But when it comes to Oakland — home of the third team that’s been subject to years of intense speculation about a possible move — Mayor Libby Schaaf has handed negotiations with the Raiders and the NFL over a new stadium to an assistant city administrator, a low-level official more accustomed to helping neighborhoods get better trash collection or to settling disputes over zoning infractions.

Given that the Raiders have a loyal fan base, an international following and a rich history, how is it that local elected officials could be so blase about losing the team?

The most obvious reason is the city’s weak finances and how they relate to the most pressing local issue. Oakland has had persistent budget gaps and has not benefited from the tech boom remotely as much as San Francisco, Santa Clara or many smaller communities in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley.

Fighting crime the priority, not keeping Raiders

Meanwhile, crime has grown steadily in recent years, to the point where Forbes declared Oakland to be America’s third-most dangerous city. Public safety is Mayor Schaaf’s priority, as this April story about her proposed budget in the San Francisco Business Times story makes clear:

The $2.4 billion two-year budget would increase the Oakland Police Department from 722 to 762 officers in the next year and a half, with a long-term goal of 800 officers by 2018.

 

“Oakland will not grow unless people are confident it is getting safer,” Schaaf wrote in a letter earlier this month to the City Council.

That letter identified three priorities beyond public safety, but never mentioned the Raiders or the NFL and their desire for an upgrade from the battered Oakland-Alameda County Stadium.

From the national media perspective, this indifference is being interpreted as a sign the team’s departure for L.A. is inevitable. The NFL executive overseeing Los Angeles relocation issues this week said no “viable” plan had ever emerged from either the city or the team, and a league committee declined to even talk with a Bay Area real estate developer who wants to build a stadium as a centerpiece to a larger, $4.2 billion mixed-use development, believing the plan to be far-fetched.

“As for Oakland, there is no there, there. The area doesn’t have a stadium offer on the table, and time is running out,” ESPN’s John Clayton wrote on Tuesday.

But that presumes the Raiders’ and Chargers’ proposal to jointly build and then share a $1.75 billion stadium project in Carson — where they already have land and regulatory approvals —  is likely to get the league’s go-ahead.

St. Louis and San Antonio may be team’s future

San Diego officials don’t believe that’s close to inevitable. It’s why their stadium proposal announced this week is actually tougher in its financing terms than a proposal that a task force recommended this spring, as CalWatchdog reported Tuesday. The thinking appears to be that the NFL is far more likely to approve the Rams’ move back to Los Angeles, where its stadium plan is considerably closer to fruition than the Raiders/Chargers proposal. There is believed to be no NFL interest in having three teams in Los Angeles.

Oakland’s mayor and City Council may have a similar take. But unlike San Diego officials, they’re not offering a financing plan, one perceived as “tough” or otherwise, to the Raiders. They appear resigned to having the Raiders eventually leave for a city with a much more lucrative, modern NFL stadium with luxury boxes and more seats.

If the Rams leave town, St. Louis is an obvious option for Raiders owner Marc Davis. This week, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon expressed confidence that the St. Louis riverfront stadium project that’s now being planned would have an NFL team as a tenant even if the Rams departed for Inglewood.

And the most populous U.S. city to not have an NFL franchise — San Antonio, America’s seventh-largest city, with 1.5 million residents — is also likely to be in the mix. City officials are eager to get a team for football-crazy South Texas. And the Raiders have already had talks with city officials, dating back years.

San Antonio believed it had proven itself as an NFL-ready city in 2005 when the New Orleans Saints got a warm reception after temporarily relocating that season because Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Superdome. But so far it has been unable to attract a team.

The Safe and Responsible Drivers Act was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013 to allow qualified unauthorized immigrants to drive legally. It went into effect Jan. 2 after a long preparation period.

Supporters say the goal of the law, also known as AB60, is to make roads safer by insuring more drivers.

Critics, meanwhile, have said AB60 condones law-breaking. Some have said the licenses could be used to commit fraud and that it could increase security risks.

The nearly 400,000 licenses for applicants who are in the country illegally represent more than half the total number of original licenses issued by the DMV from January through June.

“The latest numbers reflect the continued successful implementation of AB 60,” said DMV Director Jean Shiomoto, in a recent press release. “The DMV was determined to develop a process that would not only meet the stringent requirements of this new law, but also the unique needs of our newly expanded customer base.”

Applicants must prove their identity and California residency, as well as meet all other licensing requirements such as passing the knowledge and behind-the-wheel exams.

The governor’s budget has estimated AB60 will cost $141 million over three years, according to the DMV. The majority of costs cover new agency staff.

