A ‘Do List’ for Wilson’s First Months on the Job : To: Our Readers : The State of California

If you could get Gov.-elect Pete Wilson’s ear long enough to tell him one thing that you think he needs to do, what would it be? We put exactly that proposition to leading Californians of all political perspectives and backgrounds--educators, business people, community leaders, advocates. In return, we promised to forward their “memos” to the governor-elect--and to you. Here are the edited highlights.

GOVERNING

New Governor Must Explain Budget Realities to the State

. . . You are the CEO in charge of a $50+ billion budget with major missions in education, health care, transportation and crime prevention. . . . Declare your active support for the mission and employees you asked to lead.

. . . Explain why the budget is now difficult to balance. Explain that choice can involve both money (resources) and how programs are organized (reform). Engage all Californians in helping you and the Legislature make budget choices. . . . If you also show how flexibility can be used in a positive way and not just as a code word for cutting government, then true budget reform is a possibility.

--Stephen Levy, Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, Palo Alto

“Too much revenue is earmarked for special purposes and programs. Too many of our programs have built-in cost escalators.” The new governor and the legislative leadership should establish a blue-ribbon commission to review the budget process. “No state government program should be considered a ‘sacred cow.’ ”

--William Campbell, president , California Manufacturers Assn., Sacramento

Cities must raise their own revenue or cut services. This past year, the city of Riverside had balanced its budget “and along comes SB 2557 mandating that the counties charge cities for administering the property-tax functions.” For the state to attempt to balance its budget by reducing funds to the counties and having them passing down charges to the cities “is not an appropriate way to do business.”

--Terry Frizzel, mayor of Riverside

As the new governor assesses existing state policy and programs and develops new ones, he should use as a key test “how they affect the incentives for private investment in California by both manufacturing and service companies for competitiveness and growth. Economic prosperity is essential to the state’s ability to fund social programs, improve its infrastructure and invest in its future.”

--Ruben F. Mettler, president of TRW Inc., Redondo Beach

The California public contracts code established goals of 5% for businesses owned by women and of 15% for minority-owned businesses participating in the state’s purchases of goods, services and construction. Wilson “can revolutionize the economic growth and vitality of California” by vigorously implementing this law. “If Latinos and other youths can witness growth in the business sector, they will see changes in their community that will give them hope for themselves and their future.’

--Ruben Jauregui, former president, Latin Business Assn., Los Angeles

State government must help businesses find jobs so people can break out of poverty. The governor must turn “to policies that provide community-based organizations with adequate resources to collectively respond to these issues in creative ways. (The governor also) must work to eradicate illiteracy, link job-training programs to stable employment paying livable wages, provide quality day-care and buffer the poor from the escalating costs of health care and housing.” These initiatives “require massive economic resources but the investment is imperative, especially if California is to remain competitive in the global marketplace.”

--James H. Johnson Jr., professor of geography and director of the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty at UCLA, and Melvin L. Oliver, associate professor of sociology and associate center director

CRIME AND THE COURTS

Drug Use, Rape and Violence Demand a New Response

Appoint a blue-ribbon panel of experts--from medicine, law, law enforcement, social services, education and business--to reconsider California’s drug control policies. The failures of the state’s fragmented efforts are all around us:

--Drive-by shootings, reminiscent of Prohibition, where innocent bystanders lose their lives as quickly as drug dealers.

--Widespread availability of drugs on school campuses, from elementary schools to universities, and easy access to drugs in jails and prisons.

--A growing number of babies born damaged because of their mothers’ drug use. . . .

--Joseph D. McNamara, police chief, San Jose

California leads the nation in production of marijuana, methamphetamine and the importation of cocaine and heroin. “I have heard the proclamations, I have listened to the speeches and yet I have seen little change. I am confused. How can we say that we are addressing these problems when narcotics paraphernalia is displayed and sold over the counter, and most parking tickets carry a stiffer fine than does possession of marijuana?”

--Sgt. Joseph M. Klein, Fullerton Police Department

Most college students are raped by other students. “Legislation is urgently needed which would require colleges to provide mandatory education on rape awareness and prevention for all students during their freshman year.” Children are also sexually abused, and the Santa Monica Hospital program at Stuart House--already visited by Wilson and his wife--helps these children under one roof through cooperation between public and private agencies. “As governor, you can help other communities achieve the same results if you provide incentives for similar partnerships. . . . “

--Gail Abarbanel, director of Santa Monica Hospital’s Rape Treatment Center

Instead of jailing many people “on a mixed bag of offenses for short terms,” imprison “fewer convicts on violent offenses against strangers for longer terms. This policy shift should save processing costs and, at an annual cost of over $20,000 per inmate, the reduction of overcrowding could save billions.”

