8.3% ?

Friday, February 3, 2012 – 09:00 a.m.

Hooray! The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.3% in January, with the economy adding 243,000 jobs.

But it took a lot of gaming of the numbers to get there.

For each of the past several months the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been shrinking the active workforce.

In essence the real unemployment rate hasn’t really improved.

The labor force participation rate fell to a 30-year low of 63.7%.

The January rate is a nice campaign sound bite for President Barack Obama, but nothing more.

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/02/2012 04:25:33 PM PST

Document: Ballot Title and Summary

San Bernardino City Professional Firefighters Local 891, the union representing 126 city firefighters, has introduced a ballot initiative proposing an elected fire chief.

In the last two years, 25 positions have been cut at the department and engine companies have dwindled from four-man crews to three-man crews, said Steve Brown, the union’s vice president.

While budget cuts factor into that scenario, union representatives say they are fed up with “politics as usual in San Bernardino.”

“Too often, the current administration at City Hall has injected politics into the management and operations of our Fire Department,” said union President Scott Moss in a statement Thursday.

An elected fire chief, Moss said, would remove the taint of politics from decisions affecting hiring, promotions and fire protection policies at the department.

A notice of intent to circulate a petition was filed with the city on Jan. 9, but the union has yet to begin gathering the roughly 12,000 signatures needed to get the initiative on the ballot, Brown said.

“We’re not even sure we’ll have our ducks in a row by November. It’s a work in progress right now,” Brown said.

The proposed charter amendment would establish an elected fire chief, to be elected at the 2014 general election, who would have complete autonomy in running the department, without interference by the mayor and city manager. In addition, the proposal requires the Fire Department to have an assistant fire chief and a chief of staff, appointed by the fire chief with the consent of the mayor and City Council.

To read entire story, click here.

By Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer
Created: 02/02/2012 05:36:15 PM PST

Fundraising data for Rep. David Dreier, D-San Dimas, from the last quarter of last year suggests he’s likely to retire this year, according to local political experts.

The Federal Election Commission database reports Dreier collected only $10,160 in campaign contributions in the period from October to December. The figure is paltry compared with the $207,450 received in the same period in 2003, and the $137,600 in 2009.

By comparison, fourth-quarter contribution figures for other Inland Empire politicians show much larger campaign funds. Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, received $138,039; Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea, $122,933; and $53,159 for Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, who is not running for re-election. State Sen.

Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Montclair, who is running against Baca for the 35th District seat, has already raised $77,984.

If Dreier were to run again, he should have started raising funds much earlier, said Claremont McKenna College professor Jack Pitney. Dreier, who was first elected to the House in 1980, had traditionally been among the top election fund-raisers in Congress.

The data, Pitney said, suggests Dreier will not seek another term.

Due to redistricting, his San Dimas residence is now in a district with only 28 percent of the registered voters as Republicans.

“He has great fund-raising ability and if he were to run again he could probably raise a lot in a very short period of time, but that would be an unusual way to go about it,” said Pitney.

“Most members of Congress don’t go about it that way.”

To read entire story, click here.

By Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
Created: 02/02/2012 06:07:28 PM PST

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – There has been a change in leadership for the affordable housing group National Community Renaissance, or National CORE.

The nonprofit has hired Steve PonTell, founder of the think tank La Jolla Institute, as interim president and chief executive officer, replacing Orlando Cabrera.

Sammi Reeves, a National CORE board member, said the decision for Cabrera to leave the company was mutual. Cabrera had been leading the organization while residing in Washington D.C., a commute that was taxing on Cabrera’s family life, said Reeves.

Cabrera led the Rancho Cucamonga-based National CORE through the recession and collapse of the housing market.

“There was a need for Orlando when he came to the organization,” Reeves said. “We had that need to be in a draconian mode so the organization doesn’t bleed red ink. We were turning over properties and had to make difficult decisions. Orlando was the perfect person to do that task.”

Reeves said Orlando and PonTell have very different managerial styles, with PonTell being much more open.

“It has been a month and you can see the difference already just in the collective morale of the organization,” Reeves said. “It’s been very, very refreshing.”

Born in Loma Linda and raised in Big Bear Lake, PonTell has been an Ontario resident for the past 25 years. He has led the Ontario Chamber of Commerce as well as the Inland Empire Economics Council. More recently, PonTell was hired by San Bernardino County as a consultant for the Vision Project, which aims to map out the development and planning of the county.

“I’m kind of the strategy, vision guy,” PonTell said.

PonTell will be managing the nonprofit with an uncertain future. With the elimination of California’s redevelopment agencies, which is the bread and butter of organizations like National CORE, it remains to be seen how the group will continue to fund its California projects.

Currently, there are six projects in the pre-development phase on hold due to the demise of state redevelopment agencies.

“We’re going through unique times at the moment,” Reeves said. “We need a fresh look.”

The organization, boasting a portfolio of 10,000 affordable housing units in four states, has seen some troubled times in recent years.

Last year, National CORE was part of a far-reaching investigation by the FBI, which raided the Rancho Cucamonga office as well as the homes of a former state senator and four defendants in a San Bernardino County corruption probe. Among the defendants raided was developer Jeff Burum, who co-founded National CORE in 1991 but resigned from the board in 2010.

To read entire story, click here.

