California government corruption
From Sunshine Review
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California government pays more interest than companies
California collected about $80 billion in taxes in the fiscal year (ended June 30), compared with $3.6 billion in revenue for Houston-based Diamond. California has never defaulted on its debt. The state paid 1.5 percentage point more in interest, about $785 million in additional cost for taxpayers over the 30-year life of $1.75 billion in Build America Bonds.
California and many other states are not requiring municipalities to file timely financial information. The disclosure that state and local governments provide to investors is in the “dark ages,” said Gary Pollack, of Deutsche Bank AG’s Private Wealth Management unit in New York.
“The municipal bond market is the last bastion of hidden information,” said Timothy Koch, chairman of the finance department at the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina.
U.S. taxpayers are paying as much as $6 billion a year because public officials’ financing is in the dark in the $2.8 trillion tax-exempt bond market, according to data and interviews from more than a dozen states. However, the recession is forcing municipal governments to cut spending or raise taxes.[1]
New California Law Attempts to Sidestep CPRA
The bill, AB 1336, would permit cities to place cameras on public street sweeping vehicles throughout California in order to photograph parking violations. However, what has freedom of information rights activists angered is the portion of the bill which explicitly exempts these photos from public records requests. By creating an exemption outside of the CPRA, the California legislature establishes their power to ear mark exemptions within future bills and thus sidestep the CPRA in an obvious move towards secrecy.[2]
State lawmakers urge against pricey ballot measures
Oregon lawmakers have taken steps in pushing back the policies by suspending for two years sections of a voted-in law mandating longer sentences for repeat property offenders and drug dealers. The lawmakers passed a new set of restrictions keeping costly initiative measures at bay.
Washington lawmakers passed a law to save almost $1 billion by essentially ignoring some state education initiatives. One of these called for annual teacher raises.
Washington Democrats suspended a initiative that makes requirements for training for home-care aides who serve the elderly and disabled.
"One of the biggest concerns that lawmakers have is the financial straitjacket that initiatives can put on legislatures through big spending proposals or through spending and revenue caps," said Jennie Drage Bowser of the National Conference of State Legislatures.[1]
Los Angeles Judge and two others indicted
Superior Court Judge Harvey Silberman, 52, and two political consultants, Evelyn Jerome Alexander and Alan Randall Steinberg, have been indicted on charges of offering a bribe to Deputy District Attorney Serena Murillo. They were allegedly trying to drop out of the municipal election. The grand jury transcript detailing the alleged scheme has not been released.
The charges were solicitation of money or valuable consideration to induce a person not to become a candidate for public office and Silberman, Alexander and Steinberg each face up to three years in state prison if convicted.
Alexander and Steinberg are partners of SJA Strategies, a public affairs firm, and have pleaded not guilty.
Silberman, who on paid leave pending the outcome of the case, is awaiting arraignment, which has been postponed until a judge from another county is assigned to the case.[1]
The Investigation the County Doesn't Want You to See
"At some point in 2007, a whistleblower at California Children's Services, a program run by the county of San Diego that provides wheelchairs and other medical devices to children with physical disabilities, filed a complaint with the county alleging improprieties within the program.
The county launched a widespread investigation into the allegations that continued for at least 13 months in 2007 and 2008, records show. The investigation led to disciplinary action against county employees and changes to the county's ethics policies, but the report the investigators produced, and all the information it contains, is being kept a secret."
Legal entanglements between East Palo Alto, Page Mill worsen
"East Palo Alto's biggest landlord has filed another lawsuit against the city, adding to the ongoing legal entanglement between the two over rent hikes.
In the suit filed Jan. 6 in San Mateo County Superior Court, Woodland Park Management LLC, Page Mill Properties' management company, alleges that East Palo Alto officials refused to hand over public documents related to a peer review of the city's rent control system.
The city of Berkeley, whose own rent control ordinance was the model for East Palo Alto's, completed the review last year."
Board takes over security of its meetings
"Orange County supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to seize back control of security at their meetings after deputies swarmed the boardroom earlier this month, intimidating gun activists from speaking out against Sheriff Sandra Hutchens’ new concealed weapons policy.
“It is to assert our authority that we’re ultimately in charge of security,” said County Supervisor Chris Norby, who sponsored changes to the board’s meeting rules along with County Supervisor Janet Nguyen.
The controversy over boardroom security stems from a Jan. 13 board of supervisors meeting where gun activists were confronted by placards at the board meeting warning people against bringing firearms into the building. In addition, numerous SWAT deputies and plain clothes officers were in the audience and questioned three activists."
Sheriff's officials' texts show combative view toward gun activists
"Transcripts of text messages sent by Orange County sheriff's officials during a November 2008 Board of Supervisors meeting shows the law enforcement leaders used their cell phones to ridicule activists and even supervisors during a public hearing on gun permit policies.
The messages, obtained under a public records request by a group named Ordinary California Citizens Concerned With Safety, reveal a combative tone by sheriff's command staff toward the activists. Some county supervisors questioned whether that defensiveness triggered the large security presence that met activists when they returned to a January meeting seeking to again criticize Sheriff Sandra Hutchens' gun policies."
Court: Coroner Reports Exempt Under Public Records Act
"Coroner and autopsy reports from suspected homicide deaths are exempt from disclosure under California’s Public Records Act, the Third District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday.
Reasoning that the reports present a concrete and definite prospect of criminal law enforcement proceedings, the court rejected a former-California-attorney-turned-publisher’s request for records relating to a Sacramento woman whose bullet-riddled body was found in an open El Dorado County field in 1971.
Phillip Arthur Thompson was convicted in 2008 of the murder of Elizabeth Cloer after a 2003 analysis of DNA left at the scene tied him to the crime."
Some autopsies can be kept secret, court says
"In a ruling that alarmed some open-government advocates, a state appeals court said counties can withhold autopsies and other coroner's reports from the public if they are part of a criminal investigation likely to lead to prosecution.
The decision by the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento is the first in California to exempt any category of coroner's reports from disclosure under the state Public Records Act, which makes most state and local government documents accessible."
UC-Berkeley admits to misleading public
- See also: California state budget
"How did Linda Morris Williams get a $100,202 buyout for leaving her $200,400-a-year headquarters job in Oakland and "starting her new job paying the same salary in the office of UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau" the next day. The case has provoked considerable controversy and criticism. The San Francisco Chronicle filed a CPRA request which led to the disclosure of e-mails between the parties involved that Williams "had been virtually assured by Birgeneau's close aides that the job was hers and was even placed on a UC Berkeley organizational chart five days before she applied for the buyout" contrary to earlier claims that Williams was unaware of the possibility of future employment at the Berkeley campus. In her new job, Williams oversees whistleblowing."
Tax dollars to lobby for more government
California taxpayer-funded lobbying associations
"An expose in the Sacramento Bee shows that Los Angeles County spent $3.7 million from 2007-2008 to employ eight lobbyists and to contract separately with five lobbying firms to influence the California legislature."
Our View: Open records crucial to accountability
"Media are sometimes criticized by the public for going after government to obtain records that show what that government is doing for the public it serves. It's difficult for reporters and editors to understand that criticism; after all, the information is supposed to be public, and available to the taxpayers the government works for. At the risk of seeming unduly humble, media does what it does for you - the readers and taxpayers. A recent report from the Los Angeles Times is a prime example of why persistence is necessary.
According to the report, the Immigration Justice Clinic at Cardozo School of Law had to sue to get access to arrest data and internal memos from Immigration and Customs Enforcement about arrests of illegal immigrants over the past several years. After a court ruled in Cardozo's favor, the documents were released. A look at what they contain reveals why ICE wasn't in any hurry to provide them."
Government info: You bought it, you should be able to see it
"In this era of ever- increasing government secrecy, it's nice to be able to celebrate a victory for the public's right to know.
So lift your glass -- or your coffee mug -- and join me in toasting the California First Amendment Coalition's successful court fight on your behalf.
The victory came 10 days ago when a California appeals court affirmed the public's right of access to a government mapping database."
Board releases terms of AHM contract buyout
"The Palo Verde Healthcare District Board bought out former hospital managers Advanced Hospital Management's (AHM) contract for approximately $150,000 taxpayer dollars, according to a contract signed by Board President Jim Carney.
AHM was sent packing within days of Carney and three new board members' being seated in December.
In an effort to avoid disclosure, the Board inserted a confidentiality clause into the contract and then ignored a California Public Records Act request made by the Times that was hand-delivered to Vice-president Tim Maley on Dec. 31." Read the full article here.
Legal issue at the root of council's tree e-mails
"It was fun to read. The Encinitas City Council went ape over the famous tree in Orpheus Park. You remember: the lone Tipuana tipu with the hippie squatter strumming his guitar in the branches, defying the city's chain saws.
The council's e-mail thread was by turns hilarious, caustic, maudlin – and likely illegal. The squabbling foursome richly deserved to be spanked in public. Hard.
Good for Marco Gonzalez, North County's smart, home-grown environmental attorney, for stepping up and challenging the “send all” muck created by Teresa Barth, Dan Dalager, Jerome Stocks and Jim Bond." Read the full article here.
Fresno State case leads to push to add open records
"In response to a case involving Fresno State, a state lawmaker is pushing legislation that would force university-linked nonprofit groups to make documents public.
Auxiliary organizations that get public money are now exempt from the California Public Records Act. California State University, Fresno, used the protection in the late 1990s when it turned down a request from The Bee for documents identifying suite leaseholders at the Save Mart Center, which opened in 2003.
Senate Bill 218, by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would update the records act to include any entity that gets public dollars or "performs a governmental function" on behalf of the state's colleges and universities." Read the full article here.
Spin vs. substance
"Hollywood paparazzi crews are beginning to follow high-profile politicians, such as Mayor Gavin Newsom, the same way they track the likes of Britney Spears, the San Francisco Chronicle reported recently. And when a celebrity gossip photographer surreptitiously aims the lens at a political leader, the picture that emerges isn't always flattering.
Likewise, the documents that can be extracted through public records laws — including the federal Freedom of Information Act, California Public Records Act, and San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance — don't always paint political figures in the most favorable light." Read the full article here.
New bill to open up costs
"Students curious about textbook markups at the bookstore may get some answers, if a new bill passes that would place auxiliary organizations under the regulations of the California Public Records Act.
The bookstore is managed under University Enterprises, Inc., a non-profit corporation set up by Sacramento State to provide services and programs to the university, like the bookstore.
UEI is considered an auxiliary organization of Sac State and is not subject to public records requests.
State Sen. Leland Yee introduced the bill which will place auxiliary organization under the act." Read the full article here.
Open Government Threatened by Recent Court Rulings
"Sunshine Week (March 15-21) is a national celebration of open government, but here in California a court decision has favored the suppression of dissent and cost a long-time open government advocate $80,000.
More than four years ago the people of California went to the polls and, by an overwhelming 83 percent support for Proposition 59, passed a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the public fundamental access to the meetings and records of their local and state government agencies." Read the full article here.
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