From today’s Voice of San Diego…

Four San Diegans told the City Clerk on Wednesday that they intend to gather the signatures required to place four overlapping measures on the November ballot, similar to the workforce-reform initiatives being championed by Mayor Jerry Sanders.

The group wants voters to decide whether:

— Voters should be required to approve any increase to city workers’ pension benefits.

— City employees should evenly split the cost of their pension benefits with the city.

— The city can allow private businesses to compete over municipal work with city employees.

The four measures overlap each other in language in some cases and one provides the option of excluding public safety workers from a voters-decide-future-benefits proposition.

Sanders is currently asking the City Council to place two measures on the November ballot, one requiring the voters to approve city employee pension enhancements before they’re enacted and the other allowing the competitive bidding of city services. A council committee forwarded the two initiatives to the full council, which will… Read More

Local city governments throughout San Diego’s alleged Republican North County are on the march… for higher taxes. Last week I wrote about Vista Mayor Morris Vance (registered Republican) and his push to raise sales taxes in his city to pay for a new "community center" which would house (of course) new City Council offices. From the reaction to that post, I’m gathering that there might be some community opposition to former city manager Vance’s scheme. Then two nights ago what did I hear – the Solana Beach City Council talking about an increase to the TOT tax for beach sand preservation and business advertising (in the real world we call that paying off the business community). Something tells me though local hotel owners and their dependant businesses might not like having the highest TOT in San Diego County. These proposals demonstrate what the North County Times has been recently editorializing about: Republican local government does not mean fiscally conservative local government.… Read More

There are a number of ‘must read’ stories today — but start with the exclusive column from State Senator George Runner and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner. This dynamic husband-wife legislative duo have been the main driving force behind the qualification of the Jessica’s Law ballot measure which, if passed, would enact in the Golden State some of the toughest anti-sexual-predator laws in the nation. They have collected enough signatures, they believe, to qualify the measure for the ballot, and will start turning them in this week, says the consultant handling the measure, Dave Gilliard.

I will try to post more to the FR blog later today, but I have to run out the door very early this morning. When you review the main page, note the link to the SF Chronicle political news page – this is there because the Chron doesn’t update their page until 6am, and I am posting this close to 5am. You can check yourself if they have any stories on California politics, or… Read More

There are a number of ‘must read’ stories today — but start with the exclusive column from State Senator George Runner and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner. This dynamic husband-wife legislative duo have been the main driving force behind the qualification of the Jessica’s Law ballot measure which, if passed, would enact in the Golden State some of the toughest anti-sexual-predator laws in the nation. They have collected enough signatures, they believe, to qualify the measure for the ballot, and will start turning them in this week, says the consultant handling the measure, Dave Gilliard. … Read More

I posted stories on the main page this morning so early, I missed this gem (it wasn’t up on the Sacramento Bee website yet).

In this column, Dan Weintraub focuses on the role of State Senate President Pro-tem in the BIG BOND$ process. He starts with the analogy below, and then details later in the column where Perata has staked out positions on some of the Governor’s demands. The two of them DEFINITELY do NOT see eye-to-eye.

The column starts:

That’s right Fabian thinks Arnold is asking for too much bonding authority. The rest of his comments are absurd of course. More bonds for affordable housing and the like. Jim Sanders of the Bee has it all right here.… Read More

The University of California‘s PR problem over compensation packages given to high-ranking employees doesn’t seem to be going away. And it shouldn’t. UC officials continue to give weak answers about why some employees have received such bloated compensation packages and why the public hasn’t been fully informed about the deals.

Senator Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) held a hearing last week on the issue and will hold another one on Feb. 22. In today’s San Francisco Chronicle, the legislator says that UC President Robert Dynes has yet not provided clear answers to questions about UC employee compensation packages.… Read More

Or, the "How to Know You’re In Good Company" Award…

I know this isn’t state news, although I’m sure the incidentwill be late nite talk show and Handgun Control fodder for several days…

If my memory of history serves me correct (and please tell me if I’m wrong), the last person other than Harry Whittington who can actually say they were shot by a sitting vice president was Alexander Hamilton. Of course, Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton died within the next day or so, after his duel with VP Aaron Burr.

So, Harry, consider yourself in very esteemed company…and only you lived to tell about it.

I’ll let some statistician let us know what the odds are now….

You can always email me a history lesson here.… Read More