$1.8M goes to Hinkley School water system
February 02, 2012 5:11 PM
KATIE LUCIA, Staff Writer

HINKLEY • The regional water board signed a $3.6 million agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric on Wednesday night, dedicating half of that money to build a new water filtration system at the Hinkley School.

The settlement was concerning PG&E’s violation of their cleanup order requiring them to contain the rapidly growing plume of water that’s contaminated by chromium 6, a cancer-causing metal, said Lauri Kemper, assistant executive officer of the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board.

PG&E pushed to have as much of that settlement money given to the community as possible, according to company spokesman Jeff Smith. They decided on a water system for the school after community members voiced concerns about the facility’s quality of water. Currently PG&E supplies bottled water to the school to address those concerns.

“It’s good to see the school got (that money) so they can put a new water system up there and take care of the kids,” said Hinkley resident Jim Dodd, who serves on the community advisory committee. “It’s just nice to see something getting done.”

Barstow Unified School District Interim Superintendent Jeff Malan said the district was excited about the news and looked forward to working with PG&E and the water board.

PG&E is responsible for cleanup and containment of the contamination of chromium 6 that leaked into the groundwater from PG&E’s cooling towers in the 1960s.

The water board, which is overseeing the cleanup, issued a notice of violation to PG&E in 2009 after the company found the contamination was on the move, Kemper said. In the last three months alone the plume has extended more than one mile, she said.

The company maintains there was no actual violation, Smith said, as the change in plume boundary is due to new information gathered from recently installed monitoring wells rather than actual migration.

While Kemper agrees there may have been contamination not previously discovered in the area, she said there is substantial evidence the contamination is in fact migrating north.

The notice was issued after PG&E found one of their monitoring wells was reading higher levels of chromium 6, Kemper said. The well, located on Alcudia Road, used to read less than the maximum background level of 3.1 parts per billion, but increased to 9.5 parts per billion. Increased chromium 6 levels were also found in private wells, she said.

Kemper said the contamination is growing primarily because the groundwater naturally moves north. Additionally, individual pumps may be pulling the water in that direction.

Had the two not reached a settlement, the board could have imposed a maximum fine of $5.5 million or recommended the case to the state Attorney General’s office. In either case, all of the money would have gone to the state water board’s fund and none to the community.

PG&E and the water board will be hosting a meeting to describe the settlement agreement and hear public comments on the matter. The meeting will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Hinkley School, 37600 Hinkley Road

Katie Lucia may be reached at (760) 256-4123 or KLucia@DesertDispatch.com.

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Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Many years of partisan wrangling over the state budget reached a climax in 2010 when public employee unions and Democratic politicians persuaded voters to pass Proposition 25, eliminating the two-thirds vote for budgets.

It gave the Legislature’s majority Democrats the power to pass budgets without having to garner Republican votes. But that’s not all it did.

Worried that voters might see it as a political power play, the measure’s sponsors added a political sugarplum, one declaring that if legislators didn’t pass a budget by June 15, the constitutional deadline, their salaries would be cut off.

They also included another proviso that extended the simple-majority vote to so-called “trailer bills,” measures supposedly needed to implement the budget.

This column and other critics suggested that the trailer bills could become political Christmas trees – ways for the majority party to bypass procedural rules and jam into law things that had nothing to do with the budget.

Although the Legislature has been in session for just a month, we’ve already seen two cases of how the Democrats are treating Proposition 25.

Last year, they used their newly won authority to pass a budget without Republican votes. When Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it, saying it was unbalanced, Democratic Controller John Chiang cut off legislators’ paychecks, citing Proposition 25.

Brown and legislators quickly cobbled together a new budget on the miraculous assumption that the state would get an extra $4 billion in revenue. Most of the miracle money didn’t show up, and the budget is about $5 billion in the red. The Legislature is now suing Chiang, claiming that he had no authority to enforce Proposition 25.

To read entire column, click here.

By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B

By lowering its investment forecast by another quarter point, CalSTRS made a bow toward economic reality – but also may have complicated efforts to shore up its finances.

The teachers’ retirement board agreed Thursday to reduce CalSTRS’ official investment forecast to 7.5 percent, down from 7.75 percent. It was the second cut in 14 months, after the $144 billion fund left the forecast untouched for 15 years.

In a volatile investment climate, following a year in which CalSTRS’ portfolio earned just 2.3 percent, board members took their consultants’ advice and went with the lower number.

“I think it’s best that we be conservative,” said Terry McGuire, representing board member and state Controller John Chiang.

The board of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System voted 9-1 to reduce the forecast. The lone dissent came from Pedro Reyes of the Department of Finance. The higher forecast “is not unreasonable,” he argued. “Let’s stay where we are right now, (and) visit this in another year.”

By cutting investment projections, the board instantly ballooned CalSTRS’ funding gap – the estimated shortfall of assets available to meet the pension fund’s long-term needs. The gap will grow by nearly $6 billion, or roughly 10 percent.

That could create problems in the Legislature, which must OK changes in how CalSTRS is funded.

CalSTRS gets around $5.6 billion a year from the state, school districts and teachers. The pension fund had already calculated that it needed another $4 billion a year to eventually get healthy. With the lower investment forecast, those needs grow by another $500 million a year.

