Political Notebook
Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO who is now seeking to oust incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer from her U.S. Senate seat, was back in Fresno yet again today.
This time, Fiorina was at the Fowler Packing Company along with Republican Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.
The topic: Federal budget reform.
At the news conference, Fiorina said she supported Thune's proposed legislation known as the "Deficit Reduction and Budget Reform Act of 2010," which includes a provision for a two-year budget.
CEO Watch -- which is funded primarily by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and is focusing on attacking Fiorina and Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman -- used Fiorina's visit to blast her as well as Thune and Chambliss for "opposing a new jobs bill that will save more than 2,700 education jobs in Central Valley public schools and is fully paid for by closing a tax break for companies that ship jobs overseas."
Not surprisingly, Republican Thune endorsed Republican Fiorina, and Republican Chambliss said he was "pleased to give her my strongest support."
Both senators will likely be with Fiorina this evening for a political fundraiser at Valley farmer Mark Borba's Madera County home, Rancho Vista Del Rio. The minimum campaign donation to get in to the event is $500.
Things are moving fast for Fresno's new downtown property-based improvement district -- called a PBID.
Continue reading "Update on Fresno's new downtown PBID" »
The city of Fresno has lost one of its most eloquent defenders of perhaps the most politically-charge resource in the Valley.
For 10 years, Lon Martin has been the city of Fresno's water expert. But the assistant deputy director in the Public Utilities Department has left City Hall to take a position with the Fresno-based engineering firm of Provost and Pritchard.
Martin's last day with the city was Friday.
Martin, 42, has instructed the public on water issues as diverse as federal water contracts, residential water meters, water purity, water storage and high efficiency toilets.
At a small City Hall reception in his honor this week, Martin said he'll be working with farmers and government officials throughout the region on water-saving strategies.
Let this quote from Martin in a 2007 article in The Bee serve as his Fresno City Hall legacy: "We need to have a drought mentality."
Expect a plethora of political organizations to pop up in support of or in opposition to the various candidates running in the November general election -- especially those seeking the high-profile seats such as governor and U.S. Senate.
One such group is CEO Watch, which is focusing on Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina. Both are former CEOs -- Whitman of the online auction firm eBay, Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard. Thus, the name.
Whitman is facing Democrat Jerry Brown in the contest to replaced the termed-out Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Fiorina is hoping to unseat incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate.
CEO Watch is being funded primarily by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, so the group's message won't be hard to guess.
On Friday, some of its members held a news conference at Bullard Talent, a K-8 school in northwest Fresno, where teachers and parents criticized Fiorina for not supporting a $26 billion measure to help avoid teacher layoffs that President Barack Obama recently signed into law.
Republican officials say the bill is a union giveaway that will hamper the nation's long-term economic recovery. Fiorina spokeswoman Andrea Saul said Fiorina supports keeping teachers in classrooms, but this piece of legislation "fails to deliver on that promise."
As for CEO Watch, Saul said it "comes as no surprise that [Boxer's] cronies, in an effort to save her career as a politician, are having to defend her job-killing policies."
In the battle to replace retiring Republican George Radanovich of Mariposa in the 19th Congressional District, Rep. Devin Nunes campaigned so hard for Richard Pombo, it was like Nunes himself was seeking the post.
Fresno businessman Bob Smittcamp was another eager supporter of Pombo, who was seeking to return to Congress after serving 14 years before being defeated in 2006. He hosted a Pombo fundraiser that raised around $250,000.
But in the closing days leading up to the June Republican primary election, when it became clear that Pombo wasn't going to win, both men contributed money to one of his opponents -- former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson. Others did the same.
By that point, polling made it clear that Patterson had the only real chance to defeat state Sen. Jeff Denham.
Smittcamp gave Patterson $2,400 on June 8. Nunes' campaign committee gave Patterson $2,000, and his New PAC political action committee chipped in $5,000.
For Nunes, this was likely an easy choice. As much as he liked Pombo, he disliked Denham and his questionable campaign tactics.
