The story in American Machinist about Kinner Manufacturing in Olivehurst, which was named one of the top 10 Machine Shops in the country in the November issue, is on the web. Check it out here.
Company owner Ray Kinner also forwards another story about the company from a turbo machinery industry newsletter. That’s the same technology Kinner uses, there’s more on the company on Page 5.
Linda-area Supervisor Andy Vasquez will host a pair of meet-and-greet coffee sessions in December for constituents to share their concerns.
The two sessions will be Dec. 2 and 16 at Peach Tree Restaurant, 1980 N. Beale Road, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Participants can ask questions, express wishes and raise concerns about issues in Yuba County’s District 1, which covers Linda.
Vasquez, appointed to the board earlier this year to replace Dan Logue after Logue won a seat in the state Assembly last year, will run for a full term on the board of supervisors next year.
Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda hailed as a victory Wednesday a state regulatory agency’s decision to reconsider the effects of regulation on diesel emissions.
In a letter sent November 3 to Logue’s colleague, Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols said the board would reconsider at its December meeting how such regulations would affect the overall economy.
“We are in the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, and while impact to our environment must always be carefully considered, we have companies on the verge of collapse because of overregulation, and hundreds of Californians are on the brink of losing employment,” Logue said in a press release.
Nichols’ letter notes the state can provide assistance in the form of low-cost loans to businesses who need to retrofit their trucks and construction equipment to comply with the regulations.
As an aside, the letter seems to be a bit unclear on who it’s addressed to, referring to Niello as “Senator Niello.” Though he’s likely to run for the seat held by current Sen. (and Niello neighbor) Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, in a few years, he’s still in the Assembly through next year.
Quick hits from the Yuba County Board of Supervisors meeting this morning:
• Supervisors heard an extended status report from Yuba County and United Way officials on the county’s recreation program, which got underway in June with swimming lessons for youth at Marysville High School.
Recreation coordinator Ryan McNally gave supervisors numbers on how many participated in the swimming program and in gymnastics and “Baby Boot Camp” programs the county has started since then.
He also described plans to eventually start a countywide weight-loss competition based on the popular reality show “The Biggest Loser.” The effort would tie with a push by county officials, including Supervisors Hal Stocker and Mary Jane Griego, to promote better fitness and reduce obesity among county residents.
Cheyenne Balderama, a staffer with Yuba-Sutter United Way who’s worked as the rec program’s coordinator, told supervisors she hopes to launch other programs for children up to 3 years old and their parents, including ballet, dancing and cooking.
Art classes for that age group will start next month, she added, and a new marketing program for recreation offerings should be visible early next year.
McNally said he’s also hoping to approach First 5 Yuba, which provided an initial grant to get the recreation program going, about another grant aimed at providing options for children 4 and 5 years old.
• Supervisors voted 4-0, with Supervisor Roger Abe absent, to accept funding for a county investigation of possible fraud within the In-Home Supportive Services Program.
The money, about $77,700 worth, comes from a $10 million allocated statewide in the 2009-10 fiscal budget by state lawmakers concerned about reports of in-home supportive services fraud elsewhere.
A representative from the county’s Health and Human Services department said supervisors should understand fraud by such workers was relatively rare in Yuba County.
But county District Attorney Pat McGrath, who helped design the fraud investigation program the county will use, said it still happens. He told the board of an in-home care worker who continued billing the state for services even though the care worker’s patient was in the hospital for a month.
“The entire program is based on trust,” McGrath said. “When you have a program that’s based on trust, you will have people who will abuse that trust.”
Election season is still months away, and even then, state Board of Equalization isn’t likely to be a race of keen interest (you can be forgiven for asking, “what’s the state Board of Equalization?’).
Still, current state Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster) was a visible presence in the Mid-Valley last week, dropping by the A-D offices on his way to an appearance in Chico, part of his campaign for the BOE’s Second District seat next year.
Runner, himself termed out in 2012, said he sees the board’s role in three ways, with the first two fitting under the board’s typical rubric: settling tax disputes between the state and individuals or businesses, and working through the process of setting tax rates.
