Desert Local News - Index

Desert Local News - Desert Local News 'weekly' on demand print March 6th edition - Index

california wire 17
Palm Springs City Council
Votes To Help Homeless
By Leslie Andrews
On Wednesday night, during their regularly
scheduled meeting, the Palm Springs City Council
voted unanimously (with Mayor Steve Pougnet
absent) to approve $6,200 towards funding
of the temporary Cold Weather Shelter in North
Palm Springs.
Mayor Pro Tem Ginny Foat had a lot to say,
but was able to vote on the issue without hesitation.
“The citizens that seem to be using this
facility are from Palm Springs,” she said. “The
distressing part for me is that most of these people
using this facility are handicapped.”
The Cities of Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage
are also expected to make a similar decision
during their upcoming city council meetings
this week.
The shelter is located inside a 40,000 square
foot facility, known as the McLane Building.
There are temporary kitchens, showers and
bathrooms available already at this location. Up
to 40 people per night use the shelter. They are
picked up between 4 and 5 in the afternoon and
returned to their pick-up locations at 6 in the
morning.
Also, the city council voted 4 to 0 to approve
a Service Delivery Cooperation with the city of
Desert Hot Springs. Mayor Pougnet and Mayor
Pro Tem Foat have spoken to Desert Hot Springs
Mayor Yvonne Parks to recommend themselves
to be appointed to the subcommittee to work
hand in hand with the city council. Their mission
is to identify ways in which the two cities
might cooperate on projects and services of similar
interests.
Veto No. 4, please
Single mothers who work as part of a welfare-to-work
program may choose the person
who is paid by the state to keep their kids
while they work. Many moms choose a relative
- grandparent, aunt, sibling - who needn’t
be licensed. About 700,000 families are in this
subsidized child-care program, which costs taxpayers
more than $3 billion a year.
Why choose a relative? Because the mothers
trust them, or the mothers have language and
cultural issues with those outside the family, or
the mothers work hours when other child-care
providers aren’t available. Or, because relatives
can use the money and, unlike licensed providers,
the state seldom checks how many children
an unlicensed caregiver actually keeps.
So what’s the Legislature’s main concern
about this program? To license Grandma? No.
To unionize Grandma? You bet. And not only
Grandma but also other unlicensed child-providers
who keep only their own children and
the kids of one other family in a governmentsubsidized
program.
The Assembly has already passed a bill introduced
by Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles,
to allow the Service Employees International
Union and the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees to try organizing
unlicensed child-care providers into a
“provider organization.”
If successful, the labor organization would
negotiate pay and working conditions. Topping
the unions’ negotiation list are higher pay, health
insurance and pensions. The extended family
members of thousands of moms in subsidized
programs would swell the public payroll exponentially.
Taxpaying families whose relatives
willingly and freely keep their kids would add
to the subsidies paid to workfare moms.
This bill also requires any state agency that
administers programs involving subsidized
child-care to negotiate at the unions’ request. In
exchange, the unions agree not to strike, and not
to pursue higher pay until the second year of
agreements with the state.
Cedillo and his partisan colleagues have yet
to see a union they dislike. They have previously
passed three similar bills, all vetoed by Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, and for good reason.
The state, Cedillo has maintained, should set
pay rates for publicly subsidized care. Because
the limited funds available would have to be rationed
somehow, some kin caregivers would get
higher pay while others would get none. And
if the state pays more, unlicensed sitters will
charge more to parents ineligible for subsidies.
So vetoing this fourth bill is on the governor’s
radar, right? Maybe not. Sacramento
Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub has noted
that Schwarzenegger is indebted to the SEIU
for getting his hellacious health insurance plan
through the Assembly (only to fail in the Senate).
Schwarzenegger might clear the debt by
supporting this bill, which Democrats are rushing
through the legislative process. Surely
Schwarzenegger is above such a cynical swap.
Surely he is.
Reprinted from The San Diego Union-Tribune.
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