Political Notebook
Late this afternoon, Gov. Schwarzenegger issued a statement touting the release of 100,000 acre-feet of water to "aid Central Valley farms."
The water, the statement notes, is a loan from the state water system to the federal system, which is used by West side farmers
"We are taking quick action to deliver water to those who need it most," the governor said.
Turns out the release won't boost the amount of water already allocated to farmers, Valley water officials said.
"This is a very common occurrence that the state loans water, typically in the heat of the summer," said Sarah Woolf, a spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District. "We've never had a press release on this issue before, so this was highly unusual."
Incidentally, the statement was released the same day the governor made an appearance in Fresno. In previous trips the governor has taken heat from farmers seeking more water.
Lisa Page, a spokeswoman for the governor, said "it's a total coincidence" that the statement was released the same day as the Fresno trip. She said the governor's office just wanted to share the information as soon as they got it.
"It is important because they do need the water now," she said.
Whoever prints the business cards at Fresno City Hall is about to be busier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
Interviews are expected to start in the next few weeks for two key positions -- city controller and director of planning and development. Meanwhile, a nationwide search is expected to start next month for the top job of all, city manager.
This will be the city's second try at filling the two department head positions, one of which (controller, the city's chief financial officer) has been vacant almost two years. In both cases, an initial round of interviews yielded no candidates deemed experienced enough. In hopes of attracting a better pool, city leaders decided to boost the pay range from about $130,000 for each job to $145,000 for controller and $150,000 for planning and development director.
There's no vacancy in the city manager's office and the incumbent, Andy Souza, said Thursday that he's interested in keeping the job. But Mayor Ashley Swearengin said shortly after her election last November that she planned a nationwide search for the position. The budget approved Thursday by the City Council included money for that search, which is expected to cost $25,000 to $35,000. The job pays $130,713 to $189,000.
 
Bee Capitol Bureau commentator Dan Walters says the dustup over remarks by Merced County Supervisor Mike Nelson about air quality may be an opening salvo in the 2010 campaign for lieutenant governor.
Nelson, who's a member of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District board, said during the May meeting that he tends to "tune out" when environmental activists address the board.
That drew protesters to last week's meeting.
Behind the scenes, state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, sent Nelson a letter saying his remark created an "unwarranted level of hostility."
And on Monday, state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, interceded on his behalf with a letter to the board praising him as "knowledgeable, accessible and reasonable" and labeling Florez's criticism as "self-serving."
With Lt. Gov. John Garamendi running for Congress, the lieutenant governorship will likely be vacant next year. Florez and Denham are potential, even likely, candidates.
When a politician sets up a Web site that says "I'm running for Assembly" and sends out e-mails that begin "as many of you know, I have decided to run for the State Assembly," one might reasonably conclude that the politician in question is running for, say, the Assembly.
Not so, says Clovis City Council Member Bob Whalen, who explained this week that his campaign still is only in an "exploratory phase" as he gauges his support as a replacement for termed-out Republican Mike Villines in the 29th Assembly District.
"Those of us who are interested in running are trying to get a good idea of the amount of support," Whalen said shortly after broadcasting his e-mail, which to be fair, went on to say he was continuing "to explore whether such a run is viable."
Assuming the answer to that is "yes," Whalen said he most likely will formally announce his candidacy at a news conference, probably in the fall. The primary is June 8 and the filing deadline is March 12.
Sometimes it's harder than it looks to put on a show of force.
Take the Fresno City Council's pique (along with similar feelings from other city and county governing bodies) over the state's plan to seize local shares of gas-tax revenues to help close California's $24 billion budget gap.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's visit Thursday to the Tower Theatre seemed to be a perfect opportunity for the seven council members and Mayor Ashley Swearengin to make their voices heard. Perfect -- except for a little thing called the Brown Act, a state law requiring public agencies to actually conduct public business in public.
The governor's event required invitations, so it wasn't really a public meeting, City Attorney James C. Sanchez advised the council after some research. For that reason, he advised, only three members -- one fewer than a quorum -- should attend.
Not that it really mattered. Council President Cynthia Sterling got to bring up the gas-tax issue at the start of a question-and-answer session. After that, the focus shifted to the region's water shortages.
The Sacramento Bee this week recalled one governor's way of dealing with a deficit:
Milton Latham, governor in early 1860, promised in his inaugural address to tackle the state debt. It was close to an eye-popping $3.9 million. Million with an M.
Then Latham persuaded the Legislature to appoint him to a vacant U.S. Senate seat. The senator, you see, had died in a duel.
All in all, Latham was governor for five days. It's still the record.
And the next governor inherited the state debt.
For any Republican seeking Valley votes, this one's a no-brainer: Declare your support for more water. If you don't, you almost certainly won't gain the support of the region's influential farm community.
