On Thursday Kirk Murphy wrote a compelling piece at Firedoglake, “Drown it in a Bathtub?” – How Grover Norquist, the Club for Greed, and Arnold Let SoCal Burn, explaining how anti-tax sentiment in San Diego County left firefighters without adequate resources to respond to this week’s inferno.

Unsurprisingly, this has happened elsewhere. As firefighters battle to save Silverado Canyon and prevent the Santiago Fire from reaching Riverside County homes, we are now learning that Orange County firefighters faced similar crippling shortages of equipment and personnel – shortages that prevented them from being able to quickly extinguish the Santiago blaze.

Specifically, Orange County Republicans campaigned hard against Measure D, a 2005 ballot proposal that would have diverted $80 million in surplus public safety funds from Proposition 172 to help properly staff Orange County fire departments. The failure of Measure D leads directly to the OCFA’s inability to quickly contain the Santiago Fire when it broke out Sunday evening.

The full story is below.

As today’s LA Times explains:

Before the Santiago fire started in the hills northeast of Irvine, the Orange County fire department already had been hobbled.

Its fire engines were staffed below national standards, it had fewer firefighters per capita than neighboring counties, and its army of men and women ready to fight the blaze may have been weakened by changes in the county’s volunteer firefighter program….

“We’re out there with a handful of crews trying to stop this big fire, and all we could do was just put out spot fires,” said Chip Prather, chief of the Orange County Fire Authority. “It would have been great to have the cavalry come in, but there were several fires burning, and it was taking time for the resources to get here.”…

The size of those crews was one way that Orange County fell below the national standard. Most of the county’s engines were staffed with three people. Four per engine is the voluntary minimum standard from the National Fire Protection Assn., a private organization that writes fire safety guidelines.

Crews with three firefighters work more slowly than larger crews, according to a study by the Insurance Services Organization, a national group that evaluates fire departments.

Why was the OCFA shorthanded? Why didn’t they have enough funds to adequately crew their engines? Because conservative Republicans fought efforts by the OCFA to get more funds to hire trained firefighters. Friday’s Orange County Register explains:

Two of the Orange County politicians now complaining about the lack of air support for the Santiago Fire opposed firefighters’ effort to purchase new helicopters and trucks two years ago.

In fact, county officials today are sitting on more than $80 million in excess revenue from a statewide public safety sales tax adopted 13 years ago.

That surplus has been a longstanding sore spot for OC firefighters, who at times this week were so overwhelmed they had to seek refuge inside fire retardant tents.

The firefighter’s 2005 ballot initiative would have redirected a small portion of the ½ cent sales tax, providing $8 million for new helicopters and $33 million for new fire trucks.

But the entire Board of Supervisors, the sheriff and district attorney opposed the measure, saying it was an attempt to pick the pocket of county law enforcement. County voters rejected the initiative, with 73 percent voting no.

This week, State Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange and Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell joined Orange County Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather in blaming state fire officials for not sending enough air support during the early hours of the fire.

Spitzer called the lack of resources being delivered by the state “unconscionable.”

That rankled firefighters, who remember that both Campbell and Spitzer campaigned against their funding measure and signed the ballot arguments against it.

The opposition to Measure D was led by virtually the entire Orange County law enforcement establishment, and its elected political leadership:

The county supervisors, Sheriff Mike Carona, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs and the Orange County Employees Association all fought a bitter campaign against the ballot measure, titled Measure D.

Supervisors Campbell, Spitzer and Chris Norby argued that the union-sponsored initiative sought to cover bad spending practices by the fire authority and dip into critical law enforcement resources….

Campbell saw Measure D as a move by the firefighters’ union to “add new union members.”

He came up with a novel idea for thwarting the ballot initiative: The supervisors placed three other initiatives tinkering with proceeds of the public safety tax on the ballot.

The Register article conveniently does not mention that the paper’s own notoriously right-wing editorial pages – known for a history of virulent anti-tax, anti-union attitudes – also opposed Measure D:

“D is For Deception”

Some political battles remind me of the bloody fight between Stalin’s communist forces and Hitler’s Nazi forces. For whom do you root? You root for a very long war.