The state expects to process as many as 1.4 million applications for the new licenses over the next three years. The state’s Motor Vehicle Account, which receives money from DMV license fees and other charges, will be used to pay for the program, the agency has said.

Wait times ballooned at DMV offices across the state after the program started in January, attributed by the agency to a larger-than-expected surge in applicants.

The average wait time in January for walk-in customers was 90 minutes statewide, according to the DMV. It was down to 60 minutes in February.

Altogether in the first six months of 2015, the DMV issued 759,000 original driver licenses. That includes approximately 397,000 for applicants through the new program, according to DMV figures.

The distribution of licenses is on pace to surpass the number of original licenses issued in recent years. Those figures are as follows: 902,028 in 2014; 863,196 in 2013; and 803,567 in 2012.

The state says there are more than 25 million current driver licenses issued in California.

Contact reporter Chris Nichols at chris@calwatchdog.com or on Twitter @ChrisTheJourno

After facing questions from the Los Angeles Times, Brown retracted the pardon of Glen William Carnes, who, as a teenager, was convicted of a drug-related crime. The governor’s office based its pardon decision, in part, on an order from the Orange County Superior Court, which stated there was evidence “he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character and conducted himself as a law-abiding citizen.”

However, a Times investigation called into question whether the ex-con had been fully rehabilitated:

“However, federal records show Carnes was disciplined by investment regulators in May 2013. He signed a consent settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that states he agreed to be barred from financial investment. The document alleged that he hid an outside business deal and provided investigators with ‘false and misleading statements that minimized and mischaracterized his involvement.’ Carnes did not admit guilt.

“Securities and Exchange Commission records show the business deal that led to the sanction became what is now Carnes’ company: Global Vision Holdings, a publicly traded corporate umbrella of which Carnes is listed as CEO, chairman of the board and chief financial officer.”

Carnes: “You’ve got to be kidding me”

An exasperated Carnes couldn’t believe the governor, who has granted 510 pardons since 2011, was rescinding his pardon.

“Oh my God. You’ve got to be kidding me,” Carnes said in a phone interview with the Associated Press. “I was told by attorneys that it didn’t need to be disclosed.”

He added, “I cannot believe this is happening, I’ve waited 20 years for this. This is wrong.”

The case demonstrates the fickle nature of gubernatorial pardons, which Brown has brought back into fashion. Pardons, which are available to any individual that has been convicted of a crime in California, are only granted in extraordinary cases. A convict must obtain a Certificate of Rehabilitation, which is an order from a superior court declaring that a person convicted of a crime is now rehabilitated.

“A gubernatorial pardon may be granted to people who have demonstrated exemplary behavior and have lived productive and law-abiding lives following their conviction,” the governor’s office stated in its press release announcing the Christmas Eve actions. “Pardons are not granted unless they are earned.”

Other pardon recipients overjoyed

The 104 pardons that remained in effect were granted to Californians convicted of non-violent drug and burglary offenses who had completed their sentences. The pardons offer the rehabilitated convicts a chance to regain certain rights, including the right to serve on a jury, own a gun and work as a parole or probation officer.

“It’s a second chance,” Francois Dominick, a Bay Area recipient of a pardon, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “That’s what it is. I’m employed and doing the right thing and haven’t been in any trouble. I got my second chance, and I won’t blow it.”

Pardon for Modesto man who stole wine as teenager

Among those pardoned by the governor was a Modesto man who stole “expensive wine out of a wine cellar and drank it.”

Michael J. Moradian Jr., who has since been honored for his work in the Central Valley, explained his crime was a foolish mistake he committed as a teenager.

“I was a senior in high school when it happened,” he told the Modesto Bee. “I made poor choices at the time. It opened my eyes and totally changed my life. I was on the road to destruction in high school, but it woke me up.”

Since his youthful indiscretion, Moradian has volunteered with Central Valley non-profit organizations — work that earned him recognition in 2013 from the Modesto Chamber of Commerce.

“Mike is a good friend and a good man!” State Senator Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, posted on his Facebook page in support of the governor’s pardon.

Of the several California cities where pension reform emerged as the sharpest political issue, San Jose faced some of the most pointed combat. Pension reform drove this month’s close election for mayor, which pitted Supervisor Dave Cortese — the union-backed candidate — against Councilman Sam Liccardo, who was allied to outgoing Mayor Chuck Reed.

The lines were the city’s pension reforms in Measure B, approved by over two-thirds of San Jose voters in 2012. As The Wall Street Journal observed, however, Liccardo’s Democratic pedigree was 德州扑克在线游戏 enough to help turn back Cortese’s challenges to the Reed legacy.

