California’s Capitol Issues a Correction and Apology

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 20, 2009

Contact for Senator DeSaulnier:  Eve Hightower (916-651-4007)

Contact for Assembly member Feuer:  Arianna Smith (916-319-2042)

 

**MEDIA ADVISORY** 

GOVERNMENTAL REFORM SOLUTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED IN JOINT HEARINGS

First Hearing Addresses Proposals to Enhance Policy and Budget Development 

SACRAMENTO – Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) and Assembly member Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) will convene the first joint hearing of each house’s Select Committee on Improving State Government.  Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass formed the bipartisan select committees in September to address the pressing need for state governmental reform. The committees will jointly host five hearings at various locations throughout the state. 

Panelists:

• Bill Lockyer, State Treasurer and former President Pro Tem of the California State Senate
• Robert Naylor, former Republican Leader, California State Assembly
• Laura Chick, Inspector General of California, former Los Angeles City Controller
• Mac Taylor, Legislative Analyst of California
• William Hauck, Chairman, California Constitution Revision Commission 
• Fred Silva, Senior Fiscal Policy Advisor, California Forward and former Executive Secretary, California Constitution Revision Commission
• Bruce Cain, Executive Director,  U.C. Washington Center and former Director of the  Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California at Berkeley
• Scott Pattison, Executive Director, National Association of State Budget Officers
• Jaime Regalado, Director, Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs in Los Angeles
• Brenda Erickson, National Conference of State Legislatures 

Where: State Capitol, Sacramento, Room 4202 

When: Thursday, October 22 

9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. — Topic: Possible legislative branch reforms

• Previous California reform efforts
• Federal and state models of legislative decision-making
• Bipartisanship, oversight, integrity 

12:30 to 1:15 p.m. — Break 

1:15 to 4:30 p.m. — Topic: Possible budget process reforms

• State budget decision-making models
• Long-term planning and accountability    

 

Note: In some previous documents, the Select Committees on Improving State Government have been referred to as the Joint Select Committee on Reform. 

(Editor’s Note: California’s Capitol wishes to apologize. We were under the impression that the Senate’s 23 standing committees, 10 subcommittees and even a few of its 44 select committees — along with the Assembly’s 30 standing committees, 33 select committees and the Legislature’s seven joint committees — were all in the business of improving state government. Indeed, some have argued California’s most effective tool to improve state government is the Suspense File of the Appropriations committees of both houses which routinely prevent dozens of pieces of legislation from being passed and possibly enacted into law. We regret the error.)

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