At first glance, taxpayers might be justified in taking a similar view with regard to Measure D, the countywide ballot initiative Nov. 8 that pits some of the most aggressive and self-interested government unions against each other.

If the unions spend their dues pounding each other, one might reason, perhaps they will have less money to spend on the liberal causes they typically endorse.

Despite such well-warranted cynicism, on closer examination it is imperative that taxpayers defeat Measure D, which represents a new low in money grabbing by an already well-funded special interest.

The whole of the editorial is a typically disgusting attack on firefighters, government, regulation, etc, concluding that Californians were “weak” to pass Prop 172 in 1993 for public safety funds, even though they did so just a week after the 1993 firestorms had gutted Malibu, Altadena, and Laguna Beach. To Steven Greenhut and the Register editorial board, the firefighters’ union is merely a greedy parasite on the public, using bureaucratic rules to claim they need more fire crews in a cynical ploy to line their own pockets.

The Register was not alone in the attack on firefighters and Measure D. Harry Sidhu, a member of the Anaheim City Council, wrote to the paper to express his opposition to Measure D:

Moreover, while the fire authority has mutual-aid agreements with other agencies to respond to major emergencies, it does not serve the entire county every day. Its mission is to protect the 43 percent of the county’s population that lives in its contract cities and unincorporated areas. Taxpayers in cities with their own fire departments should not be forced to subsidize contract cities.

If passed, Measure D would directly impact countywide law enforcement, countywide criminal prosecutions and countywide jail operations in a negative way. On the other hand, there is no negative impact upon the firefighters should Measure D fail.

In other words, the OCFA only helps those cities too cheap to pay for their own fire departments (the “contract cities”) – so why should Anaheim subsidize them? It’s not like a fire that breaks out in the dense brush of the unincorporated foothills and canyons of eastern OC would *ever* threaten the rest of the county. Oh wait…

In the wake of Measure D’s defeat, Jon Fleischmann of the Flash Report conducted a laudatory interview with former State Sen. John Lewis, who led the campaign against Measure D:

JF: Was there a turning point in the campaign?

JL: No, I don’t think there was a seminal moment where we said “Aha, now we’ll win”.  Instead there were a series of events that each contributed to our victory.  For openers, the unanimity of the Board of Supervisors was key.  If there had been a crack there it would have given fire a huge issue to exploit.  The rapid fire endorsements we received from the Orange County Republican Party, California Republican Assembly, and State Senator Tom McClintock helped immensely with Republican voters.  It is important to note that the Orange County Democrat Party stayed neutral on this race.  Firefighters thought they had that endorsement in the bag.  I know some of the Deputies and OCEA leaders were disappointed that the Dems didn’t endorse against D, but we were ecstatic they stayed neutral.  It showed we were out hustling them in every way.

It was around the time of gaining these great endorsements that Steve Greenhut from the Orange County Register did a great column and series of editorials on the greed of the OCFA union.  He came up with some jaw dropping statistics that really turned public sentiment our way.

Also, I think our opponents late start signaled their over confidence, perhaps they gave too much weight to that early OCFA poll.

The wingnutroots also got involved. Matt Cunningham (aka “Jubal”) and his “OC Blog” gave a great deal of attention to Measure D, leading the online war against adequate fire protection. Matt explained his opposition to Measure D in this post:

It is my belief that government employee unions pose the single greatest domestic threat to local liberty today. They are, as a wise man said, “government organized as a special interest.” Government at all levels — at least in California — is increasingly under their thumb. When fear and money cause our state and local elected officials — and the power of taxation — to be more responsive to the demands of government workers than to taxpaying voters at large, a role reversal occurs and so-called public servants become the masters….

The Democratic Party long ago abased itself to the government employee unions. Republican Party in Orange County remains an institution dedicated to liberty and limited government. Lately, it has become active in fighting for those beliefs at the local level by supporting and opposing candidates for local, “non-partisan” office. it ought to extend that activism by opposing Measure D….

