July 23, 1999
By Daniel H. Muñoz
Part-Time Educators Didn't Get Much In Latest Budget
With the election of Gray Davis seven months ago, part-time educators in the state's community colleges had hoped for a budget increase to convert their part-time status to full-time.
Part-timer advocates are now angry with Davis after he vetoed $10.6 million that was earmarked to convert the part-timers. In a related move Davis set aside $500,000 to augment a state fund to pay part-timers to hold office hours. However, the governor then deleted $500,000 to pay for part-timer health benefits.
The California Federation of Teachers are now pinning their hopes on Assembly Bill 420 by Scott Wildman, D-Glendale. The bill passed the Assembly in June on a 51-26 vote. Currently, in Senate Education, it would provide part-timers with hourly salaries proportionate to that of full-timers with comparable experience and academic credentials.
Minority Groups Take Gov. Davis to Court Over Diversity Program
With the passage of Prop. 209 then Governor Wilson, through an executive order, banned a program that monitored diversity among the state's contractors. With a new governor in office minority activists sought to have the program revived only to have their pleas fall on deaf ears.
Left with no recourse civil rights groups took Gov. Gray Davis to the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. The suit was originally filed during Wilson's term in office, with Davis inheriting the role as defendant in the lawsuit. Last month, a state appellate court upheld the governor's position, saying that Wilson had the authority to remove the diversity monitoring program. Davis, with a stroke of a pen, could have rescinded the order.
Civil rights group contend the monitoring program --which ask contractors to identify their race and gender-- is essential to ensure that no discrimination occurs in the state's issuance of billions of dollars in contracts.
Dept. of Education Mismanages state funds in ESL programs
The California Department of Education mismanaged $21 million in federal funds earmarked for teaching English to immigrants, according to a state audit.
10 organizations were reviewed. It was found that the department awarded funds to organizations with abysmal track records of teaching students. In one case, an organization submitted records claiming a student had taken classes that averaged nine hours a day, for 365 straight days.
The report was especially critical of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, which received the lion's share to the state's ESL adult education funds--$10.6 million from 1994 through 1998.
All the organizations had serious problems that were ignored by state education officials, the audit concluded.
Law Restoring Overtime Pay Signed Into Law
Come January 1, 8 million workers will become eligible to collect time-and-half once again now that Gov. Davis has signed into law overtime pay. The measure requires employers to pay workers for working more than eight hours a day and double pay for working more than 12 hours a day.
The law lets workers agree, by a two-thirds vote, to flexible schedules under which they would work up to 10 hours a day in a 40-hour week without getting daily overtime.
If the employer agrees, workers also can take personal time off and make it up later in the week without overtime, as long as they worked no more than 11 hours a day.
Hours worked on a seventh day in a single work week would be overtime hours when the workers has logged more than 40 hours.
State Reverses Itself On Two Affirmative Action Programs
California Democratic leaders have reversed the state's legal position in a key affirmative action lawsuit by filing court papers that defend two programs containing special considerations for race or gender.
The programs, operated by the treasurer's office and the state lottery, encourage government contracts with women- and minority-owned businesses by establishing participation goals and outreach efforts.
The court papers, filed by state Treasurer Phil Angelides and state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer--both Democrats--represent a sharp reversal from the state's last posture under former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson.
Lockyer and Angelides contend that programs with nonbinding participation goals or outreach efforts are not covered by Proposition 209. Their filing essentially asks the courts to sanction such practices.
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