Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye
With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008, our site was designed to offer an opportunity to those who wished to engage in public debate on many issues, especially in politics and business, but found it difficult to get placed in newspaper op-ed pages.
Co-publishers Tom Ross, Bryan Merica and I have kept F&H going over this time investing our own time, funding, and staff help. Last year at this time we considered closing the site, however with an election on the horizon we decided to keep F&H going through the election year. With the election come and gone, and with no sense of additional resources, we have decided to close the site down.
Fox and Hounds will live on, at least, with my articles collected in the California State Library.
On a personal note, I have spent over 40 years in California policy and politics. There have been some incredible high moments and some difficult low points. It pains me that politics too often is a blood sport, frequently demonizing the motives of opponents and using the legal system as a weapon in public discourse. At Fox & Hounds, we tried to adhere to the practice of giving all a voice in the debate, yet keep the commentaries civil and avoided personal attacks.
F&H offered the opportunity to publish different perspectives (even ones that criticized my writings!). We had success as indicated by the Washington Post twice citing Fox and Hounds Daily one of the best California political websites and many other positive affirmations and comments received over the years.
Tom, Bryan and I want to thank our many readers and writers for being part of our journey. The publishers of Fox and Hounds Daily believe that we added value to California and its people. We hope you agree.
Unions and Howard Jarvis Join Forces to Keep Democracy Private
(Editor’s Note: UPDATE. The original article reported that Common Cause was part of the pro-SB 594 effort but moved to neutrality. At the request of the author, Common Cause was removed from the article’s title.)
California’s system of direct democracy is a thoroughly private business. Initiatives are written privately. They’re sponsored privately. They’re shaped by private polling. They’re discussed and debated as much in private (the people with money determine the content). The money behind them is raised in private.
But their impact is profoundly public – indirectly through public understanding (or misunderstanding) that results from the campaigns – and in the public policy enacted via ballot measures statutes and constitutional amendments.
Fixing this system requires making the initiative and ballot measure process far more public – integrating it with the public legislative process and with the state budget. The state badly needs a public infrastructure to make the act of drafting, reviewing, circulating and deliberating such measures a thoroughly public process. (more…)
Elon Musk’s Hyperloop, Part 2, Musk and Hyperloop
I noted in Part 1 that Elon Musk doesn’t plan to actually build Hyperloop. Rather, he has thrown down a gauntlet to other visionaries—in technology, business, finance and in government. Musk has “crowdsourced” his dream. Traditional power centers find this absurd, but it may be a brilliant guerilla strategy against entrenched CAHSRA bureaucrats, unions, crony construction corporations and the Democratic Party for whom HSR is a signature issue.
Why is Musk crowdsourcing?
Musk is himself a lone, entrepreneurial technologist. Musk may have a brilliant crew, but it is a skunk works—a toddler organization. If his crew is brilliant, if they work beautifully together, if they are productive, determined, disciplined and if Musk has a tight inner circle maximizing the productivity of his every working hour, there are still only so many hours in a week. As head of car design for Tesla Motors and head of engineering for SpaceX while also CEO of Solar City, his plate is full. He can’t let his existing enterprises flounder to chase Hyperloop. So he is scratching his major entrepreneurial itch by releasing the idea to the public. (more…)
Should the Governor and Lt Governor Run as a Ticket?
(Editor’s Note: Recently, I posted an article that revisited the California Constitution Revision Commission’s recommendation that the Governor and Lt. Governor run as a ticket. Garry South, then Chief of Staff to Lt. Governor Gray Davis, testified in front of the commission raising questions about that notion in December 1995. His commission testimony is re-printed here.)
As you might suspect, I would like to direct my remarks to the Commission’s specific recommendations dealing with the office of lieutenant governor. These include requiring the governor and lieutenant governor to run as a ticket and removing the “acting governor” provision from Article V, Section 10 of the California Constitution. (more…)
Californians Willing to Pay for Infrastructure Improvements
Californians not only believe infrastructure is critical to the economy and quality of life, they are willing to pay for it. So says a recently completed online survey from California Forward which chronicles Californians’ sentiments on priorities and financing options for our state’s infrastructure needs.
The information gleaned from the survey was invaluable. Despite its small sample size of about 200, the findings were in line with other surveys done throughout the state in past years: Californians have demonstrated their willingness to foot the bill for the public good in some way or another. (more…)
Time is Running Out on Meaningful CEQA Reform
With three weeks left in the 2013 legislative session, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reform is waiting on the sidelines while the list of public and private projects being stalled under the allegation of CEQA violations continues to grow. The most recent ruse is a CEQA challenge to a new downtown high-rise housing project in San Jose by a construction union official objecting that some workers on the project would be non-union from Sacramento. The appeal may not be successful in the long term, but it is one more example of interest groups using CEQA to stop or delay projects for reasons that have nothing to do with the environment. (more…)
Eric Garcetti’s First Stand
While some individuals are known for their grandest and often last battle that establishes their reputation, newly elected Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, might be at his reputation establishing moment in his first stand as mayor – fighting both the city council and the union at the Department of Water and Power over a new DWP contract.
The cost of the DWP workforce, and therefore the cost to ratepayers to support the agency, was a major issue in the campaign that saw Garcetti elected. The union representing the DWP workers put up $2-million in support of Garcetti’s opponent. If that weren’t enough to have the two sides staring hostilely across a negotiating table over a new contract, the word “strike” has been tossed around by union allies on the city council. (more…)