10:40 PM PST on Sunday, January 3, 2010

The Press-Enterprise

Inland Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter will begin the new legislative year on the mend.

Carter, D-Rialto, had surgery on her right knee in December after months of increasing pain. She expects to miss the first few weeks of the 2010 legislative year that begins today.

“It’s just wear and tear. It finally got to the point where it was painful all the time,” said Carter, 68.

The regular legislative session adjourned in mid-September. But lawmakers had to return to Sacramento several times in the fall to consider major legislation dealing with water and education, so Carter kept putting off the operation.

She recently began physical therapy. Another integral part of her recovery is a little bell she keeps close by.

“My husband is answering it,” she laughed.

FOND FAREWELL

Each week, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors honors a group or longtime employee with a proclamation.

It’s a lot of handshaking and the reading of very formulaic resolutions. It’s not usually a comedy hour like it was last month when they said farewell to county Chief Financial Officer Paul McDonnell.

The supervisors brought down the house when reading the proclamation, which praised McDonnell for his years of service but also poked fun at him, his Irish background, his reputation as a straight shooter and for the difficult job he had with the county.

“Whereas, Paul McDonnell, a gentleman of fine Irish stock,” the proclamation began.

“Whereas, Paul McDonnell constantly used his head while on Wall Street, but often resorted to banging it against the Wall or the Street after joining the county,” it continued.

The proclamation went on to say that McDonnell would agree that “with respect to his professional experience in Riverside County, ‘You just can’t make this … stuff … up.’ ”

McDonnell stepped down to join his wife, Robin Zimpfer, a former head of the county’s Economic Development Agency, at the couple’s retirement home in Cambria.

McDonnell took over as chief financial officer in November 2008 after serving more than 10 years as the county’s elected treasurer-tax collector.

Drawing the lines

Two weeks into the application period, more than 200 Inland voters have applied to serve on the California Citizens Compensation Commission.

The 14-member panel, approved by voters in November 2008, will draw legislative and Board of Equalization districts in 2011. The Legislature will still craft congressional districts.

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