LAKE COUNTY
Lake County Friends of Mendocino College Governing Council meets Thursday.
The next meeting of the LCFMC Governing Council will be on Thursday, February 1, 2024, Noon-1:30 p.m., at the Lake Center and via Zoom, https://mendocino-edu.zoom.us/j/85046259805?pwd=d2c0aHNlWTl0bXZxMS9hVnVLRGhrdz09. The meeting is open to the public.
The guest presenter will be Ingrid Larsen, Dean of Counseling and Student Retention, who will provide information about services available to students and how to access them, how students are referred to support services, and provide a snapshot of the new software to support student retention. Your questions are invited at the meeting or in advance.
The annual Pianists Benefit Concert has been confirmed for Sunday, March 3, 2 p.m., at the Soper Reese Theatre. This is the major fundraising event for the Friends scholarship program; more information will be coming about sponsorships and ticket sales. All of our favorite pianists (Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Elizabeth MacDougall, Tom Ganoung, Barney McClure, Ed Reinhart and David Neft) are scheduled to perform and Jennifer Strong will return as Mistress of Ceremonies. Save the date!
College and Career Day will be at the Lake Center on Thursday, March 7, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. In lieu of a Governing Council meeting, the Friends will assist College staff with the event. Let me know if you are interested in participating.
A reminder of the Celebration of Life for John Tomkins on Saturday, February 3, 1 p.m., at the Upper Lake Methodist Church. John was a founding member of the Lake County Friends, Trustee of Mendocino College and benefactor of many community organizations.
—Submitted
SACRAMENTO
A huge money gap in California mental health measure
Gov. Gavin Newsom strong-armed the Legislature into making sure his signature mental health initiative stood alone on the March 5 statewide ballot. And now, he and his allies are raising orders of magnitude more money for the Proposition 1 campaign than the measure’s opponents to make sure voters approve it.
As CalMatters’ health reporter Kristen Hwang and data reporter Jeremia Kimelman explain, the governor has raised more than $14.2 million for Prop. 1. It’s a dual measure to reroute roughly $1 billion annually from mental health funding to rent support, construction and related housing services for people with behavioral health needs, and includes a $6.4 billion bond to pay for creating housing and treatment facilities.
These donations far exceed the Californians Against Proposition 1 campaign, which has raised just $1,000 so far, according to campaign finance records.
In a statement to CalMatters, the Yes on 1 campaign said the measure “will finally fix our mental health care system” and has a “broad and diverse coalition” backing it.
Some of the top donors of this coalition include health care companies Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente, and labor groups representing construction workers and correctional officers — all of which have donated at least $1 million each to the ballot measure. The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria contributed the single largest donation at $1.5 million.
Opponents of the measure are small mental health providers and current users of the mental health system that fear Prop. 1 will diminish the health services counties currently provide and increase involuntary treatment.
But despite the small war chest, Prop. 1 opponents have garnered some notable endorsements, such as the League of Women Voters of California. In a statement to CalMatters, Executive Director Stephanie Doute said “Prop. 1 does not provide adequate funding for California’s needed mental health care system.”
Besides money, there’s also the matter of public opinion. In a December Public Policy Institute of California poll, two-thirds of likely voters said they would vote yes on Prop. 1, though the Californians Against Proposition 1 has called the survey “flawed.”
—Lynn La, CALMatters
SACRAMENTO
Court says no to ‘pension spiking’
A California appeals court in January issued a ruling that could lower monthly pension payments by several hundred dollars for retired state workers in Ventura County. The decision may have implications for the whole state.
The outcome is tied to a 2020 California Supreme Court ruling that was supposed to ban a perk that enabled government workers to artificially boost their pensions with a kind of vacation cash-out — a practice known as “pension spiking.” The 2020 case was based on a 2013 state law. The state appeals court ruling this month reaffirmed that ban, reports CalMatters’ Adam Ashton.
The original law changed pension formulas by reducing the potential retirement income of employees hired after 2013. It also restricted a number of financial incentives that had previously counted toward a worker’s pension, including large amounts of accrued vacation.
Since the state’s Supreme Court ruling that directed California’s 20 county-run pension funds to comply with the 2013 law, county funds have been recalculating the pensions that included the incentives that the 2013 law capped. The process is complex — Sacramento and Los Angeles counties, for instance, reported this month that they’re still making adjustments.
In the appeals court case, retirees urged Ventura’s pension board to apply the new rules only to people who retired after 2020 (when the state Supreme Court upheld the law), and not when the law took effect.
—Adam Ashton, CALMatters
