The party’s guest list included actors Don Cheadle and George Clooney, two Nobel Laureates and the mayor of Rome.

There at the Barkett’s apartment at the Villa Borghese, a verdant central park of fountains and museums, began a three-day, annual summit started by former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev to honor those who spread peace, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Today, Barkett serves on the state commission that sets pay for top officials, in the seat meant to represent the state’s Average Joes. The commission, which convenes its annual pay-setting meeting next month, also has spots set aside for business, union, nonprofit and compensation professionals.

Barkett told CalWatchdog he was not sure of the criteria for the seat, but said he has “a diverse background in law, real estate, agriculture and general business so I think I am well suited to represent the general public on this commission.”

Barkett’s seat

The seat on the California Citizens Compensation Commission for the “general population” could include a “retiree, homemaker, or person of median income,” according to the state constitutional provision put in place by the voters.

Barkett was appointed in 2013. He succeeded a former mayor and bank vice-president as well as a roofing contractor who had contributed almost $150,000 since 1997 to federal campaigns.

The CCCC

The commission’s duty — which came out of a sweeping ethics reform package, Proposition 112, in 1990 — is to decide the pay and benefits of constitutional officers, like governor, attorney general and state legislators.

That package was aimed at giving regular citizens a measure of influence.

“When voters passed Proposition 112, there was a clear interest in creating a California Citizens Compensation Commission that would not be dominated by wealthy donors with personal connections to elected officials,” said Kathay Feng, the executive director of the good government group California Common Cause, which lobbied for Prop. 112 at the time of its creation and passage.

“The spirit of the law was to create a commission that would represent average Californians from different walks of life who could assess what would be reasonable compensation for our lawmakers,” Feng said.

However, because for the 12 months prior to being appointed Barkett hadn’t been a lobbyist, held elected or appointive office or been a candidate for elected office (a blanket requirement for three of the commission members), Brown’s office contends there’s nothing to see here.

“The appointment is consistent with statute,” said Brown spokesman Evan Westrup.

Wealth

Barkett and his cousin Edward, described in local reports as being from “one of the city’s most prominent families,” are commercial real estate developers. The two own an office building in Sacramento with a $4.2 million value for taxing purposes and a city center development in Lodi worth $6.8 million. They developed downtown Stockton’s reported $15 million City Centre Cinemas 16.

The median household income in California is $61,489. In Stockton it is $45,347.

The value of Barkett’s home in Stockton is estimated around four times the average local home value, according to data gathered from public disclosures and real estate websites.

Holdings

He’s listed as legal counsel for a company called 3 Leaf Holdings. Along with another business partner, Chris Flaherty, chairman and CEO of 3 Leaf Holdings, Barkett owns or manages a few development companies, a renewable energy company, a 160-acre walnut and olive orchard in Linden and a 110-acre cherry orchard in Salida. Flaherty is also a Brown appointee, to the 2nd District Agricultural Association, San Joaquin County Fair Board.

Since 1999, Barkett has given about $45,000 to federal candidates, mostly Democrats. He contributed another $81,000 to state candidates since 2002. And Rima, his wife, also a Brown appointee, gave another $5,900 at the federal level.

For years, Barkett has served as a political consultant for the Stockton East Water District.

Barkett’s father was Dr. Joseph Barkett, a family physician who, like Barkett, owned commercial properties and orchards. He was chairman of the San Joaquin County Democratic Club and raised money for two Democratic presidents: John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He was appointed to two terms on the World Trade Center Authority by then-Gov. Jerry Brown (during his first stint as governor).

His predecessors

Barkett replaced on the commission Kathy Sands, an appointee of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had been on the Auburn City Council for eight years, with two terms as mayor — but not for 12 months prior to her appointment (as required by law).

Sands had held other notable positions in Auburn city government as well. She had served as the vice president of the Auburn Chamber of Commerce and had, by the time she left after 40 years, worked her way up to vice president and senior loan officer of Placer Savings and Loan.

Johnny Zamrzla, an appointee of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, held the seat before Sands. A roofing contractor in Palmdale, Zamrzla had been active in industry groups like the Western States Roofing Contractors Association — there’s even an annual roofing award given in his honor. He has given to $145,000 to federal candidates over the years.

