 |
 -0 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
|
Davis aides may be axed The appointees collectively wield immense power in Sacramento, including the secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing, which oversees Caltrans and the Department of Motor Vehicles; the head of the Resources Agency, which has jurisdiction over the Coastal Commission and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy; and the secretary of the state Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, the governor -- in some cases with Senate approval -- appoints hundreds of people to boards as powerful as the University of California regents and the California State University trustees, and as local as the San Fernando Valley Fair Board and the Baldwin Hills Conservancy Governing Board. While most appointees serve fixed terms, even if the governor leaves office, about 500 serve at his pleasure, meaning they could be replaced overnight by a new governor, said Davis spokeswoman Amber Pasricha. UC Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain said any governor -- whether elected in a recall or a conventional election -- appoints people who can be trusted to implement the governor's vision for the state. "The trend in recent years has been to clear the deck," Cain said. "The argument is, the administration is likely to be more responsive if the people in charge share your values." A spokesman for Bill Simon Jr., the Republican businessman who lost to Davis in last year's election, said Simon would immediately replace all major appointees if the governor is recalled and Simon is elected to succeed him. "We're the candidate of action and change," Simon spokesman K.B. Forbes said. "(Simon) would move to swiftly replace all critical positions and get government moving again." Rob Stutzman, a spokesman for actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the presumed GOP front-runner would not sack Davis appointees wholesale. "Appointees are individuals, and individuals are evaluated on their own merits," Stutzman said. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat who opposes the recall but is running for governor in case Davis is recalled, thinks it's premature to speculate on the shape of any new administration. "Gov. Davis is still the governor, and for anyone to consider what kind of administration they would have is presumptuous," said his spokesman, Luis Vizcaino said. Many of Davis' appointees, from the cabinet-level head of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency to members of the Public Employment Relations Board, are busy fighting the recall effort. In fact, the core of Davis' anti-recall campaign consists of gubernatorial appointees who are on leave from the Davis administration. Appointees Steve Smith, head of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, and Eric Bauman, head of the governor's Los Angeles office, have taken leaves from their jobs to fight the recall attempt. Davis' allies say it's only natural that his friends inside and outside of government would rally to defend him. Opponents say Davis has built a system of political patronage concerned mostly with self-preservation. "It's a byproduct of the way he's done government," said Dave Gilliard, chief strategist for the pro-recall group Rescue California. "He's rewarded a lot of his key political supporters with positions in government." Gabriel Sanchez, who worked as a spokesman for the Davis administration and serves as a spokesman for the anti-recall campaign, said people who believe in the governor's policies naturally oppose the recall effort. "A lot of the staff are people who've worked for the governor for several years. We're working (against the recall) because we believe in the governor's progressive agenda."
Maria Contreras-Sweet, head of the state's Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, campaigned against the
|
|
|
