Judge: Attorney general’s tax-repeal summary unfair
Backers of a ballot initiative to repeal a gas tax approved by the Legislature in April scored an unusual victory this past week, with a judge agreeing that California’s attorney general gave the effort a “misleading” title and summary — and announcing that he would rewrite it himself.
At a hearing Friday, Sacramento County Superior Court judge Timothy Frawley reiterated the preliminary opinion he issued earlier in the week, finding it problematic that the words “tax” and “fee” don’t appear in the title of the gastax repeal effort.
The title Attorney General Xavier Becerra placed on the gas-tax repeal reads: “Eliminates recently enacted road repair and transportation funding by repealing revenues dedicated for those purposes.”
“The problem with the Attorney General’s title and summary is that an ordinary, reasonable elector, who is otherwise unfamiliar with the initiative, would not be able to discern what the initiative would do,” Frawley wrote on Tuesday.
Frawley’s decision to rewrite the language is a victory for the campaign, said Travis Allen, a Republican assemblyman and candidate for governor who launched the repeal initiative and, later, challenged its title in court.
“It is the constitutional mandate of the attorney general to write a true and impartial ballot title and summary that in no way prejudices voters toward the measure,” Allen said in an interview Friday. “It’s very clear that Xavier Becerra has not lived up to the California constitution and did not prepare an honest title and summary — and so the court is going to do his job for him.”
A spokeswoman for Becerra declined to comment.
The initiative seeks to repeal a package of taxes and fees that would generate over $5 billion annually for road, bridge and culvert repairs and public transit. The gas taxes are set to kick in Nov. 1, and the vehicle license fees would go up Jan. 1.
Rumored contender didn’t want top City Hall job
To much fanfare, San Jose last week announced that Dave Sykes — a longtime City Hall veteran — will take over the top administrator job when the current city manager retires next month.
But some had been wondering whether Economic Development Director Kim Walesh, another top executive in the city manager’s office who has worked for San Jose since 2003, was a contender for the top job.
As it turns out, Walesh didn’t apply or express interest in the top City Hall job.
“I’m passionate about community and economic development, and my current leadership role in this very important area,” Walesh told IA. “Dave’s background in development and public works will be very valuable as city manager — including to the major transportation and private development plans under way.”
Mayor Sam Liccardo chimed in: “I did have conversations with Kim, and she was wholeheartedly in support of Dave being the city manager. She was quite happy doing what she’s doing and seeing Dave in the city manager role.”
Sykes takes over Oct. 15 after City Manager Norberto Dueñas leaves.
Judicial recall target Persky is battling back
You’ve got to hand it to Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, the target of a well-financed recall campaign over the six-month sentence he gave a Stanford athlete convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious, intoxicated woman. The guy just won’t give up. After Persky lost his bid last month to persuade a Superior Court judge to block the recall campaign’s petition drive, he and attorneys Elizabeth Pipkin at McManis Faulkner and Mark S. Rosen of Orange County filed an appeal.
But in court documents last week, they went a step further and implored the higher court to immediately block the recall campaign’s petition drive.
Retired judge Kay Tsenin “committed legal error’’ in allowing the recall campaign to resume last month after another judge blocked it for 17 days, Persky’s lawyers contended.
Asking that Tsenin’s order be struck down, they once again argued that Superior Court judges are state officers, so the California’s secretary of state, not the county registrar, should be handling the campaign. Secretary of State Alex Padilla‘s office disagrees and has become a party to the case opposing Persky.
“This petition seeks to enforce constitutional protections for state judges,” said Pipkin.
If Persky succeeds, the election would be postponed from June to at least November. Recall proponents, including Stanford law professor and campaign director Michele Dauber, would have to re-submit their proposed petition language to put the measure on the ballot and start their signature drive over.
Persky’s camp urges the court to step in as soon as possible because even if the judge won on appeal after the June election and the election results were overturned, he might wind up having to defend himself against a second recall campaign handled by the state. The appellate court does not have to take up the case.
Dauber said that since Tsenin ruled more than three weeks ago, the campaign has already collected more than 22,000 of the 58,634 signatures it needs to qualify.
“This is just another in a long line of terrible decisions by Judge Persky, who seems to be putting his own personal, financial, and political interests ahead of that of the voters and taxpayers,” Dauber said.
Persky became a recall target after giving a six-month sentence last summer to former Stanford athlete Brock Turner, who sexually assaulted an unconscious, intoxicated woman outside a campus fraternity party. Under California law, Turner must also register for life as a sex offender.
Recall opponents note that Persky’s sentence for Turner was lawful and followed a probation department recommendation. And they argue that a recall would threaten judicial independence.
Ninety law professors and deans have signed a letter opposing the campaign.
SJPD recruiting trips are bearing fruit
A recruiting sojourn to New York City last week quickly proved to be fruitful for the San Jose Police Department, with over 150 applicants who have cleared initial hurdles to join the rebuilding police force.
Police Chief Eddie Garcia himself joined the trip, helping make the sales pitch personally to nearly 200 prospective officers who attended a recruiting fair at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
The SJPD recruiting unit, led by Lt. Heather Randol, oversaw the effort as scores of aspiring officers completed an entry-level 1.5-mile run and written exam. As of Friday, 158 of the New York applicants were still in the running, and if the typical 50-60 percent washout rate stands firm, the department could send as many as 94 prospects through the grueling backgrounding process.
All told, the trip marked one of the most successful out-of-state recruiting trips in the department’s history, and welcome news to a department trying to dig itself out of a staffing hole over the past decade that saw the department shrink by a third from nearly 1,400 to under 1,000 amid political turmoil of pension reform. SJPD is currently authorized to field 1,109 officers.
“Having the chief there sends a message that we care about hiring the best to wear the San Jose patch,” Randol said.
It’s a marked contrast from a year ago, when the department endured criticism highlighted by a San Jose Inside report regarding a pricey recruiting trip to Hawaii that yielded just a smattering of eventual officers and was deemed an unwise expenditure by Mayor Sam Liccardo. It remains a sore spot with Randol’s unit.
But a lot has happened since that May 2016 island excursion: The city and police union agreed on a contract that raises pay and stabilizes benefits, ending years of acrimony that helped drive out officers. It has made for a more receptive audience for Randol and her team, who in the past were routinely passed by when it came down to the numbers being offered by other law-enforcement agencies.
“The contract and salary now make us competitive,” Randol said.
“We just have to acknowledge that people we may honor for doing great things have also committed great atrocities or great sins.”
— San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, on a proposal to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus from the City Hall lobby, which he conceded should happen.