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11/02/05
Vicki Curry>> Tonight on Life and Times --
A look at Proposition 75. Should unions have to ask before they use dues for politics?
Allan Monsoor>> I found out that a portion of my dues was going to political activities that I do not necessarily support.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> This is nothing more than a way to silence us. It's a bureaucratic nightmare for us.
Vicki Curry>> And then, if you offer healthy food in a school cafeteria, will the kids eat it?
These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times.
Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
David Okarski>> Proposition 75 supporters say public employee unions should ask each member each year before spending their dues money on politics. Proposition 75 detractors say union members already have the right to demand their money not be spent that way. Two sides of the same coin? Maybe so, but there's a big difference. On this side is Thomas Jefferson.
Allan Monsoor>> And I like to use a quote by Thomas Jefferson and he said, "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
David Okarski>> Allan Monsoor is an Orange County Sheriff's Deputy who allowed his name to be printed in the special election voter's pamphlet in support of Proposition 75.
Allan Monsoor>> And when I first became a member of the union, I found out that a portion of my dues was going to political activities that I did not necessarily support.
David Okarski>> Monsoor is a Republican.
Allan Monsoor>> They gave money to Gray Davis, which I didn't necessarily support.
David Okarski>> Democrat Davis received most of the money labor spent in California's 2003 gubernatorial recall vote.
Allan Monsoor>> Proposition 75 simply says to ask permission first before you use my dues for political purposes.
David Okarski>> As we now know, despite union support, Davis lost the election to Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger and, on commercial television, you can watch labor's already chilly relations with Schwarzenegger getting colder.
Arnold Schwarzenegger>> "A system rigged to benefit the big government labor unions at your expense."
Allan Monsoor>> And then more recently, my dues and the dues of every member of the association will increase by fifty percent for political activity.
Political Advertisement>> "The public employee unions take our dues and spend on politics without our permission."
Allan Monsoor>> So with me, it boils down to choice and asking permission first. It's a worker's right to choose.
David Okarski>> Allan Monsoor calls Proposition 75 a worker's rights measure. Nevertheless, unions are screaming about this measure (laughter). Why?
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> This is nothing more than a way to silence us. It's a bureaucratic nightmare for us.
David Okarski>> Orange County Sheriff Sergeant Wayne Quint, Jr. is president of Monsoor's union. You are a Republican and yet you oppose Proposition 75?
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> I'm ashamed of the Republican Party for even supporting this initiative.
David Okarski>> Explain that. Why?
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> Because the Republican Party is for freedoms and this really limits our ability of freedom of speech and they know it.
David Okarski>> This is the other side of the coin, the house that Thomas Jefferson built, a nation whose citizens can speak and associate freely, which means they can form labor unions and vote for their union leaders.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> I am the top guy. I run for election every two years with my membership. If the members are totally dissatisfied that the top folks are spending our money, we've got a democratic process. It's called an election. Out we go.
David Okarski>> Quint says his union spends its political capital to further members' interests.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> It goes for a variety of issues. It goes for our lobbyists up in Sacramento. We lobby for tougher laws against drunk drivers. We lobby for Three Strikes. These are societal issues that we lobby for, but I'm not going to pull any punches here. First and foremost, we lobby for our members' salary and benefits just like everyone else does. Both private and public.
David Okarski>> Proposition 75 would make California's public employee unions ask each member every year how much he or she is willing to give the union for political spending.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> I mean, this is crazy. Signing this form authorizes your union to use the amount of "blank", so I could have eighteen hundred members who give different amounts. That's going to cause dissension right off the top.
David Okarski>> Proposition 75 would also allow each member to direct his dues to the political group of his choice.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> So if I have, for example, fifty percent of my members who want to give money to the Republican Party, forty percent that want to give it to the Democratic Party and ten to the Green Party, we have to figure all this out. This is a logistical nightmare.
David Okarski>> Proposition 75 would require detailed record-keeping of where each member's money goes. Quint says it's unnecessary and that the burden could cripple his union.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> We're going to be doing this and not be able to do what we're really supposed to be doing and that's represent to the membership on the salary and benefits or employee representation.
David Okarski>> And his political war chest would shrivel up.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> In states that have done this, they've seen their political action drop by ninety percent.