I, for one, have no desire to give the OCPFA any more money. Why feed the beast? It is already the most politically imperious of our local government employees unions, and displays an arrogant penchant for treating the taxpayers’ money as its own.

Orange County’s public employee unions already possess too much power, and I see no reason to change the status quo and direct even more public money to the most politically aggressive one.

The Republican Party of Orange County can do more to defend and eventually expand the realm of liberty here in OC by opposing Measure D, than by remaining on the sidelines. I hope the members of the OC GOP central committee believe likewise.

To Matt, as with Greenhut and the Register editorial board, the issue here wasn’t about fire protection. No, it was about a full-scale attack on basic rights and liberties by an evil “salaried bureaucracy” trying to enrich itself unfairly and illegitimately.

To return to the LA Times article today, some are critical of Chip Prather and the OCFA for apparently driving away some of the volunteer firefighters that used to help staff county engines. Volunteers are definitely a necessary part of adequate fire protection. But they are no substitute for full-time, trained professionals who can rapidly respond to an outbreak of fire. The notion that volunteers, not trained experts, should be responsible for fire protection is an inherently conservative notion – “starve the beast” that is government and force everyone else to shoulder the burdens of social costs, without the financial or material resources to actually meet public needs effectively.

It seems unlikely that Orange County conservatives will be giving up their virulent anti-tax, anti-firefighter crusade even in the aftermath of October’s firestorm. Instead we should expect them to ramp up their argument that private enterprise and the market will do a better job of fighting fires than “greedy” public sector employees. As Bloomberg reported this week, the 2007 fires revealed the growing role of private firefighters:

“What we’re trying to do here is provide our policyholders an additional level of protection,” said Stan Rivera, director of wildfire protection for AIG Private Client Group. The average home insured by the unit is valued at $1.7 million.

AIG this year expanded its Wildfire Protection Unit to 150 ZIP codes in California and Colorado, up from 14 when it was formed in 2005. The unit has had the busiest week since its inception as fires burned at least 719 square miles (1,861 square kilometers) from Santa Barbara to San Diego, destroying 1,342 homes and 34 businesses and causing at least seven deaths.

Special Service

The Wildfire Protection Unit has six trucks outfitted to spray Phos-Chek, the fire retardant used by the U.S. Forest Service. Customers can have Phos-Chek sprayed on brush surrounding their homes before each fire season. During a wildfire, the trucks are sent out whenever a fire comes within three miles of a home and spray all combustible areas.

Such protection doesn’t come cheap. It’s available only to customers of AIG Private Client Group, which serves affluent individuals and their families. The average customer spends $19,000 a year on the insurance, which may also cover yachts, art collections and ransom demands, Rivera said.

AIG Private Client Group has about 55,000 customers throughout the U.S., Rivera said. California is “one of the biggest” markets for the group, he said.

And if you can’t afford such coverage? Well, you’re shit out of luck:

Some victims of the California fires may wish they had their own firemarks. During this week’s wildfires, “there were a few instances where we were spraying and the neighbor’s house went up like a candle,” Crays said.

Unless the conservative assault on public services and social protection from risk is halted and beaten back, that is California’s future.

Continuing my “sky is falling” rhetoric when it comes to the California economy, we now have over a million unemployed citizens, and even the positive job news is fleeting.

Despite a boost from the Hollywood job machine, the state unemployment rate ticked up in September, when more than 1 million Californians were looking for work, the first time that benchmark had been breached in nearly three years.

Jobs were added to the economy during the month but nearly half were in Los Angeles in the entertainment sector, according to figures released by the government Friday. Producers have been racing to get movies and television shows in the can in anticipation of a writers strike.

And Hollywood probably won’t deliver a happy ending. Strike or no, when the shows and movies are finished, many of those jobs will evaporate.

And it looks more like strike than no, as the WGA overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike, by a 90%-10% margin.  That could happen as soon as Halloween.  Most studios aren’t signing writers to any future deals right now, in anticipation of a strike.  And the contracts of the Screen Actors Guild and the Director’s Guild are up next summer.

Besides meaning a lot of crappy reality shows coming to a TV screen near you, this means a great deal of production personnel out of work.  And that just adds to the strain on the economy right now.

Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University, said it was important to note that payroll job growth had slowed to 1.1% in September from 1.6% in January and that beyond construction and financial services, the professional business services sector jettisoned jobs in September.

“Every indication is the weakness is becoming more broad-based,” he said. “Retailers are getting nervous about consumer spending, and clearly they are not adding to the employment base. The job machine is getting tired.”

October 5, 2007 – Palm Springs Village Fest Voter Registration and Candidate Information Tabling.  The air was crisp and those scandalous Repugnant women from last week were noticably absent from Palm Canyon last night.  The mood was much more festive and jovial.  We are the Democratic Party spelled PARTY on Thursday nights from 6:00 p.m. to whenever!

The Democratic clubs were well represented with Desert Stonewall Democrats staffing one table thanks to George Zander, DSD President, and Bob.  The Democrats of the Desert staffed another thanks to Eleanor who was as usual radiant and focused.   In addition, representatives of the Palm Springs Democrats held strong.  We even had a visit from Chuck McDaniel, co-chair of the new Desert Hot Springs Democratic Club, member of the Riverside County Democratic Central Committee, and activist with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.  Does Mr. IBEW have any spare time?

Richard Oberhaus, Campaign Manager for the Right Honorable Greg Pettis, Candidate for the 80th Assembly District, reigned over the festivities as he is wont to do.  Hopefully, we will see visits from Greg, Steve Pougnet, Rick Hutcheson, John Williams, and Bob Mahlowitz again shortly.

More below the flip…

Besides McDaniel from the IBEW, we had the pleasure of talking to unionist from the Sheetmetal Workers Union and others as well.  McDaniel and Tracy Turner, Vets for Peace activist, reported that they were there for the Moveon.org demonstration up the street from our esteemed location in front of Kopy Cats. at Arenas and Palm Canyon Drive.

We also had representation at the tables from the Sen. John Edwards campaign, the consensus leader in most Iowa polls (represented by yours truly), the boys from the fab Sen. Hillary Clinton campaign, the amazing Ed Jones and Charlotte Murphy, M.D., representing the also fab Sen. Barack Obama campaign, and Bob from Re-elect Al Gore people (petitions to circulate shortly for inclusion of Al Gore on the 2008 California Democratic Primary ballot).  I had several opportunities to recruit interested parties to table for the Dennis Kucinich campaign, and we will see if these supporters will pick up the gauntlet.

We observed lots of interest in the various campaigns’ buttons, fliers and bumper stickers!  The Hillary Clinton advocates were active in handing out Hillary balloons to the rug rats and street urchins!  We registered 8 voters, including two who just had to switch parties from the Dark Side.

We had our weekly unofficial Drinking Liberally party (UODL)at Bongo Johnny’s (thanks to the generous two-for-one drink tickets from the equally generous Chris and Marco).  Kudos to bartender Douglas for the wondrous libations!  Joining yours truly were Z and Bob S. from the Desert Stonewall Democratic Club and from the Democrats of the Desert amongst other memberships, Tracy from the Vets for Peace, etc., Bob from Re-Elect Al Gore, Richard from the Greg Pettis for 80th Assembly District Campaign, Charlotte from the Obama Campaign and her friend, Pablo, and myself, we hardly had enough two-for-one adult beverage drink tickets to see us through the evening at the now-open-until 2:00 a.m. BJ’s.

The UODLers then staggered over to Hunter’s Video Bar to entertain and to be entertained by registered voters from all corners of the planet.

Here are some notes from a few stories I’d been meaning to get to all week.

• Frank Russo had a good recap of the initial hearing from the three-judge panel charged with finding a solution to California’s prison crisis.  This panel may result in the early release of thousands of prisoners to reduce overcrowding.  The panel does not appear to be able to be swayed by political expediency (unlike the Legislature for the past 30 years), saying  “This is a judicial and not a political process.”  It is clear that the torturous conditions in California jails and the inability to deliver even basic medical care violates the Constitution and will be dealt with swiftly.  Even the Correctional Officers union has come around to the point of view that reductions in the prison population are needed.  Only a cowardly, leadership-challenged political class refuses to face reality.

