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Editorials - editorials's Blog - Bakersfield.com http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials en-us Appointments stall, valley air still polluted http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/33092 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/33092 PUBLISHED Sept. 7, 2008 ---   Eleven months ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation into law that expanded the valley’s air-quality board from 11 to 15 members. These new members were not to be political cronies or retired legislators looking for plum review-board assignments, but people with either specific expertise in relevant fields or a vested interest in the health of their community’s lungs. We’re still waiting. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, charged with making our air more breathable, still isn’t fully staffed as the law’s one-year anniversary approaches. Not even close. Two of the new positions are supposed to belong to representatives of valley cities, additions that would bring the total city representation to five members. But those positions still haven’t been filled, and with the May 2008 resignation of Raji Brar, who stepped down from the Arvin City Council and consequently also the air board, there are now three such vacancies. The term of a fourth city representative, from Fresno, expires in February. Schwarzenegger was also supposed to have appointed a doctor and a scientist to the valley air board. He finally got around to appointing Dr. John Telles, a Fresno cardiologist, in April — six months after signing the legislation that called upon him to do so. But the governor has yet to appoint a scientist, even though qualified valley residents have expressed an interest in the non-salaried appointment. When might we expect some attention to the people’s business in this area, governor? Not soon, by the sound of things. “We are currently working to fill the position with the best and most qualified representative to serve the people of California,” spokeswoman Rachel Cameron said last week. The delay concerns the Fresno-based Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, as it should. “We have not heard anything,” said CVAQ coordinator Liza Bolaños. “We do know there are a couple of scientists who have applied who are qualified. But we haven’t heard any solid answers. “Every month the air district takes up very technical matters, and not having someone there with that expertise is not helping.” The absence of three city representatives is just as troubling. Earlier this year, the California League of Cities, faced with legal threats over the alleged politicization of the appointment process, stepped away from the seat-designation role it has played since the air board’s inception in 1992. In response, state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, stepped in with SB 1548, which would create a city selection committee made up of local city council members to appoint representatives to the air board. Florez’s bill “is a good idea,” said air board spokeswoman Brenda Turner. “It at least offers a solution. It’s difficult for us not having a full board.” The board can’t get things done without a quorum of eight members, and it’ll be down to 10 members by early next year unless vacancies are filled quickly. Schwarzenegger must appoint a scientist to the board with all due haste and sign Florez’s bill, which is now on his desk — along with dozens of others delayed by the budget impasse. “Florez’s bill makes sure representatives are chosen with public input, through public participation, and without any smoke-filled rooms,” Bolaños said. “The problem is huge, and we’re not going to be able to fix it without regional input.” Indeed we will not. Enough already with "pledges" http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/33091 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/33091 PUBLISHED Sept. 5, 2008 ---   Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has painted himself in a corner by pledging not to sign any new bills until the state Legislature resolves its history-making impasse and passes a budget. Schwarzenegger granted himself an exemption last week and signed a bill that puts clearer, more specific language into the text of Proposition 1, funding and route-planning for high-speed rail. Now, was that so painful? Lifting that pen from his pocket was pain-free because rewriting the text of Prop. 1 (now Prop. 1A) does not involve monetary expenditure. It was simply a turn of the screw in terms of responsible governance. Schwarzenegger says the no-new-bill pledge is still in place, and he won’t be signing anything until we have a budget.  (Well, except for a bill promoting budget reform; another changing the state lottery to allow California to borrow against future ticket sales; and a third authorizing a bond for water infrastructure.) Schwarzenegger needs to come off the ledge and agree to be governor once again. He needs to sign bills that deserve to be signed and ignore or veto those that don’t. He needs to stop making ultimatums — especially with his track record of not holding to them. Schwarzenegger does need to maintain one aspect of his pledge, however. He should shelve any bill that calls for additional spending until the Legislature can show how we will pay for the project or program in question. Without a budget, we can’t. Pledges sound good until reality sets in. We’re reminded that things can’t get done in government without compromise. It’s a truism that Republican members of the Legislature would do well to consider. All but one Republican has signed a pledge stating that “I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.” It leaves no room for negotiating  any tax increase, however temporary or incremental. Everyone needs to back off on the pledges. That doesn’t mean the players in Sacramento should roll over and disregard long-held principles. It means they must take care of the people’s business before the state collapses into a quivering heap of collective ineptitude. Focus on educating children http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32970 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32970 PUBLISHED Sept. 4, 2008 --- Come on, guys. Let’s get serious! Kern High School District voters elected trustees to guide and improve the education their children receive. They didn’t elect them to hijack the district’s board of trustees to further their personal, religious and political agendas. Overseeing the education that high school students receive is a big job. And by no stretch of the imagination can anyone argue that KHSD trustees are excelling in that job. Despite incremental improvement, students’ test scores still stink. Too many graduate from KHSD schools unprepared to attend a college or university, let alone hold a job. Perhaps it is just a strategic diversion. Get voters to look away from trustees’ real responsibilities by immersing the KHSD board in an unrelated November election battle. God forbid that parents and taxpayers would pay real attention to the tough job they elected trustees to do. Oh, in case you forgot: That job is to educate our children and to prepare them to be productive citizens of our community. This week, KHSD trustees Ken Mettler, with the help of Chad Vegas, asked the board to take an official position supporting Proposition 8 — the initiative on the November ballot to ban same-sex marriages. Because trustees Bob Hampton and Joel Heinrichs voted no and trustee Bryan Batey was absent, the measure failed — as it should have. What does Proposition 8 have to do with educating our children? Nothing. Mettler and Vegas spouted stuff about the need for traditional families — the existence of moms and dads who are of opposite sexes — being at the core of educating our children. But get real. Same-sex marriage — relatively rare in Kern County — is  not the problem that is interfering with the raising and educating of our community’s children. If Mettler and Vegas seriously wanted to embark on campaigns to address the district’s biggest problems outside the classroom, they would target poverty, crime, gangs, dysfunctional families of all stripes, teen pregnancy, the lack of parental involvement — the list goes on and on. No, Mettler, who describes himself as the local chairman of the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign, and his sidekick Vegas, who has embroiled the district in religious crusades in the past, simply wanted to use the KHSD board for political advantage — as a bully pulpit. The pair will have plenty of opportunity to campaign in support of Proposition 8 in advance of the November election. They must not use our children to further those efforts. Voters elected them to do a real job. Educating and preparing our children to become productive adults is tough work. Let’s focus on that.   Kern keeps luring film crews http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32967 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32967 PUBLISHED Sept. 3 --- Is Kern County recession-proof when it comes to the film industry? No such luck. But this unique and topographically varied corner of the world -- the setting for hundreds of major motion pictures since before talkies -- has remained popular with Hollywood, even as others have slipped. Two-thirds of studio-financed features were filmed partially or entirely in California just five years go. The state's share has been cut in half since then to just 31 percent as many states and Canadian provinces have successfully lured away film companies with assorted incentives. Kern County has felt the pinch, but things remain generally hopeful. "We're having a record year," says Dave Hook of the Kern County Board of Trade's film commission. "But it runs in cycles. We've had periods where literally as soon as you hang up the phone it's ringing again." And others where it doesn't. We're considerably ahead of last year's pace. Highlights include "Timmy and the Bandits," which has been shooting recently in the Pine Mountain-Frazier Park area; "Meteor," shot in Taft over 12 days in July (with an overall economic benefit to the county of $900,000); "The Fast and the Furious 4" -- yes, the franchise lives on -- at Tejon Ranch in June; and Will Ferrell at the Trona Pinnacles in May and June for "Land of the Lost." Through July 2008, Kern County saw 341 shooting days, worth an estimated $17 million -- a total that has already surpassed the $16.3 million for all of 2007. California does not offer production incentives for filmmakers beyond waivers of location and permit fees, as 40 other states do. Still, according to the California Film Commission, annual film production spending in California is about $38 billion, supporting some 250,000 jobs. Other states' film commissions provide tax breaks and other incentives for studios to shoot movies, commercials and videos. Not California. "We're always concerned because we like to see a level playing field" Hook says. "Kern County supervisors understand there are a lot of rivals, so we don't charge for filming permits or county roads permits. We can't give rebates because we don't charge in the first place." When you're as close to Hollywood as Kern County, and you've got breathtaking vistas like Oildale and Trona Pinnacles, you can get away with that. It doesn't hurt to have an aggressive, hard-working film commission.   