Business Files, the AP report the campaign is on to get Cheeta the chimp a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
"The animal actor, whose credits include the 1967 comedy "Dr. Doolittle" and the "Tarzan" movies, is trying for the seventh time to get a sidewalk star and become the first monkey to get the honor. His handlers have launched an online petition to get supporters to urge the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to give him a star in 2009.
"Cheeta's "inclusion on the Hollywood Walk of Fame will not only give recognition to one of the international, animal megastars of all time, but focus attention on his fellow primates in the wilds of Africa who now face extinction," the petition reads.
Just like going to the ATM.
"He's up against really big celebrities," Ana Martinez-Holler, a spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce said.
This year, Cheeta will be considered along with some 200 entertainers. The chamber usually chooses about 24 a year.
"The 76-year-old chimp, who the Guinness World Records has called the oldest living, non-human primate, is retired and lives in Palm Springs. Cheeta also has a MySpace page, which lists painting "Ape-Stract Art" among his hobbies, and The Monkees his favorite band."