Capitol Weekly reports how
personal politics, and post-term limits dynamics are derailing a number of bills this year.
"After three years of meetings, four committee hearings and one debate on the Assembly floor, Pedro Nava's AB 38 has received only one No vote. But that vote, from Sen.
Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, was enough to kill the bill for the year.
"Until Tuesday's hearing of the Public Safety Committee, Nava, D-Santa Barbara, had crafted bipartisan consensus on his measure, which would merge the state Office of Homeland Security and the state Office of Emergency Services. After hours of meetings and negotiations, Nava helped broker a deal that both agencies supported. The bill also had backing from the governor, local governments, first responders and other major stakeholders.
"The bill passed through Assembly Governmental Organization on a 14-0 vote, moved through Assembly Appropriations 17-0, and off the Assembly floor, 75-0. The bill seemed fast-tracked for the governor's signature as recently as June 26, when it passed out of Senate Governmental Organization 8-0.
Then things got strange.
"Instead of moving on to Senate Appropriations, the measure was re-referred back to Senate Rules ...
On June 25, one day before the bill was referred back to Senate Rules, Cedillo's SB 60, which would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses, was gutted in Assembly Transportation.
"The bill passed, but only after it was reduced to a 'study bill,' rather than a bill that would have changed the law. Among those who requested the watering down of the bill was the committee chairman, Pedro Nava.
"
Cedillo said personal politics has nothing to do with AB 38's demise this week. He pointed out that later in the day Tuesday, he voted for all of Nava's bills that were up before Senate Transporation. Cedillo even offered the initial motion for some of those bills.
"But in regards to AB 38, he questioned whether the Office of Homeland Security, which has opposed Cedillo's drivers' license bill, could be an honest broker in the delivery of emergency services.
"'
This was a straight-up policy matter,' he said. 'The delivery of emergency services should be non-partisan and non-politicized.'"
CW's John Howard reports on
another last-minute attempt by legislative Democrats to save the job of a powerfully-connected Los Angeles political spouse."
"
A bill authored by Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-San Bernardino, would exempt AQMD chairman William Burke from the two-term cutoff currently in effect. Burke's term as chair will expire at the end of this year, absent legislative action.
"Burke, the
husband of Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke, has served on the 12-member board since 1993 as member, vice-chairman and chairman. He was originally appointed to the board by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown."
"Los Angeles City Atty.
Rocky Delgadillo, who has come under fire for using city resources for personal reasons,
was served with a recall notice Tuesday," reports Matt Lait in the Times.
"Delgadillo has 14 days in which to respond to the papers, which were delivered to his office by
Andrew Ahlering, a former county employee who is leading the effort.
"After Delgadillo files a response and the city clerk certifies the petition, Ahlering will have 120 days to collect about 213,000 signatures from registered city voters before a recall election can be called.
"In recent weeks, Delgadillo has been criticized for allowing his wife to drive his city-owned vehicle for personal errands. On one trip, she damaged the rear of the SUV, which Delgadillo initially had repaired at taxpayers' expense. After the matter became public, he reimbursed the city for the repairs. Delgadillo has also acknowledged enlisting staff members to baby-sit his children and perform personal chores for him."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders
met for almost two hours Monday in hopes of starting stalled budget talks as the state begins the second week of the new fiscal year without an approved spending plan," report Tom Chorneau and Haley Davies in the Chron.
"Division among lawmakers falls along party lines and largely over whether to spend or save about $2 billion -- a fraction of the state's annual budget that now exceeds $140 billion, or a sum larger than the gross domestic product of Israel.
"Smaller amounts have caused delays in adopting the state budget in the past, and there's growing concern among some state workers and contractors that they might not get scheduled payments this month if an agreement is not quickly reached.
"'Frankly, we should have had the budget done on June 30,' said state Sen.
Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee. 'I hope we can accommodate some of the things that Republicans are talking about, but there's not really a lot of room in the budget this year. Whatever we do, we need to do it soon.'
"'We feel we need to make more progress on the structural deficit,' said Assemblyman
Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks. 'We've been clear on that, but I haven't seen any sense of urgency to address those issues.'"
