California’s Secretary of Education, Bersin, supports Prop. 76

Just got my CA voter information guide (you have to download the pdf)for November 8th’s special election.  I don’t know about your state but we get these humongo books printed in the smallest print with an analysis by the state’s legislative analyst, followed by argument in favor, rebuttal to the arguments in favor, argument against the initiative, followed by a rebuttal to the argument against the initiative.  Always enough to make my eyes cross but this year, yay, I’m a bit more versed.

Very quickly, Prop. 76 is CA’s state spending cap with lots of extras. With regards to public education, not only is it capping spending, we’re talking a huge amount of money per pupil which will be lost permanently, $600, in a state where school funding is lower than many states.  

Prop. 76 will overturn the minimum school funding protection voted in by Prop. 98 in 1988. Even more chilling is how Prop. 76 will give even more power to the Governor to cut the budget (remember he has line-item veto powers already) without oversight.

And so yesterday, I turned to the “rebuttal argument against Prop 76” (p. 31 to all of you who has a voter information guide) and see our Secretary of Education, Alan Bersin, listed as a writer for the rebuttal against 76, along with the president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and a UCLA econ guy (with ties to Brookings and received grant money from the Bradley Foundation).  Take home point: Bersin supports Prop. 76, the one which will really hurt our public education system.

Bersin is a Democrat but he came to Sacramento trailing huge clouds of controversy after he beat up the school system in San Diego as superintendent.  I’ve previously written DLC seems to love him, which says a lot about why a Democrat would be out there supporting the forces behind the Governor. And his appearance with the Governor recently in SD is even more telling where his allegiance lies. It’s obviously not with the kids in public education.

From a SD paper:

Alan Bersin, the former superintendent of San Diego city schools, who now is serving as the state’s education secretary, appeared at Friday’s event and spoke in support of the ballot initiatives.

“It is our last clear chance and we have a hero – a real action hero – to lead us,” Bersin said.

Schwazenegger’s Alternate Universe (and Campaign Update)

Breaking!!!! Well, not really.

The governor released his positions on all the special elections initiatives today. It’s clear he has the wrong priorities for the state.  He represents a small number of wealthy contributors.  We represent 2.5 million working Californians.  His positions on every issue is opposite of ours.  The governor chooses to attack nurses, firefighters, cops and teachers and we speak out on their behalf.   He supports big drug and energy companies instead of the everyday people of the state he pretends to lead.   Arnold has made it his goal to consolidate power for himself and his companies; we are trying to stop this ploy couched as “reform”.

Schwarzenegger said he was a politician -that he would be a different kind of governor- but the only difference is more broken promises.  Line up his supporters  and then look at ours.  He has big drug companies, right-wing anti-tax advocates like Grover “drown it in a bathtub” Norquist and Lew “I think [sic] that Joe McCarthy was on target.” Uhler, and his own staff who thought it’s a great campaign idea to collect nasty stories about teachers, and to build a “phenomena of anger” against the dedicated people who keep us safe and healthy.  We have 2.5 million firefighters, nurses, teachers , police officers, health care workers and average everyday people who have devoted our careers to helping others.

In  our universe,  cutting school funding by more than $600 per student is a bad idea. Taking cops off the streets and firefighters out of firehouses is a bad idea. Cuts to pre-school and child health programs are bad ideas.  In less than two months the voters will decide what universe they are living in.  Governor,  if you believe all that, and health care benefits and pensions for public employees are a bad idea you must be living in an alternate universe.

In a little over a month, voters will decide which universe they live in – and we’re willing to bet – it’s a real one.

Crossposted on the BetterCA blog

Campaign News and Notes

It has been a busy week for the Alliance and for your intrepid bloggers.

Communications:
Acting on a press release from us the AP confronted the JoinArnold campaign about their “tell on a bad teacher” webform.  They immediately pulled it and the resulting AP story ran in 73 papers across the country.

Site additions:
We have been working hard to get new content up.  Right now we have downloadable flyers targeting various constituencies. More in various languages coming soon.

Friday is Bubba blogging.  Our trusty Alliance mascot/pet, the redbone hound now has his own feature, the Bubba Files.

