The Chron's Wyatt Buchanan and Matthew Yi report on some creative bookkeeping in the Legislature.
"Nearly two dozen special legislative
committees with paid staffers - some who make more than $100,000 a year
- have not held a single meeting all year, a Chronicle review has found.
"The select committees employ a combined 67 workers at the Capitol at
a cost to the state of $4.3 million annually. On paper, the workers are
paid as employees of the committees. In reality, many
of them work on
the staffs of state Assembly and Senate members.
The workers collect only one paycheck and, while not
breaking any
rules or laws, the long-held practice raises questions about
transparency in government and the difficulties of
tracking state money.
Some experts say the committees are largely created
as a way to expand a lawmaker's office."
The story is probably the last one for Yi, who left
the Chronicle this week for a new gig in the communications
shop at United Health.
Meanwhile, the governor made some news -- some intentional, some not -- in San Francisco Thursday. "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has advocated changes
to the state’s legislative term limits law in the past, called California’s term limit laws “crazy ” Thursday," Capitol Weekly reports.
"Schwarzenegger made his remarks in San Francisco at
a speech to the Association of Community College Trustees’ Leadership Congress.
"The governor also explicitly made the threat circulating
around the Capitol for weeks -- that he would veto hundreds of bills currently on
his desk if lawmakers can not agree on a water deal.
"I made it very clear to the legislators and to the
leaders that if this does not get done then I will
veto a lot of their legislation, a lot of their bills.
So that should inspire them to go and to get the job
done and to get the water for not only 18 million people but for the 50 million people that we will be in the near future."
"Lawyers for state prisoners today asked a panel of
federal judges to
hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in contempt of court and impose a fine
for California’s failure to comply with their order to submit a plan
for reducing the inmate population by 40,000 over two years," Michael Rothfeld reports.
"The state submitted a plan in U.S. District Court on
Sept. 18
that
would meet the order’s requirements within five years, provided the
Legislature changes state law. Without the legal changes,
the
governor’s plan would not meet the judges’ requirements, even within
six years.
"The inmates have said prison overcrowding violates
their rights to
adequate medical and mental health care. Their lawyers
told the federal
judges that the state had shown “utter contempt” for the judges’
orders. They said state prison officials “are no more above the law
than those in their custody,” and should not be allowed to choose which
laws and court orders to follow and which to “simply ignore.”
James Koren looks at who is lining up to replace Anthony Adams.
"A
former state lawmaker who was elected to serve simultaneous
terms in
the Assembly and Senate, a former county official who
renounced the
Republican Party and became a Democrat and a retired
professor whose
last bid for public office took a nose dive in 1975 are three of the
candidates who might represent part of the Inland Empire
if Assemblyman
Anthony Adams is ousted in a recall election.
"A recall election hasn't been called, so there are no official
candidates, but recall organizers and county party
officials said at
least three people have expressed interest in taking
Adams' seat.
The choice favored by recall backers is Richard Mountjoy, a
former Monrovia mayor who served in the state Assembly
from 1978 to
1994 and in the state Senate from 1994 to 2000. In 1994, he was elected
to serve in both the Senate and Assembly - another Senator died and
Mountjoy ran in special election for his seat but couldn't get his name
off the ballot for the Assembly seat.
" Also planning to run is
Don Williamson, who served as San Bernardino County Assessor for
12
years before being unseated by Bill Postmus in 2006. Williamson ran
against Adams in 2008, losing with 40.8 percent of the vote."
Amy Chance says Republicans are cooling to Carly Fiorina.
"Republican voters,
cautiously eyeing two candidates for the U.S. Senate
next year, are
less enthusiastic about former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina than
they were earlier this year, according to a new Field
Poll.
"The poll found a majority of GOP voters undecided about
who they want to challenge Democratic Sen. Barbara
Boxer next year.
"Those who had a preference were split between Fiorina, 21 percent, and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, 20 percent."
And from our Trick or Treat Files , "Animal control officers in Sioux City, Iowa, say someone dressed a
dead deer in a clown suit and wig and put it on a family's porch.
Officers suspect it was a prank, considering Halloween
is approaching,
but they say it's not funny, safe or acceptable.
"Animal
Control Officer Jake Appel says leaving a dead animal
is immature and
illegal. He says officers will dispose of the deer
properly."
With a spray from the seltzer bottle, and a flock of
balloon animals.
