CaliforniaCityNews.org

Are You More Ethical than a 5th Grader?

How's this for transparency... to address a rampant cheating epidemic on civil service exams, Chinese officials unleashed the only ethical people they could find to proctor the tests: children.

It seems the the Liangzhou Discipline Inspection Commission was out of ideas.  They needed detached, merciless observers who could see this issue in black and white.  The answer?  5th graders.  According to an NPR report: "They showed no mercy. At one site, more than one-third of the test-takers were disqualified."

The kids learned an important lesson too... "It was exciting. I learned why there must be supervisors and how important it is to rely on yourself in tests," Liang Liang, a 12-year-old supervisor, was quoted Friday as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Read more from the AP.

Don't Confuse the Gadfly!

"They're, like, experts." 

SF Supe, Outspoken Defender of Tenant Rights, Moves Own Family to the Suburbs

It's probably time for us to take a look at the churning firestorm that is San Francisco Supe Chris Daly's move to the 'burbs this month.  Briefly, for those of you not up on SF politics: the most liberal member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has purchased a home in Fairfield (not even in the Bay Area!) and relocated his family there.  For an elected official that has made his name as a crusader for tenants and low income city residents -- often at the expense of it's dwindling middle class -- to move his family out of the city has opened him up to *ahem* criticism. 

As the SF Weekly put it: "Does this make him a hypocrite? Naturally: You can't spend nine years accusing your enemies of trying to turn the city into suburbia, then move to suburbia to get your kids out of the city, without being as inconsistent as Bernie Madoff's balance sheet."

Not helping matters is Daly's storied ill temper -- this is the guy who nearly came to blows with Willie Brown and suggested Gavin Newsom was a cokehead.  It's also not helping that a guy many blame for making he city unaffordable for young families is moving his own family to house that -- wait for it -- his parents bought for him.  Daly has said he, of course, still lives in his District, and has invited the City Attorney to inspect his residence.

A great rundown of the fallout here. 

Legislative Analyst Releases Budget Overview

The state's independent Legislative Analyst has released their take on the final budget package.  The overview includes individual looks at cuts and planned actions dealing with local government, transportation and other key areas.

Get the full look here. 

Guv Signs Budget, RDAs Set to Sue

After "blue lining" another $500 million in cuts to the state budget, Governor Schwarzenegger has signed the budget package approved late last week by the legislature.  While cities dodged a big bullet with HUTA, there is still plenty of pain for locals here, even though Dir of Finance Mike Genest has called the Prop 1A securitization language "rock solid."  We'll see!

On the Redevelopment front, led by Cal Redevelopment Association Exec John Shirey, RDAs are set to sue the state to block nearly $2 billion in illegal shifts.  As written by the League of Cities:

"A total of $2.05 billion is proposed to be taken from redevelopment agencies through a seizure of $1.7 billion in FY 2009-10, and then an additional $350 million in FY 2010-11. These funds will be deposited in county "Supplemental" Educational Revenue Augmentation Funds (SERAF) to be distributed to meet the state's Proposition 98 obligations to schools. This proposal attempts to use the same mechanism that was rejected by Sacramento Superior Court, when the Court held that a proposed take of $350 million from redevelopment agencies for FY 2008-09, via AB 1389 of 2008, was unconstitutional."

ERAF was a four letter word.  So what's SERAF?  Five letters, we know. 

Read more about the redevelopment legal issues in Bond Buyer. 

Bond Analysts Question Budget Scheme, Could Lower State Rating Even Further

Bond analysts are seeing right through the budget scheme offered up by Sacramento, seeing it as nothing more than accounting gimmicks that will ultimately continue to deteriorate the state's credit rating. California already has the lowest credit rating in the nation (tough when you consider places like Rhode Island or New Jersey), except for the commonwealth of Puerto Rico (apparently Guam is higher). The state's current rating is BBB, most state's are rated AAA or AA.

The latest state spending "plan" combines roughly $15 billion in cuts to education, prisons, parks and other aspects of state government with accounting tricks and borrowing to close a $26 billion budget gap.