Keep the legal drinking age at 21 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32966 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32966 PUBLISHED Sept. 2 ---  For a bunch of really smart people, the 128 college presidents who recently signed the so-called Amethyst Initiative seem lacking in common sense. These presidents and chancellors, from such institutions as Duke, Dartmouth, Tufts, Ohio State and Santa Clara, have called on authorities to consider lowering the legal drinking age from 21 to 18. They assert that the current drinking age has led to a "culture of dangerous, clandestine binge-drinking" on college campuses. There's no question that binge drinking is a huge problem on college campuses across the country, especially in the upper Midwest, where schools in places like Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota report extreme drinking on the order of three to four times the rate of schools on the east and west coasts. They believe lowering the legal drinking age will lead to more responsible drinking among college students, pointing out the irony that 18-year-olds may join the military, cast a vote and buy cigarettes, but can't enjoy a legal beer. But the higher drinking age saves lives and has scant relation to college-age binge drinking. After the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act went into effect -- a law that's up for reauthorization in 2009, no doubt emboldening the Amethyst group -- underage drinking dropped instantly. Between 1977 and 2007, the percentage of 12th graders drinking at least once a month fell from 70 percent to 45 percent. Fatal car accidents involving drunks in the 18-to-21 age range dropped by 32 percent, saving an estimated 1,000 lives per year. By comparison, New Zealand lowered its drinking age in 1999 from 21 to 18, and fatal crashes skyrocketed. And, contrary to widely held belief, teens in more permissive parts of the world are hardly less likely to avoid the pitfalls of overconsumption. That's not to say older teens can't benefit from alcohol education, which may include cautious introduction to wine, for example, by a responsible parent. (This is not to be confused with buying booze for teen parties.) Demystifying drinking will have some benefit, although it is clearly not the whole answer. Education and enforcement are still the most effective tools in fighting campus binge drinking, and college presidents have plenty of say over that. If they're truly concerned about their incoming freshmen, they'll talk to police and council members in their cities about tough enforcement, and they'll require students to attend seminars on addictive behavior, the dangers of binge drinking and the toll on accident victims' families. Will it stop binge drinking? No, but it will take a bite out of the problem. The American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control, National Highway Traffic Safety Board, and the U.S. Surgeon General all support keeping the drinking age at 21. Those college presidents might want to confer with them.   We must change the way we think about growth http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32964 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32964 PUBLISHED Aug. 31 --- We cannot afford to sprawl any more. The cost of new infrastructure is just too high, the price of gas too exorbitant, the impact on air quality too devastating. Despite the obvious benefits of compact development, cities like Bakersfield continue to struggle with it. Developers are reluctant to build anything but the conventional, big-yard homes they insist buyers want, and municipal officials are loathe to burden builders with fees commensurate with the broad impact of their projects. The effect is city planning departments that have trouble walking the walk, builders who promote destructive old models of development, prospective buyers who fear innovation they've never been offered or exposed to, and the perpetuation of some of the nation's worst air. City councils across California, handcuffed by lack of will, absence of vision, or ideological brain-lock, have generally failed to address the central issues. Now the Legislature is stepping in. SB 375, written by state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, links California land-use planning and global warming remediation targets. Under SB 375 -- Steinberg's fifth rewrite of the proposal -- each metropolitan area of the state would adopt a "sustainable community strategy" to encourage compact development and connect those plans to greenhouse emissions targets set by the California Air Resources Board. The bill includes preferential funding for transportation projects that mesh with these local strategies. Participants would get first shot at the $5 billion in transportation money Sacramento hands out every year. In addition, residential builders would get relief from a lot of environmental red tape -- an expedited path to completion, as long as their projects fit the goals of the law and the individual community. In other words, the bill would create opportunities for local creativity in the pursuit of common, statewide benefits. Regional planners are concerned about a loss of some local control, particularly a perceived one-size-fits-all approach that seems mostly geared to urban areas. But they also see benefits. "From the standpoint of reducing the amount of vehicle miles traveled -- and land use is certainly part of that -- it's a good thing," said Kern County Planning Director Ted James. "How do you get people to change their patterns and habits? That's always been the challenge. "I do have concerns with (diminished) local land-use