The Orange County Register
A rather quixotic visiting economics professor at UC Santa Barbara has submitted three initiatives for the California ballotthat are sure to enrage. Lanny Ebenstein, who got his Ph.D. at the London School of Economics and Political Science (his dissertation was The Greatest Happiness Principle: An Examination of Utilitarianism,according to his CV), heads up the California Center for Public Policy which is behind the initiatives. It’s a rather right-leaning organization that has its own ideas on how to reform public employee compensation.
Mark Bucher, the Orange County conservative behind the unsuccessful 1998 attempt to stop unions from being able to deduct dues from employees’ paychecks, is back with a new measure that would cover that – and much more. The “Stop Special Interest Money Now” proposal attempts broader reform than the failed plan, dubbed “Paycheck Protection.”
An affordable housing developer plans an “austere” campaign to convince city voters to approve a zone change on a Savi Ranch parcel allowing up to 30 units per acre in Yorba Linda’s first-ever Measure B vote on the Nov. 2 ballot. Measure B, which requires a vote on density levels above 10 units per acre and heights above 35 feet, was approved by 299 votes in 2006, after builders and real estate groups raised $174,150 to defeat the initiative in the city’s single costliest campaign to date.
The City Council has decided not to develop a ballot measure for voters in the November election that would impose term limits on council members. The council on Tuesday reviewed a report explaining the process for drafting the ballot measure, and a majority decided not to move forward with the initiative. No vote was taken on the issue.
City Council candidate Barbara Kogerman announced Tuesday her committee submitted nearly 3,000 signatures from residents in favor of a term limit initiative to the city clerk. Kogerman is chair of the Term Limits Committee and said she hopes to have the initiative on the November ballot for residents to vote on. Almost all five City Council members have held their seats for nearly 20 years since the city was incorporated.
A drive-through “Signing Tea Party” for a ballot initiative that would bar the state from taking local property, sales and gas taxes netted more than 120 signatures Saturday. Staged by Stanton City Councilman David Shawver, the drive-through petition signing drive was held in front of Stanton’s City hall, allowing those interested to drive-through and sign their names rather than have to get out of their cars. “I figured it’s Southern California and people drive, so why not a drive-through signing,” Shawver said.
Councilman David Shawver is so mad about the state taking local tax revenue that he’s holding a drive-through petition-signing to get a statewide initiative onto the ballot. The drive-through “Signing Tea Party” will take place 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday in front of Stanton’s City Hall, at 7800 Katella Avenue. Those interested in signing can enter off of Katella Avenue, turning onto Cedar Street, where volunteers will be holding clipboards with the petitions. “They don’t even have to get out of their car,” the councilman said.
Tapping in to public outrage over gold-plated public employee pensions, the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility filed two reform initiatives with the state Attorney General’s office in November, and was ready to rumble. But now – just a few months later – the foundation has suspended efforts to qualify the measure for the ballot. Not because the need to reform California’s pension system is any less dire.