"You have accounting tricks like moving employee salaries out a day, deferral of school aid and withholding acceleration increases by 10 percent," said Matt Fabian, a Massachusetts based bond analyst of some of the tactics. "All of these are just borrowing money out of the future."

Acceleration increases involve raising income tax collections by increasing withholding by 10 percent. Taxpayers will get to reclaim the money during tax season. This is basically an interest-free loan for the state.

The AP has the story here.

San Diego to Cut Off Power During "Fire Season"

The San Diego City Council voted 6-2 yesterday to adopted a plan that will potentially cut off power for up to 60,000 rural county homes. The shut-off plan is an attempt to reduce the fire threat posed by the utility's power poles and electrical wires. Power would be cut off in parts of the back country during dry, windy weather.

Looks like the city folks are looking to protect themselves at the expense of their rural neighbors. When considering the level of damage inflicted by the massive fires of 2003 and 2007, we can't say it's that bad of an idea.

The Union Tribune has the full story here.

PG&E to Run Intiative Raising Voter Threshold for Projects Using Public Funds.

PG&E is maneuvering to run a statewide initiative that would discourage local governments from purchasing energy on the open market as part of The “Taxpayers Right to Vote Act.”

As Josh Richmond writes on his CoCo Times Political Blotter blog, the initiative "would require local governments to obtain the approval of two-thirds of their voters before providing electricity to new customers or expanding such service to new territories if any public funds or bonds are involved, or before providing electricity through a community choice program if any public funds or bonds are involved."

PG&E just dropped $700,000 into the campaign account. 

Mendota: Where Unemployment is at 39 Percent

The SF Chron has a heartbreaking but enlightening piece on the City of Mendota, a farming town east of Fresno that has been flat out devastated by a confluence of poor economy, drought and housing bust.  This has left a fragile community with unemployment rocketing towards 40 percent, and a community on the brink of collapse.  As the Chron put it:

"In the worst national economic crisis since the Great Depression, there are few better illustrations of the resultant human suffering than Mendota, where 95 percent of the population is Latino and 42 percent of residents live below poverty level."

The town's mayor, Robert Silva, has been leading an gressive, and at time even successful, effort to attract both businesses and federal assistance.  Read more in the Chron.

Final Budget Not Without Pain, But There's Reason to Smile

It's been called a long budget "hangover" in the Capitol this weekend, with many journalists and legislators both checking out after weeks of tense and all night budget negotiations.  As the Governor looks over the last billion or so in outstanding cuts, he is expected to sign the budget "without fanfare" tomorrow.  This leaves California counties with a budget that looks radically different than the one it had every reason to expect, just a few short days ago.

While $2 billion will still be snatched in Prop 1A borrowing, the death of the HUTA proposal and the Hollingsworth/City of Industry Redevelopment proposal were a tremendous victory for local governments.  Beating back these raids took the coordinated effort of both CSAC and the League of Cities, and as the statewide media took notice last Wednesday and Thursday, so did legislators begin to balk a list of "atrocities," as CSAC's Paul McIntosh wrote it. 

When it came time to vote on the series of borrowing and raids, both Senate Pro Tem Steinberg and Assembly Leader Bass found it exceedingly difficult to gather the necessary votes to gut local government.  Steinberg "hit the roof" around 3 a.m. Friday morning, according to one observer, facetiously calling on a lobbyist from the League of Cities to enter the chamber and release his members to vote for the grab.  Assembly Speaker Bass was quoted: "Local governments declared war on the cuts," and while Steinberg ultimately got his votes, Bass did not. 

Ultimately, even Bass acknowledged the HUTA raid was "probably illegal."  All in all, a $2 billion loan to the state looks a hell of a lot better than what was being called the "biggest hit to local government in state history."  Our hat's are off to everyone -- electeds, staff and organizers -- who fought this budget on behalf of locals and have every right to claim victory in this budget battle.

Just be ready again in October.