Government roundup: Assemblywoman Fuller takes pay cut
| Monday, Jun 08 2009 05:44 PM
Last Updated Monday, Jun 08 2009 05:44 PM
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FULLER TAKES CUT
Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield, is so far the only local state lawmaker to voluntarily cut her pay, a list compiled by the Sacramento Bee shows.
Fuller took a voluntary 3 percent cut and declined a car allowance.
Twenty-four of California's 120 Senate and Assembly members have so far cut salaries from 3-18 percent, given up tax-free per diem payments totaling about $35,000 annually or said no to the car allowance, the Bee's reporting found.
A state commission voted in May to reduce lawmakers' base salaries of $116,208 by 18 percent, but the cut can't be imposed before terms are up in December 2010 or 2012.
-- Californian staff
WESTSIDE PARKWAY UPDATE
Low construction costs mean the next phase of the Westside Parkway could be built all the way from Mohawk Street to Allen Road.
The city council will vote Wednesday to OK a low bid of $76.6 million from Security Paving Co. for a chunk of the future six-lane, east-west freeway.
Earlier estimates had penciled in only the portion between Mohawk and Coffee Road, but building costs have since declined, giving the city more bang for its buck.
-- Californian staff
STOCKDALE UPGRADES
Some $3.9 million in improvements to Stockdale Highway are slated for approval Wednesday by the city council. A stretch between the Stockdale Country Club entrance and Ashe Road, and one between Village Lane and Wetherly Drive, will go from two lanes to three. Griffith Co. submitted the low bid.
-- Californian staff
WHERE THE MONEY WENT
The city of Bakersfield got a windfall of roughly $20 million in "extra" sales tax revenue during the boom, a brief report prepared at the request of Councilmember David Couch found.
The $20 million had been squirreled away for one-time expenses during three fiscal years between July 2004 and June 2007.
City staffers accounted for the funds this way, although the report did not indicate whether the amounts had been spent or simply set aside (the total exceeds $20 million):
* $1.25 million to a cash reserve
* $1.45 million transferred to the Facility Replacement Reserve
* $8.5 million for the Retiree Medical Trust fund
* $8 million for street repairs and resurfacing
* $4.5 million for future fire station construction
* $6.5 million to help pay for City Hall North
* $3.5 million for a new phone system
* $2.9 million for Aera Park
* $1 million for the Mesa Marin Sports Complex
* $2.5 million for the Sports Village
* $1 million for the General Plan update and other miscellaneous projects
-- Californian staff
AUTRY DENIES STATE SENATE RUN -- LIVE ON THE AIR
I called former Fresno Mayor Alan Autry this morning on his cell phone to check into a rumor that he was nearing a decision to run for the state Senate seat of Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who terms out in 2010.
Autry answered, said hello and then told me I was on the air on his radio show. I thought maybe he was joking. But I wasn't sure and asked him the question.
"I have no plans [to run], I have no calling," he said, then joked that he would run right after he gets a frontal lobotomy.
Anything else, he asked. I said no, then logged on to the live stream on KYNO (AM 1300). Sure enough, he was on the air -- and had just denied the Senate run, for all to hear.
-- By EJ Schultz on the Fresno Bee Political Notebook, at fresnobeehive.com/news/political_notebook