While CalSTRS is pushing for more money, many Republicans want to erase funding shortfalls for public pensions by reducing benefits. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown wants to give newly hired employees a combination traditional pension and a 401(k)-style program.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/03/4235828/calstrs-gap-rises-as-return-forecast.html#mi_rss=Business#storylink=cpy

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
February 2, 2012

A “millionaires tax” initiative spearheaded by the California Federation of Teachers and the Courage Campaign received petition language today, as well as backing from the powerful California Nurses Association.

CFT spokesman Fred Glass said his group expects to begin collecting signatures Monday now that state Attorney General Kamala Harris has issued official petition language today. Harris titled the measure “Tax To Benefit Public Schools, Social Services, Public Safety, And Road Maintenance.”

The CFT/Courage plan would raise taxes by three percentage points on income above $1 million and five percentage points on income above $2 million. State fiscal analysts say the proposal would generate $4 billion to $6 billion annually, with a $6 billion to $9.5 billion windfall in the 2012-13 fiscal year because the plan would capture 18 months of taxes.

The plan is competing with Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative, which would raise income taxes on earners starting at $250,000 for single filers, as well as increase the statewide sales tax by a half-cent.

To read entire story, click here.

Gov. Jerry Brown laid out a detailed plan to alter California’s state and local public retirement systems on Thursday – and immediately drew fire from his core labor constituency.

The details delivered to the Legislature on Thursday generally tracked with an outline he unveiled in October. Representatives of a union coalition hoped to negotiate what they consider a less severe package. On Thursday, they said they felt blindsided.

“To launch this bomb in the early stages of the legislative season can only be counterproductive,” said Steve Maviglio, spokesman for the union coalition Californians for Retirement Security. “The timing and severity of this was quite a surprise.”

Because the package of proposals amends the state constitution, it needs support from two-thirds of lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled Senate and Assembly to be put on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The centerpiece of Brown’s plan ends traditional pensions for state and local government employees hired July 1, 2013, and later. Employers would be offered “hybrid” plans that combine a smaller guaranteed payout with a more volatile 401(k)-type component.

“I think there’s a lot of really good stuff in the proposal,” said retired state Finance Director Mike Genest, who is now aligned with California Pension Reform, a group that is raising money for its own ballot measure.

While the unions and some experts have warned that hybrid pensions would devastate retiree security, Genest said that the idea is fair because “at least some of the risk is shared with the employee.”

Brown’s plan aims to replace 75 percent of an employee’s income assuming 30 years of service and a retirement age of 57 for public safety employees. Other workers would reach full retirement at 67 after serving 35 years.

To read entire story, click here.

Neil Derry left. James Ramos right.

By Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/01/2012 07:16:08 PM PST

Document: James Ramos Flier

San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry has launched an assault on the character of his major opponent, San Manuel tribal chairman James Ramos, in a campaign mailer tying Ramos to “gang members,” “drug dealers” and “killers for hire.”

The flier labeled Ramos a “Casino Boss” with ties to the Mexican Mafia. It was found plastered on hundreds of windshields outside Ramos’ campaign headquarters in Redlands on Tuesday night, where Ramos was hosting a campaign kickoff event at his headquarters, said Dave Gilliard, Ramos’ campaign manager.

In a statement Wednesday, Ramos
called Derry’s hit mailer a “false and pathetic attempt to smear me by my opponent and his campaign consultant.”

“I believe that voters want and deserve something better than these types of gutter politics,” Ramos said. He said he would run a positive campaign on real issues and the future of the county, and announced he had secured the endorsement of San Bernardino District Attorney Michael A. Ramos.

Derry stands by the flier. He said it was well sourced and the information is accurate.

“That’s what happened,” Derry said, referring to a case brought to the public’s attention in 2006, when police and DEA agents arrested dozens of people in a methamphetamine distribution ring orchestrated by the Mexican Mafia. Two San Manuel tribal members, siblings Stacy Barajas-Nunes and Erik Barajas, were implicated in a murder conspiracy plot involving members of the Mexican Mafia.

Information revealed in court documents and by former tribal employees showed that the San Manuel reservation had been infiltrated by the Mexican Mafia, whose members were believed to be extorting money from tribal members, who receive monthly stipends of roughly $100,000, generated from casino profits.

In an e-mail Tuesday, Derry’s campaign manager, Christopher Jones, said the Third Supervisorial District is a “conservative, law and order stronghold.”

To read entire story, click here.

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/01/2012 02:01:30 PM PST

The labor union representing roughly 11,000 San Bernardino County employees announced Wednesday it will support another union’s effort to reduce county supervisors’ jobs to part-time.

Paula Ready, president of the San Bernardino Public Employees Association (SBPEA), said in a statement that the union’s board of directors had voted unanimously to support the San Bernardino County Safety Employees Benefit Association (SEBA) in its push to slash county supervisor salaries to $60,000 a year and their district budgets from $1.5 million to $250,000.

The unions are accusing the board of foisting its duties onto county Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux and voters.

Though the board has cut its meeting schedule in half, it still reviews the same number of agenda items, only now more items are going on the agenda, county spokesman David Wert said.

He said the unions are aware of this and their arguments are ill-informed.

“The unions are close enough to the county’s operations to know those meetings are only a small portion of what board members do,” Wert said.

To read entire story, click here

Money & Politics | Daily Report

February 2, 2012 | Will Evans

If super political action committee dollars were votes in the Republican presidential primary, California would already have voted resoundingly for Mitt Romney.

Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting the former Massachusetts governor, collected $2.3 million from Californians last year, more than any other super PAC, according to new filings this week. The group boosting Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, pulled in a paltry $1,750 from California, less than any other super PAC involved in the Republican primary.

Super PACs have been omnipresent in the primary race, spending lavishly on hard-hitting TV ads and rivaling in influence the candidates’ own campaigns. The political committees are controversial because, under loosened campaign finance regulations, they allow wealthy individuals and companies to give unlimited amounts of money to directly support their preferred candidates.

Much of California’s pro-Romney money came from the world of private investment – not surprising, as Romney formerly headed investment firm Bain Capital and the industry’s business practices have become a hot issue in the campaign.

The biggest Golden State donor to Restore Our Future was W/F Investment Corp., which, together with CEO Bill Fleischman, gave $350,000. The Los Angeles private equity firm’s portfolio includes a Bavarian beer importer and The Roadium open-air market in Torrance. W/F Investment referred calls to the super PAC.

Restore Our Future spokeswoman Brittany Gross said the organization is running advertisements in Nevada, which holds caucuses Saturday, and Arizona and Michigan, which have primaries later this month. As for the donations, Gross said, “we’re going to let the numbers speak for themselves.”

The second-biggest donation, at $250,000, came from Glenbrook LLC. The Redwood City address listed on the donation is that of Glenbrook’s accounting firm, which declined to provide any information about the company.

Dick Boyce, a San Francisco partner at private equity giant TPG Capital, gave $200,000. Boyce previously worked at Bain and currently serves on the board of Burger King. TPG has investments in Petco Animal Supplies, Spanish-language network Univision, retailer Neiman Marcus and casino company Caesars Entertainment.

David Wilson, owner of several Southern California car dealerships, gave the super PAC $100,000.

To read entire story, click here.

State government payroll increased by half a billion dollars last year, even as California cut thousands of state worker jobs, according to a Bee analysis of new data from the Controller’s Office.

The payroll increase added about $140 million in wages to the Sacramento economy in 2011, contributing to a budding recovery.

The trend is largely due to a shift away from worker furloughs and toward layoffs and hiring freezes. Absent furloughs, most state workers got a full paycheck for the first time in years during 2011, plus some step raises and other union-negotiated bumps.

“Payroll would have grown a lot faster if those (job) reductions hadn’t taken place,” said Michael Shires, a professor of public policy at Pepperdine University.

State payroll eats a large chunk of the state’s budget – almost $18 billion in 2011. During recent lean times, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and current Gov. Jerry Brown have tried to keep payroll in check, but have taken different approaches.

Through much of 2009 and 2010, the Schwarzenegger administration required workers to take three unpaid furlough days a month, dubbed “Furlough Fridays.” That program ended in late 2010, though many workers still had to take one unpaid furlough day a month last year.

The furloughs cut state worker pay by more than $1 billion from 2008 to 2010. But, despite threats of layoffs and hiring freezes, Schwarzenegger never substantially reduced the number of full-time state workers.

The opposite happened during the first year of Brown’s administration: The number of full-time state workers fell but total payroll rose 3 percent.

With the demise of Furlough Fridays, roughly 80 percent of state workers made more money during 2011 than during 2010. The end of furloughs, combined with other raises, increased the pay for those who earned more by an average of 10 percent.

But the number of full-time state workers fell by 7,500, or 4 percent, during 2011. Most of that was due to the Brown administration’s enforcement of a hiring freeze, though layoff notices became more common at the end of the year.

Among large state agencies, the biggest payroll increases came at the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Mental Health’s payroll rose almost $50 million in 2011 to about $840 million. The department employed the two highest-paid state workers in California last year, not counting the University of California, which has many highly paid medical specialists.

Mohammad Safi, a senior psychiatrist at the Salinas Valley Prison psychiatric program, earned $803,000 in 2011. Gertrudis Agcaoili, a staff psychiatrist at Napa State Hospital, earned $772,000 last year.

Beth Willon, a spokeswoman for the Department of Mental Health, said psychiatrists earn healthy salaries in the private sector, and that the state must remain competitive. State law mandates constant monitoring of patients, she said, and “Dr. Safi’s pay reflects many hours of work after hours, on holidays and on weekends.”

To read entire story, click here.

BY JIM MILLER
SACRAMENTO BUREAU
jmiller@pe.com

Published: 31 January 2012 07:12 PM

SACRAMENTO — The major parties’ share of the Inland Southern California electorate dipped in 2011, new state figures show, with a significant increase in the percentage of voters who lack a party affiliation.

In February 2011, Riverside County was 41.6 percent Republican, 36.4 percent Democrat, and 17.3 percent decline-to-state. San Bernardino County was 38.4 percent Republican, 39 percent Democrat, and 18 percent decline-to-state.

As of Jan. 3, Riverside County was 40.9 percent Republican, 36.2 percent Democrat, and 18 percent decline-to-state. San Bernardino County was 37.2 percent Republican, 38.8 percent Democrat, and 19 percent decline-to-state, according to Tuesday’s registration report from the secretary of state’s office.

To read entire story, click here.

BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com

Published: 31 January 2012 11:22 PM

An influential union that is backing a proposed ballot measure to reduce San Bernardino County supervisors’ positions to part-time has more than a half-million dollars in its political action committee fund, according to campaign finance reports released this week.

