September 30, 2016
 
ELECTIONS
More California cities can have publicly financed election campaigns (Sacramento Bee)
Handing a victory to campaign finance reformers, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed legislation that will allow more California cities and counties to permit publicly financed election campaigns. Public financing offers an appealing alternative to the status quo for election critics who argue a flood of interest group dollars has corrupted the process. In publicly financed elections, qualified candidates receive public money instead of depending on private donations.
 
PROPOSITIONS
Donors pump nearly $390 million into California propositions (Sacramento Bee)
Supporters and opponents of California's 17 November ballot measures have raised nearly $390 million six weeks before the election, putting the state as close as $50 million shy of record initiative fundraising with some of the heaviest spending yet to come. Reports filed by political donors with the secretary of state's office before a Thursday campaign reporting deadline showed a whopping $389 million in contributions on hot-button issues including prescription drug pricing and hospital fees.
 
List of California ballot measures with most funding (Sacramento Bee)
Supporters and opponents of California's 17 November ballot measures have raised nearly $390 million six weeks before the election, according to reports filed by political donors with the secretary of state's office before a Thursday campaign reporting deadline. Here are the five California ballot measures that have attracted the most funding so far, along with the biggest donors for and against.

TRANSPORTATION / INFRASTRUCTURE
Solano board backs mega transportation package (Daily Republic)
Solano County has endorsed an annual $7.4 billion transportation package that would bring about $40 million a year to the county. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a letter to be sent to Sacramento supporting the legislation authored by Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Oakley, and the Senate version written by Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose. That legislation, Assembly Bill X1 26 and Senate Bill X1-1, “would provide much-needed new statewide investment to maintain and improve local streets and roads and state highways,” the board letter of support states. “It would ensure existing revenues meant for transportation projects are redirected to transportation, and would implement a number of reforms to improve project delivery while still protecting the environment.”

WATER / DROUGHT
Five reasons to support California WaterFix (The Acorn)
Our homes, businesses and communities in western Los Angeles County served by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District would not exist were it not for water from Northern California. But the reliability of those supplies is at long-term risk. This high quality Sierra Nevada supply flows through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But, deteriorating environmental conditions have led to greater pumping restrictions. State and federal agencies are developing a plan to modernize this water system by building new intakes and a twin tunnel pipeline delivery system to reliably capture water and deliver it to millions of Californians. The effort is known as California WaterFix.
 
HOUSING
A glimmer of optimism amid Bay Area housing crisis (Merced Sun-Star)
The Bay Area's housing crisis incites pessimism: the prices, the traffic, the very pressure of living here.
San Jose's economic development director says it's possible to bring more housing to more people - and even to figure out how to do it affordably. During an hour-long discussion at her office, she ticked off new housing developments from South San Jose to Japantown (near downtown) and the city's northern fringe.
 
HOMELESSNESS / POVERTY
Innovate to find solutions for homelessness (SF Gate)
Panoramic Interests, a local developer, wants to build one such building. Using solid steel housing modules, it is proposing a 200-unit building constructed over a portion of the Department of Public Works parking lot at 2627 Cesar Chavez St. Panoramic seeks a long-term lease on the lot’s air rights in exchange for taking on development costs. The majority of the lot and existing parking spaces would remain usable with the units built above on a concrete podium. Under terms outlined, the developer would require a 10-year commitment from the city to lease all the fully furnished, self-contained 160-square-foot units for $1,000 a month. The city would select the tenants. At the lease end, the city would have an option to buy the building. This building is something the city and its homeless citizens need. It’s available at terms that work for city and developer alike. No city funds are required for construction. But these conditions might not be enough.
 
Salinas tries to move homeless, battles with county (Monterey County Weekly)
On most any given night, starting at 6pm and disbanding by 6am (per city regulation), about 40 people have camped out in about 22 tents on the City Hall lawn. They share food, and supplies, and try to look out for each other. And they try to send the message to city officials that they won’t be ignored. As a result of what the city describes as myriad problems – sexual harassment of female employees as they leave the building; campers blocking the doors and preventing people from coming and going; public urination and defecation; public drinking and drug use – the city passed an even more onerous ordinance on Sept. 20 that prohibits camping on public and private property altogether. Between the City Hall encampment, a nearby public garage and the John Steinbeck Library, where dozens of homeless gather on the lawn, conditions have created “health and safety hazards” to employees and the public.
 
New law clears way for 1,200 VA apartments for LA homeless vets (Southern California Public Radio)
The new law restores the VA's authority to negotiate and sign leases on the nearly 400-acre property, an authority that had been stripped by Congress almost ten years ago. The VA's master plan for the campus calls for building 1,200 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless vets. The agency's first order of business will be to turn 65 units of transitional apartments on the campus into permanent housing, said Vince Kane, special assistant to VA Secretary Bob McDonald. Kane could not say when the VA will solicit bids for construction of the rest of the 1,200 units.
 
Alpha project proposes plan to house 800 San Diego homeless (KPBS)
A San Diego homeless advocate is proposing a new homeless facility near downtown to house as many as 800 people, and says he has the backing of city leaders and funding from local businesses. Bob McElroy, founder and CEO of the Alpha Project, a homeless outreach nonprofit, is calling the new “dormitory-style” project a Central Intake Center. The soaring homeless population has reached a crisis level, he said. Nearly 5,000 homeless people across San Diego County sleep on the streets, according to an annual census. More than 1,400 are hunkered down on sidewalks in the East Village — twice as many as two years ago.

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
More transparency is coming to California's scandal-ridden energy regulator, and Gov. Brown has pledged more action (Los Angeles Times)
Changes to increase the transparency of communications between the state’s energy regulator and the industries it oversees are now law after Gov. Jerry Brown signed five measures designed to restructure the California Public Utilities Commission. Most notably, Brown signed a bill from Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) that would open up some details of private meetings between industry and PUC executives — a response to numerous concerns about an overly cozy relationship after the 2010 San Bruno natural gas pipeline explosion and the circumstances surrounding the 2013 closure of the San Onofre nuclear power plant in Southern California.
 
PUBLIC SAFETY
Hate crimes in L.A. County jumped in 2015, report says (Los Angeles Times)
The incidents are among 483 hate crimes reported in Los Angeles County last year, according to an annual report released Thursday by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations. After generally trending downward for seven years, hate crimes rose sharply last year and were up 24% from 2014. The uptick came as the number of hate crimes statewide also increased by 10% in 2015, according to the report, and as the Los Angeles Police Department reported a 20% increase in violent crimes in the city.

CITY IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Armstrong to step down from Clovis City Council next month (The Business Journal)
After serving on the Clovis City Council for 46 years, Councilmember William “Harry” Armstrong will announce his official retirement at the Oct. 17 council meeting. Armstrong, 85, currently the longest-serving public official in California, has been battling health issues and was recently hospitalized with complications from pneumonia. Armstrong, who was instrumental in getting Highway 180 East and Highway 168 built, has served on the board of the California League of Cities for more than 27 years, most notably as League president from 1982-1983. He also served on the League’s Transportation, Communication and Public Works Policy committees.
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