Saturday’s Union-Tribune front-page-local-section news was that the current top fundraiser in next year’s campaign for San Diego County Sheriff is also vying for the police chief position in Chula Vista. Political watchers are buzzing about the impact on the sheriff’s race.

Yet, the persistent rumors of David Bejarano being interested in the chief’s job have been swirling for weeks. Kudos to Tanya Sierra and her colleagues at the UT for getting someone to confirm it for the record.

Despite the rumors, it was clear to me and others — or so we may have thought — that no one at the City of Chula Vista would be confirming any such thing. Personnel matters are, after all, private for a reason, even in the public sector. Just as many of us have at one time or another applied for a job while not wanting our current employer to know we are "looking," applicants are typically protected from such disclosure. As well, it should be noted that appropriate protocol would also dictate that if Bejarano were… Read More

It should be alarming to everyone that, according to a new report, California’s Hidden Deficit: Unemployment Insurance Fund Owes $2.6 Billion, released jointly by ProPublica and the California Report, that state government is going into massive, multi-billion dollar debt to (to the tune of $30 million more each day) in order to pay out what appear to be unsustainable benefits ($$) to those who have lost their jobs. You can read the report here, and listen to it here.

According to ProPublica…

Seventeen states have been forced to borrow federal money because their unemployment insurance trust funds have run dry — but even among this group one state stands out from the rest.

California, which now owes $2.6 billion,… Read More

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It’s no secret that California prison costs are out of control.

What is lesser known is that prison costs have escalated sharply due to personnel costs, not because of an increase in prisoners (prisoner population growth has stayed well below the rate of inflation and general state population growth in the past 20 years).

California Youth Authority (CYA) is a good example of employment growth gone wild. Look at this chart and you’ll see that in the past 10 years the youth prisoner population has decreased dramatically while personnel have decreased only modestly, which has led to a flip flop in the prisoner to employee ratio.

Another way to look at it: California’s youth prison-to-employee ratio was 2 to 1 in 1999 and now that stat has flipped to 1 to 2.

Before federal judges look at releasing 44,000 prisoners into our neighborhoods they ought to look at the far less dangerous move of trimming costs at CYA.… Read More

With all of the focus on the donnybrook between Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman and the anemically funded Tom Campbell) for the GOP nomination for Governor, little attention it seems is being paid to the Republican primary for Lieutenant Governor. Maybe that’s because, at least as of today, there isn’t one. State Senator Jeff Denham, who achieved celebrity status within Republican ranks when he successfully fended off an attempted recall election orchestrated by former Senate President Don Perata, continues to have the Republican field all to himself.

Denham has recently racked up two new endorsements – one being the Ventura County Republican Party (which inexplicably has decided to weigh in on the primary elections – unusual for a GOP County Committee) and the other being the California Small Business Owners Association (who also endorsed Poizner).

Denham has been working hard at fundraising, and has nearly $1.1 million cash on hand – which is only a fraction of what he… Read More

Next Monday the legislature will reconvene after their summer recess. Californians can then look forward to a marathon session of more attacks on their pocket books and freedom. One of the bills that’s working its way through the system is SB 54, by Senator Mark Leno. When the bill was introduced in January, it was designed to ban health insurers from charging individuals higher premiums based on their gender. The bill made it all the way through the Senate and into the Assembly—without any amendments—until June 30th, when it became a “gut and amend” bill. For those unfamiliar with the legislative jargon, a gut and amend essentially means that a bill’s content is completely removed and replaced with an entirely new subject, or the author is changed.

After its gut and amend, SB 54 went from a bill about healthcare to a bill that will… Read More

With all of the focus on the donnybrook between Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman and the anemically funded Tom Campbell) for the GOP nomination for Governor, little attention it seems is being paid to the Republican primary for Lieutenant Governor. Maybe that’s because, at least as of today, there isn’t one. State Senator Jeff Denham, who achieved celebrity status within Republican ranks when he successfully fended off an attempted recall election orchestrated by former Senate President Don Perata, continues to have the Republican field all to himself.

Denham has recently racked up two new endorsements – one being the Ventura County Republican Party (which inexplicably has decided to weigh in on the primary elections – unusual for a GOP County Committee) and the other being the California Small Business Owners Association (who also endorsed Poizner).

Denham has been working hard at fundraising, and has nearly $1.1 million cash on hand – which is only a fraction of what he… Read More

It’s hard for me to think of a job more exhausting that being a candidate for Governor. But the one that I can think of that comes the closest would be that of being a Press Secretary for a candidate for Governor. Today the Steve Poizner for Governor campaign will announce that they have hired GOP veteran communications specialist Bettina Inclan to serve in that critical role for the Insurance Commissioner’s bid for the top elective office in California.

As campaigns go, the press secretary is ultimately responsible for the day-to-day interaction between the campaign and the media, as well as facilitating interactions between the candidate and members of the media. Given Poizner’s philosophy of making himself very accessible to the press corps, this will make Inclan’s job that much more chaotic!

Most recently, Inclan has been handling communications and outreach for Citizens In Charge – which is a national voting rights group dedicated to protecting the ballot initiative and referendum… Read More