On January 22 the DFA Board and Linda Wallace, the Director of Advocacy Programs for the Cal Aggie Alumni Association, met on campus with our District’s Senator, Maurice Johannessen (R, Redding). [The DFA and the Alumni Association have jointly sponsored a number of candidates’ forums in recent years.] The Senator was elected in 1994 to represent a District that runs from the Oregon border to Benicia and contains all or parts of eleven counties. He came to the Legislature after having served as the Mayor of Redding and as a Shasta County Supervisor. The conversation lasted for over an hour and covered a broad range of topics, mainly of our choosing. This article can touch on only a few of them.
He is very interested in strengthening the higher education presence in the North valley. While he was a local government official he offered UC 280 acres of riverfront property gratis, including the necessary infrastructure improvements, if UC would develop a campus there. This offer was not accepted and the property now comprises a museum and lots of open space.
Ms. Wallace noted that a number of Davis faculty members have ongoing research projects in that part of the State, and Chancellor Vanderhoef has talked with representatives of Shasta College about using some of their facilities for UC projects. The Senator mentioned that CSU Chico is now evidencing a similar interest, and Board member Bill Lasley then suggested that UCD and CSUC should consider working cooperatively to create a higher education presence located somewhere in or near Redding.
On February 12, the Senator introduced SB 336, which instructs CPEC to “conduct a study of the need and feasibility of establishing a branch or campus of the University of California or the California State University at Shasta College in Redding.”
Senator Johannessen mentioned that Legislators are beginning to realize that it will be essentially impossible to finance the 27 new prisons that the Department of Corrections estimates will be needed to implement the “Three Strikes” law in its current form. He suggested as a partial solution using the barracks etc. that exist on abandoned military bases like Fort Ord to house the bulk of the non-violent felons, making them responsible for the restoration and ongoing maintenance of such facilities.
His analysis of his fellow Legislators was rather harsh. In his view they are too afraid to make hard choices. Instead, they 1) avoid controversy by not being decisive; 2) legislate by slogan (three-strikes); 3) leave too many decisions to the courts, thereby tempting attorneys to shop for venues. The electorate, tired of such behavior, then take matters into their own hands and legislate by initiative. The result has been a creeping, initiative-induced fiscal paralysis that started with Prop 13 and still continues, witness Prop. 218 on last November’s ballot.
Replying to a Board member who asked if he thought that higher education should fall in line and seek its own dedicated revenue stream, the Senator said he would oppose such a plan because the biggest obstacle he sees to UC’s financing is not economics but public perception. A steady flow of press reports of things like the extravagances of the Gardner administration, the Angela Davis Presidential Chair, etc., have not won us many friends. He said that Legislators understand the importance of UC’s research in agriculture and technology to the general economic health of the State, but he noted that Legislators are also “control freaks” who seek to use the budget to control the institution’s policies.
In this connection we cannot help but note the very negative articles in the “Sacramento Bee” reporting the Legislative Analyst’s conclusion that UC in essence lied to the Legislature when it promised that one third of the increased revenue derived from student fee increases would go to student financial aid. The Leg Analyst recommended reducing UC’s budget by the disputed amount, $19.8 million, and using that money instead to fund Cal Grants that can be used in any institution, public or private. The truth of the matter will presumably come out in budget hearings, but we suspect that if UC is vindicated that news will not appear on page A3, but rather on page E25.
As evidence that within limits the Senator does indeed appreciate the importance of UC research in agriculture and technology, we can report that on February 12 he introduced SB 332, which would appropriate some of the federal funds received by the state from fines imposed for oil overcharges as follows:
1) The sum of $500,000 to the City of Redding for construction of the Turtle Bay pedestrian and bicycle bridge.
2) The sum of $150,000 to the University of California for a rice residue management program.
3) The sum of $50,000 to the University of California for research and development of a hybrid electric vehicle.
His very great personal interest in item (3) above caused him to make a special visit to the Davis campus to review the progress being made on this front by faculty and students in the College of Engineering. He was evidently well-satisfied with what he saw.