CaliforniaCityNews.org

US Supreme Court to Look at Privacy of Government Workers' Emails, Texts

The US Supreme Court is going to take up the case of an Ontario, CA police officer, whose text messages were exposed for the world to see -- just because he used a city-issued blackberry to send 'em.  As CNN writes:

"At issue is how far a government employer may go to monitor the private communications of its workers when they believe that the use of such equipment is being abused.

And the court will explore whether service providers can be held liable for providing those communications without the consent of the sender."

The story of the Ontario cop is worth reading.  It seems that his supervisor got a little irked at the costly texting of a number of officers, and decided to audit the use of the city-issued texting devices.  Many of the texts he discovered from this one particular officer were a bit *ahem* you know, ""to say the least, sexually explicit in nature."  And there you go.  In fact, of the 450 texts the officer received over one month period, only 3 were deemed work related. 

The outcome could, obviously, have pretty far reaching implications for everything from your city owned computer to your Blackberry. 

Read more from CNN. 

Is Jessica's Law Enforceable?

Jessica's Law, the landmark state legislation designed to keep convicted sex offenders away from children and the places they frequent, is under scrutiny for being so restrictive as to become unenforceable. 

A new analysis in San Diego finds that More than 70 percent of registered sex offenders in San Diego County are violating a state law by living too close to schools and parks.  Most cities in the county have over 50 percent out of compliance, and a few unlucky cities have 100 percent of their sex offenders in violation of the law.

Among the problems are questions over who the law applies to, and whether it is retroactive to those convicted before the voters passed the law in 2006.  “The initiative itself was so badly written, no one knows how retroactive it is,” said one clinical psychologist.  Also at issue is the sometimes minuscule space left for sex offenders to reside once the legal boundaries are put in place.  This can impact local ordinances as well, and far from helping the situation, can lead the offenders into homelessness and a decidedly unsafe, transient existence.

Now, several offenders are challenging the law in State Supreme Court, and with near universal opinion that the initiative is well intentioned but poorly constructed, they may have a case.

Read more from CBS 8 and in a good editorial from Sign on San Diego.

Charlie Beck Confirmed As LAPD Police Chief

Charlie Beck, the top choice of Mayor Villaraigosa and outgoing chief Bill Bratton to assume the top job in the LAPD, was confirmed by the LA City Council for that position this week. 

After some wrangling about the mechanics of the interview process, the council ultimately confirmed Beck unanimously.  Now, the hard part.

Beck assumes watch over one of the largest metro areas int he nation, in the middle of a budget crisis and facing the potential release of thousands of prisoners onto its streets. 

Read more from the LA Weekly or the LA Times.

Intriguing Backstory to LAPD Chief Hire

Charlie Beck, Deputy Chief under outgoing Chief William Bratton, has been officially tabbed as his boss' successor.  Mayor Villariaigosa made the announcement Tuesday, but as the Times writes, there was some interesting backchannel maneuvering to get Beck the gig.

Evidently, as Bratton began confiding his retirement plans to advisers and the powers-that-be, the disclosure was often bookended with something to the effect of "Both of us know there is only one person right for the job."  This began rubbing some police commissioners and the mayor himself the wrong way -- to the point that Bratton's persistence may have become a liability for the would-be Chief.

Read more on Beck himself here, or on the backstory in the LAT.

City Manager in Quandary Over 9/11 Biker Ride

Laguna Woods City Manager Leslie Keene got in a bit of hot water last month.  Facing a traffic snarling, red light flaunting horde of hundreds of bikers on a 9/11 memorial ride, Keene began looking into the six-year old event and making Sheriff's Department inquires into whether the event, organized by a Long Beach firefighter, warranted stricter policing and permitting. 

Then, things escalated.  The firefighter, Gary Biggerstaff, was dismissive of the City Manager's concerns.  Keene began kicking it up the chain, contacting Biggerstaff's superiors in Long Beach, and the situation looks like it quickly deteriorated into a contest of who was more "American" in the whole thing.

Long story short, Keene was obliged to apologize to Biggerstaff, while he will be compelled to work closer with law enforcement as he organizes future rides.

Read more from the OC Register, or you can also see video of the ride here.

