California Government Agencies

Taking up the cause of angry taxpayers, Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday attacked the state government he has headed for five years by vowing to dismantle huge chunks of public bureaucracy in order to rejuvenate a coagulated system and improve performance. "You work hard for your paycheck," Wilson said in a statement. "When the state taxes it to finance government programs, you deserve the best possible value for your dollar. . . . That is not the government we have today."

Michael T. Carre, a Brea resident and investigator for the Orange County district attorney's office, has been appointed to the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, Gov. Pete Wilson announced Tuesday. The 13-member commission advises local and state law enforcement agencies and develops standards for police training and administration, Wilson spokesman Steve Tatum said. Carre, 43, has worked at the district attorney's office since 1980.

In its first step to implement an ambitious and controversial privatization effort, Gov. Pete Wilson's administration was forced to back away from plans to close a pair of state warehouses last summer after an internal dispute erupted about whether the action would save any money. Wilson's staff had boasted that its proposed government overhaul could generate a 30% savings by transferring many wasteful operations to private control.

The state Department of Consumer Affairs proposed abolishing seven of its 32 licensing boards Thursday and deregulating 14 occupations or products. The boards recommended for elimination regulate cemeteries, funeral directors, barbering and cosmetology, court reporters, interior design, landscape architects and tax preparers. The announcement of the department's recommendations to the Legislature--which must approve them before they become final--adds details to one part of Gov.

Disciplinary actions against six high-ranking officers at Corcoran State Prison--including the firing of Associate Warden Bruce Farris--were upheld Wednesday by the state personnel board, which found that the officers played a major role in the June 1995 abuse of 36 black inmates. The five-member state board decided that the firing of Capt. Lee Fouch, one of the supervisors who oversaw the incident, was not warranted and reduced his punishment to an official reprimand.

John J. McGinnis, a Huntington Beach librarian, has been appointed to the state's Educational Council for Technology in Learning, the governor's office announced this week. McGinnis, former president of the California School Library Assn., was one of six educators appointed to the council by Gov. Pete Wilson. Established in 1992, the 11-member panel oversees methods and technology used in state schools.

The state's top employment officer has crossed swords with Gov. Pete Wilson by saying that he will continue to use hiring goals for women and minorities despite recent voter approval of Proposition 209. C. Lance Barnett, the executive director of the State Personnel Board, said in a published report that he believes the goals do not violate Proposition 209's plan to end preferences in government hiring and contracting for women and minorities.

A bill making California the first state to outlaw purchases of goods produced in slave-labor camps in China and other foreign nations was signed into law late Monday by Gov. Pete Wilson. The anti-slave labor bill--strongly supported by human rights activist Harry Wu, who spent 19 years as a political prisoner in Chinese labor camps--is regarded by backers as largely a symbolic breakthrough but also a potential economic weapon.

Q & A with Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush on the California Earthquake Authority, signed into law Friday by Gov. Pete Wilson. Question: What is the California Earthquake Authority? Answer: The CEA is a privately financed, publicly managed state agency that will provide insurance coverage for earthquake damage to residential property owners, mobile-home owners and renters. Q: How is the CEA financed?