Many in this community of approximately 24,000 residents are shocked and angry over what they see as a no-holds-barred, gutter-level mentality spreading throughout their community as a determined recall drive targeting the city’s mayor and two city council members moves forward.

Citing what they allege as repeated examples of fiscal mismanagement and chronic over-spending by city leaders, cronyism, lack of transparency and city leadership isolated from the people they serve, the dozen or so members of Grassroots – Citizens for Dinuba are going door to door, district by district, collecting the signatures needed to force a recall in a community where no one seems able to remember one before.

The three targeted council members say they are stunned as they have watched the tone of the recall campaign quickly descend to what they regard as a level of viciousness quite unlike anything the community has known.

“The citizens group is going door-to-door spreading outright lies and saying anything just to get the signatures they want,” said Dinuba City Council Member Mike Smith, “going as far as changing their stories and lies from one door to the next. It’s totally crazy the things they claim the council has done.”

Smith said that the group has passed out flyers alleging that council members have voted themselves and upper-management city workers 4% pay raises for three consecutive calendar years, flagrantly violating rules set forth in the city’s charter. Smith said he still banks the same $257 take home pay each month that he has been getting for a number of years as a part-time city employee serving on the council. He said he receives no health benefits through his employment with the city.

Smith has worked for over 20 years as a construction salesman at a private corporation not connected with the city he serves as a council member. With 13 years on the council, Smith is far and away the most veteran member of the city’s five-person council.

He has attempted several face-to-face discussions with the group in order to convince them to come to the table for a civilized discussion of their concerns, but they repeatedly refuse to talk with him or to state clearly or coherently what their concerns are.

Smith said he refuses to stress over any eventual outcome of the recall drive, which he has no control over, and “if anybody has any legitimate concerns about the way I carry out my duties on the council, they have every right to voice them publically in a civilized manner, but not the way that members of Citizens for Dinuba is going around spreading lies and intimidating city residents in an attempt to persuade them to sign the petitions.” Smith ran unopposed in his past two council elections.

The founder of Grassroots – Citizens for Dinuba spoke with the Valley Voice about his reasons for forming the group and masterminding the current recall drive.

Robert Cervantes, who gives his occupation as a real estate investor, moved to Dinuba from the Bay Area in 2003 and “immediately started noticing injustices going on here,” he said. He alleges instances where city property was sold in secret deals to family members, letters sent out by the city in English-only to the city residents, of whom 85% are of Hispanic heritage, and according to Cervantes, two-thirds of them speak no English. Large pay raises (4% annually in each of three consecutive years) were given to the council members themselves as well as to city employees making over $100,000 annually, along with lifetime health benefits packages Cervantes claims. He said that the city purchased property from a former golf course at $15,000 per acre and was now selling off parcels in a hush-hush deal to a developer at less than what the city paid.

The developer dealing with the city has refused to divulge who his investors are, Cervantes claims, insinuating that city employees are likely among that group. Cervantes said the local daily newspaper, the Dinuba Sentinel, is biased in its coverage of local news in favor of the council and won’t print anything about council wrongdoing.

Council Member Aldo Gonzalez, in his first term on the council, was shocked when a flyer began circulating with his picture on it that had been lifted from the city’s website. Text surrounding his picture was in the form of a letter informing the public that he (Gonzalez) had voted for sizable pay raises and expensive health benefits packages for city employees, along with utility tax increases for residents throughout the city, and through the letter on the flyer was letting the citizens of Dinuba know what he had done in light of the fact that the citizens would be paying off the heavy financial burden for his actions long into the future.

The picture was his, Gonzales said, but he had no personal knowledge at all as to the origin of the flyer and its contents. He did not give anyone permission to use his likeness for their own purposes, he said.

“I’m not into name calling, finger pointing, or none of that stuff,” Gonzales said with a frown, “and I’m very concerned with the direction this whole thing seems to be heading.”

When contacted for his response to questions concerning the origin of the mysterious flyer, Cervantes readily acknowledged responsibility for the flyer and its contents. The picture of Gonzales, he explained, was on the city’s website and therefore in the public domain and a legitimate tool for his purposes.

The text on the flyer, Cervantes explained, was merely a recounting of Gonzales’ actions that Cervantes knew him to be guilty of. Thus, according to Cervantes, the text should be properly viewed as a confession and apology from Cervantes to the residents of Dinuba, despite the fact that Gonzales had taken no part in the flyer or its contents. Cervantes said that he felt in light of these circumstances that what he had done (to Gonzales, as well as deliberately misleading whoever read the flyer)was completely justifiable under the circumstances.

Mayor Janet Hinesly, winding down her four-year term on the council, is up for reelection in November, as is Gonzales, as his own initial stint on the council faces a termed end, should he survive the current recall effort. Hinesly has served as mayor for the past two years, having been elected to the post by her fellow council members.

She is proud of the council’s careful fiscal stewardship that somehow managed to steer the city through the financial tempest of the recession years and emerge into a slowly strengthening economy. The city, says Hinesly, is its best fiscal shape than at any other time in the past 25 years.

“It is hard for me to understand the accusations that are being thrown around so harshly,” said Hinesly reflectively, “There is simply just no reason for them to be so dissatisfied with the way we have handled things for the city. We’re in much better, sound fiscal shape than so many of the surrounding communities.”

Hinesly has received threatening, anonymous calls at odd hours, with a voice warning her to “watch your back” and “we’re going to run you out of town.”

Hinesly, whose husband, Jim, recently retired as a sheriff’s captain after a long career in the sheriff’s office, said that the two of them had long planned for retirement years spent traveling around and taking life easy in their motor home.

“But this vicious recall, and the threatening phone calls intended to scare me and somehow get me to run…that’s getting my dander up a bit,” she said. “And it’s causing me to think a little deeper, like maybe I don’t want to run, or to let them scare me away.

“I might even give it some more thought and maybe decide to run for reelection,” Hinesly said with a wide smile on her face, her brow furrowed in thought.

Hinesly’s district, the smallest of the three engaged in the recall effort, has only 962 registered voters. The verifiable, valid signatures of 30%, or 289 of those registered voters must be turned in by the deadline.

Mike Smith has 1,539 registered voters and 25%, or 385 valid signatures, must be turned in by the deadline of Jan. 13.

District 4 representative Aldo Gonzales has 1,496 registered voters among his constituents and 25% of their valid signatures, or 374, will need to accompany the petition against him when it is submitted no later than January 13.

The Valley Voice will continue close coverage of the recall election in Dinuba as it continues to unfold in the small, pleasant community on our county’s northern fringe.

The post Political Warfare Comes to the Once-Quiet Community of Dinuba appeared first on Valley Voice.

