CW's Malcolm Maclachlan reports on the
escalating feud between would-be tribal members that has led to
the seizure of a former state senator's laptop.
"Two weeks ago,
Los Angeles County sheriff deputies entered the offices of the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribe of the Los Angeles Basin. They left with numerous items, including a laptop computer belonging to retired state Senator Richard Polanco, an adviser to the tribe. A rival tribal group also obtained warrants to have Polanco and several tribal leaders arrested if they don't show up in West Los Angeles Superior Court on June 5."
"The raid and warrants are just the latest battle in the legal war between two groups, each claiming to be the legitimate tribe and each hoping to build a casino in the Los Angeles area. In September, the group now affiliated with Polanco broke away from a group calling itself the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe, affiliated with Santa Monica attorney
Jonathan Stein.
"Polanco and others with the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribe say they are the legitimate tribe ... They broke with [Stein] when they realized he was just using them for large fees, while not getting them any closer to their goals of federal recognition and a casino, said
Martin Acala, vice-chairman of the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribe.
"'
We realized that the only money he's made in recent years came from suing his own clients," said Acala. He went on to describe Stein as 'totally vindictive,' saying that in the raid 'he even wanted to take our furniture.'
"According to L.A. County sheriff's inventory records, dozens of items were taken from the offices on behalf of Stein's St. Monica Development Corporation. These include
a paper shredder, two printers, a card scanner, a wooden bookcase, several foam boards, 'misc. framed Indian scenes' and a 'carton of coloring books.'"
Oh no! Not the coloring books!Capitol Weekly reports on
the case of the missing $300 million in the state budget. "The state's General Fund is going to be more than $300 million lower this year because of a problem with the way property taxes are reported. Officials from the Department of Finance say the hole comes from a discrepancy in the tax numbers reported by counties and the amount public schools say they've received. Officials are calling for a team of auditors to find the missing money.
"Based on percentages, state officials say,
schools should have received an extra $300 million from counties in the current budget year. Finance Director
Mike Genest says the state is on the hook to make up the shortfall this year, but has requested that lawmakers set aside $2 million in next year's budget to conduct a comprehensive audit of where the money went."
"The state appears headed toward privatizing its lottery without voters' say,
while also authorizing "instant lottery" slot machines, probably at horse tracks and card clubs, that could triple overall sales to about $12 billion a year," reports Steve Geissinger in the Merc News.
Tribal political consultants, rev your engines!
"Officials in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration insisted Wednesday that the state Legislature - through a two-thirds vote -
could take that kind of action without voter approval."State officials suggested that schools might no longer be guaranteed their one-third take of lottery proceeds under a contract with a private company. But, they maintained, schools would still come out ahead because the state could use a portion of an up-front lease payment from the private contractor - which could approach $40 billion - to boost education funding."
"The
sooner lawmakers endorse a plan to lease the lottery to a private company, the sooner the state can raise cash and bring the budget in line, California's finance director said Wednesday in promoting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's multibillion-dollar plan," writes Judy Lin in the Bee.
"'I definitely think we can get it done,' Finance Director
Mike Genest said in a breakfast meeting with The Bee Capitol Bureau. 'I hope we do.'
"The Republican governor last week said lawmakers should consider the transaction, which some analysts think could raise as much as $37 billion for the state.
"But Schwarzenegger left it out of his May budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins July 1, Genest said,
for fear of being called too 'gimmicky,' 'speculative' or 'aggressive.'"
Is he talking about the plan to lease the lottery, or the lottery itself?
CW also reports that
transit officials are looking for leverage in their budget negotiations with the governor.
"
Transit advocates are using the threat of a lawsuit--or the ballot box--in an effort to bolster their negotiating position in this year's budget talks. The move comes after advocates blasted the governor for what they say are $1.3 billion in cuts to the state's budget for public transit.
"There are going to have to be serious discussions," said Assemblyman
Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, chairman of the Assembly Budget subcommittee on transportation. Feuer stopped short of saying a lawsuit or initiative drive was in the works, saying, "I hope we can have those discussions now, in the context of the budget. Transit cannot continue to get the short end of the stick."
"
Joshua Shaw, executive director of the California Transit Association, said his members are fed up with what they view as continuing raids by the general fund on money that is supposed to be used for public transit.
"'
Our members feel like we may be out of options,' he said. 'We think the law is on our side. We're looking at all of our options.'"
CW's John Howard
takes a look at just how much discretion state budget makers really have.
"For every dollar in the governor's $146 billion state budget plan, perhaps 12 cents is actually up for grabs--the Schwarzenegger administration says it may be only 8 cents and some Democrats in the Capitol say it may be only nickel. One estimate by the governor even put it as low as 1 percent."
George Skelton has some
budget thoughts of his own, giving the governor the benefit of the doubt, sort of. Judge for yourself: "
When he proposes to pick the pockets of the impoverished aged, blind and disabled, and welfare children, he's just playing political games. Right? He's not really sincere," Skelton writes.
"That is not how this self-described centrist actually expects to make ends meet in Sacramento. Mustn't be.
"
Otherwise -- at least in regards to the elderly, disabled and kids living on the edge -- he'd be either a dunce or a bully, picking on the politically weak. We know he's not the former. Don't even want to think about the latter."It is true, however, that
because the poor don't attend political fundraisers and write big checks, they tend to be muscled to the end of the line when the budget is divvied in the Capitol."
"The state
is prepared to offer thousands more early parole discharges to nonviolent offenders and resume sending inmates out of state, lawyers for the Schwarzenegger administration said in court papers filed Wednesday," reports the Bee's Andy Furillo.
