Contra Costa Sheriff Warren Rupf

Contra Costa Sheriff Warren Rupf will not run for either the 10th or the 11th Congressional districts.

“The more I talked to people, the more I became convinced that I am not well-suited for partisan politics,” said Rupf, whose consultations included talks with national GOP officials in Washington, D.C. “The people that most want to talk you, on either side, are on the political fringes. They have a narrower view of what’s wrong with the world and how to fix it.”

Rupf said his values “don’t line up with the fringes of either party and compromising my values or my priorities is a price I am not willing to pay.”

The news will disappoint Republicans, who believed the well-known, outspoken and gregarious Rupf would have given Democrats in either district a serious challenge.

But Rupf faced considerable challenges of his own.

As a Republican, his chances of success at the ballot box were extremely slim in the heavily Democratic 10th Congressional District, just vacated by Ellen Tauscher.

Party registration is about dead even in the 11th District, but Rupf is largely unknown outside Contra Costa County except in law enforcement circles. More than half the 11th District’s voters live in San Joaquin County. He would also have had to run against an incumbent, Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney, a task far more difficult than running for an open seat.

So, for now, the 10th District’s sole Republican in the race is political novice and attorney David Harmer of Dougherty Valley.

Several Republicans have declared in the 11th District, including San Joaquin County vintner Brad Goehring, David Bernal of San Ramon and Jon Del Arroz of Danville.

The video is now available, folks.

Watch Local One Public Employees Union chief Rollie Katz gets really passionate it at the June 16 meeting of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, a lot of it targeted at Republican Supervisor Mary Nejedly Piepho’s efforts to modulate outright board support of Democrats’ in the Legislature pushing for tax increases.

Click here and move the video time button to about 2 hours and 20 minutes to watch the fireworks.

San Ramon Mayor Abram Wilson

San Ramon mayoral and council candidates in the Nov. 3 election will face voluntary campaign spending limits of $33,919 or $1 per registered voter. See Contra Costa Times reporter Sophia Kazmi’s story here.

What? San Ramon has an election this year? Yep, it’s the last odd-year election holdout in Contra Costa County. The rest of the cities consolidated with even-year elections, largely because it costs less to run an election in conjunction with other entities due to cost-sharing.

Mayor Abram Wilson is up for re-election along with councilmembers Dave Hudson and Jim Livingstone.

Wilson has said he will seek re-election and he has also said he will run again for state Assembly in 2010. Wilson, a Republican, is the city’s first directly elected mayor and he has never faced significant opposition. But it  one wonders if the Democratic Party will attempt to field an opponent in the mayoral contest in an effort to weaken Wilson’s chances for success in the Assembly.

Sunne Wright McPeak

My esteemed colleague and fellow political writer Carla Marinucci at the San Francisco Chronicle blogged yesterday that former Contra Costa County Supervisor Sunne Wright McPeak is rumored to be a potential 2010 Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

While McPeak’s credentials for such an undertaking are numerous, the Pleasanton resident told me last night that “if I ever decided to take leave of my mind and do something like that, I’ll come see you for counseling.” (To all the professional counselors out there, no need to worry. I never charge for my services.)

As you may recall, McPeak left her post as chief of the Bay Area Council to serve as state Secretary for Business, Transportation and Housing under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. She left to take a job as CEO and president of the California Emerging Technology Fund, an organization charged with spending $60 million in seed cash to close the digital divide in California. The Fund launches its public education campaign today.  (Click here to see my story about the fund.)

McPeak has remained largely quiet about her experience as one of Schwarzenegger’s cabinet members but sources close to her say the highly goal-oriented leader was beyond frustrated with how Sacramento’s hyper-politicized environment impeded progress on multiple levels.

The suggestion that McPeak, who hasn’t held public office in decades, would undertake a campaign for arguably the most politically charged jobs in California sounds nuts.

On the other hand, McPeak has been heavily involved in a group called California Forward. It’s a bipartisan organization calling for the reform of California’s Constitution as a way to solve the state’s massive structural fiscal problems.

In conjunction with legislative reforms, some folks are even talking about forming a third political party that would emphasize results over ideology.

With McPeak’s business background, socially liberal politics and her well-known interest in results over dogma, it’s not hard to see why her name has surfaced as a gubernatorial candidate. The bigger question is whether or not McPeak is interested in reentering politics.