To keep young people out of prisons, there should be monetary incentives for attendance and performance to high school students in areas with high crime rates. The money could come from either the lottery or from property confiscated from drug dealers, pimps and other vice criminals. “By ‘taxing’ vice to support education, the state might counter, at the street level, the moral message of drug dealers and pimps that they are ‘wise’ and straight young people are ‘fools.’ ”

--Jack Katz, professor of sociology, UCLA

Who sits in judgment? Although the percentage of women practicing law has increased from 3% in 1974 to 22% in 1990, the percentage of women appointed to the bench increased only 1%. Of 1,500 judges in California, about 200 are women. Nine counties have no female judges. Yet there are 12,000 female lawyers who have been in practice for more than six years and thus eligible for appointment to the bench.

One conclusion of the Advisory Committee on Gender Bias in the Courts, working under the guidance of Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas “is that substantial amelioration of the problem of gender-based conduct in the courtroom and in decision-making would be accomplished if more women were appointed to the judiciary.”

--Joan Dempsey Klein, presiding justice of the California Court of Appeal

HOUSING

Some Cannot Buy a Home, Others Can’t Find One

”. . . Only 20% of our residents can afford to buy their own home. . . . Changes in federal banking policy have created a ‘credit crunch’ and have brought real-estate construction to a virtual halt. Locally imposed developer fees have added tens of thousands of dollars to the price of an otherwise affordable home. . . . Your federal experience will help if you agree to lobby for banking-system reforms.”

--Christine D. Reed, executive director, Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, Inc., Orange County Region, Santa Ana

For too many Californians, the issue is finding any affordable housing at all. California should expand the revenue sources of the existing State Low Income Housing Trust Fund. Money for that fund could come from penalties collected for failure to pay property taxes, interest on real-estate escrow accounts and a state income tax check-off for affordable housing, thus earmarking $200 million a year toward affordable housing. “Every dollar raised by the state could be leveraged with at least four more dollars from private and other public resources.”

--Anita Landecker, director, Local Initiative Support Corporation’s California Program, Los Angeles

The new governor should try to “meet the men, women and children who are struggling without a home to call their own; to hear their stories firsthand.” More state financing for emergency shelters for the homeless is needed. There should also be a bond issue on the June, 1992, ballot for affordable housing, with support services for homeless people with special needs, such as those with AIDS, physical or mental disabilities and substance-abuse problems.

--Ruth Schwartz, executive director, Shelter Partnership , Los Angeles

HEALTH

Can a GOP Governor Achieve More Affordable Health Care?

”. . . California spends over $70 billion annually on health care--12% of gross state product--but has 6 million people with no health insurance, emergency gridlock, people increasingly declaring ‘I thought I was covered,’ and no one feeling secure if they or their loved ones need long-term care.”

”. . . As a Republican governor, you can do the unexpected: Turn up the heat on insurers, on doctors, on employers, on hospitals, all of whom now impede a solution. And, who better than a Republican governor can persuade Californians that by spending new public money now to set up a fiscally accountable health-care system that covers everyone, we will save billions in the long run? “

--Lois Salisbury, c hair , Health Access of California, San Francisco

The public mental-health system has become the “starving poster child” in state government and needs more money. But there are also low-cost steps to be taken. Wilson should appoint a director for the Department of Mental Health who has clinical expertise, managerial experience and a firm commitment to leadership in public policy; he should also make sure that the homeless mentally ill receive priority in such existing programs as shelters, food banks and health care.

--Sue North, legislative consultant, California Psychiatric Assn., Sacramento

The governor should help the elderly remain in their homes or at least receive quality care in nursing homes. Start with more stringent controls over unscrupulous marketing of health-maintenance organizations and long-term care insurance to the elderly. “Start with special outreach programs to ensure that the African American, Latino and Asian poor elderly receive the services available to the higher-income white elderly.”

--Geraldine Dallek, executive director, Medicare Advocacy Project, Los Angeles

Many Californians are infected with the HIV virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome--AIDS. Many don’t know it, and many who know aren’t receiving treatment. “If every infected Californian received AZT and aerosolized pentamidine, two licensed AIDS drugs, many lives would be extended. Further, the state would save money because early out-patient care is much cheaper than late in-hospital care.

“California desperately needs an AIDS treatment education campaign targeted to physicians and patients. Such a program would emphasize how HIV infection can be fought . . . . Gov. Wilson, after years in Washington fighting for increased AIDS research, isn’t it foolish not to make the fruit of that effort--effective AIDS drugs--widely available to the people of California? We urge you to create and fund an AIDS treatment education campaign as a top priority in your first year of office.”