In Smittcamp's case, the twist was especially ironic. Tired of Radanovich and feeling he was ineffective, he was one of several influential Republicans who last year helped recruit Patterson to challenge Radanovich.
But then Radanovich, citing his wife's health problems, suddenly announced he was retiring -- and endorsing Denham. A few days later, Pombo jumped in the race.
Smittcamp then dumped Patterson for Pombo. He said at the time that Pombo had seniority, while it would take Patterson "a year to find the men's room."
Denham eventually won, and now is a virtual lock for the job. All he has to do this November is defeat Dr. Loraine Goodwin, his Democratic Party challenger, in a district that leans heavily Republican.
Actress and model Bo Derek will be among those on hand for Fresno State football's home opener next week against Cincinnati, and for a $500 political donation to Republican controller candidate Tony Strickland, you could tailgate with her. Oh, and you also get a picture with her.
Ed Dunkel Jr., the founder and president of Precision Civil Engineering in Fresno, is sponsoring the fundraiser for Strickland, who is currently a Republican state Senator from Moorpark.
For those not satisfied with a pregame tailgate with Derek, the first 20 to pony up $1,500 can watch the game with her in a skybox.
Incidentally, Derek -- who rocketed to stardom in the 1979 film "10" -- is up for a spot on the state Horse Racing Board, but the Los Angeles Times reported today that the Senate Rules Committee delayed action on her appointment, as well as three others.
Fresno City Manager Mark Scott said last week that it could be September before the City Council -- and the public -- gets a detailed look at the scale of the city's long-running practice of deficit funding.
And, just as importantly, how cash-strapped City Hall plans to pay off a huge bill to itself.
City Hall officials acknowledged this summer that the city had been borrowing for several years from its treasury pool to help make annual payments of $3.4 million on bonds issued to pay for, among other things, construction of a little-used Convention Center parking garage.
The parking division may owe the treasury as much as $16 million by June 30, 2011.
City Attorney James Sanchez called the practice of borrowing from the treasury "deficit funding," adding that City Hall has broken no laws.
One city council member has said the city has engaged in similar "deficit funding" to make ends meet in other departments, though not on the scale of the parking division.
For all intents and purposes, the council member said, this practice of borrowing year-in and year-out from a treasury pool whose money is earmarked for other purposes means the city's $10 million general fund reserve is gone.
It no doubt will make for interesting reading when Fresno City Hall officials post detailed information about the compensation packages of city employees on the city's website.
Financial information about consultants' contracts, including those for less than $50,000, also could soon be posted.
But City Hall officials are already struggling to answer perhaps the most important question: What possible use can Fresno's half-million residents make of the information in light of the economic and political complexity of determining pay packages among an estimated 3,200 city employees, almost all of whom are represented by unions?
To recap, council members Henry T. Perea and Lee Brand at a news conference last week unveiled their co-sponsored Transparency in City Government Act. The measure, which proposes to shine a very public spotlight on employee pay, goes to the council on Thursday.
Mayor Ashley Swearengin last week also vowed to greatly expand her online efforts to keep the public well-informed about the size of city employees' paychecks.
Let's say Fresnans in a few weeks go online and learn that X number of city employees have compensation packages in excess of $100,000 annually.
They learn that Y number of employees have compensation packages from $80,000 to $99,999 annually.
They learn that Z number of employees have compensation packages from $60,000 to $79,999.
And they learn all about consultants' pay.
So what?
How many Fresnans have to be upset with these numbers -- for example, thinking that city employees are either under-compensated or over-compensated -- before City Hall's elected officials change things?
And how would this critical mass of concerned Fresnans effectively make its concern known?
No one at City Hall knows.
The Perea-Brand measure requires that the compensation for elected officials in the state's 10 largest cities be presented in a side-by-side comparison. But the measure does not require that the compensation packages of Fresno employees -- be they police officers, firefighters, water division workers, clerks, etc. -- be compared to their counterparts in other large California cities.
And the measure does not require that Fresno's unemployment and under-employment rates, its per capita income or its cost of living be compared to those of other large California cities.