"The attorneys also argued that it would be 'premature' for a federal judge to take steps next month toward slapping a population cap on California's overcrowded prisons.
"It is too early for the judge to set up a three-judge panel to consider a population cap because 'insufficient time has passed' to determine whether overcrowding is preventing the prison medical care czar from doing his job, the state's lawyers wrote.
"'We're telling the court that there's no need to refer this to a three-judge panel because the state is acting aggressively,'
Louis Mauro, the chief deputy legal affairs secretary to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, told reporters in a telephone news conference.
"
Don Specter of the Prison Law Office, which won a class-action settlement with the state to fix prison medical care, said the proposals in the filing don't come close to convincing him that the state can reduce its prison population on its own. He said he is determined to press ahead for the three-judge panel that inmate rights lawyers are seeking."
"Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez and Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata split Wednesday over Senate proposals to alter the way legislative and Board of Equalization districts are drawn.
"Perata jointly crafted both measures, one of which was blasted by Núñez after the Senate's elections and redistricting committee voted 5-0 to keep the proposals alive.
"'
It's an unconstitutional, unworkable and illogical smorgasbord that's deceptive to voters,'
Steve Maviglio, Núñez's spokesman, said of Senate Constitutional Amendment 9 by Republican Sen.
Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield."
A group of tribal leaders has sent a letter to Speaker Fabian Nunez announcing their support for the Speaker's proposed tweak to the state term limits law. None of the members of the tribal association have compacts pending before the Assembly.
"The California Tribal Business Alliance supports the Term Limits and Legislative Reform Act ... While continual turnover of legislators has beneficially increased diversity in the Legislature, it also has diminished legislative expertise, caused speeded-up attention on what office to run for next, and hampered the Legislature's ability to resolve difficult long-term issues," the letter states.
Capitol Weekly reports that Senate Secretary
Greg Schmidt sent a cordial little reminder on the difference between the Senate and the Assembly to Senate offices Tuesday. The memo came after Sen.
Gil Cedillo moved to have a vote on his "patient dumping bill" expunged from the Senate record, after it was defeated in Senate Approps. "The move to expunge the vote prompted a letter from Senate Secretary Greg Schmidt to all Senate offices about proper Senate protocol. "By the custom and usage of the Senate, the expungement of a vote is not permitted in committees or on the floor," Schmidt wrote. "This prohibition dates to reform approximately forty years ago, when efforts were made to correct gross irregularities in the voting process, and is intended to ensure (a) that the public is not misled as to the disposition of motions before committees or the House and (b) that the actual votes on any motion are duly recorded."
Across the street from the Capitol, "The California Supreme Court
gave final clearance Wednesday to California's landmark $3-billion stem cell research effort, declining to hear an appeal of two lower court rulings upholding the constitutionality of 2004's Proposition 71," reports the LAT's Mary Engel.
"'This is the end of the road,' said
Dana Cody, executive director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation, which represents two of the taxpayer and religious groups that sued."
"California's governor and university administrators
aren't going to rescue nearly a half-million state university students from a fee increase next year, officials said yesterday," reports Lisa Petrillo in the Union-Tribune.
"About a dozen students rallied at the California State University trustees meeting asking them to reconsider a 10 percent fee increase announced last fall for the 417,000-student system. Students acknowledged the increase may seem small, adding $255 per year to one of the lowest public college tuitions in the nation. But they and others noted that since 2002, CSU fees have nearly doubled.
"Protesters carted in 7,000 letters from students who say their dream of finishing college is being waylaid by constant fee increases.
"'Read some of these letters,' pleaded
Crystal Rodriguez, a student at the San Bernardino campus. 'If you have a heart, they'll make you cry.'"
We're sure there wasn't a dry eye in the room...
"Hopes faded this week that the state would kick in the estimated $65 million needed to bail CSU out of a budget crunch and allow trustees to rescind the fee increase."
We know we've been slow in linking to Connie Bruck's
profile of Antonio Villaraigosa in the New Yorker. But it's 14 pages long, and hey, we're busy, and we wanted to wait until we were sure we could pull out the money quote for you, our loyal, short-attention spanned readers. We strongly recommend that you take the time to
read the entire thing when you get a second, but in the meantime, there's this:
"
His single-minded ambition contains a streak of petty vindictiveness, and he has alienated many who were once enthusiastic supporters. Even among other politicians--not a shy group--his drive for self-aggrandizement sets him apart; and some of his colleagues say that he cannot be trusted in the normal give-and-take of political life. 'He wants you when he needs you, and then it's over,' a legislator who has known him for many years told me ... When
Nancy Pelosi praised him during a meeting of the California House Democratic delegation in January,
Dennis Cardoza, a congressman from the Central Valley who served in the California Assembly with him, told her that she did not know the real Villaraigosa, who 'stabs people in the back
Finally, Greg Lucas notes the passing of Joseph Rattigan. "A memorial service will be held Friday for former state senator and appellate court justice Joseph Rattigan, who was regarded as one of the Legislature's most trusted and knowledgeable members.
"He died Saturday at his Santa Rosa home after a long illness at age 87.
"Compassionate, wry and eloquent, Sen. Rattigan represented Sonoma County from 1958 to 1966. In 1966, he was appointed by then Gov. Pat Brown to the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco where he served for 18 years.
"'The most outstanding thing about Joe was his absolute integrity, politically. You never saw him ever dance around an issue and evade matters that were unpleasant,' said former Rep. Jerry Waldie, who was an assemblyman when Rattigan served in the Senate. 'There were few people in the Senate or the Assembly at that time who experienced the trust extended to Joe and properly so.'"
