This got sent to me from Senator Lou Correa. He is holding a special hearing at the Rancho Santiago Community College Board Room to discuss the pay of local elected officials and transparency in local government. In the wake of the Bell scandal, Senator Correa has taken the lead in making sure local government is open to the people and that the officials continue to make the part time salary their job was originally supposed to entail. Interesting they are coming to Santa Ana, is Correa trying to sent our friends on the Santa Ana City Council a message? With recent revelations that Mayor Miguel Pulido makes over $90,000 a year for a part time job and issues regarding the culture of closed government in Santa Ana, I wonder if the Mayor or any of the City Councilmembers have the nerve to show themselves tomorrow. Read more as Lou Correa continues his crusade for the little guy!
Senate Local Government Committee and Senator Correa to hold Hearing on Official Pay and Public’s Right to Know
(Santa Ana, CA) – Senate Local Government Committee members, at the request of Senator Lou Correa (Orange County), will convene a special hearing to pursue issues regarding transparency & accountability in local government and the challenges presented by the revelation in the City of Bell and elsewhere.
Senator Correa invited the committee and Chairwoman Senator Christine Kehoe to hold a hearing in Orange County to explore four important policy questions: Should state law require more compensation disclosure? What compensation should public officials disclose? Which public officials should disclosure their compensation? How should public officials disclose their compensation?
According to Senator Correa, “The taxpayer is the one paying these bills, and they are entitled to a full and complete accounting of where their taxes go. Those in the public sector who seek huge hidden payouts must not be allowed to keep their actions a secret.†The Senator went on to thank the committee Chair for agreeing to hold the hearing in Orange County.
The topic of the hearing is “Transparency & Accountability: Pursuing the Public’s Right To Know”, and is slated for Wednesday, October 20 in the Board Chambers of the Rancho Santiago Community College District, 2323 North Broadway, Santa Ana, CA.
Senator Correa author of Senate Bill 501, which sought to compel broader disclosure by local government officials. It is the Senator’s intention to reintroduce a similar measure in the upcoming legislative session.
Dude! … Claudio – I am going to need about half an hour to get out all I have to say about the Santa Ana City Council.
What time of the day?
cook – 1:00 pm
I called Correa’s office
Good beginning but VERY INCOVENIENT TIME!!!. What sector of the “litle guys” was represented in this meeting?. In what brain this senator for re-election is scheluding this meeting when only priviligiate people can attend!. Why not to schelude for more popular time after most of the “litle guys” are off from work? or this meeting was just a show off for a group of burocrats and elite in our city?.Is any video of this event ready to be share with the “litle guys” who were working in orden to bring food to their tables. Please let us know if is there a video that I can get and watch it! Was any media there .I really hope to get a video and watch and deliver my own conclusions.
Many people were there wearing suits and a lot of news type people with cameras filled up the entire room.
Their testimony was pretty damming for the local governments, The counties, cities and special districts.
A school superintendent gave a speech that the schools districts didn’t need any more oversight because their pensions top out at 245,000 per year. Another school promoter for the CSU & UC said that they have to pay their top people 300, 400 thousand or more a year with huge benefit packages.
A state senator commented right after these comments, “I don’t buy that.â€
I sat there for 3 ½ hours listening to all that was said. This committee has a hard job to do, to come up with passable legislation that slaps down local governments that have run amok with an overwhelming sense of entitlements.
As far as I could tell, there was 3 members of the general public in attendance, all three from Santa Ana.
Cook did you notice any video camara, so I can get a video and wacht this event, as far I can tell by your coment was mayority attended by burocrats and a show ran by senator looking for re-election,no?. I would like to know where I can get a video of this joke!!!!!1.
I did not see any news trucks or large video type cameras, but the back part of the room was filled with all kinds of cameras., I don’t know if any of them were video type.
So I don’t know if there will be a video, but there is going to be a summary report sent out in about 2 weeks.
As it being a joke, no one was laughing at the testimony, and the local senator did not run the meeting, another senator from another area is the chair and ran the meeting.
It did seem like a lot of the people there were some type of bureaucrats, but because they all wore suits, you could not tell the bureaucrats from the news people and the other people.
I don’t know if the reports can or will convey the tone of the testimony given by the speakers. The tone was pretty horrific, it was described (I can’t remember the exact term used) as a mindset of excessive entitlements.
From listening to the 3 1/3 hours of testimony, even with the big numbers coming out of the Bell and Vernon city scandals, the really HUGE numbers are yet to be reported on from the local and county governments from Orange and San Diego Counties.