Meanwhile, the Bee caught up with
legislative staffers applying for interest-free loans from Golden One. "Under state law, lawmakers and their employees cannot receive a paycheck until the state approves a spending plan. Some workers who anticipate missing their July 15 paychecks waited more than an hour to apply for a loan as California's budget stalemate entered Day 11.
"'It looks like we're not going to have an on-time budget,' said
Bill Bird, communications director for Sen. San Aanestad, R-Penn Valley. 'I still have to make the house payment, the bill payments.'"
"Diving into California's most turbulent water dispute, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top water appointee on Tuesday
proposed asking voters next year to pay for new dams —
and, quite possibly, a canal arcing around the vulnerable Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta," writes Nancy Vogel in the Times.
"In a legislative hearing, Department of Water Resources Director
Lester Snow said the governor would like to place a bond measure of at least $4 billion on a 2008 ballot, even though the Legislature and Schwarzenegger have yet to begin spending the $5.4 billion from a water bond issue that voters passed in November.
"'We believe there needs to be significant investment in the delta that is not currently available,' Snow told a legislative committee Tuesday. '
I think there's substantial evidence that the delta is completely broken…. We need to invest significantly.'"
The Bee's Jim Sanders reports that
Lloyd Levine's mandatory animal sterilization bill
is expected to be euthanized in Senate Local Government Committee today.
"'I could probably say, yeah, it's in trouble,' said Sen.
Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Chino, who chairs the Senate Local Government Committee that will decide today whether the bill lives or dies.
"The measure would require spaying or neutering of millions of California pets in an effort to reduce the burden on animal shelters that euthanize more than 400,000 dogs and cats annually.
"All five members of the committee agreed that the legislation, Assembly Bill 1634, is on shaky ground for today's hearing.
"Three votes would kill the measure -- and no committee member expressed enthusiasm or support for it Tuesday. But most said they want to hear testimony before making a final decision."
Also in the sausage factory, "[l]egislation that opponents said would eviscerate local governments' ability to limit the size of campaign contributions
was approved Tuesday by a state Senate committee," reports the AP's Steve Lawrence.
"The bill, backed by a powerful coalition that includes the Democratic and Republican parties, labor unions and the National Rifle Association, cleared the Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee on a 3-0 vote.
"The proposal, by Assemblyman
Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, would bar cities and counties from adopting campaign-finance ordinances that restricted communications between organizations and their members unless state law contained similar limitations.
"Garrick said the measure was merely an attempt to clarify current law and avoid a 'patchwork of laws' preventing political parties and other statewide organizations from communicating with their members about which candidates the groups support and oppose.
"
Ned Wigglesworth, a lobbyist for California Common Cause, said the bill would open up an 'enormous loophole' by preventing cities and counties from capping campaign donations that are arranged by candidates and used to pay for mailers sent by political parties to their members.
"'It's about local control over local elections,' he said. 'Without such safeguards, local contribution limits would be rendered worthless.'"
"Federal receiver
Robert Sillen came to Sacramento on Tuesday and
blasted the recently enacted bipartisan prison construction package,
saying it will set back by five years his efforts to bring constitutional medical care to the state prison system," reports the Bee's Andy Furillo.
"'Before I started, I said this could be done in five years,' Sillen said in a luncheon speech to the Sacramento Press Club at the Sterling Hotel. 'Six months later, it was five to seven years.
Since the passage of AB 900, it's seven to 10 years.'
"Sillen also said that an inmate population cap now pending in a joint motion in federal courts in San Francisco and Sacramento would make improving prison health care "a little easier," but that it "will not solve the health care problem."
"His comments came barely two weeks after a joint federal court hearing in Sacramento in which two judges considered steps toward imposing the cap. In its defense, the state has cited Assembly Bill 900 as the answer to prison overcrowding by expanding bed space and providing inmates with additional rehabilitation opportunities."
And finally, AP reports, "
a bird that caught fire after being electrocuted at a substation
is suspected of igniting a 2 acre wildfire Monday, officials said. Fire personnel weren't able to identify whether
the bird was raven or a crow that flew into exposed elements hanging from a high crossbeam on poles."
At that point, does it really matter?
"There were no witnesses, so officials stopped short of saying the flaming bird was at fault."