Granted, if the measure is adopted Fresnans will know that no one is making huge salaries similar to those paid to certain officials in the small Southern California city of Bell.
But, for the moment, set aside that reassurance. Again, the key question: What is the value to 500,000 Fresnans of information about the pay packages of city employees when there is no recent record that Fresno City Hall has ever rejected employee pay raises due to the opposition of the electorate?
Perea and Brand were asked this question at their news conference.
"If this [information] is out there, at least [Fresnans] have a reference," Perea said.
Said Brand: "This was never intended to be a precise research document. It would be almost impossible....When you try to put this policy together, with all the politics involved, with all the different interest groups, it's hard to please everybody."
The last time a pay issue that was simple and high-profile enough to catch the public's attention was in the summer of 2006. That's when the City Council voted unanimously to override the veto of Mayor Alan Autry and rise the annual salaries of council members by 46% and the mayor's salary by nearly 31%.
The protests of some Fresnans were ignored by the council.
Democrat Barbara Boxer appeared to be in full campaign mode today -- her second straight in Fresno County -- as she looks to win a fourth term in the U.S. Senate this November.
Of course, Carly Fiorina has other ideas. The former Hewlett Packard Co. CEO has campaigned in Fresno -- which has proven fertile ground for Republicans -- almost as many times as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Today, Boxer toured an almost-completed federal prison in Mendota that her staffers say she played a key role in getting jump started after funding dried up mid-construction. She met with small-town Fresno County mayors.
She looked at a fleet of new compressed natural gas Fresno Unified School District buses that replaced old diesel buses. Some of the funding for the buses came from federal stimulus funds.
She defended her visits to Fresno, saying she's come here often. But when she isn't around, Boxer added, Tom Bohigian, her state director and a former Fresno City Council member, is. "My eyes and ears are here every single day," she said, referring to Bohigian.
And she hit back at Fiorina, who has been leveling political body blows to Boxer for weeks.
On Monday, Boxer attended a $35 per person fund raiser at the Ramada Inn sponsored by the Fresno County Democratic Women's Club. The packed room gave Boxer a raucous welcome. She then proceeded to hammer Fiorina, though never by name.
Boxer today dismissed polls showing she may be in for a tough battle with Fiorina.
"My races are always close at this time," she said.
But with her re-election campaign starting, and television commercials coming, Boxer said she expects to finish the same as she has in her past three Senate campaigns -- with a victory.
The California Republican Party on Tuesday dropped $100,000 into the campaign account of Valley Republican state Senate candidate Anthony Cannella, the mayor of Ceres. The donation is the latest shot in what is likely to be an all-out war between Dems and Reps for control of the seat, one of the few in the state that both parties have a chance of winning.
Democrats have the voter registration edge in the 12th District, but Republican Jeff Denham, R-Atwater, won the seat in 2002 and again in 2006. He terms out this year and is running for Congress. The Democratic candidate is Assembly Member Anna Caballero, D-Salinas. The state Democratic Party has already given her $50,000.
At one point it looked as though the contest could have been a battle over supermajority control of the upper house. Democrats are two votes shy of the magic threshold now and could have crept one vote closer had they been able to pull out a victory in the recent special election for a Central Coast seat. Those dreams were dashed when Republican Sam Blakeslee beat Democrat John Laird.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission has fined Madera's mayor $200 for failing to report on his annual financial disclosure form that the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians paid for his flight to Washington, D.C. in May 2008.
Mayor Gary Svanda, who was a city councilman at the time, made the trip to the capital to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs about the benefits of the tribe's proposed casino near Madera.
He told the committee that he was speaking on behalf of the City Council even though the council was divided on the casino project and some council members didn't find out about the trip until after Svanda returned.
The Bee first reported on Svanda's trip in September 2009. It found that the tribe reimbursed Svanda for the flight, but Svanda never reported that fact on his financial disclosure statements as is legally required for elected officials.
