As the poet Adele as written: “Hello”

Yes, I am back online after a long absence but I have a good excuse.  I wrote a book.

It is actually a memoir and I like to think of it as a cross between “Hillbilly Elegy” by JD Vance and “I am Brian Wilson” by guess who?  That’s right, Brian Wilson.  I was thinking of comparing my life to Bruce Springsteen since his “Born to Run” memoir is likely more familiar to many of you; but because I write about life in California, linking to a Beach Boys reference was more logical.

Anyway, my book is available in paperback at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble and available in  a Kindle version through Amazon.

The title is:  “Angry with Government?  Get in Line” .

Why a book?

First of all, it seemed like every idiot was writing one so I certainly qualified.  And a friend of mine had self-published her memoir and volunteered to help me understand the process.  So in March of 2016 I bought my first computer and started writing.  It took me about 6 weeks to complete the first draft and by working with an editor over the next two months, I was able to get it published in early August.  It’s only about 50,000 words so if you are interested, it should be an easy read.

I wrote it because I had finally retired from the State of California in September of 2015 and was fascinated by the rise of Donald Trump.  Polls showed that anger and mistrust with government was a common theme with his supporters so I have tried to write about those reactions I had seen from customers of the California DMV.  I think my experience there can help explain how we got to this point and I hope you like my story.

There is an old cliche about the legislative process and the analogy or metaphor used is making sausage.  As I watch the California Legislature in “special session” this year address the issue of road repairs and Medi-cal funding, I realize a better comparison is that you do not want to watch people LEARN how to make sausage.

Because of term limits, the membership of our legislature turns over very frequently and this year I have heard numerous Assemblypersons and Senators state publically how little they knew or understood the specific public policy issue they were discussing with a particular bill.  They were trying, but it was very clear they were learning on the job!

This week was particularly rough as a bill was heard to establish a new office in state government to regulate medical marijuana from “seed to sale” and at least four members of the comittee hearing the bill (SB 643) admitted this was “the most complex” subject they had ever tried to understand.  The next bill on the agenda wanted to establish a new license for mental health professionals in the field of ‘behavior analysis’ and it was patently obvious that the majority of the committee had absolutely no idea what they were voting on.  I am very worried about the direction of this state.

http://raisingcaliforniatogether.org/

The battle over subsidized child care spilled into the streets of Sacramento today and about a dozen activists blocked one of the major thoroughfares by the State Capitol and had to be arrested.  The mob cheered as they were being led off in handcuffs because as one woman put it: “I am doing this for my children”.

My question would be to her – how is this helping your children for you to be arrested?

The event organizers – Raising California Together – argue that child care is a collective/societal responsibility and we should ALL raise everyone’s children.  I think this is complete crap and an abdication of personal responsibility and accountability.  As I looked into this argument, I found the psychological theory of parental investment and to me that only validates my opinion that common sense is now sold as social science so people with limited marketable skills can be employed as counselors, therapists and life coaches.  I say this as a holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology who took that path in college because that was where the girls were.  I already had four brothers and did not need to spend my time in class with a lot of guys.

The California Legislature is busy as they try to decide how to spend all the “extra revenue” that came in this year as a result of higher tax rates and an improving economy.  For anyone interested in the details of the process, here is a link to the budget conference committee agendas and you can see how the differences between the Senate and Assembly are resolved:

http://sbud.senate.ca.gov/conferenceagendas

One of the major points of contention this year is how much of the “surplus” should be spent on what is being called Early Childhood Education instead of the more plebian term – child care.  Because as one advocate for increased spending on state subsidized child care said:  “learning begins as birth and this is an investment in the education of children because as you know – they are our future”.  OMG – how trite and how deceitful.

You can see from the agenda for K-12 and Higher Education, the game being played is by calling this program education, it can be squeezed into the Prop 98 guarantee formula and have the funds locked into the law.  Very tricky.

But what I find interesting is that the Assembly would like to pay for an additional 20,000 seats in these programs and the fiscal estimate is roughly $600 million dollars this year but is estimated to cost almost $ 1 BILLION dollars over the next few years!  That means it will cost the California taxpayers almost $50,000 a year for each child in this program.  Seems like a lot to me but then the plan is also to unionize the child care workers and you know what that costs!

The California State Park system includes 63 state beaches.  These pieces of property represent to many residents, the intrinisic appeal, beauty and value of this state.  But an issue has recently surfaced in Sonoma County that epitomizes a fundamental governance challenge for the State – should access to these public lands be free?

Below is a link to a brief summary of the bureaucratic squabble that is going on between the state and this county over the proposal of the Parks Department to install self-pay devices at 14 beaches.  Because permission from Big Brother is required to do anything in this state, the Parks Department had to apply to Sonoma County in May of 2012 for  a coastal development permit to install the equipment.  That application was denied in January of 2013 and the legal battle ensued.  And now over 2 years later, the matter is still unresolved.  Please stay tuned!