According to the Journal, “San Jose’s pension reforms are among the boldest in the country because they modify benefits for current workers in addition to future hires.” In the world of pension policy, that approach has sparked a virtual panic among defenders of the status quo. Wherever such changes have been proposed, critics have warned that public-sector employees would essentially abandon their jobs; in San Jose, reported the Journal, “the city’s police union faulted the pension reforms for a putative ‘exodus’ of officers and a crime wave,” even though “property and violent crime rates have fallen since 2012.”

Liccardo recently put an optimistic face on his goal of fully funding annual health care obligations for retirees. He saw “plenty of common ground,” he told KQED. “We have new opportunities going forward, and I’ll be talking with the heads of our police union and certainly with the rank and file about how we can find common ground.” But Reed cautioned  he expects more union-driven legal challenges ahead.

A tug of war in Stockton

Although smaller in size than San Jose, Stockton’s battles over pensions have also been closely watched, on account of the city’s struggle through bankruptcy proceedings. A recent pair of rulings by bankruptcy judge Christopher Klein heightened the drama surrounding Stockton’s attempts to meet its pension obligations with a minimum of fuss.

First, Klein held that it would be unconstitutional should pension funds go completely untouched against a city’s will. But then he ruled  Stockton’s planned agreement on the bankruptcy was properly structured, despite leaving pensions largely intact.

The careful decision left reform opponents with half a loaf: on the one hand, cities had the right to touch pensions, violating the unofficial so-called “California Rule” that traditionally kept them sacrosanct; but on the other, the California Public Employee Retirement System, which filed legal objections to any pension changes, was basically free and clear.

Stockton’s private creditors, by contrast, took a big haircut — a setback all of them accepted, with one exception. Upsetting Stockton’s delicate balance of interests, Franklin Templeton Investments has filed an appeal of Klein’s second ruling. With a total of $36 million in loans sunken into Stockton — which has paid CalPERS $29 million a year and counting — Franklin was set to receive just 12 cents per dollar on its investments, according to the city’s bankruptcy plan, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Echoing the dire predictions made in San Jose, the Bee reported, Stockton city officials and CalPERS warned that cutting pensions would touch off a “mass exodus by police officers and other city workers.” Franklin, however, argued  there simply wasn’t adequate proof that pension revisions would collapse key public services — and that basic fairness required its share of the bankruptcy burden be lessened. Now, that argument will go to the 9th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel in Pasadena.

New transparency

Meanwhile, overarching the city-by-city conflict, a potentially game-changing development has emerged from Sacramento, where incoming Treasurer John Chiang announced a new website designed to supply citizens with the gory details of California’s accumulated pension obligations.

Available at ByTheNumbers.sco.ca.gov, the data has given Californians sudden access to about a million items of pension information, from fiscal years 2002-03 to 2012-13, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Announcing the site, the Times reported, Chiang expressed his hope the research would “empower greater citizen participation in how government handles a policy matter which is central to California’s long-term prosperity.”

By Chris Reed

The Federal Aviation Administration’s announcement that 11 air control towers in California will shut down on Sunday, April 7, because of sequestration cuts to the federal budget is offered up by the administration as unfortunate but inevitable. But a Los Angeles Times account was refreshingly tart about what’s really going on:

“Critics have questioned whether the closures were necessary or part of a tactical gambit to gain leverage in Washington’s ongoing budget battles. The contract tower association’s executive director, Spencer Dickerson, said in a statement that ‘aviation safety shouldn’t be politicized.’

“Many smaller airports operate without control towers, with pilots using radio communications to coordinate movements in the air and on the ground.

“Still, local officials responsible for airport operations in Southern California’s busy airspace said the FAA’s decision is worrisome. Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich chided the government for a ‘politically motivated decision.’ Shutting down towers would have little impact on spending levels, he said, but a big impact on public safety.”

The Times’ insinuations are welcome. Does anyone truly believe that the Obama administration is dealing with $85 billion in cuts in a  $3.6 trillion budget in a way that reflects best management practices and a desire to maximize safety?

Nah. In the White House’s never-ending attempts to demonize anyone who doesn’t want spending to go up now and forever, we’re seeing scary decisions by the Federal Aviation Administration — decisions that could lead to fatal crashes and accidents.

Wouldn’t a federal wage and hiring freeze make a lot more sense than shutting down air control towers? Of course.

The California-style twist to the federal sequester

Here’s the context to the FAA’s decision that doesn’t get the focus it should. Federal employees aren’t losing their jobs — just contractors:

“The U.S. will close 149 air-traffic control towers run by contractors at small- and mid-sized airports beginning on April 7 as a result of automatic budget cuts at government agencies.”

That’s Bloomberg’s lead to its March 22 story. So public employees are insulated from the consequences of government budget chaos.

How very California of Washington.