Although incumbency has historically given a decided advantage to most any candidate up for reelection, Boudreaux’s relatively brief stint as sheriff could be expected to mute his that edge among voters–at least somewhat.

Also throwing his hat into the ring for the county’s top law enforcement job is retired undersheriff David Whaley. Whaley, a 34-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, kicked off his campaign November 12 in grand fashion by airing allegations of financial impropriety in the Deputy Sheriff’s Association (DSA) as well as a lack of response by the department to those allegations.
Whaley’s allegations that former DSA board members used DSA credit cards to make personal purchases have spurred a currently ongoing investigation by the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office that could result in charges being filed against current members of the department.

The DSA is a union-like body composed of rank-and-file members of the department who are sergeants and below in rank. Membership in the DSA is not compulsory for sheriff’s deputies.

The investigation will be hampered somewhat due to a history within the DSA of spotty financial record keeping, according to several current and former members.

As for Whaley, his immediate difficulty will be in gaining traction in a contest seemingly thus far devoid of any serious concerns likely to catch the attention of potential voters. An issue facing both candidates is the question of just how many likely voters yet remain in Tulare County, a legitimate concern in light of the near-record low voter turnout in the last election.

Whitman’s generally broad popular support in the community throughout his reign as sheriff could also fuel a sense of voter apathy and a reluctance among voters for turning his hand-picked successor out of office.

Whaley has pointed to Boudreaux’s recently approved request to the Tulare County Board of Supervisors for an additional allocated captain’s position for the department as an example of the differences which set the two candidates apart.

“The department,” said Whaley, “has become too top-heavy with management. That takes away resources for their salaries from the rest of the department, the rank-and-file members who are working to solve cases.” He pointed out that a previously existing captain’s position has remained vacant for the past year.

Boudreaux, who has recently undertaken a major restructuring of management-level positions within the department, cited a litany of rationales in his November 5th application to the supervisors.

The department has operated for the past decade with five captain’s positions. In that time, the department has landed over $20 million in federal grants which require extensive administrative oversight, and has grown to over 800 allocated positions. With the planned opening of a $60 million jail facility in Porterville, as well as an additional $40 million facility at the site of the former road camp, his department will soon face an enormous personnel expansion.

With an understanding that costs related to the allocation request were to be absorbed within the departments’ existing budget, the supervisors approved his request.

Boudreaux’s departmental restructuring plan has scrapped the traditional formula of a sheriff, followed by an undersheriff, followed by the five captain’s positions. Instead, he has implemented a structure calling for a sheriff, followed by two assistant sheriffs, followed by four captain’s positions. Each of the two formulas features a total of seven positions in the “management triangle.”

The department’s three major divisions; Detentions, Patrol and Investigations, will each be headed by a captain, while the fourth captain’s position will be administrative in oversight of, among other things, federal grant monies.

The allocation for an additional captain’s position, explained Boudreaux, won’t result in the actual hiring of an additional captain. The departmental allocation number is needed to accommodate the fact that, theoretically, there are temporarily two active sheriff’s positions for as long as Sheriff Whitman continues to collect his full pay.

An allocated captain’s position carries an annual salary of approximately $115,000 plus benefits for a total of $160,000.

Boudreaux is confident his restructuring plan will result in a more stream-lined management of the department while accommodating anticipated growth. Nor is he concerned that approximately seven years ago Whitman adopted a restructuring very much similar to the one Boudreaux has put in place, then discarded it as ineffective for the needs of the department at that time.

“The times and the circumstances have changed over the years, and I am confident this will result in many improvements in our ability to manage the department, now as well as going forward,” Boudreaux said.

How far apart–or actually even similar–are the two candidates’ views and management styles? And which is better equipped to lead a department that will soon be experiencing a prolonged period of extensive expansion and growth?

There are still almost six months until the 2014 elections.

The post Sheriff’s Race Expected to Heat Up appeared first on Valley Voice.

The members of Visalia’s Enrico Caruso Lodge of the Sons of Italy will be hosting an open-invitation ceremony at the lodge Sunday, October 20, renaming the garden area at the lodge to honor the outstanding lifetime achievements of Visalia native Pete Giotta. The featured speaker for the event is Visalia Mayor Amy Shuklian.

Giotta, 83, now retired, was a powerful voice in Visalia’s business community for over 50 years and served for 16 years as lodge president for the Italian/ American fraternal organization. As lodge president, Giotta created an activities program that featured regular dances, seasonal parties and special dinners, all open to the general public, and intended to raise awareness and interest in the lodge among members of the city’s large Italian/American community.

Giotta’s efforts and tireless energy paid off as the lodge set off on an extended period of rapidly expanding membership rolls which saw membership in the lodge peak out at a little over 700 members and making it the largest Sons of Italy lodge in the entire country.

After serving in the Korean War, Giotta returned to Tulare County and married his long-time girlfriend, the former Carmaline Toledo of Tipton. He formed a business partnership with his older brother, Vito, who had started a grocery store in Ivanhoe which he called Sav Mor Market. The Giotta’s worked well together, expanded the store to 18,000 square feet and soon introduced self-serve gas pumps to Tulare County for the first time.

As lodge president, Pete convinced the lodge membership that they needed a much larger facility which could be built by utilizing the skills of the members themselves. Giotta solicited donations of materials from the community, worked tirelessly both day and night on the new building, and even donated to the lodge his one-third ownership of the land chosen for the new lodge. The project was completed in a year, stood four times larger than the former lodge, and the total cost was one-fourth of the cost for a comparable building.

Giotta’s most high profile business undertaking in the community was the highly successful chain of “Git ‘n Go” convenience stores he developed from scratch during the 1960s. Pete installed managers in the stores who followed a plan developed by Giotta that was designed to enable them in becoming the very grateful owners of the store they managed. Soon there were several Git ‘n Go stores in Tulare, a couple in Farmersville and one in Exeter to go with the six or seven already open in Visalia.

“Pete is about the most kind, generous and gentle man you are ever likely to meet,” said Steve Luisi. Luisi, who has known Giotta since 1956, was installed as the manager of Steve’s Git ‘n Go at the corner of Walnut and Giddings avenues, and soon went on to own the business that still bears his name.

Giotta invested in open land around the city; land on which he developed the Key West Shopping Center at the corner of Akers and Golden streets. He was a partner in the development of the many homes and apartments which surround the commercial center which is anchored by a Save Mart store.

For those planning to attend the ceremony which will begin in the garden area at 12:00 p.m. on the 20th, the ceremony will be followed by a luncheon inside the lodge at 1:00 p.m. The Sons of Italy Hall is located at 4211 West Goshen Avenue. The ceremony and luncheon are open and free to the public.

