Hoover Commission

Pete Bontadelli has been wearing a wraparound back brace since he lost a wrestling match with a trash barrel at his Sacramento home a few months ago. It might be mistaken for a bulletproof vest, which would be more symbolic of his position as director of the California Department of Fish and Game. The Little Hoover Commission, which looks into the efficiency and organization of government agencies in the state, seems to be coming after Bontadelli with both barrels, and there also are rumbles of dissension from within.

SACRAMENTO - California's first attempt to run a park more than a century ago was a disaster. Over a campfire in the backcountry, John Muir himself urged President Theodore Roosevelt to rescue thousands of acres in the Yosemite Valley from the state's neglect - and it remains a national park to this day. The state found redemption after that rocky start, and went on to preserve 1.5 million acres of coastline, forests, mountains and historic sites,...

A one-dimensional California Fish and Game Commission will not do for the 1990s, the Little Hoover Commission is expected to announce when it releases its findings and recommendations from a yearlong study Thursday at Sacramento. The Little Hoover Commission, otherwise known as the Commission on California State Government and Economy, investigates state government agencies when there is a question of efficiency in operation. Its recommendations generally are implemented.

The housing bubble and subsequent Wall Street collapse wreaked havoc on the nation's retirement savings, as many pension funds and 401(k) plans suffered losses of 30% or more. State and local governments are now facing huge unfunded pension liabilities, prompting policymakers to scramble for ways to close the gap without slashing payrolls and services. But a new report from the Little Hoover Commission in Sacramento makes a more troubling point: Many state and local government employees have been promised pensions that the public couldn't have afforded even had there been no crash.

Your Sept. 8 editorial, "Reason to Complain," certainly gives me reason to complain. The Department of Insurance did not oppose Assemblywoman Gwen Moore's (D-Los Angeles) AB 1687, as you incorrectly state. In fact, I distinctly remember spending an entire afternoon in Moore's office working diligently on the measure. Not only did the Department of Insurance back the bill, we also worked aggressively with Moore and the Little Hoover Commission to see it passed. ROXANI M. GILLESPIE Insurance Commissioner State of California San Francisco

The recent report (Times, Jan. 30) on the California Transportation Department by the "Little Hoover Commission" substantiates the statements we have issued over many years. The report from the Hoover Commission states that the California Transportation program is antiquated, disorganized and wasteful and not likely to improve soon because Caltrans is wedded to a history as the state's highway department and cannot adapt to the new ideas such as mass transit and locally funded highway projects.

Your article (March 23) on Nathan Shapell was a welcome one! His autographed photo in my office always evokes questions, which lead to lengthy explanations about the accomplishments of this man, so I am more than happy to have this newsprint to frame beside it. Many years ago, you did a splendid feature on Mr. Shapell and his wife, Lily, in your magazine section, and I was fascinated by one facet of his character--his punctuality. At that time, he used to set his watch 10 minutes ahead, so that he would never be late to his many meetings.

Social service worker Frances Guest attracted a lot of attention about a year ago when she went before the Little Hoover Commission and accused her supervisors of ignoring wretched conditions in many of the county's board-and-care homes for the elderly. The state watchdog agency issued a critical report based, in part, on Guest's disclosures. But officials within the state Department of Social Service's Community Care and Licensing Division denied that they had been lax. Soon after her disclosures, social service officials transferred Guest from her job as an evaluator of board-and-care facilities and made her an inspector of children's day-care centers.

Terming it "shameful" for such a prosperous state as California to allow up to 250,000 homeless people to live on the streets, the Little Hoover Commission on Tuesday called for more aggressive leadership, improved program coordination and less red tape for homeless aid applicants. Noting that more than $780 million from a variety of sources is spent annually on homeless aid services, the watchdog state government commission said it found existing programs to be fragmented and poorly coordinated.

I must take exception to Prof. Les Boston's remarks concerning the Los Angeles Community College District (Editorial Pages, March 21), "Community Colleges Need Central Management to Cure Ills". When institutions are forced to shift their time and attention away from their primary activity to questions of basic survival as many districts in California have been forced to do, they must make extraordinary efforts to remember their mission and purpose, to hold to their educational principles, and to appropriately serve their local community.

A bipartisan citizens' panel Thursday recommended that the Legislature reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to create a state Department of Energy, dealing a blow to his plan to reorganize the state's tangled energy bureaucracy. Members of the Little Hoover Commission, which analyzes all state government reorganization plans, said they favored the idea behind the governor's proposal to centralize California's energy policy under a cabinet-level energy czar.

California's anonymous collection of small special districts handling water, trash, flood protection and other services are sitting on $19.4 billion in reserves with little oversight for how that stash is used, a state watchdog agency reported Wednesday.

The state is doing a poor job teaching more than 1 million students to speak English and the Department of Education's bilingual instruction policies are largely to blame, according to a report released Friday by the Little Hoover Commission. The report, which was criticized by Department of Education officials as being biased and inaccurate, says it is "divisive, wasteful and unproductive" to require youths to be taught core courses in their native language until they are literate in English.

Members of a state watchdog panel agreed Monday that California's $11-billion, fraud-ridden workers' compensation system must be overhauled if politicians want to keep businesses from leaving the state. The Little Hoover Commission found that the system's costs to businesses have tripled in the last 10 years.

The recent report (Times, Jan. 30) on the California Transportation Department by the "Little Hoover Commission" substantiates the statements we have issued over many years. The report from the Hoover Commission states that the California Transportation program is antiquated, disorganized and wasteful and not likely to improve soon because Caltrans is wedded to a history as the state's highway department and cannot adapt to the new ideas such as mass transit and locally funded highway projects.

The Little Hoover Commission on Wednesday issued a scathing report on the state Medi-Cal insurance program for poor Californians, saying it constitutes an empty promise of health care to many of the 3.7 million adults and children who depend upon it. The $8.1-billion program is "riddled with procedures that block access to medical care and discourage doctors from participating in the system," said Commission Chairman Nathan Shapell. "The result is similar to a lottery.

Director Pete Bontadelli's Dept. of Fish and Game sailed through a six-hour hearing before the Little Hoover Commission Tuesday, but the Fish and Game Commission seemed to be in trouble. The Little Hoover Commission, which is investigating how well California's natural resources are managed, was far more impressed by Bontadelli than it was with FGC President Bob Bryant, whose group oversees the DFG. This was the second of two hearings; the first was last May in Los Angeles.

Fish and game commissions are revered institutions in the West. By tradition, sportsmen are named to these bodies primarily to set hunting and fishing seasons that accommodate the desires of fellow hunters and anglers. In California in the 1990s, however, such a body is an anachronism.

Fish and game commissions are revered institutions in the West. By tradition, sportsmen are named to these bodies primarily to set hunting and fishing seasons that accommodate the desires of fellow hunters and anglers. In California in the 1990s, however, such a body is an anachronism.

California Fish and Game--the commission and the department--took some lumps when the Little Hoover Commission released the findings and recommendations of its 10-month study last week. The state's fish and wildlife program came off like a mom-and-pop store. According to the report, Mom, the Fish and Game Commission, lacks the scientific background to set proper policy.