Air Force Sgt. Mike Doyle, circa 1949, Erding Air Force Base, Germany

Danville Vice Mayor Mike Doyle leaves today for Germany where he will be among 35 U.S. veterans celebrating on May 12 the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, the American’s successful counter to Russia’s attempt to blockade European supply lines after World War II.

Doyle, who will turn 80 in August, was stationed for four years on Erding Air Base near Munich, where he was an assistant to the base’s two chaplains, one Protestant and one Catholic. (And no, it’s hard to believe that Doyle is 79 years old. We should wish to age as well as he has.)

“We had to figure out a way to keep the people of Berlin from starving and freezing to death,” Doyle said. “We were young and we were working 18 to 20 hours a day. It was a marvelous effort.”

Doyle participated in the 50th anniversary a decade ago but this trip is different on two fronts.

For one, only 35 members of the Berlin Airlift Veterans Association will participate compared with more than 100 a decade ago. Advancing years has taken its toll on the veterans. Many can no longer travel or have passed on.

“The requirement to participate was that you had to be able to walk,” Doyle said. “Those trains in Europe leave on time and wait for no one.”

But on a happier note, Doyle and his wife, JoeAnne, will for the first time visit the German base where he was stationed. Erding Air Base was returned to the Germans after the war and Doyle was unable a decade ago during the 50th anniversary to gain access to its grounds.

This trip, Doyle says his congressman, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, made it happen.

“We are going to be guests of the German Air Force, stay on the base and have a chance to watch flight maneuvers,” Doyle said. “There is a German captain who speaks pretty good English! It will be my first chance to show JoeAnne around the place where I lived for four years.”

Doyle enlisted in the military in 1947 at age 17 after he graduated from high school in Mahanoi City, Penn. He was initially in the Army Air Force but the Air Force split from the Army later that year.

After his tour in Germany, the Air Force sent Doyle far from his home in Pennsylvania to Camp Parks near Dublin, where he would meet his future wife, JoeAnne. The two set up household in Danville, raised five children and as the saying goes, the rest is history.

Contra Costa County Public Employees Union Local One is circulating this flyer (see below) in response to recent county deputy sheriff and district attorney union leaders’ demands that the county restore law enforcement funding at the expense of other departments such as the county hospital.

“Apparently, the DAs and the Sheriffs (our fellow county employees) think they’re special,” the flyer reads. “Their response to the cuts in the DA’s office has been to attack the Board of Supervisors for building the County Hospital and to argue for more cuts in Health Services. That means cut more of our jobs they won’t lose theirs.”

With more budget cuts on the horizon, this type of infighting among public employee unions is likely to only get worse.

Local One flyer

Check out my latest list of political event briefs. It’s listed in date order and includes Republican and Democrat events.

Rossmoor
POLITICAL EXPERT TO SPEAK: Tony Quinn, co-author of the California Target Book, will be the guest speaker at the May 12 meeting of the Rossmoor Community Club.
Quinn will speak on the statewide ballot measures that will appear on the May 19 special election.
The free community meeting begins at 3 p.m. in the Fireside Room, 1001 Golden Rain St. in Rossmoor.
For more details, contact Community Club President Tom Mader at ditoma@comcast.net.

Alamo
NATIONAL SECURITY IS TOPIC: Claremont Institute’s American Studies Fellow Larry Greenfield will speak at the May 13 dinner meeting of the Blackhawk Republican Women.
Greenfield’s speech is titled, “Liberty, Prosperity and National Security: How Conservative Principles will Recapture the American Spirit.”
Registration begins at 5:30 p.m. followed by the program at 6:15 p.m.
It will be held at the Blackhawk Country Club, 599 Blackhawk Club Drive in Alamo. The cost is $25 per person and no denim is allowed.
For reservations or more details, e-mail rlyons1009@sbcglobal.net or call 925-820-6542.

