Category: issues

Public Transportation and Safety

Los Angeles is not London and their dreams of getting Southern Californians into public transportation will be a big problem. The goal is safety. If the system is not safe people are not going to patronize the service. We have three years to make an impression for the Olympics, and it will be evident that our politicians will be falling behind. As someone who wants to minimize gasoline consumption and save on parking when traveling to Los Angeles for cultural events, it makes me question the safety for other passengers and the agency operators who drive the buses when you meet some of the clientele that will make choice riders reconsider using public transit.

It is unfortunate that people who utilize public transit must develop awareness when dealing with people who might end up having severe mental disabilities such as schizophrenia where you risk the possibility of being assaulted or deal with uncomfortable voices in the heads of those individuals. Yes, those individuals do deserve access to public transportation, but unchecked mental illness is a liability to the public and the individuals themselves. I want those individuals to be self-sufficient as possible where they will not be on the street such as a communal assisted living facility depending on their condition. I agree that we need to link these people who may be homeless and or have chronic medical conditions to services, but transit should not be an unofficial homeless shelter either.

Gating the rail facilities is a good idea, but it also requires more staffing. If people have the money or access to use the services, they are not as likely to harass other customers and vandalism is reduced. I did see staffing when I went to Union Station at 5pm to take the B line to Hollywood where a service clerk and a security officer were talking to the customer who did not have a TAP card that they are not going to be given access. Staffing ratios need to be looked over in other agencies such as Washington DC and New York City to make sure there is coverage as needed to help reinforce the new policies.

For the night owl routes for Metro and Foothill Transit, I think having security at least on 50% of the trips from 11p-6am would be ideal. And places such as the upstairs bus bay at the transit plaza in Union Station should be patrolled at least once every 30 minutes for 2–3-minute stop over late at night. A call box is helpful, but it’s only one part of the solution.

I used public transportation regularly in my teenage years until my mid thirties until I attained my first car, but if we want to keep up regular ridership and encourage choice riders to give it a chance, we need to push the safety issue big time.  

Selling the Argument

What does the county party do?

We are the organizational body that raises money to get out the vote, educate voters about legislation and candidates, recruit candidates to run for office when we do not have potential candidates running for office on their own, we endorse candidates and ballot measures.

We have favorable campaign finance treatment which makes this organization a vital group for fundraising and that is why developers are looking to buy off the committee so our seal of approval can rubber stamp their choices.

What have we failed to do in the last two years?

We failed to meet regularly in 2023 when in the summertime we took two months off. We had a very divisive county supervisor race which divided the party where the grassroots are not going to open their wallets. We went broke in the November 2022 election where we had to lay off two staffers before the election ended because we sold the store just to get the chairman’s pick for county supervisor.

The chairman says he can raise the money, but where is the money? He has a nexus of political action committees even several where he is not a direct principal officer of. It is even embarrassing when Los Angeles County Republican Party which has been more dysfunctional than the San Bernardino County Party ending up hosting fundraisers now to pay for the costly election related activities. When I saw that Los Angeles County had a fundraiser with James O’Keefe, it enraged me to write a long article in the San Bernardino Sentinel about the disappointing state of our county party.

We need to grow the party by asking NPP voters who used to be Republican to come back home as what Orange County is doing right now. We need to return to having social mixers bi-monthly in various parts of the county. We need to have an action segment at each major county party meeting where each supervisorial district would work towards its own programming and other efforts to accomplish as what the previous chair did during our meetings.

We gave the incumbent chairman an opportunity to change from the issues that are making our party fall behind on such as the money we owe him. It is our concern and our business that we owe you this money. We want you to be paid off as soon as possible so we do not have to worry about that fiscal obligation. If you want to carry 20k loans in your personal political action committee, you be you.

People right now are being subletted as staffers by the chairman where they work part time on party activities, but we need party staffers that work full time on party business. We will get numerous phone calls in the general election from confused voters who need guidance as what happened in 2020 and 2022.

I desire for the next generation of leadership to be more responsive to the electorate and the activists of our county. We must work together as a team no matter what happens after March 5th of 2024. After this election we should not be focusing on purges or grudges and try to have some sort of unity. We should be fighting the ideas of people like Eloise Reyes instead.

Standing Up for Health Freedom

Disclaimer: sharing this on Facebook may be a bad idea due to its censorship software, but you can send this as an email to a friend or a family member.

