Posts Tagged: city

Following the city charter, a reluctant San Bernardino city council last week approved a police pay raise costing about $1 million, the second $1 million police salary increase since the city filed for bankruptcy last year. The four council members who voted for the 3 percent pay hike all criticized a city charter provision linking San Bernardino to the average police pay in 10 other cities, most much wealthier with higher per-capita income.

Desert Hot Springs is considering bankruptcy for the second time in 12 years. On Tuesday, the city council unanimously approved a fiscal emergency. An emergency declaration is a preliminary step in filing for bankruptcy protection, although there was no indication from council members that a bankruptcy action was coming.

The city of Cerritos may be a trailblazer of sorts among local governments, but it’s leading the way on a trail that local governments probably don’t want to follow. The southern California community, which boasts a population just shy of 50,000 residents, is among the first of several city governments in California to go to the mat against the state controller’s review of its shift of local assets from the redevelopment agency.

(Ed’s Note: The following article originally appeared in California City News, a content partner of Capitol Weekly.)

Another off-reservation tribal casino has been approved in California, and there’s more to come: Three others are contemplated across the state from northern California to nearly the Mexican border.

Weeks ago the Legislature approved the governor’s compact with

Well over half of California’s 120 state legislators come from local government – the 450-plus city councils, the 58 boards of supervisors, the 1,100 school districts and the other local bodies that do the heavy lifting of day-today governance.

But once they get to Sacramento, the perspective changes. And if blaming Sacramento is common at

This is arguably the most Republican Assembly District in the state, yet the candidates are not overly partisan in nature. They all have fiscally conservative beliefs, but understand they are running to govern in a state that is heavily dominated by Democrats and are determined to create a more family and business friendly environment.

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Two special elections viewed as make-or-break contests for the Legislature’s Democratic supermajority had something in common Tuesday night – miserable turnout.

In the southern Central Valley, the high-stakes battle for the 16th Senate District pitted Kern County Supervisor Leticia Pérez, a Democrat, against Republican Andy Vidak, a Hanford cherry farmer.

With all the precincts at

A key planner of the Stockton bankruptcy, City Manager Bob Deis, plans to retire on Nov. 1, shortly before what could be a crucial public vote on a sales tax increase that has split the city council.

Deis battled with a police union that bought a house next to his home and subpoenaed his

January can be an odd time at the movies, with some of the most varied releases showing up. On the one hand you have the serious award contenders slowly rolling out across the country, having had Christmas releases in Los Angeles and New York City in order to qualify for various competition deadlines. While on

John P. Quimby, a craggy Capitol fixture for five decades as first a legislator and then a lobbyist for the Inland Empire, died December 23 of complications from pneumonia. He was 77.

A Democratic Assemblyman from 1962 to 1974, he subsequently lobbied for the counties he previously represented, San Bernardino and Riverside.

“Politics