Despite budget challenges and deficits, San Francisco is doubling down on social services to residents living with HIV/AIDS. The Mayor announced last week the city would be backfilling $6.6 million in funding that the federal government had cut.

Mayor Edwin M. Lee joined by Supervisors Scott Wiener, David Campos and Christina Olague, announced a total $6.6 million full budget restoration for HIV/AIDS care, treatment and prevention funding in FY 2012-13 to protect essential services to the City’s most vulnerable despite major Federal funding cuts. Mayor Lee has also committed to cover half of the Federal funding shortfall in his proposed FY 2013-14 budget and met with the HIV/AIDS community and Supervisors today to commit to collaborating in the coming year to identify budget solutions.

The Los Angeles Times ran a story over the weekend that missed the mark about the influence of the business community at L.A. City Hall, which prompted me to send a letter to the editor on Sunday afternoon.

In my response to the story, I pointed out that business is an aggressive advocate at City Hall and actively engaged in city elections.

For example, on Jan. 17, 2012, Joe Buscaino trounced the candidate backed by the County Federation of Labor in the race for Council District 15. The L.A. Area Chamber’s L.A. Jobs Political Action Committee (PAC) vigorously supported Buscaino, providing $82,000 in an independent expenditure campaign to support his election.

Crossposted on newgeography and Fox and Hounds Daily

With Facebook poised to go public, the attention of the tech world, and Wall Street, is firmly focused on Silicon Valley. Without question, the west side of San Francisco Bay is by far the most prodigious creator of hot companies and has the highest proportion of tech jobs of any region in the country — more than four times the national average.

Yet Silicon Valley is far from leading the way in expanding science and technology-related employment in the United States.

Supervisor Gayle Uikema was 73 when she lost her battle with ovarian cancer. She was in her 16^th year as a county supervisor and had previously spent 19 years on the Layfayette City Council.

Her battle with cancer had already pushed her towards retirement and she had announced she would not be seeking reelection.

According to remarks that Supervisor Uikema gave after being named the Layfayette citizen of the year, she had been serving in some form of government since grade school when she was involved with student government. She entered elected life in California local government in 1978 when she was elected to the city council. Her goal was to break down gender barriers. She then went on to serve four terms as mayor.

Originally posted at www.theliberaloc.com
The Santa Ana City Council has a closed session item on its agenda for Monday’s meeting and it’s the appointment of a new city manager. And the betting money is on acting city manager Paul Walters removing the term “acting” from the front of his title.

Under Walters leadership, the city has edged away from the brink of financial disaster to a more stable footing.  The council has pointed a finger of blame at former city manager Dave Ream, but not as far to give Walters credit for the turnaround.

Questions remain to be seen if Walters continues the dual role of chief of police.  If Walters steps down from this role and a new chief isn’t appointed quickly, we wonder if the city’s police department will follow the path of the city’s fire department.

Courts are being raided as part of the Governor’s proposed budget. He calls for a total reduction of $544 million in the courts’ budget.

While the courts system had managed to build a reserve in excess of $562 million, the cuts will have drastic impacts in the services provided to residents. In Sacramento County, between nine and 18 percent of the court’s employees will be laid off. That equates to 68 to 136 employees in the local system with about 680 employees. In the last year, the court system shrank from 740 employees to the current level.

One way that the cuts will impact people will be in small claims court. There a commission hears cases five days a week. That will be reduced to one day per week once the full weight of the cuts is in place. Another noticeable change will be the indefinite shelving of the new courthouse that was going to be built on the site of the downtown rail yards.

The FPPC had already warned Councilwoman Rosanne Foust to not use her position on the city council to try to influence a stalled project backed by an economic development association she backed. But her call for an advisory measure on an upcoming ballot may violate that warning.

Two Redwood City residents lodged complaints with the FPPC about comments made by Foust at the end of a recent council meeting.

Foust has said that she didn’t violate the FPPC warning because she was speaking as a private citizen, not as a member of the Council. She prefaced her comments at the meeting by saying she was speaking as an individual. However, she then went on to talk about the importance of putting a question on the ballot that would let the city council know if the residents want the development continue.

Originally posted at www.theliberaloc.com
In a meeting that ran until 3:00 a.m. Wednesday, the Costa Mesa City Council majority led by Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer, voted to outsource two city services to private contractors. Those decisions will be prevented from implementation until the lawsuit, filed by the Costa Mesa City Employees Association—the union representing most of the affected city, is resolved.

The council voted 4-1 to contract out street sweeping and jail services. Based upon contractor and city estimates, the contracting out of street sweeping services will save about $88,000 a year along by contracting with Athens Services. There should be additional savings from equipment and maintenance and costs. The projected savings for contracting out jail services are estimated to be about $600,000 annually, once the contractor us fully up and running the jail.

Opponents of the outsourcing of jail services have raised concerns that the savings projected by the contractor, G4S Secure Solutions, are exaggerated and unrealistic.

Each week, Louis Dettorre will provide the PublicCEO Staff Report of the Week. Nominate yourself or a colleague by e-mailing ldettorre@publicCEO.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Voters in the city of Oxnard approved Measure “O” in November 2008 in an effort to fund improvements to city services. The nearly $30 million generated from the half-cent general purpose sales tax has been used towards neighborhood improvements, public safety, and cleaning up the community. Read the report here.

In recent years, total and partial consolidations have become more common in local government. However, they don’t always work. Now, Siskiyou County may try to un-consolidate two department heads.

In December 2010, the Departments of Behavioral Health Services merged with the Department of Human Services and one director was assigned for both departments. However, the lack of experience that Director Michael Noda has in the area of behavioral sciences has contributed – if not led – to a breakdown in services and morale. At the time of his appointment to the dual-role, he did not have the requisite certifications, but an exemption was made.

Recruiting and hiring a new director for the DBH may be challenging. The County Controller has objected to the idea. He said that the county doesn’t have the money to fund the position – part of the original reason the departments were merged nearly 2 years ago.