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/3800908-181/california-coastal-commission-deadlocked-on

And if the press accounts of this issue wet your appetite for further reading and perspective on it, here is a link to the staff report used in the Coastal Commission hearing:

http://documents.coastal.ca.gov/reports/2015/4/w17a-4-2015.pdf

I am sharing this information because if you do read the comments from the citizens weighing in, you will see the core debate over private benefits and public good.  One can argue the beaches belong to all of us and the general fund (i.e. income taxes), should fund their support.  And on the other hand, there is the position that individuals should pay fees for the use of specific parks.  This is an ongoing struggle in this country and it will no doubt continue.

At a Legislative budget hearing today, the Chairman of the California Air Resources Board (http://www.arb.ca.gov/board/bio/marynichols.htm) made a surprisingly frank and honest admission.  When asked by a member how she decides to allocate the proceeds of the Cap and Trade auctions to disadvantaged communities as required by law (SB 535, de Leon), she replied:  “it is an evolving art form”.

For a department that prides itself on being “data driven” and “science based”, I find it rather astonishing that the decision-making process on how to “invest” in cleaner fuels and more energy efficient systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is described in such subjective and arbitrary language.

But what was not surprising was the long line of advocates for ‘environmental justice’ that have submitted their pieces of art for funding.  But if the LAO is correct in this assumptions, I am sure the $7.7 BILLION dollars will pay for a lot of art in public places like Fresno and Bakersfield.

Visitors to the State Capitol today will no doubt be impressed by the amount of activity and the impression that the elected officials are working really hard to improve the lives of everyone in California.  But I hope they all remember that looks are deceiving.

Today is a perfect example of the ridiculous and chaotic calendar that results in poorly written and more poorly understand laws in this state.  Starting at 9am, 15 standing committees in the California State Legislaure will hold hearings – as many as 7 at the same time – in the famous sausage making production of the Kabuki Theatre as Governor Schwarznegger loved to call it.  These committees have scheduled over 250 separate bills to be heard today and many of them will have a significant impact on the health, safety and economy of this state.

Here is a link to the published agendas that made available just last night:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/todevnt.html

I heard an interview this morning with the author John Tamny and he was discussing his new book: Popular Economics.  While it sounds like an interesting read, I do take exception to his claim that people working in government as regulators are there because they could not make it in the private sector.  I will request the book through the library so I can read it entirely but based on reviews on line, he takes a hard stand against government regulation and I worry his antagonism is coming from his fear of incompetence.

I do agree there are too many incompetent employees in government today and my villian in this piece is the public employee unions.  As a former manager of many state employees, I can testify too many folks have been hired and promoted into positions they are not qualified for.  But either demoting or terminating them is so incredibly difficult and time-consuming that many supervisors and managers just accept the reality of the situation and organizations end up with F Troop like units with dead wood staff.

But this does not mean all people in public service or lazy or incompetent or non-competitive.  I myself ended up working for the State of California more by happenstance than anything else.

After 8 years on active duty, I resigned my commission in the US Air Force in 1980 and found myself in Sacramento California.  I was 30 years old and since my skills as a navigator were not in much demand, I applied for a job with the State since I knew how bureaucracy worked and was comfortable in that type of system.  I ended up with the DMV by luck and the rest is history.  I feel I was a fair and competent regulator – particularly when I worked for the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control – and I was not alone.  There are many capable, dedicated and professional people working for government and a balanced regulatory environment makes us all healthier and safer.

The California Senate is hearing the bill (SB 3) to increase the state’s minimum wage and if any wants to see the special interests battling over their share of the pie, just check the list of supporters and opponents on this “impartial” analysis:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sb_3_cfa_20150406_163843_sen_comm.html

And if you want to hear the testimony of the communist professors from Berkeley that Senator Leno brought to the hearing of the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee, you can find the audio/video record at http://www.calchannel.com.

One witness, after he slipped into his testimony that he has studied this issue as a graduate student at Haaarvaard, admitted the mandatory higher wages could ruin and put some small business owners out of business.  But with a shrug, he said 10% fail anyway so what the heck!  Natural selection I guess.

And so what if prices went up he acknowledged, at least the workers had more money THEY could spend.

More examples of Bay area limousine liberals – who never owned or ran a business – telling others how they should run theirs.

If any of you are confused by the title of my earlier post today – I apologize.  When I said “clean up your own mess”,  I was referring to testimony going on at the Assembly Public Safety Hearing today and a witness that admitted he was supporting a bill to “clean up” legislation he had supported last year that was supposed to “clean up” legislation that was passed to address a particular problem.  The specifics are not important for this post.

But when I started to vent about that situation which is chronic at the Capitol, I got off track with my thoughts on Rand Paul and his “special interest” comments.  And to me, the witness represented the typical special interest group that has job security since they rush to fix things in the area of public policy and term limits has enabled them to run the place.  So year after year, they sponsor legislation to clean up the mess they made the year or session before.  It is a cycle of madness.  And as taxpayers, we foot the bill.

Sorry for the confusion – I am still getting the hang of this blogging stuff.  By the time I do, I am sure there will be another outlet for my frustration.