Safest US Cities?

Forbes, great giver of city rankings (and blog fodder) is out with a list of safest US metro areas, judged by crime rates and incidences of workplace deaths and other hazards.  The list has its share of California cities, but we should preface our report with a caveat that metro-area rankings are notoriously suspect, in that the areas they cover are so diverse as to be a bit misleading. 

Case in point... while Minneapolis is so surprise as the nation's safest city, placed like Detroit (12th) and LA (19th) are a bit suspicious.  How could notoriously crime rich LA perform so well?  Well, to their credit LA has made terrific strides in lowering its murder and violent crime rates, throwing Orange County into its stats doesn't exactly hurt your stats.

Other California highlights, on top is San Jose/Silicon Valley (#7), San Diego (#13) and Sacramento and San Francisco/Oakland (#23 & #24 respectively). 

Get the full list here.

City Manager Nabbed in Vice Sting

Yikes.  El Monte City Manager Jim Mussenden has been caught in a prostitution sting, and has resigned.  The city has named an interim replacement, and word is Mussenden called each councilmember personally to apologize.

Another oddity out of this story, as reported by the LA Times, several community members showed up to support  Mussenden at a hearing to name his replacement.  One informed the city council, "These things happen with men... None of you are fit to sit on an ethic committee."

Read more in the LA Times.

Sac Mayor Robbed on Visit to SF, But There's a Happy Ending for KJ

The news has traveled pretty fast, so we're admittedly a little late on this one, but former NBA standout and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was robbed during a trip to San Francisco over the weekend, and in the midst of a good deed, no less.

The following is excerpted from KJ's blog:

"I didn’t expect to be a crime victim on the streets of San Francisco. Nobody does. But it happened, on a beautiful evening this past weekend near Union Square. As crimes go, it could have been much worse. I was helping an elderly man when somebody sneaked up behind me and stole my garment bag. I lost a nice suit, a nice pair of shoes and overnight toiletries. Not the end of the world, but frustrating.

The real crime was the vulnerability of it all, the idea that I could leave my bag on a crowded street, turn my back for 30 seconds and have my stuff stolen."

If KJ hadn't made his living making steals on the hardwood, we could have forgiven his naivete.  Ok, bad joke, but there is a happy ending to the whole thing.  When the thieves realized who they'd robbed, they actually returned the stolen goods. 

Guv Signs and Vetoes

The Governor relented on his mass veto threat this weekend.  Citing progress on water negotiations, Schwarzenegger got the pen out and started signing on the dotted line. 

His total for the session stands at 632 new laws approved this session -- which sounds like a lot until you hear it makes him the "stingiest" Governor for signing bills in recent history.  His signing totals have declined in each of the last four years, but he's still not the Veto King -- that still belongs to Deukmejian, who axed 436 bills in 1990. 

Most importantly, if you wanna know what wasn't on the list of bills for the Governor to consider -- Prop 1A securitization and HUTA clean up language.  It's alleged that the Senate is coming back to finish up that piece of business this week.  

And back to the raw numbers of bills, for those of you wishing for a bygone era in which the legislature was less concerned with passing hundreds of bills, Dan Walters reminds us that in 1967, Reagns first year as Governor, the legislature passed over 1,700 bills, and the Guv vetoed just 83 of them.

Get a full list of the signed/vetoed bills here.  LA Times has a good rundown of the major legislation here.

San Jose Doc Questions Cop, Firefighter Disability Claims

A city doctor in San Jose is gaining some notoriety as "Dr. No," largely for his conservative look at public safety workers' disability claims.  Dr. Rajiv Das "a board-certified specialist in occupational, pain and rehabilitative medicine who took the job in 2005, admits he's "a hardliner" who demands medical evidence to support a disability claim. But he insists he's fair and simply wants documentation before agreeing that an employee has limited capacity to do the job."

Now some officers would just as soon "Dr. No" move on to another line of work.  He has his backers on the council though, and even among the ranks of some public safety officials.  This could be  owing to an earlier Mercury News analysis of the city's 1,200 public safety retirees found "52 percent of former San Jose officers and 77 of firefighters were receiving disability pensions — rates that dwarfed those in nearby towns and other big California cities."

Read more.