Bad legislation such as #AB1993 has frequently been passed in our state legislature. You have a chance to speak out to your state legislators such as the following:

Assembly:

Chris Holden (San Dimas/La Verne)

Blanca Rubio (El Monte/Baldwin Park/Covina/Azuza/Portion of West Covina)

Freddie Rodriguez (Chino/Ontario/Montclair/Pomona)

State Senate

Anthony Portiano (San Dimas/La Verne)

Susan Rubio El Monte/Baldwin Park/Covina/Azuza/Portion of West Covina

Josh Newman (Portion of West Covina)

Connie Leyva (Chino/Ontario/Montclair/Pomona)

With Omnicron variant the vaccine’s effectiveness has been reduced and the vaccine has been questioned for safety purposes due to a number of people getting heart and neurological issues. Many have taken the vaccine, including myself where I presently could go to any indoor concert in Los Angeles County. However people including the ones who have the required jabs would like to vaccinate on their own schedule not the schedule of government. I got the second jab in May 2021 and wanted to wait a year before getting the third.

Unfortunately the state and certain counties want us to get it NOW, but some of us are just rather cautious.

Some people have got adverse reactions to the covid-19 vaccine and a good number of state legislators could care less that one was previously injured and would rather have people risk more danger and possibility their lives. Just as how Senator Pan could care less if a child was injured by the childhood vaccination schedule and he and his pharmaceutical friends want the child and their parents to keep on trucking thru the mandates.

Political Energy Entering Into 2022

Political Energy Entering Into 2022

Education has become a hot button issue locally and nationally and we must understand the rules of engagement, so we make sure we expend our political energy in the most efficient way possible. Parents want our school districts to nullify state laws and mandates, but sadly that is out of bounds. Getting rid of a school board member is much easier than trying to get rid of Senator Josh Newman or Assembly Member Freddie Rodriguez as an example, but we also must remember not to throw out the baby with the bathwater either.

First, with school boards if school districts offer raunchy books with overt sexual themes, then yes, the books should be pulled. That is an issue that our school boards have jurisdiction on. Books also should be age appropriate, if a book is meant for high schoolers is placed in an elementary school site, then the book should be moved to the proper site as well.

If there are books that discuss sexual activities such as a how to guide, then it should be up to parents to check out the books upon parental request and then the books would be returned to the school site by the parent or guardian.

Schools in California by law are meant to allow for gender non-conforming youth to access the facilities of the gender they are meant to be, but in a way to be respectful of both communities there should be a clause about respect for other students. If a student of any gender or sexuality assaults a student, the school district should press charges against the student or students who may assault a student either if it was someone punched in a locker room or someone raping or abusing another student as how recently a school district in Virgina let a youth get away with their crimes.

The problem many parents fail to understand is many of these policies are introduced in the state legislature. We need to communicate to individuals who are No Party Preference who are of the age that raise school children (22-60) about the garbage that politicians such as Senator Connie Leyva endorses. There are not enough Republicans to win elections, we must expand our coalitions. We must start messaging to the public about why the policies of our local elected officials in the Democratic Party disappoint people.

We must unseat state legislators for us to restore back our sovereignty.

We Deserve Fiscal Accountability In Local Government

We deserve fiscal accountability with our local governments.  From the boards of education to city halls in our state there should be accountability when it comes when they ask for more money from the voters. These agencies may want money from the taxpayers, but have these agencies handled money effectively?

I am thinking if a school district is asking for a new bond above a designated amount of money while still paying on previous bonds above a figure of 500 million still owed, the district would need to be audited in its operations. Is the district masking its fiscal inefficiencies by borrowing more money as seen in Santa Ana Unified? Is there really an unmet need for these funds to be utilized in a new bond? A neutral party would be helpful for this accountability. The Proposition 39 bond advisory group does not really have much power after a bond is passed how school districts help plead voters to approve the bonds, but the goal is to provide the voters and the municipalities information before a bond is passed.

City halls would also be audited if they wanted to be bailed out by a sales tax increase or an implementation of an utility tax. If they want to increase their sales tax by a half cent or more, they would also have a forensic audit as well. We should know how our local governments could do better before they ask for the funds and after they receive the new funds approved by the voters of their communities.

Easing the Digital Divide

technology should be accessable

I do find the topic of easing the digital divide a worthy topic to discuss even though my opponent and incumbent brought the issue first. How do we make technology affordable for low income and lower middle-class families is a good issue to ponder? Do we solve it as a government solution alone or do we solve it with private industry and private charity together with government.

Many individuals can buy the latest technology, but that also does generate e-waste when we discard previous generations of desktops and laptops. However, we should do collaboration efforts with high schools and community colleges to help train students with career skills in helping to assemble and repair computers to help deploy them.

Technology from 2012 and onward can run Windows 10 at a decent level enough for students to have a computer to type reports, browse web pages, do the family budget on a spreadsheet. Those choosing to buy an 8th or 9th generation Intel box for example could donate their 2nd or 3rd generation Intel parts so we can make refurbished computers for families not able to afford a desktop computer to help enter the modern world.