GOP guv candidate Meg Whitman follows that simple playbook today with an op-ed in The Bee, in which she urges the Obama administration to overturn proposed federal regulations that would cut into Delta water deliveries to protect fish.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger knows the playbook too, and frequently goes out of his way to press for more water. But in an appearance before The Bee's editorial board this week, the guv was a little vague on his discussions with the Obama administration, namely Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Continue reading "Meg wants God Squad, Guv says not yet" »
Rep. George Radanovich, a Mariposa Republican who is serving his eighth term in Congress, will have a challenger if he -- as expected -- decides to seek re-election next year.
Les Marsden, 52, a retired actor and Fresno native who now lives in Mariposa, has a Web site and the support of some influential area residents, including Kole Upton, a Chowchilla Water District director.
Upton says he and Marsden see eye-to-eye on water issues. The rest, Upton says, doesn't matter. That comment reflects Upton's well-known frustration for Radanovich over water issues facing the San Joaquin Valley.
There is one problem, however: Upton says Marsden is a Democrat, and Radanovich's 19th Congressional District -- which stretches from Fresno north to near Modesto, and into the foothills and high Sierra -- is strongly Republican.
Radanovich has steamrolled past Democratic Party opponents, and Upton says he has taken some heat from some area Republicans for supporting Marsden.
On his Web site, Marsden -- who couldn't be reached for comment -- writes that he has "to confide something right at the outset: I'm not running to be the Republican Party's representative, or the Democratic Party's representative: I'm running to represent you."
Marsden is a 1975 McLane High School graduate who has made more than 3,000 stage performances and is on the Mariposa County Planning Commission.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass this week removed Fresno's Juan Arambula from two state budget committees, replacing him with a more liberal member. The switch came days after the Arambula, who holds moderate views, told The Bee that he has pressed for more spending cuts instead of tax hikes to solve the state's budget woes.
"That's not an approach that sits well with some folks," Arambula said last week.
Arambula was replaced by San Francisco Democrat Tom Ammiano on the Budget Committee and on Budget Subcommittee No. 4, which oversees most state departments. In his subcommittee role, Arambula said he pushed for stronger oversight and "looked for ways to be fiscally prudent in how the state ran its activities."
Continue reading "Arambula removed from budget committees" »
State legislative leaders have grown accustomed in recent years to negotiating budget deals behind closed doors with the governor. Responding to criticism, lawmakers this summer have promised more public hearings and debate.
Already, hundreds of citizens have testified before a special budget committee on possible deep cuts to schools, social programs and more. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told The Bee Tuesday that he's not getting much out of the public hearings.
Continue reading "Guv defends closed door budget talks" »
Valley growers are bemoaning this week's proposal by federal regulators to further cut water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect endangered fish.
But the finding by the National Marine Fisheries Service might boost Valley ag efforts in at least one sense: It could increase the pressure on state lawmakers to strike a deal on a comprehensive water plan.
Continue reading "Feinstein reacts to water ruling, urges action" »
It may be time to set another place at Fresno's family dining table.
Armenian Consul General Grigor Hovhannissian paid a three-day visit to the city this week and one thing on his agenda was pairing Fresno with a sister city in Armenia.
If it comes to pass, the selected city will join Fresno's 10 other existing siblings: Afula, Israel; Baqubah, Iraq; Djambul/Taraz, Kazakhstan; Lahore, Pakistan; Morogoro, Tanzania; Talpeneca, Nicaragua; Torreon, Mexico; Kochi, Japan; Munster, Germany; and Verona, Italy. But only the last three are active, meaning that people from Fresno are currently working to sustain the links, city officials said Friday.
Hovhannissian, whose office is in Los Angeles, met Thursday with the Fresno-Armenia Sister City Exploratory Committee at City Hall. During his visit, he was also scheduled to tour California State University, Fresno, and help Mayor Ashley Swearengin open the inaugural HyeFest on the Fulton Mall.
City Council Member Andreas Borgeas, who chairs the exploratory committee, said he hopes a sister city will be selected in the next month and a local delegation will visit it within a year.
"We have an enormous amount of cultural and business assets that are oriented toward Armenia," Borgeas said. "It is a very natural fit."
The sister city program dates to the Eisenhower administration. Its purpose, according to Sister Cities International, is to "promote cultural understanding, and stimulate economic development."
I called former Fresno Mayor Alan Autry this morning on his cell phone to check into a rumor that he was nearing a decision to run for the state Senate seat of Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who terms out in 2010.
Autry answered, said hello and then told me I was on the air on his radio show. I thought maybe he was joking. But I wasn't sure and asked him the question.
"I have no plans [to run], I have no calling," he said, then joked that he would run right after he gets a frontal lobotomy.
Anything else, he asked. I said no, then logged on to the live stream on KYNO (AM 1300). Sure enough, he was on the air -- and had just denied the Senate run, for all to hear.
Will Barack Obama's first visit to the Central Valley as president be a tour of Mendota?
That's what the westside farming town is hoping. In a letter sent to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Mayor Robert Silva thanks Obama for his support of a federal prison that is being built near Mendota, but also calls his attention to the desperate need for water in the westside, where the agricultural industry has been brought to its knees.
Mendota, which is almost entirely dependent on farming, is struggling with a 41% unemployment rate.
