Stories at Voice of OC here and here as well as a story right here at Calitics continue to reveal the shenanigans at the Orange County Fair Board.
Today we learned that the FPPC has begun an investigation of former Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman for illegal lobbying.
Governor Brown has three choices as to how to unravel the mess that Schwarzenegger and his cronies created in Orange County.
The first choice is to negotiate with representatives from the Orange County Fair Board, who have been contriving some "revenue sharing plan". Hopefully, the Governor and his staff will have a chance to read this profile of Fair Board Member Dave Ellis , current Fair Board Chair and shadowy Republican political operative. Given Ellis' actions and contempt for open government laws, we're hoping that Jerry Brown just summarily fires Ellis when he arrives in Sacramento as one of the Fair Board's authorized negotiators.
Dealing with the Orange County Fair Board would be the governmental equivalent of negotiating with terrorists.
The second choice is to eat the fruit of the poisonous tree, and accept the pending offer from a group of local Orange County millionaires to purchase the Fairgrounds.
Within the next month we will see how Governor Brown deals with some of the left-over issues that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger could not muscle through, including the sale of state assets to well-connected political cronies.
Much attention is being paid to the sale and lease back of state office buildings, but in Orange County, we continue to be amazed by the unfolding evidence of the conspiracy behind the attempt to sell the Orange County Fairgrounds.
Is conspiracy too harsh a word? Let's look at a document dump that was partially unveiled this week by nonprofit investigative journalists in a voice of OC story. These documents begin to show how an Assembly bill to sell the Orange County Fairgrounds suddenly materialized on July 23, 2009 and was passed in the middle of the night without hearings or public notice.
It's a long complicated story, and the Schwarzenegger administration was desperately trying to close a deal before they left town, only to be held up by a court order.
Dick Ackerman, man of the people? Mmmmm not so much. Today more than 100 members of the California Partnership, a statewide coalition of community based organizations that fights poverty in California, flooded the offices of Republican leaders in California’s state Assembly and Senate to demand meetings and real solutions to California’s budget through fair tax policy.
Here's a shot of CHP's security officer telling everyone to buzz off.
Today's column in the LA Times takes the Governor to task for his unconscionable cut of homeless services that were working and saving money, in favor of a tax loophole for Dick Ackerman's yachting pals. Lopez has spent lots of time on the streets of Skid Row, and gotten to know the homeless people that struggle to survive down there. One of them, Bill Compton, died Monday, and it's grimly ironic that this happened at the same time that the program inspired by his successful move off the streets had its funding cut.
Bill Compton's Project Return helped pave the way for AB 2034, which, until its funding was cut by Schwarzenegger last week, was keeping nearly 5,000 people off the streets of California with a smart mix of housing and all the necessary support services.
The governor's staff has argued that the program can be funded with other revenues, such as money from the voter-approved Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63). But state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, who introduced AB 2034 when he was in the Assembly, said the latter ploy is both illegal and a subversion of voter intent.
"I was sick to my stomach for two days," said Steinberg, who believed until last week that the governor would be on his side, particularly since the program has substantially reduced hospitalization, incarceration and criminal justice costs for its participants.
As if the state budget process wasn't brutal enough, Arnold Schwarzenegger used the "blue pencil" last week to make even further cuts in social programs - to the tune of $700 million. After the legislature went along with cuts in public transportation and drug treatment, Arnold took another $55 million out of mental health treatment for the homeless - effectively castrating state law. A Governor who says he wants to pass universal health care cut over $427 million from the state's Medi-Cal program, and in a gift to his friends in the insurance industry, $6.3 million to help Californians get cheap prescription drugs. He says it was the only way Republicans in the State Senate would vote for the budget. But with Dick Ackerman's bad faith tactics that held our state hostage for 52 days, did he really have to keep such a Faustian bargain? And with the process now behind us, will he aggressively push to nix the 2/3 vote requirement to pass a state budget, and prove his "post-partisan" credentials?