The third area in which he’s seeing a new role for himself is in using the board as a bully pulpit to push for more tax revenue for the state, but only in the form of more economic development.
“I think clearly the board has been seen as a fund-raising mechanism for the state, and not as a taxpayer advocate board,” Runner said. “I think it’s a ripe place to be discussing the state’s business climate in terms of the regulatory environment.”
In that, Runner sounded a note similar to the streams of other big-government skeptics who’ve made noise and organized rallies in the last few months. Like them, Runner said he believes government has to be more responsive and rational, and especially smarter about what it spends.
“When we were getting all that money in Sacramento a few years ago, we all knew they were one-time revenues,” Runner said of the millions that flowed into state coffers from higher property and sales tax receipts when the economy was booming a few years ago. “And it was always like, ‘we’ll deal with that tomorrow.’”
Runner said he believes there’s a strong backlash brewing over that attitude at the both state and national level, making note of how he was the first state legislator to address a “tea party” rally in Sacramento earlier this year.
That helps his chances of winning the BOE seat next November, as he’s running in a district with a conservative bent that runs from eastern Southern California suburbs up to the Oregon border, covering much of the Central Valley as well.
But for Runner to get to November, he’ll first have to get through a primary against former Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi, R-Lodi, and former state Sen. Barbara Alby, R-Fair Oaks.
Runner said he’s confident he can do so both because he’s campaigning at both ends of the district, and because he’s got local support everywhere.
His backers in the Mid-Valley include U.S. Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico, state Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Penn Valley, and Live Oak Vice Mayor Rob Klotz, according to Runner’s campaign literature.
“I do think you cast a vote based on that person’s record of working on issues in a way they agree with,” Runner said, mentioning his votes against taxes and his concerns over prison reform, along with work on a ballot initiative requiring more stringent voter identification at the polls as his key topics.
“Those are issues we think voters are concerned about. And it helps to have a good taxpayer protection agency,” he said.
Business is slow for many Yuba County operations at the moment, but one’s still getting notice for the work it’s done.
Kinner Manufacturing, which opened in July 2007 and operates out of an office park near Yuba County Airport, is listed as one of the top 10 machine shops in the country in this month’s issue of American Machinist.
Company owner Ray Kinner said being honored by the magazine is like a singer getting on American Idol.
“I’ve been looking at it since I was 11 or 12 years old,” Kinner said. “One thing that will really make me feel like we’re at the top is if we’re on the cover.”
Kinner said he’s hoping to attend an awards ceremony in Cleveland next April for being on the list.
Kinner’s company is small, with only four employees, three of them relatives. He said business has grown as the specialization and quality of his work has spread, though he’s still getting established.
“The upside is we’re gaining more customers, the downside is the quantity isn’t there,” he said, explaining many of the orders are only for a few parts at a time. “We have a lot of ground to make up.”
Being on the list has helped, he said, though so far it’s also led to more out-of-work machinists dropping by to see if he’s hiring.
“It’s something we’ll use in our advertising for sure,” he said. “It won’t hurt us.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is reportedly going to name someone to the vacant lieutenant governor post sometime this week, with most of the informed scuttlebutt suggesting he’ll pick a legislator such as Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, or Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, who’s been helpful to him in the Legislature.
A former state Assemblyman who represented the Yuba-Sutter area for nearly two decades, though, said he’d gladly take the post, though he acknowledges he might have an uphill fight to do so.
Former Assemblyman Stan Statham, R-Oak Run, said last week he’d not only welcome being named to the post, but would plan to run for re-election next year to a full four-year term as lieutenant governor.
“I see it as an enjoyable experience,” Statham said, adding because of its relatively low profile, the lieutenant governor spot is perhaps the best way for a legislator from rural Northern California to get into a prominent position.
But many observers believe Schwarzenegger will only appoint someone who plans to be in a caretaker role and wouldn’t run for a full term. Statham said he’d stop short of calling that a waste of time, but it was clear he wasn’t interested in the office with that condition.