--Paul Boneberg, executive director, Mobilization Against AIDS, San Francisco

Because 4 million Californians lack adequate medical insurance, they end up in emergency rooms; the state is dodging its responsibility for reimbursing hospitals for their care. As hospitals close their doors, they are also cutting off the trauma centers that save lives of critically ill or injured from all levels of society. The regional trauma systems can be saved if financing comes from innovative sources such as increased motor-vehicle registration fees or tighter safety requirements to reduce injuries in the first place, such as mandatory motorcycle helmets.

--Dr. John West, founder and chairman of the board, Orange County Trauma Society

Government should reform and expand the system of private health insurance through employer-mandated health insurance to cover the uninsured and their dependents; expand Medicaid or, preferably, create a public health insurance plan that is not linked to welfare to cover those who are not employed; stimulate more prepaid health care systems; and set an overall expenditure target or cap for health care.

--Dr. Philip Lee, director, Institute for Health Policy Studies, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

PLANNING

Consolidate Efforts, Involve More Community People

The governor-elect should coordinate state programs in related areas such as environment, transportation and housing. Planning by government agencies should be consolidated to increase efficiency, eliminate unnecessary regulations and reduce business uncertainty about regulatory requirements. Regional groups should also be given authority to put into effect environmental plans and others dealing with transportation, sewers or other infrastructure when local governments fail to agree.

--Jane G. Pisano, president, The 2000 Partnership, Los Angeles

The governor should request that the Los Angeles City Planning Department follow through with community-plan revision soon, with more participation by the community, so that more jobs, schools and social services could be provided in low-income areas. Wilson must also direct more federal money to Los Angeles, especially to minority communities “where there is the greatest need for it.”

--Robin Cannon and Charlotte Bullock, Concerned Citizens of South-Central Los Angeles

AUTO INSURANCE

California’s Auto Insurance Still Needs a Vast Overhaul

” . . . Current law tries to force poor people, many of whom have few assets to protect, to buy expensive insurance protecting third parties, that is, strangers. Unsurprisingly, many people opt to drive without insurance at all.

“Most poor drivers would prefer to have basic protection for themselves at a low cost, and the insurance industry can provide it if the law is changed. And the assigned-risk system must be forced to cover its losses, and territorial rating must be restored because drivers in Los Angeles impose higher costs than drivers in rural counties.”

--Benjamin Zycher, economist, Agoura Hills, and advisory council member, Consumer Alert

ENVIRONMENT

On the Environment, People Are Ahead of their Leaders

” . . . I ask that you first move immediately for a two-year moratorium on the conversion of any and every critical habitat area. The areas of immediate concern are old-growth forests, marshes, wetlands, beaches, streams and rivers. A task force I would call Habitat 90 should be convened, calling on expertise from the state’s college and university system, joined by representatives from the public and appropriate state agencies, a core leadership can be formed.

”. . . State agencies are so understaffed that they cannot coordinate the crush of volunteer effort going on around the state. . . . The people of this state are ready, as indicated by a continued response to polls, that they are willing to make changes to save the environment and therefore save the quality of California life.”

--Rondal Snodgrass, executive director, Sanctuary Forest, Inc., Whitethorn

“Wilson can avoid a vacuum in environmental policy by offering to craft new laws with the legislators, and bringing into his administration experienced legislative staffers” who will be displaced by the reductions dictated by Proposition 140 passed in November. Wilson can also appoint quality people to the board of forestry and to the directorship of that department, moves that could bring about virtually all of the reforms proposed in the Forests Forever initiative. Wilson should say no to “a handful of costly, environmentally destructive, and parochial projects: the multipurpose Auburn Dam and the Long Beach Freeway extension through historic El Sereno and South Pasadena.”

--Antonio Rossmann, natural resources lawyer, San Francisco

“Think about giving small businesses--those mom-and-pop companies we both know are responsible for much of the state’s economic growth--an incentive to shoulder part of the enormous task of recycling.” There are large amounts of unused food, paper products, glass and plastic jettisoned daily by stores, yet “recycling centers can be miles away, with long lines and little concern for the problems of transporting” large amounts of recyclables. “Perhaps a program aimed at helping us implement our own best impulses” should be considered--either a tax rebate for recyclers, special state recycling facilities for the business sector or some other measure.

--Mary Bryant, partner, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf shop, Los Angeles

EDUCATION

Schools Are Places to Learn, Not Political Footballs

” . . . I urge Gov.-elect Pete Wilson (to) convene an educational summit involving elected officials, educational leaders representing management and teachers’ unions, parents, students, minority and business leaders. The purpose would be to establish major educational reform priorities for California, and to mobilize a broad consensus for their implementation. This cannot be just another meeting, as we fear the national education summit may have been; this meeting must product results.