Field:
There have been a number of actions this week, including the defense of the CTA building for people who thought it would be a good idea to hold a press conference attacking the union in front of the headquarters.

On the Air:
Arnold has gone live with his ads.  We have done some analysis/breakdown of each.  As always all of our ads are available for your viewing pleasure.

Comming Soon:  
Look for an official netroots outreach page filled with ways you can help the campaign.  For those kossacks with their own blog think about adding a link to us in your blog roll or grabbing the html Alliance button.

For the official weekly campaign update signup on the BetterCA site.

LA Sheriff’s Deptartment dumping the homeless in downtown LA

The LA Sherriff’s Department has been repeatedly accused of dropping mentally ill and other homeless on to the streets of downtown LA.  This behavior has now been reported by a LAPD officer, Capt. Andrew Smith, in the LA Times:

The [LA County Sheriff] cruiser, he said, turned south on San Pedro, then west on 7th Street to San Julian Street. There, Smith watched in disbelief as two deputies “pulled over, took a guy in handcuffs out of the car. They took off the cuffs and handed him a bag,” Smith said.

The captain and his partner immediately got out of their car and questioned the man and the deputies. Smith said the deputies told him that the man had been released from the Men’s Central Jail and was standing outside on the street when a supervisor ordered them to take the man to a downtown mission.

“But there was no mission nearby,” Smith said. “Only a line of guys sitting on milk crates.”

***

Smith said the man had a long history of arrests in the Lakewood area as well as Long Beach, where he lived. He said Harris told him he had not asked to be dropped off and had no connection to downtown Los Angeles. Smith also said the man told him he suffered from bipolar disorder.

To the captain, the incident reaffirmed what he believes has been going on downtown for years. Other police agencies, Smith said, and even some hospitals, “are dumping homeless, drunks, narcotic addicts and the criminal population into the downtown area…. We’re fed up with it,” he said.

So, instead of treating these people, who have a history of mental illness and criminality, with respect and caution, they are dumping them with a sandwich and a milk crate.  Not only is this dangerous (dumping potential criminals onto the street), this treats these people like human garbage to be left at the dump.  The cuts in state and local budgets to homeless and mental health programs are coming home to roost.

arnoldvision

The governor’s finally launched his own television campaign – spending his lagging political capital to explain to Californians why he’s wasted millions in taxpayer dollars on this off year travesty of an election. One of the ads, seemingly titled “package” by the Schwarzenegger campaign, explains why Arnold thinks you should vote for them. We thought we would help them get their facts straight:

You know the special election is more important than I thought. Making new teachers work successfully for five years before they get tenure and a job for life is a good idea.

It’s a bad idea. Proposition 74 will make it harder for our schools to attract the talented new educators that we need to strengthen California schools. Teachers don’t have a job for life. They have the right to due process that keeps overzealous bureaucrats from unjustly firing educators who’ve spoken up for kids, given tough grades, or advocated for better classroom conditions. The current system already allows schools to dismiss teachers who don’t measure up.

Stopping government labor unions from taking workers money for politics without their permission makes sense.

The Supreme Court assured that workers who don’t want their organization dues spent on politics can opt out, and not pay the money. Proposition 75 just adds additional paperwork to a system that already works – it’s unnecessary, and unfairly targets only our police, firefighters, nurses, and other public employees.

Controlling spending to end state deficits and ballance the budget is better than raising our taxes.

The governor likes to threaten Californians with higher taxes – but he’s really only interested in grabbing power so he can unilaterally cut vital services and school funding and give big tax cuts to his wealthy backers.

Having independent judges draw legislative districts instead of the politicians is better for us voters.

Arnold’s plan for redistricting takes the responsibility for drawing legislative boundaries away from your elected representatives, and gives it to his political appointees. How is that better for California voters?

Lets face it Sacramento is screwed up, anything we can do to change it – I’m for.

The changes the governor is proposing don’t fix anything. Sacramento is screwed up because instead of working with the legislature to enact real reforms, the governor wants us to do his job for him. We all want to fix what’s wrong in Sacramento – but the Governor’s special interest election will just create more problems, and cost taxpayers millions.

Arnold’s package isn’t what he wants you to think it is. It’s just another political power grab.