authority, but some of the concepts outlined in the legislation are things we need to start thinking about as we update the Metropolitan Plan with the city of Bakersfield." Bakersfield city planner Jim Movius agrees that the overall effect will aid cities. "Some good will come out of it as far as (community) walkability," he said. "I don't necessarily agree with the approach. They say they're not taking any authority away from local planning agencies, but they are by taking away some transportation and (environmental) authority. ... But the things that are going to spin off this (legislation), I think, are good things." Those with limited imaginations will look at the bill and see the Legislature pushing us all into downtown apartments overlooking the GET bus transfer station. It's that kind of thinking that, over the years, has stymied the inventiveness and innovation that changing times demand. Steinberg's bill would not eliminate the suburbs or the big, ranch-style homes that some people prefer, but rather create an environment that would give homebuyers more responsible and affordable options. Creatively applied, attractively rendered urban density built around mass transit lends itself to job growth, affordable housing and protection of farmland, never mind cleaner air. The time to take bold strides in that direction is now. The governor should sign Steinberg's bill as soon as it crosses his desk.   Labor Day: Save gas, lives http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32963 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32963 PUBLISHED Aug. 29 ---  The last big getaway of the summer vacation season takes place this weekend when America celebrates Labor Day. Too often these three-day weekends are anything but celebrations for some families. Traffic deaths routinely spike when people take holiday road trips. This year may be better than most thanks to the silver lining in recent high gas prices. Four-dollar gas is keeping people close to home. U.S. traffic deaths declined last year, dropping to the lowest level in more than a decade. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters attributes the decrease to "safer vehicles" and "aggressive law enforcement." But with Americans driving fewer miles this summer as gas prices soar, experts say we can expect greater reductions in highway deaths in 2008. California, home to more cars and trucks than any other state, had the largest decline in the nation last year, with 266 fewer traffic fatalities than in 2006. Nearly 4,000 people lost their lives on the state's highways in 2007 nonetheless. Worse still, high gas prices fueling an upsurge in the number of registered motorcycles -- it's at more than 6 million now, compared to 3.8 million a decade ago -- has led to a spike in motorcycle fatalities. Motorcycles and scooters can get up to 60 miles per gallon, a strong temptation for riders who may be less experienced than those who've been on two wheels all along. Transportation officials will be targeting motorcyclists with a $13 million anti-drunk driving advertising campaign running through the Labor Day holiday. Also expect new safety and training standards for novice riders, more training for law enforcement and special attention to the problem of helmets with counterfeit safety labeling. Drunken driving remains an issue whether the driver is operating a car or a motorcycle. In anticipation, law enforcement agencies across California will be cracking down -- many of them as part of the statewide "Avoid" campaign, funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That will mean sobriety checkpoints in many parts of the state. High gas prices have added one more benefit to an already substantial list of reasons why it's best not to mix drinking and driving, no matter what your type of vehicle.   Terrorists targeting researchers http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32961 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32961 PUBLISHED Aug. 28 --- Many people are opposed to the practice of using animals in scientific study, including medical research. Activists can and often do voice their concerns to the institutions that participate. But conscientious objection and the First Amendment right to protest do not include the right to kill, injure and intimidate. And that is what's at the heart of an Assembly bill soon to come before the state Senate that would give academic researchers, including those who carry out tests on animals, the same legal protection as elected and appointed government officials and reproductive health care workers. AB 2296 would give law enforcement new tools to investigate animal-rights activists suspected in an unsolved succession of firebombings, trespassing and vandalism incidents aimed at University of California scientists. Publishing the personal information of researchers with the intent to threaten, or trespassing on their residential property in an effort to persuade them to cease their work would become a misdemeanor. The measure has been classified as urgent since the Aug. 2 firebombing of the homes of two UC Santa Cruz researchers. No one was seriously hurt in those incidents. UCLA scientists also have been targeted: A firebomb scorched the front door of one scientist's home, and firebombs were placed near other homes and cars without exploding. One researcher sustained $20,000 in damage to her home after vandals put a garden hose through her window and flooded it while she was away. As a UC-Berkeley police official recently told the state Senate Committee on Public Safety, "UC researchers and staff, along with their spouses and children, live in daily fear for their safety." Since last August, at least 31 researchers at UC Berkeley alone have been the victims of some type of animal-rights incident, according to testimony at the panel hearing. Campus police report more than 70 incidents. Researchers should be obligated to treat research animals with all due care -- and in fact, specific regulations outlining proper procedures apply. Scientists must be held accountable to those standards. But animal research has played an essential role in virtually all advances in biomedical research for 200 years or more. Researchers, using all due care, should be able to do their work without fear of intimidation. This bill is a step in the right direction.   