This story is developing, but I want to give FR readers a preliminary heads up…
Since I am not a Capitol denizen and neither are the vast majority of our readers, I will try to keep this post as non-technical as possible.
Yesterday, it would appear that Orange County’s lone Democrat Senator, Lou Correa, was the only one present at a “check in” session of the Senate (check in sessions are another long story but suffice it to say that the Senate chambers were empty, with Senators only signing an attendence sheet for the day). Correa announces that “without objection” a waiver of Senate Rules are granted to allow a very bad bill, one that had been effectively killed for the legislative year, to be granted a new lease on life. Of course, since Correa was the ONLY Senator present, his “announcement” went unchallenged.
The bill was part of the “Trojan Horse” package being put forth as a companion to ACA 8, the effort by California’s Redevelopment Industry to stave off the end of all abusive takings of private property by local governments through eminent domain.
Thanks to Correa’s stunt, the companion bill is on its way to certain passage by the Dems in the Senate next week.
So, now the questions….
How does a controversial bill like this get flipped? Who was supposed to be watching the process?
If real material actions can take place “without objection” in a check-in session, why isn’t a GOP Senator stationed there to make objections?
I have been told that the 5 member Rules Committee (3 Rep, 2 Dem) was polled as a majority was necessary to allow this waiver before the “Correa stunt” could be brought into play, and that the vote was unanimous? If true, why did our GOP Senators on the Rules Committee vote to let this bad bill have another shot?
This is significant because in the Local Government Committee, all Reps opposed the bill, and I am told that Dave Cox, the lead GOPer and Vice Chairman of that committee strenously objected, in committee, to allowing a waiver there.
Does Lou Correa really endorse thus kind of back-handed politics? Or was he used by Senator Perata in all of this?
Anyway, I am sure that there is much more to this story, and I only have early, preliminary details… But this whole endeavor has created a terrible situation… Now, according to the official records of the Senate, every Senator (excluding Sen. Cogdill who was “officially” absent) had “no objections” to a waiver to let a terrible bill move forward…
(Again, there is a trade off with writing on a story like this at an early stage. You get the tip off asap, but as we get a more clear picture, we may find things wen’t slightly differently… Though my sources are good on this.)