The California Levees:

(Darnit…forgot to promote! – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Cross-posted at MLW.
No, Mr. President, not the Levy family from LA.  California has its own set of levees that could come tumbling down in a earthquake or flood.  The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Delta has an intricate network of levees that began in the 19th Century:

Developers first thought levees 4 feet high and 12 feet at the base would protect Delta lands from tides and river overflow, but that proved inadequate fro Delta peat soils. By 1869, substantial levees had been constructed on Sherman Island and Twitchell Island by Chinese laborers, and in 1870 and 1871 the owners reaped bountiful harvests of grain and row crops. Small-scale reclamationprojects were started on Rough and Ready Island and Roberts Island in the 1870s, but the peat soils showed their weakness as levees. The peat soils would sink, blow away when dry, and develop deep cracks and fissures throughout the levee system. Sherman and Twitchell Islands flooded annually in the early 1870s.

However, we now face the more serious consequences of the failing of the levees.  Today, of course, they have a touch of modern engineering and use cement and other modern materials, but they are dangerously vulnerable to earthquakes.  According to the LA Times:

“To make them basically earthquake-proof, you would probably have to start over with a brand-new levee system,” said Les Harder, acting deputy director of the department and an engineer who helped put together a 2000 state analysis of the delta’s seismic risk. “I think it’s going to be unlikely we would ever make the whole delta today earthquake-proof.”

Now, if they were to breakdown, we are talking about much less human toll, but a substantial financial burden.

The threat is well known. A big quake rumbles across the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, knocking out dozens of the primitive levees that guard the state’s main water crossroads. A key source of water for nearly two out of three Californians and the nation’s biggest fruit and vegetable garden is shut down for months, maybe even a year or two.

The California heartland produces vast amounts of produce for the nation.  Additionally, it supplies much of the water for Southern California and much of the West.  But even fixing the current 1,100 miles of levees will be very expensive…

Schwarzenegger last week asked the federal government for $90 million to improve some of the most critical levees in the delta and the Central Valley. But that is a fraction of the $1.3 billion in repairs officials say it will take just to bring the delta levee system up to basic standards. And that would do little to protect it from earthquake damage. The state Department of Water Resources can’t even say how many billions more it would cost to do the seismic work.

Several solutions have been suggested.  Most controversial is the idea of building a canal to bring water down to Southern California.  This would provide additional water for SoCal, but there is concern that the Delta will be completely dried out by the insatiable thirst of Southern Californians.  It will also be costly, likely several times the cost of simply repairing the levees.  The federal and state government need to make the levees a priority, especially after we have seen what water has done to New Orleans.

Photo from LA Times of a Sacramento area flood.

The New Golden Gate Park and SF Round-up

With the coming opening of the new deYoung museum, and its magnificent facade, the news of the new California Academy is very positive.  This is from Christopher Caen (of the Examiner):

However, the place to be reckoned with was the new Academy of Sciences. It is a remarkable and truly beautiful building, and Renzo Piano and his crew have done a magnificent job on behalf of our city. In fact, I think the organic, undulating Academy and the rusty-colored de Young offer a great contrast in style and execution, and as such are the perfect bookends to each other.

I quickly corralled Jon McNeal from the architectural team and starting quizzing him on the pros and cons of the new building. First off, to make sure everyone is happy, the alligators are indeed going to be inside the front exit as they have since time immemorial. In addition, the planetarium is once again taking a prominent position, but here I have to admit one shortcoming. Although they have been able to keep track of all the original alligators from the old Academy…

Golden Gate Park is experiencing quite the revitalization under Newsom (although most of this is due to work of the Brown mayoral administration).  The Park is key to the continuing vitality of the City as a major tourist destination, a valuable part of our economy.  

More SF news in the extended…
(see the extended)

In other news, the new Octavia street freeway access route opened up:

Sixteen years after the Loma Prieta earthquake tore through the Bay Area, politicians and officials from San Francisco’s past and present joined city residents Friday to celebrate the long-awaited opening of Octavia Boulevard and a new freeway ramp.

The tree-lined boulevard begins at Market Street across from the freeway ramp and ends four blocks away at the Hayes Green, a pleasing stretch of grass and plants complemented by a large wooden sculpture. Meant as an oasis for pedestrians, bicyclists and cars — and with 50 percent of its new housing set as affordable — many speakers at the grand opening expressed hope that the Octavia Boulevard would serve as a blueprint for future projects in San Francisco.