(more on the flip):

• Here’s a fun tale of health care at the Tribune Company, parent of the LA Times and local TV station KTLA:

The Tribune Company has come up with a new tactic to cut costs and annoy the hell out of its employees – again. It seems that everyone on the staff at the L.A. Times (and so I assume KTLA) has to prove that their spouses and children really are theirs, and thus eligible for medical benefits. Though wasteful and mildly insulting it sounds easy enough, but apparently it’s not. They call it a “Mercer Audit” and its demands have some staffers in an uproar.

They’re demanding documentation (a birth certificate or marriage license, I guess) with a deadline of days from actually giving employees notice.  I’m sure in the boardroom this is considered “sound business sense.”

• At our Calitics Quarterly event, I talked with Digby about her contention that the GOP is targeting California as the big blue state where Rudy Giuliani can break through and get the paradigm-shifting win they need.  It’s true that the big hitters in the state have all come out for him – although the Pete Wilson endorsement garnered all of three reporters to the announcement.

• Continuing on this theme, a new SUSA poll shows head-to-head general election matchups for all of the top three candidates on either side, and in California, it shakes out like this: against Romney or Thompson, all the Democrats win by between 15 and 33 points.  Against Giuliani, Clinton beats him by 20, but Obama wins by only for and Edwards by only 2.  Wow.  Of course, Giuliani is still riding the name ID coattails.  However, his clear penchant for wanting to be competitive in California is evidenced by the fact that the mystery fundraiser for the dirty tricks initiative was the chairman of Giuliani’s northeast fundraising operation.

• Rik Hertzberg had an interesting footnote to the possible demise of the dirty tricks initiative:

Why would Schwarzenegger want to shoot down a proposal that has the potential of delivering the White House to his party next year?

My guess is that he isn’t losing any sleep over the probability of a G.O.P. Presidential rout, which would make him the indisputably most important Republican in America. His current port tack, on issues like health care and climate change, suggests that he knows which way the wind is blowing.  Doubtless he would rather be swept along than swept away.

Then there’s this. Anybody remember the first Republican debate, on MSNBC back in May? I’ll bet Arnold does. He was in the front row at the Reagan Library when Chris Matthews asked the ten candidates if they would support changing the Constitution ever so slightly to make naturalized citizens eligible for the presidency. The vote onstage was eight to one against. (The one was Giuliani; McCain said he’d “seriously consider it,” which I count as an abstention.) Eight to one, in other words, in favor of crushing the ultimate and perfectly legitimate dream of the distinguished Governor of California.

If I were Schwarzenegger, I wouldn’t lift a finger to help these bozos.

• Finally, tonight at midnight, the UAW Local 2865 contract runs out.  While the United Auto Workers settled their contract dispute with GM, Local 2865, which covers over 12,000 academic student employees at UC campuses (TAs, for example) has made little headway with UC.  You can read all about it here.  The whole idea of student employee unions gets lost in the shuffle, but they are being royally screwed, and are planning to file lots of unfair labor practices charges, in addition to keeping negotiations going and reserving the right to strike.  We ought to support their efforts.

It can’t be said any better than this:

Our Vision, Our Voice, Our Union

This weekend, SEIU-UHW is having a little get-together. Just a few friends getting together. 2000 healthcare workers, a quiet bunch, just trying to relax.

Ok, I jest just a little bit.  At about 9:30 this morning the lights went out and slowly the drums began. For fifteen minutes, the drums went on, slowly bringing the pitch to a crescendo, when several union members came to the floor, with those six words: Our Vision, Our Voice, Our Union.

Let me just say this up front, chills are kind of standard around here. Even ingnoring the over air-conditioned San Jose Convention Center, you can’t help but get the chills.  From the charismatic leaders like Sal Rosselli and Jorge Rodriguez, to rank and file members telling their success stories. This video, titled Winning in 2008, shows just how important this moment in labor history really is. Besides the elections that will determine so much, the union has an exciting year come up. Both of the old locals that merged together have been fighting for decades, and now with their vision of organizing along with high standards, they will be fighting for workers for a long time.

