The state’s decision to grab local redevelopment funds will have a big impact in Santa Rosa, according to City Manager Kathleen Millison and Economic Development Director David Gouin. They say the city will lose more than 2,800 construction jobs and $84 million it had planned to invest in projects, programs and services. They want residents to contact the Legislature and urge lawmakers to postpone the Feb. 1 deadline.

Local government officials express horror, warning of ‘carnage’ to budgets, delays for critical community projects and setbacks for economic recovery efforts.
School officials are encouraged, expecting to enjoy a larger slice of the property-tax pie.

A lease car has been a unique perquisite for California legislators, providing SUVs, luxury sedans and the occasional muscle car of their choice. But the keys are being collected.

Assemblyman Michael Allen has been appointed to a high-profile state committee that will address a crisis with public employee pensions. But the choice is drawing concern from critics, given the Santa Rosa Democrat’s long history of advocating on behalf of unions.

H. Christian Gunderson, a Petaluma chiropractor and counselor, is running for an open seat in the state Assembly representing Marin County and a segment of Sonoma County including about half of Santa Rosa. “California needs healing,” Gunderson said, asserting that “doctors would make better politicians.”

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill authored by state Sen. Noreen Evans that is designed to even the playing field in California’s competitive Dungeness crab industry. The bill, SB 369, sets crab trap limits in an effort to prevent out-of-state fishermen from gaining unfair advantage in the pursuit of the prized crustacean.

State Sen. Noreen Evans, who is said to be weighing a bid next year for a seat on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, also has submitted an application to become a justice on the California Courts of Appeal, sources confirmed. Political observers say Evans is not happy in her current job just nine months into her first term in the Senate.

Democratic State Sen. Noreen Evans’ increasingly bare-knuckles political style is earning her blowback from members of her own party, some of whom nearly derailed two of the senator’s bills that affect fishing interests on the North Coast. Political observers say Evans is playing a risky political game with her bruising style amid speculation that she will enter the race to replace outgoing Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown.

UPDATE 8:40 AM: Assemblyman Michael Allen, D-Santa Rosa, today announced that he intends to move to Marin County and run for re-election in the new 10th Assembly District. New political maps drawn by a state redistricting commission had put Allen in the same North Coast district as fellow Democrat Wes Chesbro.

For the first time, the Legislature on Friday released expense records for each individual senator and Assembly member. The data didn’t contain great revelations on the spending patterns of North Coast legislators. But the release was deemed a historic step forward for those seeking more transparency in government.