SACRAMENTO — Just days after the state's budget brinkmanship drew renewed public scorn, a banquet hall full of concerned citizens Tuesday took the first steps toward what many consider a better idea -- an overhaul of California government.
The road to change being championed by a collection of business leaders and good-government groups from around the state is a constitutional convention.
California hasn't engaged in such a major reworking of its political and bureaucratic machinery in more than a century, since 1878. But amid the state's cresting fiscal and political misfortunes, boosters see a prime opportunity to push for a dramatic retooling of its constitution and the mix of lawmaking and bureaucratic processes it governs.
"This is the groundbreaking moment that can set the stage for the change California needs," said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council, the business group sponsoring the forum. "The system for operating the state is badly broken."
A hotel ballroom near the Capitol was packed with business leaders and government officials, labor leaders and public interest champions, schoolteachers and plain old John and Jane Q. Public.
Bringing about a constitutional convention, let alone figuring out just how it would run, could prove a steep climb, they said. The Legislature can, with a two-thirds vote, call for a convention. But many at the gathering said that was an iffy bet, given the partisan divisions within the Legislature.
"Heads or tails," said Lt. Gov. John Garamendi minutes after he delivered an address to 400 participants packed in the Sheraton Hotel ballroom.
He plucked a dime from his pocket and flipped it. "I think it's a long shot," he said.
Many think a ballot measure next year proposing a constitutional convention is the likely avenue but admit even that popular staple of California elections might be a tough sell.
"I think it's probably necessary to have real fundamental change in California," Dave Kadlecek of Californians for Electoral Reform said during a break. "But I'm not sure it will actually happen."
Wunderman said in an interview that the California Constitutional Convention Summit, as the day's session was titled, is meant to ignite debate -- and to catch the wave of public disapproval over Sacramento's recent performance.
"We've got to do Management 101 here," he said. "We've got a broken bureaucracy."