Over the next two days, you’ll be seeing some more posts about this event. Labor is so important to building a progressive movement in this state and the nation. The middle class of this nation cannot exist without a strong labor movement, or to put in Jorge Rodriguez’s words: “To rebuild the middle class, we must rebuild the labor movement.”

The following is based on a news release that I received from the Greg Pettis campaign for the 80th AD.

The San Bernardino, Riverside Building Trade Council of the State Building & Construction Trades Council endorses Greg Pettis’ bid for the 80th Assembly District.

For Immediate Release:  September 24, 2007

For More Information:  Richard Oberhaus
  760-413-7938

PETTIS ENDORSED BY BUILDING TRADES

The San Bernardino, Riverside Building Trade Council, the local
  affiliate of the State Building & Construction Trades Council, represents 32 locals and over 11,000 workers
  throughout the Inland Empire and they are joined by the 198 locals
  across California with over 350,000 workers supporting Greg Pettis.

“We are pleased to support Greg Pettis for Assembly,” said Bill
  Perez, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Bernardino, Riverside Building Trade Council. “His 13-year record in Cathedral City demonstrates his
  commitment to working families.”

The local Building Trade Council joins the Riverside/San Bernardino Labor
  Council, Riverside Mayor Ronald Loveridge, Palm Springs City
  Councilmember Ginny Foat, Desert Hot Springs Mayor Alex Bias, Cathedral City
  Councilmember Paul Marchand, El Centro City Councilmember Sedalia Sanders and
  former Coachella Mayor Juan DeLara in supporting Pettis .

Pettis is considered the Democratic frontrunner in the race to replace
  Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, who will be stepping down due to term
  limits. He has raised more money and has more donors than all the other
  Democratic candidates combined based on the last filings with
  California’s Secretary of State.

He has a long list of accomplishments including making homes more
  affordable for first-time homebuyers, creating safer routes to school for
  children, negotiating the Multi-Species Habitat Program and standing up
  to Wal-Mart’s unfair labor practices.

There are a bunch of things that I wanted to post about that I might as well highlight in one post, kind of like when Asia recruited members of Yes, King Crimson, and Uriah Heep to create a “supergroup”:

• BeDevine notes that yet another gender-neutral marriage bill has passed the Legislature, and once again Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to veto it because “the people have already spoken on that issue.”  Apparently the people don’t vote for their own representatives in the state legislature.  And at what point does the statute of limitations run out on referring to a ballot measure from 2000?

• Senator Loewenthal has pulled back the container fee bill that would have charged importers a $30 fee on each cargo container to go towards fighting pollution at the ports.  This will go into negotiation and probably be passed in some form in 2008.  Hopefully it’ll be a form that will still have some teeth.

• Dan Weintraub makes the fallacious argument that the United Farm Workers are somehow betraying their principles by asking for the ability to form a union after a majority of employees sign cards endorsing it.  He thinks that there’s no intimidation in a secret ballot election, apparently ignoring decades of union busting, threats, and workplace closures that have arisen from attempts to unionize.

• As mentioned in the Quickies, the CA Hospital Association has agreed to a tax in themselves… sort of.  In exchange, they would receive money back to them based on how many poor people they treat.  Most hospitals would actually make money on the deal.  It’s also hard to see how this would do anything to fix our state’s strained emergency rooms, which presumably is where these poor people would be encouraged to go for treatment.

• Also in the Quickies is some good news on the enviroment, as new CARB chief Mary Nichols has set some pretty strong targets for emissions cuts.  They’re first steps but they presage positive developments in the future.

• Finally, the Teamsters waged a successful protest at the California-Mexico border against the Bush Administration effort to allow 100 Mexican trucking companies to deliver goods anywhere in the United States.  This will not only damage our environment and public safety by opening up the roads to unsafe Mexican trucks, it undermines American job security for one of the few good union industries left to our working class.  The goal is to marginalize unionized truckers, pure and simple.  Matt Stoller thinks this could be the next “Dubai ports deal” if the word gets out about it.