As usual, all info culled from the websites of the respective political bodies and agencies and subject to change without notice.
...The U.S. House has an agenda this week that is dominated numerically by memorials and post office namings and the like, but the debate is likely to be dominated by money issues.
Among the items to be considered -
- H.R. 2661, the Court Security Enhancement Act of 2009. Proposed by Texas Republican Louie Gohmert, it changes the penalty for violations of Title 18, section 119 from 5 years to 10 years.
- H.R. 403, the Homes for Heroes Act of 2009. Seeks to improve veterans' access to HUD programs and homeless assistance programs.
- H.R. 1674, National Consumer Cooperative Bank Act Amendments of 2009. From the CRS summary - "National Consumer Cooperative Bank Act Amendments of 2009 - Amends the National Consumer Cooperative Bank Act to declare that a nonprofit corporation (established to succeed the abolished Office of Self-Help Development and Technical Assistance) shall be deemed to be a community development financial institution, unless the National Consumer Cooperative Bank or any of its affiliates participates in certain depository institution incentives under the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994."
- Yet again, possible consideration of the conference report for H.R. 2346, the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act.
- H.R. 2847, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 and H.R. [Unknown], the Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2010.
There are 23 other measures on the current agenda, but these last two should generate more controversy and debate than all of those others combined.
...Moving the focus to central AZ...
...The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has an informal meeting scheduled for Monday that is mostly employee service awards, but there is an executive session scheduled to be part of the agenda for that meeting. They have a formal meeting scheduled for Wednesday. That agenda is long, but it looks to be boring.
OK, maybe not so boring to political/government ops geeks -
Item 35 is a hiring freeze for the coming fiscal year;
Item 36 is a capital purchasing freeze for the same period;
Item 40 is the premium pay rates schedule applicable to county employees for the same period;
Items 42 and 43 involve all sorts of fund transfers;
Item 86 is an appeal of a trial court ruling in the case of Braillard v. Maricopa County (background here)
Items F-3 and F-4 are the FY2009-2010 hiring freeze and capital purchasing freeze for the flood control district;
Items L-4 and L-5 are the same, but for the county library district;
Items S-4 and S-5 are the same, for the stadium district.
Yup, they're getting ready for an ugly fiscal year.
...The Citizens Clean Elections Commission has cancelled the meeting that it had scheduled for June 18.
...The Arizona Board of Regents will be meeting at NAU on Thursday and Friday. Items of interest include approval of a five-year contract for Sean Miller, UA's new men's basketball coach ($1.6 million/year), approval of a contract extension for Clinton Myers, ASU's Softball coach ($104K/year), and approval of the reappointment of and new contract with Dr. John Haeger, the President of NAU (no $alary listed).
Ummm...why aren't they publishing the NAU president's salary? And while the variance between the salaries of the basketball coach and the softball coach are eye-opening (which one has won a championship recently and sees most of his players graduate? Hint: not the higher-paid one.), at least the money for the hoops guy comes out of Athletic Department revenues, not ABOR.
...The Board of Directors of the Maricopa Integrated Health System and the Governing Board of the Maricopa County Community College District are not scheduled to meet this week. The Tempe City Council and the Directors of the Central Arizona Project aren't meeting, either.
...The Scottsdale City Council is meeting on Tuesday at 5 p.m. The agenda there includes setting the FY2009/2010 property tax levees (combined rate of 0.74/$100 of valuation, a reduction of .06); setting the FY2009/2010 streetlight property tax levees (the city's 355 street light districts will each have different rates, depending on the circumstances of each district); and Mayor Jim Lane's proposal for the City of Scottsdale to withdraw from Valley Metro Rail, Inc. (aka light rail).
Of interest to political geeks is the .pdf of the legislative update to be presented to the city council by Scottsdale's Intergovernmental Relations Director, Bridget Schwartz-Manock. It includes a municipalities'-eye view of the state budget mess and presents a legal opinion (from an attorney at Perkin, Coie, Brown and Bain) that at least one part of the Republicans' scheme to balance the state's budget with municipal revenue is either illegal, or needs a 2/3 majority to vote for it in each chamber of the lege. It's couched in that CYA-sort of attorney-speak that protects the attorney in the event that a judge disagrees with the opinion, but that's the basic meaning.
AKA - a little light reading to start your week. :))
Note: if COS pulls the full lege update from its website, leave your email in a comment. I'll send you a copy.
...Folks, we're getting closer to the opening of the freak show known as "Fiscal Year 2010 - Arizona Edition." It's scheduled to start on July 1st, but with legislative shenanigans (such as playing "budget chicken" with the Governor) and court cases looming on the horizon, this pre-show could have an extended engagement.
Later...
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