When reached by phone on Tuesday, Svanda hung up before a reporter could ask him a question.
"I just don't have time to talk but thank you for calling," he said.
Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin may be spending part of the weekend studying city employee compensation packages.
Swearengin will hold her fifth town hall meeting from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Saint Anthony Mary Claret Catholic Church, 2494 S. Chestnut, in southeast Fresno.
This is District 5, and Council Member Mike Dages, who represents the area, as well as department heads are expected to attend. Almost any topic related to city services is fair game for questions from the public.
It's a safe bet that the pay of city employees will be discussed on Wednesday. Council members Henry T. Perea and Lee Brand on Thursday are expected to bring to the council their proposed "Transparency in City Government Act" that would require the posting of city employee compensation packages on the city's Web site. Swearengin also announced this week that she will quickly expand her administration's disclosure of employee compensation.
Compensation of public employees has become a controversial issue since the revelations that top officials in the small Southern California city of Bell were receiving immense paychecks with huge retirement liabilities for taxpayers.
No one at Fresno City Hall says there are city employee compensation packages here that are in Bell's league. However, Fresno is struggling with a budget crisis, and both elected officials and voters are viewing the cost of salaries/wages/benefits with a sharp eye.
Paul Dictos has earned the endorsements of a majority of Fresno County supervisors in the race for assessor-recorder, which could help in the November election and beyond.
Supervisors Henry Perea, Debbie Poochigian and Phil Larson have backed accountant Dictos in his race against Carole Laval, who owns a Fresno property appraisal firm. Dictos and Laval earned a place in the runoff by defeating two employees of the Assessor-Recorder's Office.
The winner will replace retiring Assessor-Recorder Bob Werner.
Perea, a Democrat, crossed party lines to endorse Dictos, a Republican. Then again, the office is nonpartisan and Supervisor Susan Anderson, a Republican, endorsed Laval, a Democrat.
That leaves Supervisor Judy Case as the only board member not backing an assessor candidate. She endorsed Peter Filippi, a county appraiser, in the primary. It's not clear if she will pick someone else.
Earning the board's support has ramifications beyond the election. The assessor's office sustained deep cuts this year, which Werner said has forced the office to give up a number of revenue-generating tasks. Laval and Dictos have said it's important for his successor to have a strong relationship with the board, to keep the office funded.
Laval has earned a number of public-sector endorsements, even though she's only gotten Anderson on the board. Those include Auditor-Controller Vicki Crow and the Fresno County Deputy Sheriff's Association.
Washington, D.C. isn't just about the politics. Sometimes, it's about the food. Which is, by the way, bipartisan.
Just ask Fresno-area native Eric Amador, who worked as a chef in the White House between 2004 and 2009. Cooking for two presidents, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama, Amador whipped up some meals for the powerfully hungry. He also, as he puts, "traveled around the world with the president of the United States as a modern day food tester."
A senior chief culinary specialist in the Navy, who describes his kitchen approach as "simple, healthy, engaging," Amador has since returned to Naval Air Station Lemoore. On Friday morning, starting at 11:30 a.m., he will be joined at the Fulton Mall Farmer's Market by Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and others to demonstrate healthy cooking.
Don't expect much legal action next week at Fresno's federal courthouse -- or across the entire U.S. 9th Circuit, for that matter.
Many of the appellate judges, district judges, magistrate judges, bankruptcy judges, agency heads, and others are heading to Hawaii for the circuit's annual conference.
U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii, who is chief judge for California's Eastern District -- which includes Fresno -- says there will be some down time, but mostly it will be business.
Among the programs are "Trying Alleged Terrorists: Constitutional and Practical Problems in Article III Courts and Military Tribunals" and "Justice and the Unrepresented: Managing the Caseload."
The conference is scheduled for Monday to Thursday, Ishii says. Most judges will arrive Sunday.
Ishii notes that the conference is held in different parts of the district, which covers nine western states and the territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Last year, for instance, it was in Monterey.
At one time, Ishii says conferences were never held in Hawaii because some court officials feared the public relations fallout. But, he notes, it is part of the 9th Circuit.