The San Bernardino County Safety Employees’ Benefit Association Local PAC, the campaign committee for the union representing about 3,100 county public safety employees, has $660,103 on hand, according to its report covering the period for the last six months of 2011.

Last week, SEBA announced that it would help fund a proposed ballot measure that would make supervisors’ positions part-time, cut their pay and benefits and reduce their annual staff budget from $6 million to $250,000.

The announcement came the same day the union criticized a proposed ballot measure introduced by Supervisor Janice Rutherford that would require that all future employee pension increases go before voters. SEBA also has been at odds with the county in contract negotiations in recent months where the county has asked union members to provide retirement and health benefit concessions.

To read entire story, click here.

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 31 January 2012 05:44 PM

Candidates for contested Inland House seats raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash at the end of 2011 as they jockeyed for position heading into the current election year.

Democrat Mark Takano jumped ahead of Republican John Tavaglione in the race for the Riverside-area’s open congressional district, according to newly filed campaign finance reports covering October, November and December.

Incumbent Reps. Mary Bono Mack, running for re-election in eastern Riverside County, and Joe Baca, in San Bernardino County’s west end, extended fundraising leads over their opponents.

Seven-term veteran Rep. Gary Miller has a $1 million head start as he prepares to take on a host of candidates hoping to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Lewis.

Fourth-quarter fundraising

Though Election Day is still nine months off, the reports filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission are seen as important indicators of candidates’ viability. Later in the cycle, campaign dollars are essential to buy advertising and hold events. But early fundraising is used to build momentum, said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report.

“Right now, it’s about establishing credibility, which will then help earn fundraising, help … get media coverage, get the national party’s attention,” Rothenberg said.

41st DISTRICT

With no incumbent in the mix, the race for the Riverside area’s new 41st Congressional District is expected to be among the most contentious in the region. Takano is a member of the Riverside Community College District Board of Trustees, and Tavaglione is a Riverside County supervisor.

Before the current round of campaign finance reports, they had taken in about $160,000 apiece.

Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, Takano collected $125,472, and Tavaglione raised $87,345, the reports show.

“We feel confident that our strong fundraising support will continue and that we will have the resources necessary to win this election in November,” Takano said in a statement.

Tavaglione campaign consultant Jim Nygren, however, downplayed the significance.

“Supervisor Tavaglione’s far superior record of service in the district, vastly superior endorsements and far superior name ID will more than overcome Takano’s temporary fundraising lead,” Nygren said.

To read entire story, click here.

Supervisors’ second-largest union argues it was asked to give up too much before terms were imposed; terms reached with biggest union

BY DUANE W. GANG AND DUG BEGLEY
STAFF WRITERS
dgang@pe.com | dbegley@pe.com

Published: 31 January 2012 09:15 AM

More than 1,000 Riverside County workers took to the streets Tuesday protesting benefit reductions and warning that additional strikes could be on the way if county officials don’t reopen contract negotiations.

The 24-hour work stoppage was expected to last until 6:59 a.m. today and marks the latest escalation between county management and the Service Employees International Union Local 721, the county’s second-largest employee group.

On Monday, the county and a state labor relations board went to court and successfully blocked 248 county nurses and other health care workers from taking part in the strike.

“We will take any job action necessary to get them to come back to the table,” said Wendy Thomas, the union’s chief negotiator and a Riverside County employee.

But while SEIU members picketed, the county reached a tentative new contract with its largest employee group, Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 777.

The laborers’ union represents about 7,000 employees. The four-year deal would start July 1 and provide $60 million in annual savings once fully implemented, according to a county statement.

Because the employees have yet to vote on the contract, the county did not release specifics, but it did say employees would pay 8 percent of their salaries toward their retirements.

“This is what happens when both sides sit down with realistic goals that honestly consider the county’s budget picture and the needs of our employees,” Board of Supervisors Chairman John Tavaglione said in a statement.

In the same statement, laborers’ union Business Manager Stephen Switzer said the agreement addresses the county’s budget woes in a meaningful way while valuing the employees and their work.

SEIU represents about 5,800 county workers ranging from clerks to social workers and nurses.

County officials said Tuesday they had no major problems conducting business, despite the strike. Managers filled in where needed, health clinics reduced appointments, and the county hospital canceled elective surgeries, officials said.

According to the county, 1,394 workers did not show up for work Tuesday. The most, 556, came from the Department of Public Social Services.

BIG TURNOUT

Wearing SEIU’s signature purple T-shirts and holding strike signs, the picketers started making their feelings known about 8 a.m. outside the County Administrative Center in downtown Riverside, where a regular meeting of county supervisors was scheduled. The crowd steadily grew.

By the time the supervisors opened their meeting at 9 a.m., SEIU members filled every available seat in the board’s chambers and swarmed into the lobby and atrium of the county building.

They chanted “fair contract now” and “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Bob Buster’s got to go,” referring to the supervisor who has been the board’s most vocal advocate for requiring employees to pay more toward their retirements.

Inside the board’s chambers, employees waved their hands in the air to show their displeasure with the county over the contract talks. Tavaglione warned the crowd that clapping and cheering was not allowed, but at one point, when Buster spoke, the room erupted in coughing.

Inside and out, the crowd peaked at more than 2,000. About 1,500 SEIU members and supporters later marched through downtown Riverside.

Some union members said they felt they had no choice but to join the picket line.