(Here's a Word doc of the Certificate. You can fax a PDF with a free trial at fax1.com.
Apparently fax1.com requires a non-free email service. If you want to send a free fax and you only have Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, use Fax Zero. - promoted by David Dayen)
This will be faxed to Sen. Ackerman's office today:
CERTIFICATE OF MERIT
The National Coalition of Yacht Owners Who Hate The Homeless (NCYOWHTH) proudly bestows this award upon State Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine), who has the courage and foresight to be a yachting enthusiast and not a mentally ill homeless person, and is therefore eligible for a major tax break instead of having his social services eliminated. As an organization of yachters who will also benefit from the same tax cut to the tune of $45 million dollars, coincidentally almost the same amount that would fund the rehabilitation program for mentally ill homeless people, we applaud this setting of the real priorities for our state. Sen. Ackerman has been a leader in the twin fields of yachting and not being homeless for many years, and we are pleased to award this certificate today. We ask you to be the keynote speaker at The National Coalition of Yacht Owners Who Hate The Homeless clam bake in Tustin later this year. After all, there wouldn't be an organization this strong without you.
Sincerely,
David Dayen
Executive Director, The National Coalition of Yacht Owners Who Hate The Homeless
You can send this too:
Capitol Office fax: (916) 445-9754
District Office fax: (714) 573-1859
Here's some trivia about State Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman which may shed some light on the late round of budget cuts for social services. No, Ackerman's not a mentally ill homeless person, but he is a yacht owner.
Several lawmakers at the center of the budget dispute did not return phone calls or could not be reached. They included Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine -- a yacht owner who pushed to ease the tax burden on owners of yachts, planes and RVs.
An Ackerman spokesman said the senator was unavailable.
Here's a little more on this supposedly unnecessary mental health program, cleaved for the benefit of yachting aficianados everywhere:
It has served 13,000 people since November 1999. There are about 4,700 participants today. Among those enrolled as of January, there were 81% fewer days of incarceration, 65% fewer days of psychiatric hospitalization and 76% fewer days of homelessness compared with their pre-enrollment days.
Rusty Selix, executive director of the California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies -- like Steinberg, a Proposition 63 coauthor -- said the cost of incarceration can be six times higher than the cost of enrolling someone in the mental health program.
"Rehabilitation costs money. But it's worth it," said Adrienne Sheff, director of adult services at the San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health Center in Van Nuys. Los Angeles County receives nearly a third of the state funds through AB 2034 and serves 1,700 people.
This program was designed to lessen the cost of those homeless who eat up emergency services - like the guy who showed up at San Diego ERs 87 times in a calendar year. Ultimately this move, done purely to satisfy short-sighted bean-counters, will end up costing the state far more. But that burden will be placed on municipalities and local governments, not the state coffers. Making the bean-counters - and yacht owners like Dick Ackerman - very, very happy.
Here is a question. Why did Arnold think that the Republicans were bluffing about taking a much stronger stand on the budget? They promised as much last year during their bloody leadership battles. I have seen newspapers refer to that as posturing, indicating that they never believed the Republicans would actually follow through. Did Arnold really thing they would roll over, when history is littered with examples of their obstructionist tactics during previous budget negotiations?
I absolutely love this Economist article on the budget. The magazine has a well deserved reputation for presenting the news in a straightforward manner. They hold no punches on this one and go right after the Republicans.
Republicans are causing the delay, as in the past. Ignoring pleas from Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor, Assembly members won some spending cuts and tax breaks. Then, while they hit the beaches, state senators demanded further cuts. Last week, in order to try to end the debate, the Democratic Senate president locked them in. Senators lounged around like teenagers at an all-night party, amusing themselves by sending messages to conservative blogs. “To update you—we've done nothing,” wrote one. They want a mixture of real and symbolic sacrifices—less money for environmental litigation and trade-union studies, for example.