The post Garden to Honor Pete Giotta’s Lifetime of Achievements appeared first on Valley Voice.

The judges postponed until Jan. 27 their previous order that the state release approximately 8,000 prisoners by Dec. 31 or face harsh sanctions for contempt of court.

The postponement is seen by some as an indication from the court of a possible willingness to compromise in an effort to find a permanent solution to the problem, but falls far short of the three-year postponement requested by lawyers for Brown in a Sept. 16 filing with the court. Brown has said a potential three-year extension would give the state enough time to invest in evidence-based programming intended to bring down the state’s recidivism rate and break the cycle of inmates returning to prison again and again.

The order also instructed inmate attorneys to immediately begin discussions with the state’s attorneys regarding the merits of Brown’s request for a threeyear postponement in order to explore practical alternatives that would avoid the early release of thousands of felons. The panel of judges appointed Justice Peter J. Siggins of the 1st District Court of Appeal to monitor the informal discussions and report back to the court by Oct. 21 with his recommendations.

In an apparent effort to thwart the state’s efforts to address the problem through short-term fixes, the judges’ order also addressed Brown’s latest proposed last-ditch plan to address the problem by shipping thousands of inmates to private facilities in other states. Their order forbids the state from entering into “any contracts or other arrangement to lease additional capacity in out-of-state facilities or otherwise increase the number of inmates who are housed in out-of-state facilities.”

Shifting thousands of California inmates to private lockups in prisons often thousands of miles away from their families was an expensive option exercised under an “emergency decree” by Brown’s predecessor, former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The number of California’s displaced felons housed in such states as Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arizona and Mississippi eventually reached 9,000.

In an effort to cut costs from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s annual $9.1 billion budget, Brown earlier this year cancelled several ongoing contracts the state had made with two of the largest companies in the rapidly growing private prison industry, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA} and the Geo Group, and soon began shipping hundreds of the inmates it has housed in other states back to the already heavily overpopulated prisons within California.

Since assuming the governor’s office, Brown has continued the battle to resist the ongoing federal control over healthcare in the state’s massive 32-prison system. After a high-profile battle in federal court, watched closely by states’ rights advocates, a three-judge special panel convened to hear the case ruled that healthcare in the state’s prisons, whose inmate populations at times exceeded 200 percent of their designed capacity, failed to meet constitutional standards and had resulted in an extraordinarily high number of deaths among inmates.

The court took its reasoning a step further and found that overcrowding itself was the root cause as the healthcare system had become hopelessly overburdened. The three judges removed control of the prison system from the state and appointed a medical receiver to oversee a rapid modernization of the prison healthcare system at each of the state’s sprawling prisons. A modernization that has seen the receiver order the expenditure of well over $1 billion of California’s money on things such as new prison hospitals and increased and better paid staffing for prison clinics.

The judges ordered the state to reduce the inmate population to a figure not to exceed 137.5 percent of the prison system’s designed capacity, a figure that the state has called arbitrary and meaningless. The current inmate population is at 146.9 percent of capacity, or about 8,000 inmates over the cap imposed by the judges.

Meanwhile, attorneys for Brown have continued to fight and lose, suffering setback after setback all the way up to, and including, an appeal to the nation’s highest court. Brown’s string of adverse rulings in the courts had continued virtually uninterrupted until the recent ruling by the three-judge panel extending the Dec. deadline until Jan. 27.

To avoid further inflaming the situation, the state has temporarily halted the return of the out-of-state inmates as it tries to develop a plan for housing them in private prisons throughout California and avoid adding them to the over-crowded prisons.

In the past month, CCA and the Geo Group have each announced the signing of new contracts with the state for housing thousands of inmates, though it still isn’t clear whether inmates covered under those new contracts will be housed in privately owned facilities within the state or in private out-of-state facilities where the per-inmate cost is significantly less than in California with its high cost of living.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows, or so the saying goes. As the third-term governor gears up for a previously declared run at a fourth term in the governor’s chair, he met recently in Sacramento with legislators from the state’s oft-maligned minority caucus and came away smiling with new allies in support of his proposal for a $315 million temporary fix to the prisons problem; a bill which would earmark the funds specifically for prison-expansion purposes.

The Republican lawmakers are historically tightfisted pertaining to issues requiring the expenditure of taxpayer dollars, but they were all smiles in announcing their party’s support for a new idea and plan proposed by an old, longtime adversary.

California’s Republican Party has long been a vocal supporter of expanding the number of prisons to
accommodate the rapid growth in the state’s prison population. Each of California’s 32 prisons has an annual operating budget of about $50 million.

Brown said if the money is approved, the state will “expeditiously” begin leasing privately owned and operated prison cells both in and out of the state, as well as leasing unused jail space in cities up and down the state. Brown has also announced plans to reopen the state-financed Community Correctional Facilities located in the cities of Taft, Shafter, Delano and Coalinga.

Each of the 500+ bed facilities was shuttered several years ago when Brown’s public safety realignment plan (AB 109) rerouted the low-level inmates who formerly served their sentences in the minimum security CCFs back to jails in the communities from which they were sentenced. Reopening each of the facilities would also provide a much-needed economic boost to each of the host communities.

Coalinga shuttered its Claremont Facility two years ago when a contract with the state to house inmates there was terminated by the state in yet another round of cost cutting moves. The facility had provided 90 jobs with an annual payroll of $5 million for members of the surrounding community. Now the city is stuck with an estimated annual tab of $200,000 simply to maintain the closed facility.

How soon the facilities will be reopened is anybody’s guess, said state officials. If the court grants a further extension for the state, state officials will move quickly to reopen the local facilities in order to house lower-level inmates returning from out-of-state.

On the other hand, if California receives no further extensions from the court, state officials say much of the $315 million will be used to pull out all the stops and shuffle inmates quickly to out-of-state prisons in order to avoid having to release an additional 8,000 inmates to meet the court’s demands for a population which does not exceed 137.5 percent of capacity.

While the governor refuses to entertain thoughts of any plan which has as a component even the slightest of early release possibilities many of the state’s most populated counties have been forced to wholeheartedly embrace early releases from their own jails which have been overrun with realignment inmates. Lawbreakers who are sentenced in Los Angeles County can expect to do no more than about 40 percent of their sentences before being kicked loose.

Brown recently announced that plans to close the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco have been put on hold indefinitely. That dilapidated facility, made famous in the Eagles’ song “Hotel California,” was built up over time around a once-opulent former resort/spa and hotel seized for back taxes by the federal government and leased to the state to use as a drug treatment facility. Eagles drummer, singer and songwriter Don Henley served an enforced stint at the state-run rehab in the late 60’s.