“I’ve seen some bad deliberations, but this is the worst,” said Linda East, 53, a policy writer for the county-operated CalWORKS program.

East said holding a picket sign is unfamiliar turf for her.

To read entire story, click here.

Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/31/2012 12:33:41 PM PST

HINKLEY – The northern boundaries of that plume of contaminated groundwater continues to advance.

Water samples from new test wells – many installed this past summer – show chromium 6 contamination, above background level, extending north of Mountain General Road for the first time.

It is not clear, however, if the plume is growing at a rapid pace, or if the plume has been larger than originally thought for some time.

The thought behind some of the new well placements was to get ahead of the plume and then work backward to map its location.

It now appears the drilling may not have extended far enough north to get ahead of the plume.

The results of new samples from test wells were released Tuesday.

To read entire story, click here.

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
January 31, 2012 | 11:59 am

California is running out of cash, the state controller warned in a letter to lawmakers Tuesday.

Controller John Chiang said lawmakers need to scrape together $3.3 billion by March — assuming the state’s financial situation doesn’t get any worse.

By Feb. 29, the state is expected to dip below its “safety cushion” of $2.5 billion. Then, in a little more than a week, it will burn through all its cash and drop $730 million into the red, Chiang said.

He urged the state to delay some payments, borrow more money and shift cash among various funds.

To read entire story, click here.

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A

Gov. Jerry Brown is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for his tax campaign from California Indian tribes at the same time many tribes are seeking to renegotiate lucrative gambling compacts with him.

The Democratic governor, who proposes increasing the state sales tax and income taxes on California’s highest earners, is considered more accommodating of tribal interests than his predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his administration is in compact talks “on various levels” with 15 to 20 tribes, Brown’s tribal negotiator, Jacob Appelsmith, said Tuesday.

Any compacts Brown signs could significantly affect a gambling industry that generates more than $7 billion annually and millions of dollars in payments to the state.

More than nine months ahead of the November tax election, a handful of tribes have contributed more than $300,000 to Brown’s tax campaign, a quarter of the $1.2 million Brown on Tuesday reported raising in 2011.

Tribes donated $925,000 to Brown’s gubernatorial effort in 2010, and they contributed more than $200,000 last year to two charter schools he started in Oakland.

Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford said there is “no connection between any sort of donations and decision-making on this issue or others.”

David Quintana, a lobbyist for the California Tribal Business Alliance, is among several tribal representatives who said tribes are donating to Brown’s tax campaign because they think additional tax revenue will improve the state’s financial condition.

It could also improve tribes’ standing in future compact negotiations, relieving the state of historically “enormous pressure to try to extract more money” from wealthy tribes, said Jeff Cummins, a political science professor at California State University, Fresno.

Brown was a regular supporter of tribal interests when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983, and Quintana said some tribes were “absolutely” waiting for Schwarzenegger to leave office before considering compact renegotiations.

“You had one of the worst governors for tribes of all time,” Quintana said. “Then you have a person who is the best governor for tribal governments since himself in the late 1970s.”

In one closely watched negotiation, Brown is in talks with a San Diego-area tribe that brawled with Schwarzenegger over payments to the state, resulting in a court ruling last year that Schwarzenegger overstepped when he demanded general fund payments from the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians in exchange for casino approvals.

State finance officials said at the time that the ruling would not affect $360.5 million in general fund payments this year from Indian tribes with existing gambling compacts, and the administration has said it is not obligated to renegotiate the general fund provisions of those agreements.

To read entire

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Gov. Jerry Brown is scaling back the state’s highly controversial bullet train project to keep it alive.

Just three months ago, his administration unveiled – with great fanfare – a revised “business plan” for building the north-south bullet train system to answer the embryonic project’s many critics.

The project would be slowed down and stretched out timewise with a new and supposedly more realistic cost structure, officials declared. It would be, California High-Speed Rail Authority chairman Tom Umberg said at the unveiling, “a new time, a new day and a new beginning.”

But the revised cost, about $100 billion or three times the original estimate, shocked many and raised questions about whether the state, which had only $9.95 billion in bond funds available, could raise the remainder from the federal government and private (or foreign government) investors.

The CHSRA’s own “peer review” committee issued a scathing analysis, saying that to begin construction without firm financing would be very risky, and the state auditor’s office echoed those sentiments.

Statewide polling indicated that Californians had turned against the project, and legislators whose votes were needed to appropriate construction balked.

Brown vigorously defended the project, adopting it as a symbol of California’s transformation to a green economy. But Umberg stepped down so that Brown could appoint his own chairman, longtime adviser Dan Richard, who had helped rewrite the business plan. And the operating head of the agency, Roelof van Ark, who had alienated some legislators, departed.

To read entire story, click here.

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
January 31, 2012

Rural and urban school districts in California that make heavy use of buses appear safe — for now.

State lawmakers are fast-tracking legislation that would transform a $248 million midyear school bus cut into a general-purpose reduction that hits each K-12 district evenly. The Assembly Budget Committee passed Senate Bill 81 with bipartisan support Tuesday, while an aide to Gov. Jerry Brown testified that the governor supports the proposal.

But Brown still wants to eliminate specific funding for buses in his 2012-13 budget, along with removing earmarks for a variety of other K-12 programs. He instead proposes a new block grant funding system for schools, out of which he suggests districts could fund bus service if they choose.