Orinda

Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner

NEW ASSEMBLYWOMAN TO SPEAK: Elected in November, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, will speak on her legislative experiences at the May 15 meeting of the Lamorinda Democratic Club.
Skinner will also speak about the ballot measures on the May 19 statewide special election.
She is the chairwoman of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and serves on the Assembly Utilities and Commerce, Public Safety, Local Government and Appropriations committees.
The club meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. followed by the speaker at 8 p.m. It will be held at the Orinda Community Church, 10 Irwin Way in Orinda.
The cost is $5 per person. Students are free.
For more details, call 925-210-7337 or visit lamorindademoclub.org.

CLICK THROUGH FOR THE REST OF THE LIST.

Read the rest of this entry »

District Attorney Bob Kochly

Contra Costa County’s Public Protection Committee — a subset of county supervisors Federal Glover of Pittsburg and John Gioia of Richmond — will address on Monday afternoon a new report from District Attorney Robert Kochly on how to prosecute misdemeanors.

As you may recall, Kochly sparked a firestorm earlier this month when he announced that budget cuts to his department were so severe that he could no longer punish certain miscreants.

Kochly’s report is thin on solutions. He wrote that he cannot do the job without an adequate number of attorneys. But he said that volunteer or retired attorneys are not a “reliable, ongoing substitute” for permanent staff and noted that the county already uses a significant number of diversion programs, or steps that allow small-time offenders to avoid jail through treatment or other programs.

The more interesting memo in the agenda packet comes from Deputy District Attorney Bob McMaster on whether or not the county could shift misdemeanor prosecution responsibilities to the cities and the potential oversight of Attorney General Jerry Brown.

McMaster wrote that the county could give permission to cities to handle the prosecutions but it cannot force them to do it. Given the state of most city budgets, it seems unlikely that cities want the job.

Brown could come in and prosecute misdemeanors if he determines that the county has failed to administer justice. But the state cannot force the county to do it, McMaster said. In other words, the costs would be on the state’s dime and we all know the state has no dimes.

All in all, there’s nothing in either of these memos that suggests longterm solutions to the problem of no money to pay the required number of prosecutors to go after the county’s scofflaws.

The meeting is set for Monday, May 11, 2:30 p.m., at 651 Pine Street in Martinez.

I’m sure the supervisors would love to hear your ideas.

The funding wheel goes round and round and where she stops, nobody knows.

Here is yet another example of one local agency asking another for money: Martinez schools will ask the Martinez City Council on May 6 for up to $500,000 to keep teachers in the classrooms.

We’ve already heard this week about how the county’s budget cuts might impact its ability to prosecute shoplifters and thieves, and one of the solutions is to let cities pay for their own prosecutors. Counties and cities all over California are laying off hundreds of workers and public services are being cut.

Here’s the staff report from Martinez City Manager Phil Vince:

CITY OF MARTINEZ CITY COUNCIL AGENDA
May 6, 2009

TO: Mayor and City Council

FROM:
Philip Vince, City Manager
SUBJECT:

DATE: Martinez Unified School District’s Request for Financial Support To Reduce the Number of Proposed Teacher Layoffs in FY 2009/10

April 30, 2009

RECOMMENDATION:

Consider and take action on the Martinez Unified School District’s (MUSD) request for funds.

BACKGROUND:

The MUSD approached the City three months ago requesting a one time donation of funding to reduce the layoff of up to 45 employees in 2009. The majority of scheduled layoffs include teachers.

While the MUSD successfully passed a $50 dollar parcel tax in November 2008, an anticipated $500,000 in additional funding will not be available until 2010. The school district request for funding from the City in the amount of $200,000 to $500,000, is intended to be used as a stop gap measure until further resources are available.

Although cities such as San Francisco, Pinole and Richmond have made financial contributions to their respective school districts to lessen the impact of teacher layoffs, the funding source came from Redevelopment dollars. Since Martinez does not have a Redevelopment Agency, the General Fund Reserve would be reduced by the allocation amount.

In the spirit of cooperation the MUSD and the City want to use this forum as an opportunity to share resources that would create more efficiencies for both agencies. A number of cost saving ideas were discussed, including: Read the rest of this entry »

Representatives of the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office held press conferences this afternoon to call on the county Board of Supervisors to adequately fund their departments.

District Attorney Bob Kochly stirred up a firestorm when he issued a memo to area police agencies that his department would no longer prosecute some misdemeanors due to budget cuts.

I’ll have more on this for my Sunday column but here are a few video clips from the presser: