Supervisor Anthony Farrington requested the board discussion on Repair California's proposed ballot amendments that he said would enable the public to call for the convention without relying on the state Legislature.
In a statement on its Web site, www.repaircalifornia.org , the group reported that it turned in ballot language on Oct. 28 that would call the state's first constitutional convention in more than 130 years in response to “a broken system of governance.”
Repair California's ballot measures would call a limited constitutional convention that would focus on four key processes – budget, election and initiative, restoring the balance of power between the state and local governments, and creating new systems to improve government effectiveness.
The convention, according to the group, is “specifically prohibited” from proposing tax increases; it also won't delve into such social issues as marriage, abortion, gambling, affirmative action,
freedom of the press, freedom of religion, immigration or the death penalty.
If the measures were approved, the November 2010 ballot would include a measure for voters to call the constitutional convention which would be held the following year. The reforms that would come out of the convention would have to go back to voters for final approval in 2012, when the issue would appear on one of three scheduled statewide elections.
Farrington said that the measures at one point called for delegates to the constitutional convention to be elected, which he suggested would have allowed the process to be swayed by public interests.
However, Repair California modified its measures so that conventional delegates will be elected from their districts.
“I think that is a huge amendment,” he said.
“The intent is to really repair a broken system,” which Farrington suggested they could all agree can't get much worse.
It's also meant to restore the balance of power between state and local governments while reducing the sway of special interest groups, limiting spending and reducing bureaucracy.
A Repair California fact sheet explains that there would be three different types of delegates – from the state's Assembly districts, its 58 counties and Indian tribes.
There would be three delegates chosen from each district for a total of 240. The state auditor would create a pool of 400 convention delegate candidates from each of 80 Assembly districts and contact them by mail; from those who respond favorably, 50 people would be invited to a meeting where they will learn about the process and then vote for three people to represent the district at the convention.
Each county also will select delegates, one for every 175,000 residents of each county. Counties with less than 175,000 residents would only have one delegate each.
Those county delegates will be chosen by a five-member delegate selection committee that would include two county supervisors, two mayors and a school board or board of education member. The committee would hold public meetings before making the decision. Anyone could apply for those delegate seats.
Four Indian tribe delegates would be chosen as representatives of federally recognized California tribes.
In all, 461 delegates would be chosen for the convention, according to Repair California's process chart.
The initiative's cost is estimated at $1.75 per state resident, Farrington said.
Farrington said there is a potential for a number of reform ballot measures to appear in addition to Repair California's. Another is by the group California Forward.
He said he felt there was no downside to demonstrating support for the measures.
Repair California already is collecting signatures, with its ballot language now being considered by the California Attorney General's Office, according to Farrington.
“I think it's a good measure” – albeit not perfect, but a step forward, he said.
Board Chair Denise Rushing said she also had considered bringing the issue to the board.
“I think it's imperative that we somehow deal with the fact that state government is dysfunctional,” she said.
The question is, what's the best way to fix the problem, Rushing said.
She explained that she's of the mind that you can't even steer a sailboat until the sail is up and it starts moving.
“There may be some better initiatives out there – I don't know that – but at this point we need to get moving on something in order to get the process changed,” Rushing said. “Maybe this is it.”
Rushing said she felt they needed to get moving, and asked county staff what would happen if they gave their support to Repair California's measures but other, better measures came forward.
County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox said they could take a simple majority vote to rescind a previous action to offer support if that was the case.
County Counsel Anita Grant suggested the board could offer general support to calling a constitutional convention without choosing any particular measure at this time.
Supervisor Rob Brown said he supported taking that path.
He said he had some problems with the measure. While it included a well-written nondiscrimination policy, it also called for delegations of tribal members, which he felt was a matter of race.
Farrington said the tribes were being considered sovereign nations and were given representation for that reason, not because of race.
Brown said that the tribal members could be representatives of the county at large, and not just held to a tribal limitation. “If you're going to have anti-discrimination it should be anti-discrimination on both sides.”
He said it's naïve to think that if they're only going to have four tribal representatives for the entire state that all tribes would be represented. Rather, it would be the specific interests of the tribes whose members made it into the delegation. Farrington said he believes there will be more than four tribal groups represented.
Supervisor Jim Comstock said he had concerns similar to those of Brown's. “I can support the concept but the devil's in the details,” he said.
Supervisor Jeff Smith also suggested supporting the convention but waiting to see what shakes out, because he believed some aspects of the proposed measure “could come back and bite us.”
Farrington told fellow board members, “Nobody's going to agree with everything that's in every ballot initiative,” he said.
He said one of the things he liked about Repair California's proposal is that it treats convention delegates as if they were elected officials, holding them to the same disclosure rules.
“This is a really big deal, this constitutional convention,” said Rushing.
Board members voiced a hope that such a convention could bring forward a better version of government.
Rushing noted that the state's current constitution has had more than 450 amendments.
While elected officials are sworn to defend the federal and state constitution, California's constitution has become “indefensible,” Comstock said, and Rushing agreed.
Farrington proposed to bring the matter back to the board next month with proposed language changes.
“We're only gonna get one shot at doing this, and it should be done with some substance, and minimize the political correctness,” said Brown.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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