In Tuesday’s hearing, Republicans and Democrats representing rural areas joined together to lobby for SB 81, which only applies for the remainder of this school year. The bus cut was triggered when state forecasters determined last month that California would fall $2.2 billion short of a $4 billion tax revenue bump that Brown and lawmakers assumed in the 2011-12 state budget.

“It’s a catastrophic problem in my district and in many other rural parts of California,” said Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, who represents the North Coast area. “Eliminating the school bus system creates dangerous situations for many children in California, but for my district it means it would be impossible for many children, if not most children in some districts, to attend school at all.”

To read entire story, click here.

A bill requiring more prominent disclosure of political donors stalled in the California Assembly on Tuesday.

Under the proposal, television advertisements would include three seconds of a black screen listing the top donors supporting the message. Similar disclosure would be required on print advertisements or campaign mailers.

“The public is frustrated and fed up with wealthy donors who manipulate elections through anonymous campaign messages,” said the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica), in a statement. “Voters deserve to know clearly who are behind the ads.”

Because modifying the state’s Political Reform Act requires a two-thirds vote, 52 yes votes weren’t enough to pass Brownley’s bill. Twenty-six lawmakers voted against the bill. One Republican voted for the bill; the rest voted against it.

To read entire story, click here.

By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B

CalSTRS is thinking of cutting its investment forecast for the second time in barely a year, a move that acknowledges the increased financial strain on the pension fund.

The teachers’ retirement board on Thursday will consider a recommendation from its actuarial consultant to cut the forecast by a quarter point, to 7.5 percent.

The consultant, Milliman Inc., told the board the current forecast “exceeds the expected long-term return.”

Pension funds are reluctant to adjust their investment forecasts. After months of hand-wringing, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System cut its forecast by a quarter point in December 2010 – the first adjustment in 15 years.

Now it might do so again, just a week after CalSTRS revealed that its earnings for calendar 2011 came to just 2.3 percent.

The timing is coincidental, pension officials said. The latest recommendation is part of a typical review that takes place every four years, said Ed Derman, CalSTRS’ deputy chief executive.

What happened in 2010 was unusual, and was a reaction to the extraordinary losses suffered in the 2008 market crash, he said.

To read entire story, click here.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 – 12:30 p.m.

It’s only February and the first serious blow has been leveled in the race to represent San Bernardino County’s Third Supervisorial District.

Here is a just-released literature from the Supervisor Neil Derry re-election campaign: Ramos Casino-Boss

The first question coming to mind?

What was James Ramos thinking?

Ramos, the current millionaire chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, is seeking to oust incumbent Derry.

Today’s first salvo is a prime example as to why Ramos can outspend Derry five times over and it won’t do him any good.

Now recent reports of Ramos’ own supporters questioning his viability make even more sense.

The instant campaign hit piece only deals with Mexican Mafia infiltration of the San Manuel Reservation.

Just some of the other looming issues for Ramos include;

• Not paying taxes
• Body-guard escorts
• Conflicts of interest between the county and Tribal government
• His failed businesses
• His real opposition to proposed Barstow casino competition
• His immunity from county laws and regulations
• Being a life-long democrat in a highly conservative district.

Not to mention, that in his few recent public appearances, Ramos hasn’t displayed any cognitive grasp of county government issues.

Unless talking strictly about education and singing bird songs is the main prerequisite for sitting on the board.

Maybe at some point Ramos will figure out that trying to buy the race with his Tribe’s money is a non-starter.

Don’t get us wrong. All the recipients will gladly accept the dough and say thank you.

But that’s it.

Why? Because all the people involved can see it for what it is.

Pandering.

The politicians, who jumped to endorse Ramos, have to be wondering right about now.

At least this contest will be entertaining.

Riverside County officials have gone to court in an effort to stop a one-day strike by health care professionals.

BY RICHARD K. De ATLEY
STAFF WRITER
rdeatley@pe.com

Published: 30 January 2012 11:33 AM

A judge Monday barred 248 health-care workers from joining a one-day strike by members of Riverside County’s second-largest union.

After a daylong hearing, Judge John Vineyard issued a temporary restraining order against all but 17 members of a group of 265 workers whose jobs the county argued were vital. Vineyard ordered the majority not to take part in the one-day walkout by members of Service Employees International Union Local 721.

The SEIU local represents 5,800 county workers. It is not certain how many will strike today, but union officials have said they expect thousands to take part in the protests in front of the County Administrative Center on Lemon Street in Riverside.

Those ordered to stay on the job today include nurses in Riverside County Regional Medical Center’s medical and surgical units as well as its emergency department, critical and progressive care units, pediatric units and psychiatric unit, as well as nurses working at jail facilities.

“A strike is not worth somebody becoming dead or somebody being seriously injured,” Riverside County Counsel Pamela Walls argued during the all-day hearing.

County officials on Jan. 24 appealed to the California Public Employment Relations Board to take action against the union regarding the health-care workers, and the state agency filed its lawsuit on Friday.

The county sought to keep the nurses — many of whom will get an 8 percent raise starting next month — on the job.

Vineyard said 17 members of the challenged group — including clinical lab scientists and operating room scrub techs — could join the strike.

An attorney for the union said the county had provided Vineyard with skimpy evidence to back its arguments that the 265 contested health workers had to stay on the job, especially after 11 days’ warning of the strike.

To read entire story, click here.