Los Angeles County officials have announced a three-year deal with the state to send 528 of the county’s low-level inmates to state owned and operated fire camps. In return, the county will pay the state $27 million over the life of the three-year deal.

Tulare County officials are moving forward with plans to construct a new $80 million jail in Porterville, as well as an additional new facility, The South County Daytime Reporting Center, also to be located in Porterville that will handle the growing number of south county residents sentenced to serve their days in the custody of the sheriff’s department while returning home each evening to spend their nights with families. Currently the program’s participants from the south county area must make a daily drive to Visalia in order to participate in the Daytime Reporting program.

“We’re certainly pouring some long overdue attention into the long-neglected south county area,” said sheriff’s Captain Keith Douglass, who heads up the Detention Division for the sheriff’s dept. “A lot of our resources and attention are being invested right here in this area.”

According to Douglass, the Daytime Reporting Center will be constructed with some of the $8 million in realignment funds the sheriff’s department has received from Sacramento for the 2013-2014 year. The center will include classrooms as well, allowing those in the program a chance to attend alcohol, substance abuse or continuing education courses while serving their sentences. Douglass expects to have the program up and operational by mid to late January.

The ever changing winds of AB 109 policy and rapidly evolving directional changes have taught Tulare County officials, as well as their counterparts throughout the state, much about waiting patiently while hoping for the best when dealing with issues related to AB 109.

All eyes have turned to the federal appeals court from which a decision is expected to come possibly as soon as the end of the month.

Douglass said the county is applying for an additional up to $40 million in state funds to replace some of the aging buildings at the old road campsite. In addition to constructing transitional housing units for prisoners in the jail’s substance abuse program, Douglass said a mix of classrooms and programming areas will allow prisoners to educate and better themselves during their stay in the jail.

The post State Officials Poised For Prison Overcrowding Ruling appeared first on Valley Voice.

The pair of lawsuits filed in both state and Federal courts by the Teamster’s Union and a trio of environmental organizations stung by the sudden relocation to Visalia of a regional shipping warehouse previously operating out of Brisbane, a small industrial city in the Bay Area.

The pair of lawsuits alleged that the city and VWR conspired to circumvent environmental safeguards during the permitting and construction phases of VWR’s new 500,000 sq. ft. Visalia shipping warehouse. And that the city and VWR failed to submit an Environmental Impact Report required under CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act), and that the city unlawfully agreed to pay $1.5 million in costs VWR incurred relating to the relocation.

Originally tossed out by a Tulare County Superior Court judge, the lawsuit was reinstated by Fresno’s Fifth District Court of Appeal, with the California Supreme Court affirming the ruling of the appeals court and refusing to hear an appeal by Visalia and VWR.

As a court date for the suit loomed larger, VWR and the city decided to agree to settle the case without admitting guilt.

Attorneys for the city say the move was solely intended to avoid the high costs associated with the litigation of such a case.

The city of Visalia agreed to donate $50,000 to The Rose Foundation, a private foundation dedicated to the support of Community and Environmental Issues operating out of Oakland.

As for VWR, the industry leading worldwide provider of laboratory supplies and services, the company agreed to a litany of environmental moves and changes at its Visalia Distribution Center, including replacing all lighting with energy-saving LED bulbs, installing an electric car charging station for use by its employees who wish to go electric, replacing all forklifts at the facility with electric powered models, removing all air conditioning equipment and replacing it with swamp coolers and a continuing list of other environment supportive upgrades.

Visalia Mayor Amy Shuklian said she is happy to see the period come to an end with VWR safely settled into the community with its $2 million plus in annual sales tax revenues ready to dump into the city’s coffers each year.

“We (the city council) feel that we did the right thing, and made the right choices in bringing VWR to Visalia. Despite the significant cost of the settlement for the city, it was a good investment for the city.”

Councilmen Steve Nelson and Warren Gubler strongly echoed Shuklian’s position on both the settlement and the successful pursuit of VWR by the city. Both enthusiastically identified themselves as emphatically pro-business as representatives of the City of Visalia.

Councilman Bob Link had no comments to make regarding the settlement or VWR, and Greg Collins could not be reached for comment.

The post Visalia Deals with Lawsuits Following VWR Move appeared first on Valley Voice.

The four as-yet-to-be-developed diamonds are at the heart of the fourth and final stage of development planned for the family-oriented multi-sport complex covering 83 acres on the city’s northern edge. The baseball fields will eventually be developed in the southwestern corner of Riverway where a pending basin currently sits.

Plans for the final phase of development were put on hold when the recession dried up funds for developing areas around the park which are critical to plans for providing permanent and reliable drainage for the nearby Target shopping center that currently relies on the Riverway ponding basin to prevent potential flooding.

The two groups vying for playing rights at Riverway are Visalia’s Adult Softball League (currently using four lighted fields at Plaza Park, along with one unlighted field), and the 375 girls ages 4-13 who make up the teams of the city’s girls’ youth league (currently playing on makeshift, unlighted fields at Whitendale Park).

Representatives of each group say they have a legitimate claim to the playing rights based on previous promises and/or commitments from current and former city leaders. And though it appears true that each group has at some point in the past been promised playing rights for the diamonds at Riverway when they become available, it will eventually fall to the five members of the the city council to vote on and decide the issue once and for all.

At the heart of any discussion concerning the Adult League possibly moving to Riverway or anywhere else, according to city officials, is the insistence by representatives of the Adult League that a promise of official sanctioning of alcohol be made a part of any new location for the league. Current official blanket policy at all of Visalia’s city parks expressly forbids smoking and possession of alcohol.

Although it is universally acknowledged off the record by city officials and administrators, Adult League players and fans who attend the games played at Plaza Park that alcohol is brought to the park in private ice chests and commonly consumed after the games, nonetheless Visalia city leaders balk at the notion of officially sanctioning the consumption of alcoholic beverages at any city park, and especially the high profile and youth-targeted venue at Riverway Sports Park.

Long-time players and their representatives in the Adult League maintain that the city itself conducted alcohol sales at Plaza Park during Adult League games during a period of time in the 1990’s, but Visalia’s Parks and Recreation Director Vincent Elizondo said that was before he took the helm at Parks and Recreation and therefore he could neither confirm nor deny the claim.

The last official action by the city council concerning future plans for the proposed diamonds at Riverway Park was a May 3, 2010 vote by the council of 4-1 in favor of reducing the plans for the design of outfield fences to a distance of 225 feet, thus assuring eventual use of the diamonds to the girls’ youth league whose fences are officially set at 225 feet. Adult League softball is played on fields with a setback of 300 feet for the outfield fences.

