CaliforniaCityNews.org

Update: Redevelopment Court Battle Looms

We blogged earlier this week on the significant victory cities won in court when an appeal to an earlier decision finding the state's grab of redevelopment dollars was dropped.  That case pertained to a 2008 cash grab by the legislature, but the real fight is now shaping up over the most recent state raid into RDA coffers. 

The San Jose Merc has a good rundown of the upcoming legal smackdown between cities, counties and the state redevelopment association on one side, and the State of California on the other.

Berkeley Becomes First City to Report Directly to the UN

Maybe for the "Only in Berkeley" files...

The City of Berkeley has become the first city to step up and report on its compliance with United Nations human rights laws.  This comes after decades of scrutiny over the city's flagrant abuses of human rights.  We jest, of course, and while Berkeley is among our favorite places, we have to wonder who they're kidding.  What possible human rights infringement has been perpetrated in that city since before the Summer of Love?  Maybe a student labor activist cut the falafel line in front of a Code Pink protester??

We kid, because we love.  You go, Berkeley.

Read more in the San Jose Merc.

ACLU Attempts Blockage of Gang Injunction

A federal judge has rejected an ACLU bid to block a gang injunction in the City of Orange.  Injunctions are becoming an increasingly popular measure for cities to combat gang violence, this was the sixth such move in OC, and several high profile ordinances have been upheld -- and successful in West Sacramento and several Central Valley cities.

Orange's effort may be a bit different however.  The injunction covers an area that encompasses much of its historic (and very cool) old town district, and Chapman University.  Problem is, there have been numerous complaints of the Orange PD showing some excessive zeal in exercising the injunction, notably on a couple school kids.

Read more in the OC Register.

Not Your Grandfather's Democracy

The following is reprinted from ICMA Press, and is authored by Rick Cole, City Manager of Ventura.

Twitter allows just 140 characters per "tweet," including spaces and punctuation. After a Republican member of Congress was ridiculed for tweeting during the State of the Union address this past February, Twitter usage exploded 3,700 percent in less than a year. By the time you pick up this article (or read it online), monthly U.S. Twitter users will outnumber the population of Texas—or possibly California.

In just five years, techcrunch.com reports that Facebook users have zoomed past 250 million. A Nielsen study estimated usage has increased by seven times in the past year alone.

Yet as blogs, YouTube videos, and text blasts reshape how America communicates, few local governments—and even fewer city and county managers—are keeping pace. E-government remains largely focused on websites and online services. This communication gap leaves local government vulnerable in a changing world. "Business as usual" is not a comforting crutch—it's foolish complacency. Just look at the sudden implosion of General Motors, the Boston Globe, and the state of California.

Yet it would be equally shortsighted to thoughtlessly embrace these new communication media as virtual substitutes for thoroughgoing civic engagement. We're part of a 2,500-year-old experiment in local democracy, launched in Athens long before Twitter and YouTube. In fact, local democracy operated long before the newspapers, broadcast media, public hearings, and community workshops familiar to today's local government managers.
Social Media Build Community

We may live in a hi-tech world, but the basis of what we do remains "high touch"—involving what some of the most thoughtful ICMA practitioners call "building community." Social media offer new tools to build community although they aren't a magic shortcut.

Read the Full Story at ICMA.

Santa Ana Based Security Firm Acquires a Prison, Bizarre Sequence of Events Unfolding

This one is just weird.  A California-based security firm -- "American Police Force" -- has apparently won a contract with the city of Hardin, Montana to take over a small prison in their city.  Oddly, the prison is empty.  APF, which arrived in town last week in Mercedes SUVs emblazoned with "Hardin Police Force" on the doors, evidently plans to use the facility to attract house inmates from other jurisdictions.  Many questions have arisen. Notably:

• The company's spokeswoman was a local reporter covering this story, until about a week ago. 
• Said Spokeswoman refuses to disclose who is funding APF, which incorporated just a few months ago.
• Up to now, "APF" has mainly specialized in catching cheating spouses in the act.  It's only one facet of their totally hilarious website.

The plot thickens as conspiracy theorists on both sides of the political spectrum have gone into high gear.  If the "internets" are to be believed, the place seems to be destined as either a right wing milita training ground, or perhaps a secretive Super-Max facility to test experimental H1N1 vaccines on an unwitting populace. 

TalkingPointsMemo and WTOP have the best reports we've seen. 

Redevelopment Wins Round 1 of Court Fight

The State appears to have dropped its appeal of a Superior Court ruling that declared its 2008 taking of $350 million fro RDAs unconstitutional.  This is an important win for redevelopment, and cities, as a key argument in the impending legal fight over this year's redevelopment raid by the State is that prior raids have already been found, uh, illegal.

Read more in the CoCo Times.

Vernon Ditches Power Plant Proposal

Everyone's favorite SoCal industrial city, Vernon, has been pushing a power plant proposal against the vociferous protests of its (actually populated) neighbors.  For those of you unaware, Vernon has fewer than 100 residents, though many of its officials rank among the highest paid public servants in the state -- nay, nation.  Assemblyman Perez calls it a "screwed-up feudal city." 

Chalk one up for the little guys in this one, however.  Neighbors such as Huntington Park and Maywood teamed up against their rich neighbor and have fought this one back. 

Read more in the LA Times.

SEIU Goes for Trifecta on CalPERS Board

Ed Mendel of CalPensions has a great look at the upcoming CalPERS board elections -- which are always hotly contested and thoroughly funded.  Mendel takes a look at how the SEIU has successfully backed recent candidates for the board, and is looking to make it three in a row.

Writes Mendel: "But if a candidate with Jelincic’s record of labor leadership and strong backing from other labor groups is defeated, the SEIU may cement its position as one of the most powerful forces in future board races, if not a kingmaker."

Read more at CalPensions.

Budget Doomsday Pushed Back?

You were warned... but perhaps prematurely. 

Political (and financial) watchers of the state budget have been tisk-tisking ever since the last budget was passed -- lo these many weeks ago -- that it would only hold up until about October.  But as the San Jose Merc wrote Monday, "A funny thing has happened on the way to doomsday."  Now don't get your hopes up too much, the budget will still disintegrate (we promise), but perhaps not as soon as expected. 

Economists are now suggesting that a semi-resurgent stock market, if coupled with at least a mildly successful holiday retail season, could keep this budget stabilized through the beginning of next year -- gasp -- maybe even until next summer.  Now that may be too much to hope for, but things are for the moment, looking a little bit brighter.

Read on in the San Jose Merc.

Assessor, GIS Survey, Determines City Resident Ineligible to Vote -- City Continues to Collect Fees

From the great state of New York

You know you're hitting bottom when the City of Buffalo kicks you out.. espceically to a place called "Cheektowaga."  That's what happened to Alesia Young, a 17-year resident of Buffalo -- or was she??  Buffalo's Assessor got out the GIS and determined that at least the front of Young's house was in Cheektowaga, and thus she was mistakenly listed as a Buffaloer all these years.  Young is pretty steamed, not just because she continues to pay Buffalo city fees on trash hauling, water, etc, but because its disenfranchised her.  She discovered the city's decision when she attempted to vote in a recent mayoral primary.  She calls is "suspicious timing."

Read more in The Buffalo News.

PS.  Be sure and read some the user comments on this one.  Our favorite: "WAKE UP!!!! YOU LIVE IN CHEEKTOWAGA!!!" Snap.