Outlines of Plan B on the State Budget? Or Negotiating?

Gov. Brown has been hinting that - if he can't get Republican votes in the next few days to put tax extensions on the ballot - he will do something else to get on the ballot. Example:

Brown considering other paths on taxes as Republicans stand firm in talks

Steven Harmon, Contra Costa Times, 3/22/11

SACRAMENTO -- As Gov. Jerry Brown continued to negotiate with Republican legislators on his plan to extend taxes, he also has begun to weigh going it alone, sources said Tuesday.

That could take two paths -- forcing a special election onto the ballot through a majority vote in the Legislature, or going forward with an initiative campaign for November. The more likely route, sources said, would be with a November election rather than risking legal challenges to muscling it through on a majority vote.

Brown is seriously considering a November initiative campaign, two Republicans speaking on background said they've been told...

Full article at http://www.contracostatimes.com/politics-government/ci_17674559

The problem with the above versions of Plan B are that they carry major risks. A November ballot would mean that the tax "extensions" become tax "increases" since the temporary taxes that Brown wants extended expire June 30. The majority-vote strategy raises legal questions which could delay plans for an election if raised in court. In particular, such litigation could delay any majority-vote election beyond June so - again - the extensions become increases. Opinion polls suggest voter support for extensions but not for increases.

Any election held after June creates an additional problem. The budget (which can be passed by a simple majority) will assume tax extensions/increases. If voters don't approve, the budget would be seriously out of whack and a drastic correction would have to be made part way into the fiscal year.

Panic in the Streets

From former State Assembly Leader Willie Brown's column this week in the San Francisco Chronicle:

What a town. I was at Walgreens the other afternoon and was stunned by the number of people lined up to buy potassium iodide to ward off the possible effects of radiation wafting over from Japan.

Even more stunning was watching those same people, clutching their iodide protection, proceed to jaywalk across New Montgomery Street and dodge cars in their rush to get back to work.

Full column is at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/20/BAAT1IEMD4.DTL

Actually, the item in the column that you might want to panic about is Willie Brown's prediction that namesake Jerry Brown will be unable to obtain the needed GOP votes to put his tax extensions on the June ballot:

Even if Brown did come up with a deal to win over a couple of Republicans, there is no way the Democrats would go for either the hard spending cap or the pension reforms that the GOP want. The Dems' supporters in the teachers and public employees unions would never stand for it. We might just wind up with a stalemate until at least May with everyone hoping the "revise" revenue figures will somehow keep them from having to make the doomsday cuts the governor has been predicting. In that case, they will have gone from kicking the can down the road to just hoping they can find a can to kick.

Faculty Club Membership Votes Heavily Against Demolishing It for Hotel/Conference Center

The item below appeared earlier today on the Faculty Center website. Apparently, the membership does not have the problem pictured to the right:

The Votes Have Been Tallied!
The ballots on the question "Should the Faculty Center building be torn down to be replaced by a Hotel/Conference Center/Faculty Club" have been counted in the presence of representatives of the various interested groups and the outcome is:

Yes = 269 (in favor of the FC being replaced)

No = 815 (oppose the FC being replaced)

The results will be communicated to those involved in planning the proposed Hotel/Conference Center/Faculty Club.

Taken from http://facultycenter.ucla.edu/news.htm

To spare you the arithmetic, yours truly calculates the percentage of "no" votes as 75% of the total. Can this be a surprise to anyone?

Brown Appeals to Public for 2/3 Vote on Tax Extensions

Gov. Brown still does not have the few Republican votes he needs to put his proposed tax extensions on the ballot. My guess is that he has until about April 1 to get those votes if the election is to occur before the end of June. An election could occur after June 30, of course, but that would a) put it into the next fiscal year (for which the vote is supposed to apply) and b) make it hard to refer to the proposal as tax "extensions" (rather than increases) since the temporary taxes will then have expired.

Below is an appeal to the public in the form of a video made by the governor:

Body Parts and Hotels

Some of you who read the LA Times may have been reminded of the body parts scandal at UCLA that unfolded about 6 years ago by a column that appeared yesterday by Sandy Banks. You may not have connected it, however, with the current controversy about the hotel/conference center proposed to replace the existing Faculty Center. Below is an excerpt from the column by Banks, followed by some observations and a question.

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Lost UCLA cadavers' final chapter: With no hope of winning lawsuits over loved ones' remains, relatives fight for the last word.

Sandy Banks, March 19, 2011, LA Times

Helen Yoshikawa walked into the courtroom in downtown Los Angeles armed with four pages of talking points. Kathy Pahlow came loaded with questions. They knew they'd already lost their case, but this was their one chance to address UCLA's lawyers — to explain that their dead parents were more than body parts and their failed lawsuit about more than money. "I wanted to have the satisfaction," Yoshikawa said, "of looking them in the eye and telling them who we were. I know some people would say it's a lost cause, but it didn't feel that way to me." Pahlow and Yoshikawa were among dozens of family members who sued UCLA after a scandal erupted over its body donation program.

Thursday's hearing was the final step in a drama that began in 2004 with the discovery that bodies willed to UCLA for medical research were, essentially, being sold on the open market. The scheme was a clandestine collaboration between the willed-body program's director and a private tissue broker, who told The Times he retrieved the corpses from UCLA's cold storage room, cut them into pieces with power tools and hauled them off, packaged in coolers. He made more than $1 million providing the cadavers and body parts to pharmaceutical and medical firms.

Both men were sent to prison, and the university's body donor program temporarily shut down…

Full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks-20110319,0,6741888.column
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Two years later, after that scandal and others on UC campuses and systemwide, I wrote an op ed in the LA Business Journal (3/6/06) which dealt in part with the management of the university:

"... UC is often criticized as bureaucratic, but the bureaucracy is bottom heavy. Much effort is directed at verifying a $25 travel expense. But at the top, there are too many reports funneling into presidents, chancellors, and other high officials. Each campus is a mini-city, not just an educational institution. The overall UC system is a federation of such cities. The top executives cannot keep track of the myriad responsibilities entailed in running such large entities and so risk being surprised when things go wrong.

Underlings are appointed to run functions ranging from plumbing maintenance to hospital administration. They are told, 'Call me if you have a problem.' And naturally, the last thing underlings want to do is tell their bosses that he or she has a problem or has caused one.

That's why, for example, we now have a kidney transplant scandal at the UC-Irvine med school. That's we had the body parts scandal at UCLA a few years back. And that's why executive pay has gone awry. Calls 'for transparency' miss the point; transparency identifies scandals after they occur. Improved management prevents them..."

So - in management-speak - what is the bottom line here? When we observe runaway projects such as the hotel/conference center, at the root of it all is management practice. Most organizations are hierarchical. A balance must be reached between reasonable autonomy for units and accountability to those at the top and those at lower tiers in the organization. Otherwise, you get empire building at the second tier or below and lack of accountability when things go awry.

Ask yourself the following question: If and when the hotel/conference center is built and needs to be bailed out in one way or another, will anyone now making the decision to move ahead be held accountable by the management "system" that we have in place at UCLA?

UC-San Diego Tightening GPA Standards for Transfers from Community Colleges

UCSD policy limits community college students: Raising GPA requirement to 3.5 will exclude many students from program (excerpt):

Pat Flynn, March 18, 2011, San Diego Union-Tribune

With transfer applications soaring and budget cuts looming, the University of California San Diego is raising the threshold on a guaranteed admission program for the state’s community college students.

For years, community college students who took specific courses and obtained a 3.0 grade-point average could count on admission under the program called Transfer Admissions Guarantee, or TAG. But faced with growing demand and limited capacity, UCSD officials in recent weeks have notified community college officials statewide that for guaranteed admission in 2012 and beyond TAG students will have to earn GPAs of 3.5 or better…

The university’s decision has prompted a sharp response from officials of Southwestern College, which serves a predominantly minority population in the South Bay. "We are very concerned,” said Angelica Suarez, vice president for student affairs at the one-college district. “It’s about access for our students. This is going to narrow and reduce the number of students who can go to UCSD.” Suarez and Jaime Salazar, Southwestern’s transfer center coordinator, said UCSD’s decision directly contradicts university policies calling for the removal of barriers for students from traditionally underrepresented groups.

“They’re always giving us lip service,” said Salazar. “They say they’re committed to diversity, but it’s all lip service. It’s all about being the Ivy League of the West, serving the elite.” ...

Full story at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/mar/18/ucsds-new-transfer-standard-roils-community/

Sorry Tale Ends: UCLA student who posted anti-Asian rant on YouTube leaving university

From the LA Daily News, 3/18/11 (excerpt):

A UCLA student whose anti-Asian rant on YouTube made national headlines announced today that she plans to leave the university. In an apology letter sent to the Daily Bruin, the campus newspaper, Alexandra Wallace wrote that the video has led to "the harassment of my family, the publishing of my personal information, death threats and being ostracized from an entire community." ... Wallace sent the letter on the same day the university announced it would not be taking any disciplinary action against her.

In her letter to the Daily Bruin, Wallace said she was trying "to produce a humorous YouTube video," but she instead "offended the UCLA community and the entire Asian culture." "I am truly sorry for the hurtful words I said and the pain it caused to anyone who watched the video," she wrote. "Especially in the wake of the ongoing disaster in Japan, I would do anything to take back my insensitive words. I could write apology letters all day and night, but I know they wouldn't erase the video from your memory, nor would they act to reverse my inappropriate action."

Full article at http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_17645655

As noted in a prior post on this blog that excerpted an article from the Sacramento Bee, this affair apparently began with a plan to start some kind of a blog/enterprise, possibly with parental involvement or support.

http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-background-on-anti-asian-video.html



UPDATE: The New York Times carried an editorial against disciplining the student. See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/opinion/18fri2.html Perhaps the Times is now also sorry for jumping the gun. There seemed no likelihood that discipline would be imposed.