According to city records (minutes for the meeting), immediately following the council’s 4-1 vote, Elizondo, addressed the council and informed them that the Master Plan adopted by the Visalia City Council in 2001 stated that the Adult League would be moved from Plaza Park to the Riverway Sports Park. He urged the council to further explore the issue of previous commitments made to the Adult League and the council agreed to send the matter to the Parks and Recreation Commission for further study of the records and a recommendation.

Although Elizondo maintains that “No official decision has been made regarding eventual use of the diamonds”, city records do not reflect any official changes subsequent to the council’s 4-1 vote in favor of moving the outfield fences in to 225 feet.

The Parks and Recreation Commission will examine the issues, including the feasibility of a possible special exemption from the ban on alcohol at Riverway Park for the Adult League games. Council members are not bound to follow recommendations made by the commission.

An informal Valley Voice poll of the current council members was 3-1 in favor of maintaining the current ban on alcohol within the city’s parks, with former mayor Bob Link undecided pending a recommendation from the Parks and Recreation Commission.

Link said he “would support staff recommendations” even to the point of allowing alcohol in the park at Riverway under tightly regulated circumstances along with a requirement that Adult League members each sign a code of conduct that is, excepting conditions relating to the proposed alcohol use, similar to the one they are currently required to sign.

Mayor Amy Shuklian also tentatively supports the concept of an agreement allowing alcohol for the Adult League games if they were held at Riverway under tightly regulated circumstances along with a revised and signed code of conduct from each league member.

“I could see myself supporting some sort of special exclusion for alcohol at Adult League games played at Riverway,” Shuklian said. “Just so long as we got the assurances that we would need and everybody acted responsibly. I don’t think that we should rush to rule it out without first taking a long look at what is possible.”

“I could not morally support the idea of having the consumption of alcohol in such close proximity to the kids there,” said Councilman Steve Nelsen, while pointing out that the outfield fences for an Adult League configuration of the new diamonds would place them just a few feet away from those of the field where the boys play their games.

He added that “I support the concept of Riverway being primarily a youth-oriented park and a place for the families of Visalia to go and have a good time. And I have a difficult time seeing how the use of alcohol could fit in as a part of all that.”

Nelsen pointed to long range plans for a new city park on east side of Visalia and north of Highway 198 close to the flea market out there as a much more suitable setting for the Mens’ League and any possibility of allowing alcohol in a city park on a tightly restricted basis.

“They’d be out there all by themselves in a park envisioned at well over one hundred acres,” said Nelsen, “with plenty of room for any possible future expansion of their league.”

“I could support the adults playing at Riverway,” said Councilman Warren Gubler, “but not along with the consumption of alcohol and especially when the alcohol would be consumed so close to where the kids are playing. I believe that Riverway was intended to serve primarily the young people in our community.”

Visalia has invested much money in recent years in what many see as a losing and wasted effort to improve the aging facility at Plaza Park that the Adult League calls home. $225,875 for new backstops, dugouts and foul line fencing as well as esthetic upgrades around three fields that was paid for in part with monies from the $8.50 per team surcharge the city collects for the self-supporting program.

Many of the league’s members believe falsely that the funds have gone toward securing the proposed new fields at Riverway for the use of the Adult League. “That is false,” said Elizondo. “The truth is the money has been applied toward paying off the league’s portion of the bill for upgrades and improvements.”

The city recently spent an estimated nearly $650,000 for improvements to the irrigation system and playing fields at the Park. It is hoped that the irrigation upgrades will result in improved turf quality on the fields, another complaint of the Adult League teams.

But nobody knows where the money for a badly needed new state-of-the-art athletic lighting system will come from, estimated to cost around $350,000 to $500,000, will come from. The city and the Adult League administrators both agree that the lighting upgrade is a critical and necessary tool for successfully enticing more teams from out of the area to attend potentially lucrative weekend tournaments hosted at Plaza Park. As for the girls’ league playing for the past 25 years out of barely adequate facilities at Whitendale Park, there is very little opportunity to host money-raising team tournaments at a facility with no amenities, no lights and poorly maintained playing fields.

For Carl Bivens and the numerous other parents of baseball-playing children of both sexes, the usual issues a baseball-parent is faced with are magnified many times over simply due to the considerable distance separating the inner-city facility used by the girls’ league from the almost rural location that is Riverway Park.

“What it means is that on occasions when both my boy and my girl are scheduled to play on the same day, me and my wife are forced to decide who will go to Riverway in support of our son, while the other parent is left to attend the girls’ league game at Whitendale Park. And it doesn’t and shouldn’t have to be that way,” Bivens pointed out.

“If our girls are given the diamonds out at Riverway, a well placed chair somewhere between the two diamond complexes would allow every parent the opportunity to watch both a son and a daughter playing at the same time just a few feet apart,” said Bivens, now serving his third year on the board of directors for the girls’ league, along with two years as a volunteer coach. “Riverway is a family park, so let it be for the families.”

“With the diamonds out at Riverway for us to use,” said Visalia Youth Softball (girls’ league) President Britney Bly, “we could hold some very nice tournaments and raise money for scholarships and equipment for our girls.”

Who will take the highly prized playing rights for four as-yet-to-be developed baseball diamonds at Riverway Park? The answer to this question has at least four years to take shape in a community that has quickly become enamored of its state-of-the-art multi sport complex.

The post Fields of Dreams Shared by Many appeared first on Valley Voice.

Tulare County officials are unsure of just how a federal court’s order for an early release of an additional 9,600 inmates from the state’s overcrowded prisons would affect Tulare County if it were carried out.

Hoping to block the court’s order to release the inmates, attorneys for Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration filed papers with the Supreme Court on Friday, July 19 asking the Court to delay the releases while it considers an appeal from the state.

Brown intends to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its 2011 decision upholding the power of an appointed three-judge panel to order inmate releases as a means to reduce overcrowding and thus improve treatment for sick and mentally ill inmates.

Lacking evidence of any substantial improvements in the quality of health care that inmates are currently receiving, legal experts have given the state very little chance of prevailing in the Supreme Court thus paving the way for release of the 10,000 inmates by the Dec. 31 deadline mandated by the lower court.

This is only the latest move in what has been a long-running legal battle between the state and the three federal judges on the panel. The panel was convened in 2007 especially to consider motions from inmate’s attorneys for the release of inmates from California’s grossly overcrowded prisons, some of which had been operating in excess of 200% of their designed capacity.

On Nov. 16, 2009, after lengthy testimony from a bevy of experts from both sides, the panel of federal judges issued an opinion which imposed a population cap of 137.5% of designed capacity, or approximately 110,000 inmates.

The state promptly appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court and lost in 2011 on a 5-4 vote with the deciding swing-vote provided by Justice Anthony Kennedy. Later that same year, AB 109, or “realignment,” was born and the state was able to shed an additional 25,000 inmates by sending lower level offenders to local jails to serve their sentences.

