In light of the strong public policy supporting transparency in government, an individual’s expectation of privacy in a salary earned in public employment is significantly less than the privacy expectation regarding income earned in the private sector. – Excerpt from California Supreme Court Ruling, 8-27-2007, IFPTE v. Superior Court

This week theCalifornia Public Policy Centerlaunched what is the largest online payroll and pension database, searchable by name, downloadable via spreadsheet, ever compiled for active and retired employees of California’s state and local governments. Do you want to see just how much California’s public servants are costing taxpayers? Go towww.TransparentCalifornia.comand have a look.

The database, created in partnership with theNevada Policy Research Institute, has been nearly a year in the making and provides information not available anywhere else. For example, the database includes CalPERS pension records, including not only the participant’s name,… Read More

A third State Senator has now joined with the growing movement within the legislature’s upper house to demand a vote on removal of Rod Wright.

A week ago Wright was convicted on eight felony counts in a prosecution surrounding the fact that he does not live in the Senate District where he stood for election, and which he currently represents. The California constitution sets out a residency requirement for members of the legislature.

This morning Senator Knight delivered a letter to Senate President Darrell Steinberg, co-signed by Senators Joel Anderson and Andy Vidak, which you can see here, calling for the Senate to take a vote on removing Senator Wright.

This morning the FlashReport broke the news that Senators Anderson and Vidak have said that if the Democrats will put forward a vote on Wright (with a super-majority the Democrats control the process for floor votes), that they will vote to remove the convicted… Read More

A bill to address California’s drought and future water supply in the House of Representatives has Gov. Jerry Brown angry. Brown said the water bill is “an unwelcome and divisive intrusion” into California’s effort to manage the state’s drought, the Sacramento BeereportedMonday night.

H.R. 3964by CaliforniaCongressmen David G. Valadao, CA-21, Devin Nunes, CA-22, and Kevin McCarthy, CA-23, is a comprehensive bill to resolve the water crisis in California,… Read More

California is in a severe drought as the rainy season never came this year. With seventeen towns in the state in such dire straits that they may run out of water within two months, emergency measures are being taken to avoid drought ghost towns.

The House of Representatives is considering action to help deal with this emergency by considering a measure that would provide for alternative ways of protecting the Delta smelt – a fish that a federal Court has ruled must be protected even at the cost of the state’s vast food production capacity.

Even without the current crisis, California already faced a “government-imposed dust bowl” due to Endangered Species Act requirements… Read More

One week ago today State Senator Rod Wright was found guilty of eight felony counts after Los Angeles County District Attorney prosecutors made the case to a jury that Wright did not actually live in the State Senate District to which he was elected to office.

Yesterday I penned a lengthy column detailing how tragic it was that not one of 39 other State Senators had publicly committed that they would vote to remove Wright from office — this on the heels of Senate President Steinberg saying that it was his intention to let Wright stay in office at least through his sentencing in mid-March, and perhaps even beyond if Wright is not ordered to prison during his appeal (Wright is facing up to 8 years in state prison for his crimes).

Well, we now have our first two Senators who have come out in favor of removing Wright from the Senate — Senator Joel Anderson and Senator Andy Vidak. Both of the Republican legislators stated their desire to vote to remove Wright — Vidak on his Facebook page and Anderson in an email exchange we… Read More

Many Californians may not have noticed, but their wallets just avoided getting hit by a speeding car tax.

Last month, the Attorney General cleared a measure entitled the “California Road Repairs Act of 2014” to begin collecting signatures for placement on the November ballot. Backed by well-heeled transportation interests – including contractors, construction unions and the bond industry — the initiative would more than double the California car tax, known as the… Read More

Six days ago State Senator Rod Wright was found guilty by a jury of eight felony counts — some for perjury and some for voter fraud. All of the counts stem from the successful prosecuting of Wright by the Los Angeles County District Attorneys office for basically not residing in the Senate District he represents. If the judge were to “throw the book” at Wright he could spend as long as eight years in prison. In all likelihood it would be much less than that. Sentencing has been set for March 12.

The next day I published an editorial the gist of which was that if Senator Wright does not resign he must be removed by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. I was not… Read More

This Associated Press “story” about the California bill to overturn Prop 209 (the anti-“affirmative action” prop passed by the voters in 1996) is essentially the “cut and paste” version of the dishonest press release put out by proponents. The AP is no longer a press organization — it’s become largely a government “information” distribution channel. No fact checking allowed — and sadly some papers (including theSAN DIEGO U-T) too often run AP stories without even a cursory review.

Here’s what the story says: “In 1995, minority students accounted for 38 percent of high school graduates and 21 percent of those entering as University of California freshmen, Hernandez[a principal proponent of the bill]said. By 2004, they made up 45 percent of high school graduates but 18 percent of incoming UC freshmen, he said, adding the gap is growing.”

But go look at the official stats of the demographics of 2013 incoming UC freshman: … Read More