By PE Politics
January 30, 2012 3:08 PM

The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians near San Bernardino has hired back its longtime Sacramento lobbyist, Frank Molina, with whom it parted ways last March amid an investigation by the state’s political ethics agency.

The wealthy gaming tribe last week reported hiring Molina’s firm, Strategic Solutions Advisors, according to Capitol Morning Report. The tribe also hired K Street Consulting.

To read entire brief, click here.

Mike Cruz, The (San Bernardino County) Sun
Created: 01/30/2012 10:27:09 AM PST

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – A workplace discrimination lawsuit has been filed in Superior Court against Ontario Police Chief Eric Hopley by his former administrative assistant Brenda Vallejo.

Vallejo alleges in the lawsuit that Hopley and the city discriminated against her when she returned from family medical leave in July 2010. She had received treatment for thyroid cancer.

Upon returning to work, Vallejo alleges Hopley’s demeanor and behavior toward her changed. Specifically, Hopley created a hostile work environment and reassigned her to work with a sergeant.

Vallejo considered the move a wrongful demotion that was not comparable to the duties and responsibilities she had when working with Hopley. Weeks later, Vallejo was reassigned again to the Detective Bureau.

“When she got sick, everything changed,” said Vallejo’s lawyer Sandra L. Noel, of Redlands. “His attitude towards her changed.”

Hopley spoke to Vallejo in a demeaning and hostile manner, refused to respond to her greetings, made demeaning facial expressions, shunned her and excluded her from information needed to perform her duties, according to the lawsuit.

Vallejo’s work with Hopley, which was often of a confidential nature, was given to other individuals, her lawyer explained.

“He made a concerted effort to let her know she was no longer wanted,” said Noel. At the time of her medical leave, Vallejo had been with the department for a year.

To read entire story, click here.

Executive Editor Frank Pine
Created: 01/28/2012 06:06:04 AM PST

San Bernardino County’s Board of Supervisors asked county lawyers last week to draft language for a ballot measure that would give voters the final say on increases to pension benefits for public employees.

Supervisors Janice Rutherford, Gary Ovitt and Josie Gonzales voted yea with supervisors Brad Mitzelfelt and Neil Derry voting nay.

Gonzales and Mitzelfelt both expressed at least a little ambivalence, saying they wanted to wait and see the final language of the ballot measure before committing.

We didn’t quote Derry in our story, but he was the first person to comment on it once it was posted on our website, and the nuance of his nay is significant.

Derry: “This wasn’t pension reform. It was a feel-good measure that would have had zero impact on current employee pensions and would create a significant roadblock to negotiating pension reductions in the future. How is it `reform’ if the pensions aren’t being changed?”

Mere hours after the board made its decision Tuesday, the head of the county’s most powerful union – the Safety Employees Benefit Association – announced it would fund an initiative to cut supervisors’ pay by reducing their employment status to part time.

Union president Laren Leichliter said the SEBA announcement was not intended to intimidate supervisors and noted that signature gatherers were collecting names the Thursday before the pension item was placed on the supervisors’ agenda.

His quote: “All our elected officials, according to them they’re all overpaid, so we’re just trying to assist them in their progression of trying to save county residents money,” Leichliter said.

Maybe that’s the case, but the timing is pretty suspect and it’s hard to see this as anything other than the latest example of the rough-and-tumble politics of San Bernardino County in particular and California in general.

The real issue here, however, appears to be the county’s ongoing contract negotiations with SEBA. As the county struggles to close daunting budget shortfalls, those negotiations have been anything but smooth.

In December, the county threatened to impose a 14 percent reduction in pay and benefits on SEBA’s Specialized Peace Officers bargaining unit, which includes probation officers, coroner investigators and welfare-fraud investigators.

To avoid that, the unit approved a contract with a 7 percent cut in benefits and a reduction in annual merit raises from 5 percent to 2.5 percent.

The county is now negotiating with the unit that represents sheriff’s deputies, SEBA’s largest constituency.

In the context of the negotiations, both initiative proposals look a lot like bargaining chips.

The irony here is that, in these difficult economic times, both measures will probably pass if they make it to the ballot.

To read entire story, click here.

Would it be churlish to say that the much-ballyhooed Think Long Committee for California fell short on fortitude?

Or merely accurate?

Billionaire Nicolas Berggruen created the committee and invited a Who’s Who of California’s political, civic and economic upper crust – including two former governors, one former chief justice and two former secretaries of state – to become members.

It issued a “Blueprint to Renew California” that advocated major changes in how government is organized and financed, to be put before voters this year.

Berggruen, the committee and the plan received loads of mostly positive media attention – including much outside California – because it appeared to be the first potentially viable effort at structural reform to cure the state’s political dysfunction. But one segment would have been an extensive overhaul of California’s cockeyed taxation system, and it interfered politically with Gov. Jerry Brown’s relatively modest proposal for a temporary hike in income and sales taxes.

Brown doesn’t want competing tax measures on the November ballot, fearing that voters could be confused and reject them all. He and his allies pressured the Think Long Committee to back off and it did.

Instead, Think Long is endorsing some relatively minor, incremental changes in governance, such as a two-year budget cycle, proposed by California Forward, another blue-ribbon civic group.

Briefly put, an organization whose declared goal was to rise above politics-as-usual and improve governance succumbed to politics-as-usual.

To read entire story, click here.