The Service Employees International Union is backing Cynthia Sterling in her battle to unseat incumbent Fresno County Supervisor Phil Larson and has made no secret of its plans to spend big money in the effort.
Now, a rival union has voted to back Larson.
In a meeting Friday, the AFL-CIO affiliated Fresno, Madera, Kings and Tulare Counties Building and Construction Trades Council voted to endorse Larson.
John Hutson, the organization's executive financial secretary, said there was some initial grumbling and some questions -- after all, Larson is a Republican -- but in the end it was unanimous.
"He's not a Democrat like us, but he's always been honest with us," Hutson says of Larson.
Hutson -- who helped Sterling win election to the Fresno City Council but has now soured on her -- said the SEIU's priorities would worsen Fresno County's debt burden, forcing it to hunker down and stop any building projects.
"My side loses work," Hutson says.
He acknowledges the SEIU's power and its deep pockets, but he says in this race, Larson is the better candidate.
Leave it to Fresno County Supervisor Henry Perea to oppose a measure intended to help local government. Perea relishes ideas that seem counter intuitive.
Perea urged his fellow supervisors this week to pass a resolution against Proposition 22, which intended to stop state government raids on local funds.
The problem, according to Perea, is that while Prop. 22 would help cities, it would enshrine counties at the bottom of the government food chain. Overall, counties would come out behind in funding decisions if it passes, Perea said.
Supervisors said they needed more information but agreed to consider Perea's proposal in 30 days. They want to get position papers from various department heads before considering opposing the measure on the November ballot.
Perea said the issue raised serious discussion at a recent meeting of the California State Association of Counties, but the association decided to remain neutral on the matter. Contra Costa County is the only county to oppose the measure so far, according to a Perea staffer.
Interesting bet made recently by Western Growers, which endorsed Republican Carly Fiorina for the U.S. Senate. That the growers group would back the GOP candidate is not, by itself, unusual. It has a history of providing big contributions to Republican candidates and organizations.
Still: In 2007, and again in 2008, the Western Growers PAC contributed $1,000 to Democrat Barbara Boxer, the incumbent Fiorina now hopes to unseat.
Some of the prominent individual Valley farmers backing Fiorina, like Fred Starrh of Starrh and Starrh Farms, have a political history that's reliably Republican through-and-through. It's potentially more of a warning sign for Boxer when past financial backers opt for her opposition.
Although she wrote the bill to delay the $11 billion water bond from November's election to 2012, Assembly Member Anna Caballero could be hurt by the bill's passage this week.
Caballero, D-Salinas, had seemed positioned to try and use the water bond to her advantage as she campaigned this fall for the 12th District Senate seat in the Valley. She played a role in securing Democratic support for the bond when lawmakers first put it on the ballot last year and was routinely praised by the Latino Water Coalition, a Valley-centric group that made the bond a priority, and even some Republicans.
"There no question about the fact that having the bond on the 2010 (ballot) helps me," she said. "But having it on the 2012 ballot helps me as well, as far as I'm concerned, because then there's an even better reason why I need to stay engaged because I need to keep the coalition going."
Continue reading "Does water bond delay hurt Caballero?" »
State lawmakers are expected to begin voting today on delaying the $11 billion water bond from November's ballot to 2012 - but the postponement is no sure thing, especially in the Assembly.
"I don't see the pieces in place to get this out, but I could be wrong," said Assembly Member Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael.
Huffman, who voted to put the bond on the November ballot, said he he will vote against the delay - unless the bond is significantly changed.
"The criticism we've seen is it's too big, it's too filled with pork projects and there's a very controversial provision about surface storage that probably should be reworked," he told The Bee this morning.
Huffman, who has influence over environmentalist Democrats, said he's open to postponing the bond and leaving the ballot date open, which would force the Legislature to consider changes at a later date. However, that position is unlikely to win support from other bond supporters, who want the bond left as is.
Continue reading "Water bond delay on tap, but will it pass?" »
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