“Let this not be a boulevard of new dreams, but a template to a new way San Francisco builds,” said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, whose district includes the area.

Arnold’s Media Extravaganza

(cross posted on dkos and the BetterCA blog)

We warned you…

Arnold’s early reelection announcement is designed with just one thing in mind: bolstering support for his failing ballot initiatives.  You don’t need any further proof of his intentions than he’s followed up his announcement yesterday by endorsing the horrid Proposition 75 today.  However, let’s take the time to look back at the Governor’s week long strategy, his attempt to turn around his dreadful numbers – numbers that make the former Mr. Olympia look like the photo featured on this woman’s sign yesterday.  

This has been a well choreographed dance, begging for attention.  It’s a classic media ploy and one that won’t really matter in the end. When the voters discover his arguments just don’t cut the mustard -it’ll all have just been poor gamesmanship.

From Monday to Sunday: Tracking a Media Extravaganza

Arnold’s handlers first task was to figure out the perfect timing for his series of announcements.  Tah-dah, the weekend of the California Republican Convention; press events would build up through the week, carrying attention over from one day to the next.  He would come up with something “newsworthy” every day, and he would try to keep the media engaged from Monday on.  

Monday he declared the start to his official proposition campaign.  They even worked in language that would tie the whole Monday-Saturday Arnold extravaganza together.

The next step was to have his staff to wrangle up some props…eer I mean… supporters and get them inside a night club for the re-election race declaration.  A site with noise insulation would surely deaden the sound of the protestors outside.  

Then they teased the news media all week that there was a “special announcement on Friday”.  Not very special, or a surprise that Arnold is running again, though a glance at his poll numbers gives one pause.  

Ok, status check: we have a quiet closed set, the media has been primed, and language to tie all of the events together.  That brings us to today, and his announcement of something we have known since April: Arnold supports a proposition designed to silence voices of public employees and clear opposition to the Governor’s destructive education, health care and public safety agenda.

The newspapers don’t yet have anything about this announcement, not surprising for a Saturday afternoon, so I went over to the Governor’s site to look at the language he used to justify backing Prop. 75.  For such a carefully coordinated media campaign you would think at least they would come up with a line of reasoning that couldn’t be shredded in one line.

“Public employee union members should not be forced to contribute to causes, candidates and controversial issues they don’t believe in,” stated the Governor.  “That is not a contribution.  That is a tax.

“Maybe they want their money to go for organizing or member services instead.

Mr. Governor, come here and have a seat beside me and I’ll whisper something in your ear.  Oh who am I kidding, I will just shout it out here for all to hear, its not exactly a secret, now is it: All union members, in every state in the union, already have the Supreme Court backed right to not have their union dues go to political activities.  That’s it really, your argument is bunk.  Now run along and see if you can do better, the strategy was effective, but you might want to work on the message.

SEIU on strike in San Fran

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Hundreds of SEIU health care workers are on strike now at some of Sutter Health’s top hospitals, the California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC).

Sutter has nixed a mediators compromise offer, even after Pelosi, Boxer and Gavin Newsom
urged them to sign the agreement.

The strike is important because SEIU is trying to maintain staffing levels at safe levels. They are also trying to get a regional contract, which would give them better power in future negotiations. They also want a greater say in training and education programs. This would be done with joint employee-management ‘boards’ that would have some power to resolve disputes.

In short, SEIU is trying to give workers a more democratic voice in the workplace.

Andy Stern says :

“This is not complicated,’ Stern said. “Kaiser gets it. Catholic Healthcare West gets it. Every single hospital in California gets it.

The national SEIU has contributed $250,000 to a strike fund.

Ways to support them are below…

I visited the picket line earlier in the week, and spirits seem high. They had some good chants going, and some chicken grilling for lunch.

However, Sutter/CPMC, has hired out-of-state scabs (protected by Blackwaterish goons) and they are filling the positions of the strikers. There have been “three or four” workers to cross the lines, according to a striker, nothing substantial.