Statham, perhaps best known for supporting a plan to split California into two or more states, served in the Assembly from 1976 to 1994, representing districts mostly centered in the Central Valley and other rural areas north of Sacramento. After an unsuccessful primary bid for lieutenant governor in 1994, he took a post as president and CEO of the California Broadcasters Association, a position he still holds.
Despite the snickers the office draws in some corners, the lieutenant governor position is highly influential, Statham said.
“People seriously underestimate the position,” he said, describing how the lieutenant governor sits on such important boards such as the State Lands Commission and the California State University Board of Trustees.
Known as the “Maverick from Modoc” when in office for his tendency to buck both leadership and his own party at times, Statham said he could work with both the GOP governor and the heavily Democratic legislature if appointed. Since leaving office, he’s re-registered as “decline to state,” putting him in the company of millions of other state residents who’ve done the same.
An independent political veteran who could get along with both parties? If Statham’s not appointed, it’ll be little wonder: He’d be an instant endangered species.
Short ones from today’s Yuba County Supervisors meeting:
• As expected, Dan Mierzwa has been appointed Yuba County Treasurer and Tax Collector , to take effect when the current employee holding the job, Jim Kennedy, retires at the end of the year.
The appointment was approved on a 5-0 vote. Mierzwa, who’s already been the Assistant Treasurer and Tax Collector for the last few years, will have to stand for re-election next June.
Kennedy, who’s been in that position for more than 30 years, had recommended Mierzwa as his replacement.
• It took three separate votes, but supervisors approved reimbursing Chair John Nicoletti for about $1,500 in travel expenses incurred last month when Nicoletti went to Oklahoma City to present a proclamation to Yuba County native Cotton Rosser on Rosser’s induction to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Rodeo Hall of Fame.
On the initial vote, the reimbursement and proclamation were approved on a 4-1 vote, with Supervisor Hal Stocker opposed because he said he didn’t like paying for supervisor travel while the county’s budget could be in deficit and some employees could be laid off.
But before the item was completely resolved, Supervisor Roger Abe said upon further consideration, he wanted to vote on the topic again, and supervisors agreed to a re-vote on a 5-0 vote.
The board then split the proclamation and the reimbursement into two votes, with a 5-0 vote on the first and a 3-2 vote on the second, with Stocker and Abe both in opposition.
Abe explained his vote by saying he’d be more comfortable with donating a fifth of Nicoletti’s travel expenses from his own pocket directly rather than paying it out of county funds. Stocker concurred with that thinking.
• Created an Olivehurst Public Utility District Liaison Committee on a 5-0 vote, also appointing Supervisor Mary Jane Griego to act as the liaison. In an agenda item, county officials noted officials from OPUD had expressed interest in helping form such a committee to discuss areas where the two agency’s interests intersect.
Griego, who represents Olivehurst, was a logical choice. Nicoletti was appointed as an alternate to the liaison committee.
Third District Assemblyman Dan Logue touted his strong support of jobs in receiving high marks from the California Chamber of Commerce for his votes on various state bills.
During the 2008-09 session, Logue’s first, he received a perfect score from the chamber, voting in accord with the business group on 13 bills, supporting or opposing them as they would.
Logue, R-Linda, has made promotion of economic development and lessening regulations he says crimp job creation a pet cause of his in Sacramento.
Both Second District Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, and Fourth District Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Penn Valley, also had perfect 13-0 voting records on the chamber’s scorecard.
Many in Sacramento have spoke of a new water bill as if it’s of utmost importance, but when time came to vote on several bills Tuesday night related to a water bond, the actions didn’t match the rhetoric.
The Los Angeles Times notes a handful of legislators, including local state Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Penn Valley, didn’t cast votes and weren’t in town to do so.
The Times story says Aanestad’s office reported the senator, who is running for lieutenant governor next year, was on a long-planned family trip.
It’s worth noting Aanestad’s office said the same thing last week when we inquired about his thoughts on a potential ballot measure to reform state government.
By the way, we haven’t quite found how Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda, voted on the package of five water bills, but Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, expressed his support and apparent vote for the bills.
“I am please that the Legislature has finally passed a bond that will set aside money for long-neglected-above-ground water storage projects in California,” Nielsen wrote in a statement issued by his office.