Read more:

Some legislators proudly refuse pay increases
Vacancies plague commission on state lawmaker’s pay

But there are a few problems with this narrative in the Golden State. For starters, the high cost of housing is at least as responsible as stagnant wages for California having the nation’s highest poverty rate. The federal minimum wage could double from the present $7.25, and poverty would still be sky-high here so long as mediocre one-bedroom apartments rent for $1,200 a month or more in urban areas.

What would bring down the cost of housing? Adding more housing stock by limiting regulations blocking new construction and incentivizing developers to build mixes of middle-income and lower-income housing.

Will CA Dems ever do that? Of course not. Growth is evil, yunno. Even if opposing it hurts poor people. Gaia must be honored.

The best way to create middle-class jobs

But where the Democrats’ posturing on income inequality is most unhelpful is with public education. If we wanted to create middle-class opportunities galore for kids in poor communities, we would mandate that they take computer science in high school. I wrote about this angle in March:

Even if minimum-wage hikes don’t kill jobs, the idea that this policy is a promising solution to income inequality makes little sense. In the big picture, what we need are many more people with in-demand job skills that lead to middle-income careers. And what we badly need from our elected leaders is an acknowledgment that California’s approach isn’t working in creating these job skills.

Income inequality isn’t just growing in the U.S. It’s growing in all advanced nations as technological advances wipe out middle-class jobs by the millions. It’s growing everywhere as the job marketplace increasingly values — and strongly rewards — a narrower range of skills than it did previously.

The best way to minimize the disruption this inexorable change creates is by maximizing the number of people with job skills not diminished by “creative destruction.” For starters, we need a focus on computer science and technological expertise in middle school and high school — not curriculums based on the educational values of the 1950s. We also need to make it much easier for displaced workers of any age to go back to the classroom to get practical job training.

Pursuing this ambitious agenda would be far more daunting than raising the minimum wage. But it has promise to significantly reduce income inequality — not nibble at the margins.

Will Biden make this point? Or just posture with Occupy-style rhetoric about the 1 percent?

You know the answer. President Obama may have a good record of calling for incompetent teachers to get the boot, but he has had little to say about the urgent need to revamp high-school graduation requirements for the 21st century.

Why? It’s tough not to think that it’s because it would cost 10 percent or more of high-school teachers their jobs. Never forget that the main opposition in New York state in the late 1990s to ending or scaling back failed bilingual education policies came from teacher union leaders who were upset it would mean pink slips for many “Spanish immersion” teachers.

Get ready for traffic hell, Los Angeles

Meanwhile, Angelenos once again will face a traffic nightmare today because of Biden’s visit and the Obama administration’s latest Socal money-grubbing. Joe Mathews had an enjoyably tart take on this last week:

Bad news: President Obama is coming to California again.

Mr. President, I realize such a statement may seem jarring. After all, our state voted for you twice. When you were first running for president, Maria Shriver said, “If Barack Obama were a state, he’d be California.” But these days, I bet I could rally a majority of Californians behind a proposition asking that you never visit again. And I wouldn’t even have to talk about your record-low job approval ratings among Californians.

No, our fundamental problem with you is more personal than political. You, sir, have developed a reputation as a very poor houseguest.

You often show up with little warning about your itinerary or schedule. (Your excuse? That the Secret Service can’t disclose your movements for security reasons.) Your massive security cordon routinely causes hours-long traffic jams in a state that already has too many of them. I was once two hours late picking up a child from day care because you just had to stop for takeout in Los Angeles during the evening rush hour.

Mathews makes this case that this might be more palatable if the president actually seemed familiar with and eager to address California issues. But Obama doesn’t and isn’t.

Your trips here have come to feel like those political fundraising emails that keep arriving this time of year. You’re spamming us, Mr. President. If you can’t do better by California on these trips, then maybe you should stop visiting.

This isn’t the first time Joe Mathews has griped about such inconveniences. Here he also takes a shot at George Clooney. Now he’s really getting too big for his britches.