” . . . African-Americans, Asians and Latinos constitute the majority in Los Angeles schools, and I grade the Los Angeles school system ‘F’ for its failure to effectively educate African-American and other minority students--too many of whom cannot qualify for admission to colleges and universities and frequently cannot read or complete a job application.”

--John Mack, president, Los Angeles Urban League

“For starters, Gov. Wilson can minimize the use of the schools as political footballs, kicked back and forth from the governor to the Legislature. He can urge school-board members to stop playing to the crowds.” He can also push for “more than mere compliance with minimum school standards that in too many schools have become maximum standards. In many schools, parents can’t even be assured that their kids are in a safe place. So the Kids First partnership (of the Industrial Areas Foundation of California) is prepared to lead a drive to put a school safety measure on the ballot.” Wilson’s leadership would be crucial in helping pass the measure.

--Louis Negrete, United Neighborhoods Organization

Wilson should put the quality and cost of the management of higher education on his agenda. The cost of administration has risen more rapidly than spending for instruction and research on campuses, and Wilson could get a handle on the problem by appointing top people to the governing boards of the University of California, California State University and the community colleges. He must also insist that they manage public resources better on each campus.

--Kenneth B. O’Brien, executive director, California Postsecondary Education Commission, Sacramento

California could save some of the money it must spend to accommodate 700,000 additional students on college campuses between now and 2005 if it made better use of the state’s independent colleges. The Cal Grant student-aid program has been badly neglected. “The result is that increasing numbers of needy and academically qualified students have been diverted from private campuses to public. No matter what strategy is followed to accommodate growth, public colleges and universities will have to expand. But revival of the Cal Grant/private-college connection could save the state many millions of dollars that would otherwise be required for public campus construction and operation.”

--William J. Moore, president, Assn. Independent California Colleges and Universities, Sacramento

CHILDREN

Now Is the Time to Deliver On Campaign Pledges for Kids

“We urge that you stand firmly behind the principle that children be held harmless in the budget process, and we offer these alternatives to cutting children’s programs” that provide schooling, health checkups and immunizations, child care and protection from abuse and neglect. Collect on currently unused but available federal funds, which total about $1.5 billion in the health and child-welfare areas alone. Find ways to use existing monies more effectively: for instance, by directing more of them to prevention and less to expensive solutions like the California Youth Authority, hospitals and other out-of-home institutions. And find new revenue sources to make sure every California child gets a good start in life.

--Jim Steyer, president, and Wendy Lazarus, vice president for policy, Children Now, Los Angeles

” . . . As a start, Gov. Wilson should send a clear signal that, unlike his predecessor, he will sign a Family Leave Act when it is passed by the Legislature. That will set the tone and begin the momentum for public and private employers to acknowledge that we all benefit when families are strong and parents can balance the needs of workplace and home.”

--Joy Picus, Los Angeles City Councilwoman

The Children’s Lobby urges creation of a master plan for child-care services over the next five years; more money for and tighter control over child-care centers and family day-care homes; steps to correct the crisis in staffing child-care centers; and appointment of the state Education Department as the lead agency to administer the new federal child-care funds that will bring California about $70 million in the first year. Wilson should also try to reward companies that provide extended family leave, flex-time, on-site or near-site child-care and benefit packages.

--Sherry L. Skelly, legislative advocate, California Children ‘ s Lobby / Child Development Policy Board, Sacramento

AGRICULTURE

In Drought, Farmers Need Water-Resource Development

”. . . A fifth year of drought points up the need for development of our water resources to provide quality water for domestic, municipal, recreational and agricultural uses. Additional storage facilities must be developed if our state is to maintain its economic viability.

“The recent Medfly eradication battle in Southern California points to the need for added programs to strengthen our defenses. Additional dollars spent on pest exclusion and detection will result in significant taxpayer savings later, but, more importantly, eliminate the discomfiture of the people . . . .”

--Bob L. Vice, president, California Farm Bureau Federation, Sacramento

REDISTRICTING

Minorities Will Watch Closely How Power is Divvied Up

” . . . One of the crucial and immediate issues that you will confront is the reapportionment and redistricting of the many election units in the state.

”. . . What you can do as governor is to make clear your desire for a fair process and, most importantly, to provide a mechanism for direct access to you to hear the concerns of residents, particularly of minority communities, and their organizations. . . . Having an open door can help to alleviate the possibility of endless lawsuits, can provide valuable input from minority groups that have had little voice in past redistricting, and can send an important signal that greater political participation from all of our state’s residents is welcomed and encouraged.”

--Stewart Kwoh, executive director, Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, Los Angeles