Sutter claims to be a non-profit, however they really aren’t as there are multiple layers of executives, for-profit yearly goals, and executive bonuses for meeting them. (They are currently being investigated by the City of San Francisco for violating their non-profit status)

Sutter executives have the reputation for being viciously anti-union, as well. I can attest to this because I have a friend who works as an assistant to one of their executives.

Besides writing local leaders, you can write to
Sutter at

Sutter Health
2200 River Plaza Drive
Sacramento, CA 95833

You can also call CPMC’s CEO, and I’ll post the number at my blog (not for traffic, but don’t know if it’s kosher at dkos). I called them and was called back by a hostile P.R. staffer, so the calls are having an effect. I’ll also post a pdf of the flier strikers are passing out.

Businesses Laundering Money for Arnold

(Really, Really dirty – promoted by SFBrianCL)

(crossposted on the BetterCA blog, My Left Wing and BooMan)

The San Fransico Chronicle has obtained an email sent to tech industry leaders who are joining Arnold on a trip to China. In that message they are wink wink, nudge nudge told not to reimburse the organization sponsoring the trip, but pay for their own flights and costs, AND drop $50k in the coffers of the California State Protocol Foundation, which incidentally doesn’t have report contributions.  They are intentionally laundering money that pays for the Governor’s trips overseas, and Arnold’s people say: “Sorry we can’t control what our friends do.”

High-tech leaders who may accompany Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on a November visit to China are being encouraged to avoid paying directly for the trip and instead make hefty donations to a nonprofit committee supporting the governor because the “contributions are not required to be reported,” according to an e-mail obtained by The Chronicle.

The arrogance is really quite astounding:

“The money that comes in can be used for anything. … It can be used for foreign trips,” Dicke [CFO for the Protocol Foundation] said. “The donors expect confidentiality. … We’re not required to disclose them, so we don’t.”

They are right; the letter of the law says that big business can contribute unlimited amounts of funds to organizations that then pay for the Governor to fly around the world.  But that is a far cry from the claims of independence from special interest groups like the Protocol Foundation that the Governor has tried to build his reputation on and far from what has been done in the past.  

Why do these donors expect confidentiality?  What do they have to hide from?  Why would they not want the public to know they are funneling money to the Governor?  Finally, why do they expect it when Gray Davis’s supporters did not?

Garry South, who was senior adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis, confirmed that Schwarzenegger’s Democratic predecessor also had a “host committee” — but he noted there was a key difference.
“Under Gov. Davis, a voluntary decision was made to report who gave money to that host committee,” South said. “We decided it was not worth shielding these people from exposure — that we had to release and report it.”

South, now an adviser to Controller Steve Westly, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said the TechNet’s solicitation crossed the line because it was “literally out there telling companies to launder contributions.”

“This is the pattern and practice of this administration — to try and hide as much of the money as you can,” he said.

The plethora of pro-buisness groups that have sprung up since the Schwarzenegger administration took office is another example of the message I noted earlier: “Say one thing, do another.”  It is up to you to send a message in return: “This is unacceptable and we will reject you and your big business supporters.”

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About Brian Leubitz (the blogger formerly known as SFBriancCL) Brian Leubitz's Facebook profile

Small Brian Image Hi!  Thanks for visiting Calitics, and I guess, wanting to know a little bit more about me. I used to be an attorney at a firm in San Francisco, specializing in patent prosecution of semiconductor products, but left before I went totally insane.  I recently completed a masters in public policy at UC-Berkeley (the Goldman School of Public Policy).

I started Calitics back in September of 2005 because of a lack of transparency in the statehouse. While federal politics gets a lot of attention from national media, and local politics from local media, state level politics often misses out.  That is unfortunate, especially in California. We have a massive budget, massive problems, and tremendous opportunities. I love local and state politics as it offers far more interaction than the distant DC politics.  Plus, after somewhat abandoning local politics for so long, Democrats need to focus on building a solid network in every state.  Hopefully, Calitics can contribute to the continued vitality of California's progressive movement.

Personally, I live in San Francisco with my husband (screw  you Prop 8), who is also named Brian. In addition to my blogging, I also help campaigns reach out to the netroots, and have worked with campaigns like No 98/Yes 99, Mark Leno for Senate, Lois Wolk for Senate, and No on 1A.

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