Posts Tagged ‘frommer’

Big labor is fighting reform again, this time against efforts to limit government through a a part-time legislature. Citizens for California Reform are advancing a ballot initiative to return California to a part-time legislature.  The Sacramento Bee reports that Sacramento politicians are fighting back.

Citizens for California Reform (CCR), a non-partisan public interest organization committed to limited and transparent government, are advancing a ballot initiative to return California to a part-time legislature.   CCR President Gabriella Holt, a registered nurse and former Palos Verdes School Board member and L.A. County Probation Commissioner, is spearheading the Citizen Legislature Project.  Their goal is to enact the Citizen Legislature Act, which will limit government and protect taxpayers by forcing the legislature to focus only on critical issues.

Big labor and Sacramento politicians are fighting back, forming their own group, Californians for an Effective Legislature.  The group is chaired by a trio of big government hacks: John Laird (D), Dario Frommer (D), and Bob Naylor (R); and led by Executive Director Steve Maviglio (D).

Republican Bob Naylor is the former chairman of Friends of Abel Maldenado.  (Taxpayers recently targeted Maldenado with a recall effort after he broke ranks with Republicans to vote with Democrats to raise taxes on struggling Californians.)  Naylor is also a lobbyist representing state worker unions.

Democrat John Laird draws a taxpayer-funded salary of $132K for sitting on the California Integrated Waste Management Board, alongside termed-out lawmakers Carole Migden and Sheila Kuehl.  The board has been criticized as a “high-salaried recycling bin for termed-out politicians and political insiders”.  According to Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, this board “Shouldn’t be former legislators [because] these people are not experts… But they’re getting full-time wages while only working part time. ”

Democrat Dario Frommer is a former assistant to recalled Governor Gray Davis.  Frommer was a  member of the leadership team of former Assembly Speaker, Fabian Nunez, serving as Assembly Majority Leader.  (Frommer was reportedly connected to a scandal involving Nunez and VIP, a nonprofit group formed by the late L.A. union boss, Miguel Conteras.  VIP was accused of illegally using union money to make cash donations and staff phone banks for Frommer and other candidates.  VIP was investigated again in 2009 on charges of illegally operating a “slush fund” to benefit local politicians.) As Assembly Leader, Frommer helped create and worsen California’s fiscal crisis by promoting unsustainable spending, burdensome taxes, and regulation that have driven business from California.

Executive Director Steve Maviglio is a seasoned veteran at stopping reform in California.  In 2005, he helped defeat Governor Schwarzenegger’s attempted reforms (spending limits, redistricting, union political contributions) in the 2005 Special Election, serving as strategist for the union-funded Alliance for a Better California. Maviglio was Deputy Chief of Staff for Speaker Fabian Nunez, and has served as spokesperson for the California Democratic Party.

“California is a big state with big challenges,” claims this big government/big labor alliance, “Extremists want to further cripple our state legislature’s ability to tackle these problems”  by limiting government through  a part-time legislature.  Of course, the real extremists here are the opponents of reform and limited government.  The bottom line is this: the legislature has been all too effective – at massive spending, at taxing struggling Californians, at feathering their own nests, and driving jobs from California.  That kind of effectiveness Californians don’t need.