It looks like Sen. President Pro Tem Don Perata has come up with the more appropriate moniker for the California Republicans' sense of "Fiscal Responsibility":
California's budget stalemate triggered partisan mudslinging Wednesday when the Senate's Democratic leader accused minority Republicans of "fiscal terrorism" for demanding more cuts from welfare, public transportation and other programs.
"As far as I'm concerned, (Republicans can) continue to hold up the state budget because I'm not going to capitulate to this kind of terrorism," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said after delaying a scheduled vote by one day. (SacBee 7/26/07)
This is surely what it is. The GOP Caucus has presented a plan to steal food from the mouths of children by slashing CalWORKS, and medical care from the sick by slashing Medi-CAL. Is that what the GOP has left? Taking from those who have the least so that those who have the most can have a few more dollars. Ackerman's plan is completely counterproductive at best, and disastrous if it ever comes to fruition.
It now appears that all that is left is the trappings of decorum. Perhaps something will be worked out, but it appears that post-partisanship is dead. It appears that the work of repealing the 2/3 super majority must become job #1 for California progressives.
Yesterday, Speaker Fabian Nunez put out a press release with an aggressive tone, calling on Arnold to meet with the legislative leaders on the budget.
ONE WOULD THINK THAT IT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE AT SOME POINT BETWEEN NOW AND THE FIRST OF DECEMBER THE GOVERNOR WOULD CALL A BIG FIVE MEETING SO THAT HIS LEADERSHIP COULD BEGIN TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE STALEMATE BETWEEN THE DEMOCRATIC AND THE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP ON THE BUDGET.
Arnold did meet with the leadership yesterday, but it appears that little was accomplished. Democrats often use the California Majority Report to push a message that may not be getting through in the press. Today there are two pieces up on the Republicans and the budget. They are clearly ramping up the pressure on them to agree to the Democrat's budget version.
Who cares what the democrat lawyers who work for Fabian Nunez and Don Perata think? It has no force of law. The campaign is over. Schroeder needs to stand down. He is only hurting the GOP's chances of keeping this seat next year.
So why is "Been Around" on OC Blog angry at the "democrat lawyers"? Well, it looks like those "democrat lawyers who work for Fabian Nunez and Don Perata" have just contradicted Judge Brenner's ruling in favor of Janet Nguyen by opining that the County Registrar was required to use a voter verified paper trail (VVPAT) in conducting the full recount. So have these "democrat lawyers" now given new life to Trung's insane effort to overturn the election results? Follow me after the flip for more...
With all regular ballots counted, the closest race in Orange County is as close to a statistical tie as humanly possible...
Republican Lynn Daucher leads by ONLY 13 VOTES...
Don Perata says that he will drop the Dem plan to increase health care eligibility, but that's not enough for the GOP. Dick Ackerman's going for the kiddy-jugular:
Democrats are dropping a proposal to extend state health insurance programs to all California children, including undocumented immigrants, a key stumbling block in negotiations over a state budget, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said Monday.
But Republicans said they still wouldn't vote for the $131 billion spending plan because it also includes $23 million that GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put in to shore up existing county health programs covering children who are in the United States illegally.
***
"We did not want the budget to become hung up on that particular point," said Perata, D-Oakland. "This is about children. They should not be a chess piece in this game."
The Democrats' change of heart leaves the governor aligned with them but on the opposite side of the issue from members of his own party.
***
Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine called Perata's announcement Monday "a step in the right direction, but we also need to deal with the $23 million that the governor put in." (SacBee 6/20/06)
Before it was all a bit hypothetical, because Schwarzenegger had the "it's too expensive" line. Now, the $23 million is his own doing. He thought it was affordable in his budget rewrite, it is still affordable now. How important does the governor find the children of this state? The $23 million goes to county health programs which fund increases for all children, not merely immigrants.
Apparently, it's not that important for Ackerman and the GOP. We'll see how important it is for the Governator. I already submitted a question about it in the Governor's "Ask Governor Schwarzenegger" webcast. The webcast begins at 10:30, so get your questions in quickly!
This will be faxed to Sen. Ackerman's office today: