California
Note: You can listen to an archive of the show here.
Listen Thursday, November 11, 2010 from 2-3 pm here on the Progressive Radio Network to hear the story behind “Ordinary People Doing the Extraordinary: The Story of Ed and Joyce Koupal and the Initiative Process,” authored by Dwayne Hunn, PhD., MA, Executive Director of Peoples Lobby.
An effort to change the way the board of directors of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is chosen and the addition of a citizen watchdog position recently took another step toward reality. The City Council voted unanimously Nov. 2 to have City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s office craft language for a ballot initiative that would give ratepayers a watchdog over the utility board, a plan that some neighborhood council advocates and some city legislators have been clamoring for over the last two years.
The City Council took a step toward limiting the length of trash contracts. In a 4-1 vote the City Council on Wednesday directed staff members to research and create a ballot initiative for the March election that would require the city to go out to open bid for trash contracts and potentially limit the length of contracts to between five and seven years. If voters pass the proposed measure it could not be changed by the City Council.
Last week Citizens in Charge Foundation - a partner organization to Citizens in Charge - sent a letter to Secretaries of State and Attorneys General in 12 states asking them to stop enforcing unconstitutional restrictions on ballot initiative rights. In light of recent legal action in which Kansas officials agreed with petition advocates that the state’s law against petition circulators from other states was unconstitutional, Foundation President Paul Jacob asked officials to “do the right thing” and stop enforcing similar
One of the greatest strengths of the initiative process is that it allows citizens to deal with issues or present positions that politician are unlikely to every tackle. Among those issues is drug policy reform, and the legalization/decriminalization of marijuana in particular.
A new statewide survey out from the Public Policy Institute of California asked California voters their opinions on a wide range of national and statewide political issues and candidates.
On Nov. 2, Menifee voters will settle a two-year debate over whether the city should stick with district representation or switch to electing City Council members from the city at large. Voters will choose between two competing ballot initiatives. Measure DD would bring at-large elections in which residents vote for all council members, who would represent the entire city. Measure AA would preserve district representation but reshape district boundaries. Under Measure AA, voters would select one council member to speak for their district and a mayor to represent the whole city.
Bob Englehart of the Hartford Courant has a funny cartoon today. It shows California tied in a knot and says Connecticut voters reject calls for initiative rights because it was the initiative that got the Golden State all screwed up. It’s funny because it is just so wrong: Bob really should have done his homework before he penned it. If he had, he would know that California’s initiative process isn’t to blame for the state’s budget and governance woes.
The fat lady has finally sung in Sacramento. She belted out a tune that celebrated the most belated passing of a state budget in modern history. Proposition 25 aims to have that song heard in a timely fashion, not whenever legislators decide finally to stop bickering. Prop. 25 seeks to amend the California Constitution by providing that the legislature would only need a simple majority (50 percent plus one) to pass the state budget. This would replace the two-thirds majority that is currently required and has been in California’s Constitution since 1933.
California Governor Schwarzenegger has for the second year in a row vetoed an attempt by the legislature to substantially raise the fee to file an initiative tenfold. In his veto message for AB 1832, the governor says:
San Francisco-based think tank Pacific Research institute adds to the debate over New America Foundation scholars Joe Matthews and Mark Paul’s new book “California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It.”
A rally urging residents to vote no on Proposition 23 drew a crowd of about 100 to a Wilmington park late Thursday afternoon, ending in a protest march to a nearby refinery. The Nov. 2 state ballot measure would suspend California’s 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act - Assembly Bill 32 - until unemployment rates fall to 5.5 percent or lower. Currently, California’s unemployment rate stands at 12.4 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer voted early today in Riverside, and likely cast her vote for a host of statewide propositions on the November ballot. But after dropping off her ballot, Boxer did not say how she weighed in on five of those measures ”” propositions 21, 22, 24, 25 and 26. She already has taken a public stance on propositions 19, 20, 23 and 27. “Well I have taken a position on the major propositions, but we’ll be working on all of those and will be putting some information out on that,” Boxer said at a news conference.
At a time when the state’s schools and economy are both suffering, California teachers are battling business interests over corporate tax cuts that could be worth billions of dollars over the next few years. Voters will get to settle the dispute next month by choosing sides on Proposition 24, which would repeal the cuts. And while each camp has mustered studies and projections to bolster their rhetoric, at the center is a debate over the best way to secure California’s economy over the long term.
For those of you who might be in the Los Angeles area, Robert Stern, President of the Center for Governmental Studies will be hosting an informational review of what’s on the ballot this November.