Since 2006, the state has reduced its prison population by about 46,000 inmates, and currently holds about 116,500 inmates in its 33 prisons and various fire camps.

Brown angered the judges earlier this year when he lifted a special proclamation which had allowed the state to shift inmates to private prisons in other states. When the state’s contracts with the private prisons expired, Brown elected not to renew the contracts and instead will bring the almost 9,000 prisoners back to California’s already overcrowded prisons.

In its strongly worded June order calling for the release of an additional 9,600 inmates by Dec. 31, the federal court cited California’s “defiance,” “intransigence” and “deliberate failure” to provide inmates with adequate care. The judges threatened to hold the Democratic governor in contempt if its order is not carried out on time.

If the state can find no other remedy to the problem, the judge’s order requires that the state modify its “good time” credits policy and give every minimum custody inmate two days off for each one served without trouble and to apply the new policy retroactively. If this were the case, an additional 5,385 inmates would qualify for release by the end of December, according to the order. Currently California grants one additional day off for each day served without trouble.

In addition, the order calls for the state to send more inmates to fire camps and parole more sick and elderly inmates while seeking to lease county jail cells where they could house some of the excess inmates. The order also recommends that the state slow the return to California of the out-of-state prisoners.

In the event that the numbers of inmates released through all of these means still falls short of the 9,600 ordered by the Court, the judges ordered the state to compile a list of inmates least likely to reoffend; what it called the Low-Risk List. The remainder of inmates to make up the 9,600 would be taken from this list.

The judges left Brown very little wiggle room stating “We are willing to defer to their choice for how to comply with our order, not whether to comply with it. Defendants have consistently sought to frustrate every attempt by this court to achieve a resolution to the overcrowding problem,” the order states.

Inmate’s attorney Donald Specter, director of the Berkeley-based non-profit Prison Law Office, filed a 73-page challenge asking the Supreme Court to reject the state’s request for a stay. “Brown,” said Specter, “is an inch away from contempt. He must make every effort to comply immediately.”

Attorneys for the inmates stress that all of the inmates being considered for early release would have been paroled in the next 12 months in any case.

Predictably, elected officials throughout the Golden State have rallied behind Brown’s efforts to block enforcement of the Court’s order citing certain danger to the public should almost 10,000 more inmates be released early to the streets.

In Sacramento, there is bipartisan support for the governor and Republicans are once again clamoring for funding to build more prisons, a call that is likely to gain little traction among the state’s voters. In fact, there are signs that California voters are becoming somewhat immune to the governor’s repeated predictions of public danger and rising crime rates that have accompanied each step that the state has been forced to take under the watchful eye of the court to reduce the number of inmates in the prisons.

In a recent poll of 1,500 registered California voters, 63% of those polled said they favor the release of low level, nonviolent offenders from prisons in order to resolve the long-running issue of overcrowding. The poll, by the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles Times, supports the growing perception of an ongoing shift of the state’s voters away from the decades-long, tough-on-crime approach that led to the overcrowding problem.

Despite a slight uptick in crime throughout the state over the past year, 72% of those polled voiced support for reducing sentences for minor crimes if it would help to resolve the overcrowding issue. The federal court has suggested such a step by the state may be necessary. Fifty-three percent of the respondents, a much smaller percentage than in past years, backed the idea of building more prisons in order to ease overcrowding.

The telephone survey, conducted between May 27 and June 2, has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The poll was jointly conducted by a Democratic research firm, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, and a Republican company, American Viewpoint.

In Tulare County, with his department’s resources stretched and strained by the challenges of dealing with several hundred additional “realignment” inmates arriving in the local jails over the past two years, Sheriff Bill Wittman watches and waits, while alluding that even his attitude might be changing just a bit.

“We are very concerned,” Wittman said. “We’ve been watching it very closely. We have no idea of how many of those would return to Tulare County, but the number would be significant. We have absolutely no more room to hold any more; our jails are completely full.”

Although the county has received a promise of $60 million from the state to help build a new jail facility in the Porterville area, no money has yet been received from the state and actual construction is a long way off, Wittman said.

“You know,” Wittman added, “I’m an old time sheriff. You do the crime, you do the time. But I guess after all, that there are limits…”

Tulare County’s chief probation officer, Christie Myer, acknowledges that Brown’s chances with the Supreme Court are “probably limited,” but she welcomes the opportunity to usher in much needed changes.

“It (the realignment process) has been a challenge,” Myer said “however, one of the positive outcomes has been to bring everybody together, seeking effective ways of dealing with the issue of low-level offenders, many of whom need treatment that they just weren’t getting in the state’s prisons.”

“There is not a family in this county who has not been affected one way or another by the issue of addiction to substance abuse,” Myer added, in referring to the issue most prevalent among low-level offenders.

As for the inmates who could be released early if Brown fails to block the Court’s order, Myer stated that “These people were always going to come out. They are just going to come out a bit sooner.” Myer said that she, too, sees a distinct shift among Californians away from the tough-on-crime approach.

“Change can be wonderful,” Myer said, “if it’s slow and steady.”

Gov. Brown’s slim chances of prevailing in his appeal to the Supreme Court may once again rest in the hands of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy handles all “petitions for stay” originating from the jurisdiction of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which encompasses California.

Kennedy will be the first judge on the Court to decide on the application for stay. If he denies the application, California still has the option of taking it to another justice on the Court who could decide to issue the stay. The state could theoretically continue to appeal to each justice until a majority of the Court has denied the application. In practice, a petition that has been turned down by any justice and then renewed to another justice is generally referred to the full Court in order to avoid the lengthy process of appealing from one justice to another.

Attorneys for the inmates expect the Supreme Court to respond on the state’s request for a stay within the next three weeks, although the Court could conceivably sit on the request for much longer.

The post Court Orders Release of 9,600 Inmates from California Prisons appeared first on Valley Voice.

The event, held annually the first Sunday in September since 2000, is free to the public and will feature the annual Blessing of the Rock ceremony, a Raising of the Flag by the American Legion of Dinuba, music, a visit by Smokey Bear, free arts and crafts booths for children, a booth providing the history of fire lookouts and their roles both past and present, and tours of the completely refurbished fire lookout that sits atop Buck Rock. In addition, a barbeque meal will be offered for donation which includes barbeque, drinks and dessert.

The open house has grown from a beginning in 2000 when approximately 50 people showed up for lemonade and cookies, to last year’s 500-600 attendees who enjoyed a complete barbeque as well as the current slate of scheduled activities.