"Our main economic sector, the agricultural industry, is basically non-existent due to the severe reduction to water allocations to local farmers," the letter reads.
Silva also notes, "Recently, private businesses have received billions of dollars in emergency relief funds, however, cities like Mendota that provide agricultural products to the rest of the country are on the verge of extinction. ... We are facing what may be our last hope. It is our firm belief that seeing first-hand the challenges and opportunities facing the city will lead to a strong partnership between the government and our region. Mr. President, a personal visit from you will bring much needed attention to the need for water for farms which will lead to jobs for our community."
The next time the state Assembly meets, lawmakers will have a new Republican leader.
Mike Villines, R-Clovis, attended his last lower house session as leader today. His resignation, announced three weeks ago, is effective on Monday. Legislators gave Villines a round of applause. He smiled and shook some hands, but did not give a speech.
Meantime, his staff busily packed boxes, preparing for the move out of the lush leader's office. 
Villines is swapping offices with Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, who is the new leader. Blakeslee's office, while smaller, isn't too shabby, and is big enough to fit the entire (shrinking) Capitol press corps -- as was proven recently when he talked to reporters about his new job.
Villines, who terms out in 2010, stepped down as leader amid pressure from anti-tax conservatives, who blasted him for supporting new taxes in the February budget deal.
Tulare County is considering a hiring freeze, elimination of vacancies, layoffs, furloughs, and other maneuvers to deal with expected state budget cuts, according to a letter that went out to employees late Tuesday afternoon.
The county would lose $8.4 million under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to raid $2 billion from local government budgets, officials said.
The governor has also proposed to ax the Williamson Act program, which provides revenue to local governments that give property tax breaks to landowners who agree not to develop farmland. Counties in many cases would still be on the hook for the money. Tulare County could lose around $3 million from the state, officials said.
Continue reading "Tulare County warns employees of cuts" »
Facing long odds on getting a $2 million city loan, a new company that wants to build prefabricated homes in a proposed southeast Fresno factory is looking for new investors willing to put their credit on the line.
Daniel Lonergan, chief executive of fledgling Robotic Built Structures Inc., said he is trying to get bank-issued irrevocable letters of credit from new investors to meet city demands for better security on a proposed $2 million loan from future federal funding allotments. If his company started to miss payments, the city could recoup its money via the letters of credit.
RoBuilt's May 7 loan request has run into stiff resistance at a City Hall reeling from $20 million in shaky loan guarantees to the Fresno Metropolitan Museum and the Granite Park Kids Foundation. But Lonergan said he hopes to convince city leaders that the letters of credit will eliminate any risk to the public treasury.
Continue reading "Robotics plant now seeking new investors" »
This just in from the "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" Department.
Barely four months into its tenure, the new downtown revitalization staff at Fresno City Hall has spent the last two weeks fending off criticism of what its director says he thought was just a harmless bit of irreverent fun.
Here's the setup: An appeal to the public for suggestions to replace a sign at Van Ness Avenue and the Mariposa Mall, which currently tells passersby that there's a parking garage two levels down. It's nowhere close to the any of the garage's entrances, so it was ripe for replacement, reasoned Craig Scharton, director of the Downtown and Community Revitalization Department.
The finalists were unveiled about two weeks ago. Among them were some standard types with pointers to nearby landmarks like the Fulton Mall, as well as edgier variations like "Welcome to Downtown Fresno: You are here."
Reaction, which mostly came down to variations on the theme of "What the ... ?", soon circulated through the Twittersphere and on a local Internet discussion list frequented by design professionals. After a week, Scharton chimed in to say it was all meant as an exercise in levity.
"I just thought it would be fun to stick something up there that was completely idiotic," he explained Friday.
For now, Scharton said, he's going to turn over the issue to a task force organized by Creative Fresno, a local nonprofit organization.
California's fiscal meltdown is getting attention everywhere, it seems, including from comedian Bill Maher.
In a piece published this week in the Los Angeles Times called "Superheroes can't save California," Maher unloads one-liner after one-liner.
Like this one, on the inclination by voters to approve propositions the state can't afford:
" ... our state is governed not by elected representatives but by special-interest people standing in front of the supermarket with clipboards asking, 'Would you like to sign a petition to cut your taxes?' And then that becomes law. Proposition 14C: Two weeks paid leave for hangovers and universal teeth whitening, paid for by Central Valley cow gas. 'Vote 'yes' on gain, 'no' on pain.' "
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today said he was dropping his proposal to borrow more than $5 billion from outside investors to help plug the state's gaping budget hole of at least $21.3 billion.
But borrowing from local governments is still very much on the table -- and the idea got a boost today with an endorsement by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst.
Mac Taylor, whose proposals are respected by both parties, said the governor's plan to take $2 billion from cities and counties is not ideal, but could be necessary in these dark budget times.
"I would absolutely recognize that we are shifting our problem onto local governments," Taylor said. But "we're all in this together and everyone is going to have to take hits."
"We're running out of options and that's one that I think has to be on the table."
Continue reading "Borrowing from cities still in play" »
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