Microsoft does have low cost license programs to help a potential plan for schools and non-profits to work together to license these devices because we are helping low income families and helping to advance education as well.

If we can delay the discarding of e-waste for another 4-6 years that is a win for families and the environment.

There are programs in places such as Riverside, California. However we need to open the door for these opportunities in San Bernardino County and the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County.

In Closing, a Word From the Candidate

I am running for this seat to make sure the people of the 20th State Senate District have a choice instead of having our incumbent win by default. She may have delivered the pork for the district, but many of her votes were dreadful which led me to put my hat in the ring for the second time.

I do thank the voters during my first run for voting for me, and I hope more individuals jump on board in 2018.

There are many issues that I wish our incumbent voted for the opposite position such as the water rationing law of AB 1668. The problem is we are releasing so much water to the ocean where our farmers and residents could use the water instead. I don’t think elites such as my incumbent could run her household on 55 gallons of water per day per person either. The key should be WATER STORAGE, so we can have enough water to meet our growing population and agriculture industry.

SB 620 was another stinker that my opponent supported, this law basically does not force judges to give enhancements if you use a gun in a violent crime. Kill someone in cold blood with a gun, with our weakened judicial system you will likely get a sentence half as long.

AB 398 was a disappointing indirect tax on the people of our state. Commuters will likely face another 60 cents rise in their gasoline costs in 2021. With many people commuting to make ends meet, this will hurt our working families big time. Not all destinations have convenient public transportation routes as an alternative from the now costly gasoline.  Also, after working an 8-9-hour shit, many people are not that enthusiastic to take twice as long to get home after work. I know my opponent loves sustainability, but it is not fiscally sustainable for many working people of our district.

There are plenty more bills where they came from, but I do not want to bore people either.

My aspiration is to help generate a climate where more equipped candidates will run in future years in our community. We function better where a diversity of ideas is showcased.

Water Rationing Bills Passed Before Election

Gov. Brown signed Assembly Bill 1668 and Senate Bill 606 May 31, 2018, which are jointly designed to overhaul California’s approach to conserving water.
(Mike MORRELL and Jay OBERNOLTE voted AGAINST these bills…)  … This was quietly signed and after many voters already sent in their ballots not knowing
this scheme imposed by the Democratic legislature.
The measures impose a number of new or expanded requirements on state water agencies and local water suppliers, and provide for significantly greater state oversight of local water suppliers’ water use, even in non-drought years. They were adopted in response to Brown’s May 2016 executive order, which called to make water conservation a “way of life” in California.
Among other things, AB 1668 and SB 606 require the State Water Resources Control Board, in coordination with the Department of Water Resources, to establish long-term urban water use efficiency standards by June 30, 2022. Those standards will include components for indoor residential use, outdoor residential use, water losses and other uses.
Regarding indoor residential use, the new laws set a standard of 55 gallons per-person, per-day through Jan. 1, 2025. After that date, the amount will be incrementally reduced over time. For the development of outdoor residential use standards, the bills require DWR to conduct studies of landscaping and climate throughout the State by 2021. DWR will then provide the resulting data to SWRCB and local water suppliers for development of urban water use objectives.
In addition, the bills will require local water suppliers to calculate and comply with their water use objectives and report those objectives and actual use to DWR. New five-year drought risk assessments and water shortage contingency plans must also be incorporated into Urban Water Management Plans.
Starting in 2027, local water suppliers’ failure to comply with SWRCB’s adopted long-term standards could result in fines of $1,000 per day during non-drought years, and $10,000 per day during declared drought emergencies and certain dry years.
These are just some of the many changes ushered in by AB 1668 and SB 606. As the new laws are implemented by SWRCB and DWR over the next several years, they will dramatically change how local water suppliers plan for, report and achieve water use efficiency and drought management within their service areas.
– Best Best & Krieger
Usual laundry : 40 gallons
Single toilet flush: 1.8 to 3 gallons 
Shower ( 8 min ) : 17 gallons 
Drink (average adult) : 0.71 gallon
 
This does not include pets, cleaning tub, etc… 
 

Thank Our Incumbent For Regressive Taxes

                       Bill                Impact                    Her Vote
SB-1 Gas and Car Tax (2017) · Increased the Excise tax on gasoline to 12 cents a gallon and diesel even more.

· Increased vehicle registration fees $25-175

 YES
Sb-231 Local government: fees and charges. · Allows property tax to be increased for storm water projects without voter approval. YES
SB-2 Transaction Tax · Added a $75 (max $225) tax for real estate transactions YES
Ab 398 Cap and trade · Could raise gas prices by an estimated 63 cents per gallon in 2021.

· Make our state even more expensive to do business in.

 YES