Government roundup: City Council candidates emerge
| Monday, Aug 03 2009 05:14 PM
Last Updated Monday, Aug 03 2009 05:16 PM
HATS IN
Two hopefuls for the Bakersfield City Council seat being vacated by Irma Carson have submitted initial paperwork to the city clerk.
Sean Battle, executive director of the Bakersfield nonprofit Stop the Violence, and Rev. Wesley Crawford Sr., who ran for council in 1994 and for the Republican nomination for state Assembly in 2006, have both thrown hats in the ring for the Ward 1 seat.
The ward includes parts of central, east and southeast Bakersfield.
Carson was first elected in November 1994 and says at this point she doesn't plan to run again. Her term ends in December 2010.
The general election will be held in November 2010.
-- Staff writer Gretchen Wenner
GANG STATS
The Bakersfield Police Department's gang unit made 428 felony arrests, seized 94 guns, conducted more than 2,800 probation and parole searches and served 31 search warrants during the first six months of 2009, the unit's most recent report shows.
Eighteen guns seized in June included:
* A Marlin 9-mm semiautomatic rifle taken from a 17-year-old near Houser Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard;
* A .22-caliber short-barrel rifle with obliterated serial number from Fawn Street, southwest of Gosford Road and Westwold Drive;
* 11 guns from the master-bedroom closet and den of a Compton house where gang unit members unsuccessfully tried to find Zeus Sanchez, who was accidentally released from custody in June, including: a Bushmaster .223-caliber assault rifle with obliterated serial number; a Chinese AK-47; and a .38-caliber semiautomatic chrome and gold-plated super pistol.
-- Staff writer Gretchen Wenner
GOVERNMENTS RAIDED
The Sacramento Bee has tallied up how much the state will borrow or take from local governments throught California this fiscal year, based on estimates agency associations are sending their members. Here are the numbers the Bee posted on its Web site for governments in Kern County:
Kern county government: $19,499,703
Bakersfield city government: $6,913,151
Bakersfield Redevelopment Agency: $2,777,511
Ridgecrest Redevelopment Agency: $2,590,729
California City Redevelopment Agency: $2,101,831
Community Redevelopment Agency of the city of Delano: $1,055,569
Shafter Community Development Agency: $887,093
Delano city government: $534,029
Wasco Redevelopment Agency: $406,040
Redevelopment Agency of the city of Tehachapi: $367,462
Arvin Redevelopment Agency: $306,184
Shafter city government: $296,213
Ridgecrest city government: $227,084
Wasco city government: $221,675
Tehachapi city government: $193,985
California City city government: $161,953
Arvin city government: $132,449
Taft Redevelopment Agency: $127,918
Taft city government: $127,664
McFarland city government: $90,525
Maricopa city government: $14,342
-- Government team leader Christine Bedell
