May 2, 2013
City officials have heard much from the Legislature in recent years about the need to increase transparency at the local level and have made enormous strides. Yet when it comes to a measure that would ensure that bills be in print for at least three days prior to a final vote legislators feel different about transparency.
April 12, 2013
The National League of Cities (NLC) this week released information that voters trust local government to address the issues that matter most to them more than any other level of government; according to results from a new Mason-Dixon poll.
March 29, 2013
The April issue covers a variety of helpful topics, including how to get your city’s public meetings back on track, opportunities to save on pension costs through collective bargaining after pension reform, the new Cities for Workforce Health program, making the transition from local government office to the state Legislature, and much more.
February 27, 2013
On Tuesday, the League took support positions on two constitutional amendments, SCA 10 (Wolk) and ACA 4 (Olsen) that would improve legislative transparency by requiring all bills to be in print and available on the Internet for at least 72 hours prior to a vote on its final passage in either house.
February 1, 2013
Earlier this month, the city of Bell presented its newly designed website, during an open meeting of the city’s council.
January 4, 2013
The most popular articles on the Western City magazine website for the month of December include features on ethics, the second amendment, open government and more.
December 7, 2012
The most popular articles on the Western City magazine website in the past month included features on pension reform, new requirements for pension reporting, an easy reality check for public service ethics, innovative contracting techniques and more.
November 30, 2012
On Thursday, Rancho Cordova City Manager Ted Gaebler testified before the Senate Committee on Excellence and Innovation in State Government discussing theories from his best-selling book “Reinventing Government.”
November 16, 2012
For the first time, the net pension liability will be shown on the face of every government’s financial statements. What does this mean for cities?
August 22, 2012
The League has removed its opposition and taken a neutral position on SB 1002 (Yee) after it was amended on Monday, Aug. 20.
August 17, 2012
Don't miss these articles in the August issue of Western City magazine.
August 3, 2012
Don’t miss these articles in this month’s issue of Western City.
July 27, 2012
Western City magazine has compiled its most popular stories into a “Hit List” showing the top five articles on WesternCity.com during the past month. This list reflects the topics of greatest interest to California city officials during the month of July.
July 20, 2012
At its meeting in Manhattan Beach today, the board of directors of the League of California Cities adopted a resolution congratulating cities for their continued faithful compliance with the requirements of the Ralph M. Brown Act even though the Legislature has suspended several of its provisions for three years.
July 13, 2012
On July 9, Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1654 (Cook) into law.
July 13, 2012
Don’t miss these articles from the July issue of Western City magazine.
June 29, 2012
This week, the League removed its opposition to SB 1003 (Yee) after the sponsors, the California Newspaper Publishers Association and Californian’s Aware, agreed to put necessary protections into the bill for cities.
June 28, 2012
Yesterday, SB 1002 (Yee), which would amend the Public Records Act (PRA) to require agencies to provide public records in open format standard, was passed out of the Assembly Local Government Committee with a 5-3 vote. The bill will now head to the Assembly Appropriations Committee where the cost of the measure on state and local agencies will be assessed.
June 22, 2012
The League is opposed to SB 1002 unless amended because it would impose new duties and costs on public agencies at a time when they can ill afford them, under the guise of promoting greater government transparency. The bill is sponsored by the California Newspaper Publishers Association and the San Francisco Tech Democrats.