The SacBee is writing today about Prop. 29, which would allow lawmakers to serve longer terms. Consideration of lifting term limits should be given to Stockton’s council, too. Currently the charter limits elected officials to two terms on the council and two as mayor — unless Ralph Lee White is right, and the ambiguously worded provision [...]
Dolores Huerta was a Stockton schoolteacher who left her job to organize farm workers. Together with Cesar Chavez, her efforts led to the creation of the United Farm Workers. She is soon to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom with such luminaries as Dob Dylan and astronout John Glenn. Yet many Stockton residents don’t know [...]
The headline “Stockton Council’s secret budgeting begins” over this story is unsettling, as is the close-quote from City Manager Bob Deis, “The ends will be vetted in public. The means to the end will be confidetial.” The story is not about secrecy, though. It is about the complications AB 506 causes the city’s budget. Not only does the 506 [...]
It may not be rising economically, but it’s profile is as high as its ever been. I predict it will get higher. Obviously if city officials emerge from 506 negotiations and announce failure, Stockton will leap again into international news as the city closes the distance to bankruptcy. Another factor thrusting Stockton into the news is [...]
Here’s Mayor Ann Johnston’s letter to the state legislature in opposition to AB 1692, the bill to change what cities like Stockton have to do when nearing bankruptcy. “If the intent of AB 506 was to reduce the liklihood of municipalities entering bankruptcy, the end results of the proposed changes in AB 1692 likely will [...]
Stockton churches offer “drive-thru prayer.”
This billboard on Country Club Boulevard is a two-fer: a campaign billboard for Jimmy Rishwain, and a plug for Jimmy’s Place, Rishwain’s nearby bar.
Assembly Bill 1692, a labor-backed bill making it harder for ailing cities to declare bankruptcy, is advancing throught the legislature. The irony is twofold. As pointed out here, AB 506 hasn’t even been given a chance to work in Stockton. And unions don’t even know for sure that a federal bankruptcy judge legally can break contracts [...]
Read this story, then tell me if America’s drug policy is working. And remember, the cartels have beachhead in Stockton.
Stockton’s incumbent council has cut around $90 million from its budget over the past few years. It has squarely faced the time bomb of unsustainable benefits and stood up to labor to exact concessions and make structural reforms. If “structral reforms” is too abstract, then make it this: they axed the fat perks and benefits and [...]
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