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By The Bakersfield Californian
Wednesday, May 23 2012 11:07 PM
Despite all the good will Kern County supervisors have spread in recent years with targeted spending from special discretionary funds, the practice needs an overhaul. Allowing elected supervisors to spend taxpayer money on pet projects without broad public input just carries too much potential for trouble, inadvertent or otherwise.
Over the years, county supervisors have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from these slush funds on worthy projects. But, at the end of the day, it's with money that was robbed from the collective Peter to benefit the selective Paul. That system of governing is undemocratic and littered with landmines.
The county has a system for allocating its funding: It's called the budget. In this very public process, each department assesses needs throughout the county, prioritizes those needs and funds them based on available revenue. Supervisors' discretionary funds, as they are known, undermine this process. They effectively siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars away from the Kern County budget each year to pay for random projects that aren't subject to a needs analysis or public input of any significant degree.
Compounding the issue, the money is allowed to build up year after year. Supervisors now collectively have $1.3 million in their discretionary piggy banks, the majority of which has been around for years. That money might have been spent in the local economy while the county weathered a deep economic recession. It might have offset drastic cutbacks in state funding for vital safety net services in recent years, helped keep libraries open or funded animal control efforts. The list goes on.
What money has been spent over the years has been doled out piecemeal on such things as new scrubs for KMC nurses, transporting the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra to a wine-tasting event and chipping in for Taft's Oildorado celebration. Is this really a prudent use of county resources? No. Does it help supervisors curry favor with supporters and solidify their standing come campaign time? Most certainly.
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Kern County District Attorney Lisa Green is to be commended for acknowledging that her duties go beyond the prosecution of crime, violent and otherwise.
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Today, 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's. As the U.S. population ages, that number is only likely to grow.
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Both sides of the Proposition 29 debate are making a big deal about whether or not the cancer research that would be funded by the proposed tobacco tax will go exclusively to California labs or be distributed, in part, to research centers elsewhere.
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Pioneer Mercantile always had the look and feel of a bygone era, with its aisles and aisles of garden tools and fix-it devices for home and pasture. Now the Bakersfield hardware store really is bygone, having closed its doors after 123 years in business. One hundred and twenty-three years? We thought you had to go to Britain or points east to find a business that's been conducting commerce for that long.
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HIT: The Amgen Tour brought out an estimated 20,000 professional cycling fans Thursday, helping to fill up Bakersfield hotels, restaurants, stores and tax coffers. It won't fill the landfills with trash, though -- at least not nearly as much as it might have.
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Here's something every parent of a young driver must know: The deadliest driving season for teens is upon us.
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The United Farm Workers, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last week, was pivotal in bringing recognition and dignity to the work of farm laborers in California. It instituted critical reforms that improved conditions for farmworkers and consumers alike, from requiring portable toilets to cold water and shade for workers in the fields. But it was also a broader social triumph of a group of powerless and exploited people demanding basic rights.
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The first question voters sizing up measures D, E and F might be asking themselves is why are we even voting on this? The quick backstory: In 1956, Kern County voters approved a local ordinance to adopt a civil service system, which established the Kern County Civil Service Commission and laid out some general rules and principles for civil service workers. Fast-forward 60 years: Some of those rules need adjustment in order to be more in line with modern times. However, the only way to do that is to ask voters to approve those changes. (The county is now more careful to draft measures so that small, sensible changes can be made by the Board of Supervisors instead of going to the electorate.)
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Shame on House Republicans for using the Violence Against Women Act to continue to do battle against immigrants. The House passed a reauthorization of the act Wednesday that stripped out two important protections for immigrant domestic abuse victims. The first protection lets battered immigrants apply for residency visas confidentially. This would provide an immigrant woman a way to stay in the country if, for instance, she has children, without requiring the cooperation of her abusive husband to obtain a visa. The second protection provides visas to rape and battery victims who cooperate with law enforcement to prosecute the abuser.
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California voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996, giving "seriously ill Californians ... the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes" as recommended by a physician. The practical implementation of Prop. 215 has been messy, contradictory and confusing, and it conflicts with federal law. Subsequent state regulations on the issue have tempered one problem while creating others. And local governments have passed a patchwork of regulations -- and faced ensuing court battles over their legality.
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HIT Anthony Wheeler is the kind of guy you'd want to have in your fox hole -- literally. Amid a hail of flying bullets and grenades, the Stockdale High School grad risked his life to pull a wounded comrade to safety on a rural road in Helmand province, Afghanistan. For his heroism in the face of an insurgent attack that June day last year, the Marine Corps sergeant was recently awarded the Bronze Star.
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As part of the $18 billion mortgage settlement reached earlier this year with the nation's biggest banks over foreclosure abuses, California will get $450 million in the form of a cash payment. The money was intended to fund counseling and legal services to help homeowners prevent foreclosure or obtain loan modifications. But according to his revised budget, released this week, Gov. Jerry Brown wants the money to plug a budget deficit that has grown by 70 percent since January to more than $16 billion.
Amtrak suing Kern County truck driver over 2010 crash
Young's Marketplace on Brundage to close this week
