Bill targeting city bankruptcies delayed
By Jessica A. York/Times-Herald staff writer
Posted: 07/09/2009 01:00:54 AM PDT
The author of state legislation that would make it harder for cities such as Vallejo to file for bankruptcy asked a state Senate panel Wednesday to put his measure on the back burner.
Rep. Tony Mendoza, D-Norwalk, asked the Senate Local Government Committee chaired by Sen. Patricia Wiggins to reserve its vote on the bill. The measure was introduced this year and easily passed the Assembly last month.
Mayor Osby Davis, who testified Wednesday in opposition to the bill, speculated that the measure was in serious trouble, leading to Mendoza's move.
"The unions knew that it was going to fail, so the bill's author asked that the committee not take a vote," Davis said hours later during a Vallejo City Council meeting.
At least two committee members -- Former Yolo County Supervisor, Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, and Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, a former Sacramento County supervisor -- said Wednesday that they would not have supported the bill had it come to a vote.
Davis said it was his understanding that another senator on the five-member senate committee also planned to vote against the bill.
Mendoza's move leaves the bill in limbo. The full Senate cannot consider the measure until Wiggins' committee acts, state officials said.
A spokesman for Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, said Wednesday that requests for delays are not unusual for such high-profile and controversial bills. He added, however, that Mendoza's request did show up "somewhat late in the game."
Public employee unions support the legislation, while organizations representing California municipalities are opposed.
The stalled Assembly bill may come back later this year, next year, or be tacked on to the end of other legislation, Davis said.
Mendoza's media representative did not return calls for comment Wednesday.
Wiggins said during the hearing that Assembly Bill 155, which she co-authored, raises legitimate issues about municipal bankruptcies, her press secretary David Miller said.
The controversial measure grew out of Vallejo's bankruptcy, and the city's wrangling with its employee unions over their existing contracts.
One bill provision would empower an existing state committee to approve or deny a municipality's proposed bankruptcy filing.
The nine-member California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission also would be able to limit a municipality's ability to modify employee contracts, as Vallejo intends to do with two of its labor groups if ongoing negotiations fail.
Mendoza's bill would have no effect on Vallejo, if approved.
"I don't think we've seen the end of it -- I think it's just a hiatus," Davis said of the measure.
Davis added that he met with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's deputy chief of staff Wednesday, who told Davis that the governor had taken no stance on the bill, but saw "no rhyme or reason for it and why it should be pushed forward."
Though Miller declined to comment specifically on Vallejo's plan to rearrange employee contracts, he said Wiggins, a former Santa Rosa City Council member, "in a general sense ... believes that where contracts between labor and management exist, the contracts should be respected."
In a separate e-mailed statement, Miller said that Wiggins' "interest in this bill, or more specifically, in the issues that it raises, is based less on the Vallejo experience than it is on the fact that in recent months, officials in other municipalities have begun discussing the possibility of bankruptcy filings."
Contact staff writer Jessica A. York at (707) 553-6834 or jyork@thnewsnet.com.
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