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is-A ~ J) LEGISLATIVE SESSION from page 1 ..................................... The governor appeared in front of the Sacra- the League policy committees and the board of mento Press Club Wednesday for his annual directors for review and adoption. meeting with that group. He pointed out that there is little detectable action in the Legislature these days and said that this was unacceptable to him and should be unacceptable to the citizens of the state of California. He reminded the press that he had called a special session to deal with the state's budget problems and that nothing had been done. He further offered his somewhat provocative obser- vation that all the Legislature has done so far is to arrive in town and just "hang." Of course, the governor's rhetoric was matched with an equal amount of counter-rhetoric from the Democrats in the Assembly. The Assembly majority leader countered that if the govemor was really interested in action he would have introduced his legislative proposals for the Legislature to consider. After that "collaborative" start, Senator Jackie Speier (Hillsborough) announced her intent to begin to address the problems with public sector disability retirements. While a hearing had been scheduled this week, it was postponed until March to allow all the various competing proposals to be heard in the same time frame. The disability retirement problem is one of many pension issues that legislators and the governor's office are gearing up to reform. Senator Roy Ashburn (Bakersfield) also announced his intent to offer a package of legislation to deal with spiraling retirement costs. Meanwhile, Assembly Member Keith Richman (Northridge) continues to reiterate his intent to move with a proposal to completely eliminate defined benefit retirement plans and substitute in their place defined contribution plans, similar to the 401 k plans found in the private sector. The debate over pension refonn centers on whether to throw out the current system and start over (the Richman approach) or to reform and change the current system. This promises to be a long and difficult debate this session. The League has formed an internal task force to develop recommendations to reform the public pension systems. The task should complete its work within the next month and then forward its work to Finally, Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla (Pittsburg) introduced proposals that respond to two other issues: legislative term limits and revising the method of drawing political boundaries. Canciamilla's approach marries the two issues. He proposes two constitutional measures that would appear as separate items on the ballot but they would be linked by language stating that both must pass for either to be implemented. The governor announced his support for new approaches to drawing legislative districts and has since signaled openness to expanded term limits. The linkage of the two issues hints at a possible compromise with legislators to get both refonns passed. We're off to an interesting year! LOOKING FOR CALIFORNIA'S BEST TO FILL A POSITION IN YOUR CITY? Western City Magazine's job opportunity section is the source for job seekers looking for positions in local government. According to our reader survey, the job opportunity section is the best read section of our magazine! When you place an ad in Western City Magazine, it will be posted at no additional charge on our website, which receives over 80,000 hits per month. Call to place your recruitment ad today! We Have What you Need 800-262-1801 or visit our web site www.westerncity.com Visit the League's Official Web Site -- www.cacities.org PRIORITY FOCUS/PAGE 7