Protect Panorama Park http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32567 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32567 PUBLISHED 8/27/08 ----- Taggers have started making themselves at home at Panorama Park, the linear park along Panorama Drive with the jaw-dropping view of north Bakersfield’s Kern River oil field. Residents were outraged to awaken recently to fresh graffiti and assorted other vandalism in the relatively new county park. Curbsides, street signs and even the trunks of several palm trees were hit with blue and red paint. Vandals nearly destroyed one metal park bench. County parks employees were quickly on the job making repairs, but neighbors and park users are fed up. This is not the first time vandals have struck there. What can be done? Consider these possibilities: • Patrol the park more frequently after its 10 p.m. closing, and not just with Kern County Sheriff’s deputies. Although the park is in unincorporated Bakersfield, it’s adjacent to a heavily populated neighborhood and it’s frequented by many city residents. Bakersfield Police should chip in with personnel and resources. • Create a Neighborhood Watch program comprised of neighbors and park users who are willing to call law enforcement to report suspicious activity day or night. • Post signs with a telephone number park users can call if they spot vandals at work, or other suspicious behavior. • Add more lighting, as long as it’s as unobtrusive as possible to the neighbors. • Appoint an unofficial “park commissioner,” who can work as a liaison among and between neighbors, park users, county parks department officials, law enforcement and other vested parties. Former Supervisors Pauline Larwood and Barbara Patrick worked diligently to create this recreational oasis on what was once a barren patch of bluff land. They are informed and well-liked. They might be perfect candidates to head up a protection effort. Supervisor Mike Maggard, who now represents Larwood’s and Patrick’s old District 3, should step up, as well. Ensure resources are provided to preserve the safety and beauty of this county park. As bad as things are now, they can quickly slip into more dangerous territory as rival taggers become involved. Add the hazards of the Panorama bluffs into the equation, and it’s clear there’s plenty of negative potential. The quicker and more effectively the community addresses this situation the better. Ruling protects election system http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32502 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/editorials/32502 PUBLISHED 8/26/08 ---- Kern County Superior Court Commissioner Linda Etienne cut through the political hype Monday and came down on the side of protecting the integrity of our elections. The commissioner denied a request by Bakersfield City Council hopeful Beau Woodward to rule that a woman who had signed Woodward’s candidate petition was a registered voter at the time she signed. Woodward came up one signature shy of the 20 needed to have his name placed on the Nov. 4 ballot to challenge incumbent Ward 5 Councilman Harold Hanson. Although he collected 33 signatures — 13 extra than the required number — several signers did not live in Ward 5 and several were not registered voters. One disqualified signer, however, claimed she registered to vote when she renewed her driver’s license at the DMV. But county election’s officials said they had no record of the woman being a registered voter. The woman had no proof of registration. Etienne appropriately rejected Woodward’s request for the court to  declare the woman a registered voter and to clear the way for his City Council candidacy. The commissioner cited state elections laws in declining to do so. These are laws that assure voters that all candidates and all elections are treated fairly and equally. But the dustup over the woman’s claim that she had registered to vote at the DMV on May 16 and somehow her forms were lost in the bureaucratic shuffle raise a concern all voters should heed — particularly as the Oct. 20 deadline to register for the Nov. 4 election nears. We now have a variety of ways to  register to vote. We can do so when we obtain or renew our driver’s licenses at the DMV. People stand outside of Wal-Mart pestering us to sign up to vote. Pending in the Legislature is a proposal to make registering to vote even easier. Senate Bill 381 would enable us to register online — tying our DMV records to our online registration forms. Just hit send. But with all this ease and reliance on technology, there are risks. Have you ever sent an e-mail that failed to arrive? Have you read stories about fraudulent petition circulators who dumped registration forms to favor a certain political party? If you register to vote and county elections officials receive your registration form, you will be sent a notification. If time allows, you will be sent a sample ballot before an election. At the very least you will be notified of your polling place. Don’t assume if you sign a form you are a registered voter. Check.