Over 6,000 people annually come to the Buck Rock Lookout from around the world to enjoy its breathtaking 360-degree view of the surrounding Sierra Nevada Mountains. The lookout was abandoned for about a decade starting in the 1970s and fell into disrepair. But with the creation of the Buck Rock Foundation in 1999 and the formation of its partnership with the Forest Service, the lookout has since been staffed fulltime and now is a hub of activity for the area.

While Buck Rock Lookout with its commanding view allows lookouts to see over 150 miles in every direction on clear days, the lesser known lookouts at Delilah and Park Ridge are staffed part time and used primarily to look down westward with a watchful eye over the designated wildfire “Communities at Risk” which include Squaw Valley, Dunlap, Wonder Valley, Piedra, Hartland Miramonte/Pinehurst, Badger, Wilsonia and Hume Lake.

The lookouts are among a dwindling number of surviving lookouts which at one time numbered over 600 in California alone, with over 8,000 scattered across the entire United States. Many of the old abandoned lookouts have fallen into disrepair, been vandalized or simply no longer exist while others have been restored and are now used as vacation rentals.

The Forest and Park Services once relied heavily upon the lookouts as their primary means of spotting fires but satellite imagery, aerial reconnaissance and webcams have taken over much of that responsibility in recent times.

The Park Service, with its on-again off-again policy of allowing natural fires to burn themselves out in remote areas, now relies much less on lookouts than in times past, while the Forest Service, once much more vigilant in protecting forest tracts for eventual sale of the timber, has also grown less dependent upon early suppression of forest fires as the policy restricting timber sales has tightened.

The Hume Lake Ranger District for the Sequoia National Forest now has only the Buck Rock and Delilah lookouts to help watch over its 200,000 acres, but District Fire Management Officer Neil Metcalf still appreciates the value of the lookouts in making his job easier.

“Even though we don’t have as many lookouts as we did in the past, their purpose is still as important as it ever was,” Metcalf said. “My two lookouts see 99 percent of the district including the south fork of the Kings (river) and up into the North Fork Kaweah River drainage.”

For Kathy Allison, the current fulltime lookout at Buck Rock who spends five days a week there throughout the fire season (generally from June – October), the job is like no other. “I never could have imagined sitting up here for 20 years,” Allison said, “but it has become my passion.”

That passion for the job and for the lookouts themselves led Allison to help found the Buck Rock Foundation in order to help preserve some of the remaining fire lookouts.

Last year, the foundation teamed with the Forest Service for a complete rehabilitation of the Buck Rock Lookout. The foundation used a $28,000 grant to restore the lookout to its original appearance from 1923. Thousands of hours of donated labor went into the project, including rebuilding the 172 stairs suspended from the side of the rock that take visitors to the lookout cabin perched above. Estimated total cost of the restoration project was around $60,000.

Read much more about the Buck Rock Lookout Rehabilitation Project and the Buck Rock Foundation, including how you can become a member, by visiting the foundation’s website at www.buckrock.org. A map for the journey to Buck Rock to attend the Open House can also be obtained from their website.

Although the Open House is free, visitors can expect to pay $20 at the Lodgepole or Grant’s Grove entrances to the park to gain access.

An Open House for Park Ridge Lookout is planned for August 3. Visitors to this event will have to RSVP to 565-3676 in advance as special arrangements must be made.

The post Annual Buck Rock Open House Planned for September 1 appeared first on Valley Voice.

A total of five neat work stations equipped with telephones, computers and small file cabinets line the walls of the office – the basic tools of the trade for these folks, most of whom will never even meet the people they work so hard to help.

A great many of the citizens of Visalia would be at a loss to explain to someone else just who Hands in the Community is and what they are about, in spite of the five years that HNC has steadily worked to expand the little niche among Tulare County’s 145 non-profits that the organization has carved out for itself in Visalia and the surrounding communities.

Though little more than brief notes, the summary board tells a story that’s not at all hard to follow. A fellow in Ivanhoe has a new wheelchair ramp, while a woman from Hanford received a ride to a clinic in San Francisco. Next is the name of a Porterville couple whose roof has been repaired. A fence repair for a man in Woodlake, and a car repair for a Visalia woman. A yard clean-up for a Tulare couple, and a refrigerator that went to another Visalia resident. Dental work for a Dinuba woman, and a man in Farmersville who received a bed, just to name a few.

The board, said Lester Moon, HNC’s energetic executive director and one of its three founding members, represents only completed projects for the current month and the list is erased at month’s end. “Each project,” Moon explained, “is done entirely with donated materials, labor or professional services. And in a nutshell, that’s essentially what we’re all about.”

Moon and the two other men created the concept of HNC to address what they saw as a growing, critical need in the area for someone to bridge the increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots, those with a need with those willing to share of whatever they have to give.

“In our volunteer files, we have many skilled tradesmen with valuable knowledge to share, businessmen who would donate materials for a project and a great many people with time on their hands simply wanting to help out in order to make a positive difference in their communities,” he said.

“We never thought that we would see it grow as fast as it has, but the need in our area is tremendous,” Moon added. “The worsening plight of the elderly has driven our growth, in part.” The elderly on fixed incomes and the disabled make up a large percentage of HNC’s clients.

Moon’s is working to extend HNC’s presence throughout Kings and Tulare counties, and the communities represented on the summary board would indicate that the tireless efforts of his volunteers are having an impact far from the tiny office in which they work. Past projects undertaken by HNC have included extensive roof repairs, complete home painting and complete yard makeovers, just to name a few.

The wide ranging list of HNC’s many benefactors is also an indicator that Moon’s vision for HNC is gaining traction; from Lowe’s, Home Depot, Frank’s Appliances, Visalia Lumber and Franey’s Carpets, to businesses as diverse as Financial Credit Network, Keller Williams Realty and the Glen Wells Construction Co. who have donated the office space for HNC.

Hands in the Community offers its services to anyone with a legitimate need who lives below the poverty line. For more information, to donate to HNC or to volunteer with HNC, call 625-3822.

HNC is currently seeking donations for an entire roof replacement for a Porterville couple. Estimated cost of the project is $7,000.

The post Hands in the Community Connects People with Needed Resources appeared first on Valley Voice.

The battle over the future of California’s 42 enterprise zones is heating up both up and down the state, causing Tulare County elected officials and business leaders a bit of concern over the future of the county’s own Sequoia Valley Enterprise Zone.

Tulare County Supervisor Allen Ishida calls the effort to eliminate the enterprise zones, “just another attempt by the state of California to raise money for Sacramento at the expense of the cities and counties.” He added, “They sure like to spend our money.”

Governor Jerry Brown is leading the effort to muster support for eliminating the enterprise zone program altogether and replacing it with a plan that would spend $400 million on a sales tax credit to promote investment in manufacturing and biotech, $200 million for a jobs program for the poor and unemployed, and $100 million to reward businesses that expand in California. Funding for Brown’s plan would come from the estimated $750 million that the state will spend this year on the enterprise zone program.

State Democratic Party leader and former State Senate Pro Tem John Burton announced his own proposal for a 2014 ballot measure calling for the elimination of the enterprise zones.

Opponents of the 27-year-old enterprise zone program, which offers a variety of various tax credits to businesses that expand or relocate in areas, or “zones,” that have been identified as economically disadvantaged, say that the program has become rife with cronyism and inefficiencies, and a form of corporate welfare. The zones, they say, have failed to produce any new job growth but often encourage businesses to relocate from one area of the state to another resulting in no net gain of jobs.

Proponents of the zone program, which include the state Republican Party, business groups and local governments from throughout the state, say that the demise of local redevelopment agencies has left the enterprise zones as the only remaining effective tool for promoting economic growth and prosperity in blighted and economically depressed communities throughout California suffering from high unemployment rates.

Tulare County’s Sequoia Valley Enterprise Zone encompasses all of the county’s eight cities and 13 unincorporated communities. The zone designation was officially announced in January 2012, but was retroactively backdated to October 6, 2010. Each of the state’s zones has a sunset clause, and the Sequoia Valley Zone’s official end date is slated for October 6, 2025.

The Sequoia Valley Zone is administered by the Tulare County Economic Development Corporation (EDC). EDC President Paul Saldana said it’s almost impossible to know just how significant of a role the tax breaks offered through the enterprise zone are to a company that is planning a relocation or even an expansion of existing companies within the zone, but “we’ve had companies tell us that the incentives offered in the zone have definitely played a role in their decision-making process. So we know that the zones do work for us.”

Saldana points to a continuing lack of awareness among small business owners who already reside within the zone as hampering the potential impact of the local zone. “Many people still have no idea that this program and the benefits that it has to offer apply to them as well,” he pointed out.

The tax credits offered under the program are:

• A $37,000 credit spread over five years for each qualified employee hired
• Credits on sales and use tax paid for the purchase of qualified machinery and parts
• Accelerated expense deductions
• Preference points on state contract bids
• Five-year development fee deferral with no interest
• 21-day permit fast tracking

To qualify for the tax credit, employees must meet one of 13 criteria, including current enrollment in a public assistance program, veterans, long-term unemployed, convicts released from jail or prison, or disabled workers.

Since the inception of the Sequoia Valley Enterprise Zone, Visalia has seen a number of large industrial and retail companies come to town – companies such as WalMart, Dick’s Sporting Goods and medical supplies distributor VWF, to name just a few. Citing tax laws and privacy concerns, enterprise zone administrators are generally refusing to divulge which companies have claimed the credits. Critics of the program say that the money is going to the large companies that need it the least.

According to figures released by the Franchise Tax Board, in 2009, companies worth at least $1 billion received 68 percent of the credits issued for that year. That number dropped a bit in 2010 when 65 percent of the credits went to companies in that bracket, with another 15 percent going to companies with a net worth of $100 million to $1 billion, while 6 percent of the credits went to small businesses with a net worth of less than $10 million dollars. Over 500,000 tax credits have been issued under the program since 2009, according to the state Department of Housing and Community Development, the agency tasked with overseeing the program.

A 2009 report by the Public Policy Institute of California noted that “enterprise zones have no statistically significant effect on either business creation or employment growth rates.” Opponents say that just about every independent study not paid for by zone supporters has reached the same conclusion.

Many proponents of the zones readily admit to flaws and needed changes in the program. In a June 15 letter to the Sacramento Bee, Craig Johnson, president of the California Association of Enterprise Zones, said his group supports “a number of thoughtful improvements to the program.”

The two sides are forming, but curiously enough, not along the usual political party line divisions usually evident on any major issue. Democratic mayors of the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose, Long Beach, Oakland and Santa Ana joined with Republican mayors from Anaheim and Fresno in a letter asking Brown to reconsider his position on the issue.

As for Brown, he faces an uphill battle in convincing legislators to back his plan as almost every legislator has an enterprise zone in his or her district and is being intensely lobbied by supporters of the zones.

State Senator Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, has authored a bill, Senate Bill 434, which would make significant changes in the program, placing a cap on the program’s cost to the state while restricting an employers ability to claim retroactive credits. The bill would also require that employees for whom the vouchers are claimed must be paid a minimum wage of $16 per hour.

Porterville Mayor Virginia Gurrola, a staunch supporter of the enterprise zone program and the city of Porterville’s representative on the EDC board of directors, traveled to Sacramento to attend the Senate hearings to discuss the possible future for the zone program.

“To eliminate the zones would deal a tremendous blow to our communities,” she said. “The benefits offered by the zones have enabled us to retain and assist in the expansion of many small local businesses in our area.”

With a flurry of political arm twisting and last minute vote gathering, on a third vote
the state Assembly passed on Thursday a plan endorsed by Governor Jerry Brown intended to
extensively overhaul the Enterprise Tax Program which the governor had labeled as “wasteful
and ineffective.”

AB93, which will target and severely limit the types of businesses and employees that
qualify for hiring tax credits in the enterprise zones, eliminate the state sales tax on machinery
and equipment used in manufacturing and research and development and focus hiring incentives
on those who are struggling to overcome barriers to employment was passed by the state
Senate on Tuesday after a similar flurry of arm twisting and multiple votes needed to gather
the two-thirds majority required for passage of the bill.

The bill has been sent to the governor’s desk for his signature and would become
effective January 1, 2014. Financing for the new programs is estimated to cost about $600
annually and will come from the approximately $750 million California will spend this year
to support the Enterprise Zone Program which will cease to operate at the end of the year.
However, businesses within the enterprise zones, the boundaries of which will continue to be
recognized, will still receive tax credits and benefits for qualified employees hired before Jan.
1, 2014 who are still within their first 60 months of employment.

Democrats rushed to bring AB93 for a vote before losing their legislative super majority
over the weekend when Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield resigned his seat to join the Los
Angeles City Council. As a result of the last minute maneuvering and multiple revisions, the
bill has left unaddressed many issues intended for clarification through future amendments
and trailers to the bill.

“There’s still a lot of blanks left to fill in and we’ll continue to work with businesses
under the existing plan at least through the end of the year,” said Paul Saldana, president of
the Tulare County Economic Redevelopment Corporation, whose duty it is to administer the
local Sequoia Valley Enterprise Zone. “Many of the details will continue to trickle out to us
in the form of trailer bills that will come later.”

The post Battle Heats up over Future of Enterprise Zones appeared first on Valley Voice.