David Okarski>> So other states have done this already?
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> Yes. Utah and Washington have.
David Okarski>> In Washington State and Utah, the number of teachers contributing to political action has fallen dramatically to just fifteen percent in Utah and less than nine percent in Washington.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> They know, when we send out forms for people to sign, that we're not going to get near a hundred percent forms. So it's just fundamentally unfair. It's already protected by the courts. They're re-inventing a wheel that doesn't need to be re-invented.
David Okarski>> The Supreme Court says, if you don't like your union's political activity, you can opt out. You don't get your money back, but that portion meant for politics goes instead into the general fund. That's the way it is right now, but some people want more.
Political Advertisement>> "Stopping government labor unions from taking workers' money for politics without their permission makes sense."
David Okarski>> Right now, you have the ability to opt out.
Allan Monsoor>> They make it very difficult for people to opt out of the union and, if they do, they still collect dues that go to the union and there's no accountability as to where that money goes. Proposition 75 will bring that accountability back.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> We could show them, you know, our bank statements which will clearly show that seven folks decide not to put roughly fourteen dollars every pay period into political action, so there's plenty of proof. That's ridiculous.
David Okarski>> Seven out of eighteen hundred members of Quint's association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs have opted out.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> And all they did was come down to the association and tell us, "We don't want our money going into political action."
David Okarski>> Critics call Proposition 75 a Republican power grab because nationally more than ninety percent of labor's political money goes to Democrats.
Allan Monsoor>> I don't see this as one side or the other. It doesn't matter to me who brings the issue forward because I know there are many Democrats who support this also.
David Okarski>> Wayne Quint says, if Proposition 75 passes, the balance of political spending will tilt even further in favor of business which already outspends labor nationally ten to one. The Proposition 75 debate is like two sides of a coin.
Wayne Quint, Jr.>> I think where the average voter will feel it is public safety will suffer if public safety unions like mine are not out there trying to get the best benefits for police officers. You don't want a cop out on the streets that doesn't feel he's worth anything.
David Okarski>> The voice of the majority is on one side. The voice of the individual on the other. Money and political power are in the middle. David Okarski for Life and Times.
Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times".
Toni Guinyard>> In less than one week, California voters will have to decide eight ballot initiatives, one of them Proposition 77 addressing who will draw political boundaries, a panel of three retired judges or the legislature. We went to the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies to get an overview of Proposition 77. Proposition 77 deals with redistricting. What does it all mean to the average voter?
Bob Stern>> Redistricting is a very arcane term for voters. What does it mean? Right now, the legislators decide who their voters are as opposed to voters deciding who their legislators are. In 2001, the legislators drew their lines for their districts to determine where they would be. One legislator had a district all along the coast of California, two hundred miles along the coast, some part of the district not wider than a football field. They reason they did that was that the legislator wanted to make sure that she was re-elected.
What we had after the 2001 redistricting, or changing of lines for districts, not one legislator lost their election. Not one seat changed party hands. It was incumbent protection. Now in the past in California, when the legislature and the governor were unable to agree on how to draw the lines, it went to the courts. In the 1970's and the 1990's, the California Supreme Court actually redrew the lines and did a great job. Actually, to draw the lines, we had competitive races.
So what this proposition does, it says we're going to take it out of the hands of the legislature and give it to three judges who are going to draw the lines. So it's fascinating. You have public interest groups on opposite sides. You have the governor on one side supporting this. You have some Republicans that are opposing this, Republican congressmen opposing it. So you have a real mixture of people pro and con on this.
This, again, is another proposition that is sponsored by the governor that he calls his Major Election Reform Issue and the people are going to have to decide what they think about redistricting. Now we've had similar propositions on the ballot in the past. Over the last twenty-five years, we've had four similar propositions. All have been defeated because the people said let's leave it the way it is.
It's a very difficult question for the voters. Who do they trust basically? You have the governor on the one hand. You have Democratic legislators on the other hand. You have Common Cause with the governor. You have the League of Women Voters against the governor. Voters are going to be seeing lots of thirty second ads. There's an ad with a lady that reminds you of the "Where's the Beef?" lady who is basically --
Toni Guinyard>> -- walking up to her home?
Bob Stern>> Walking up to her home basically saying, "Vote yes. We can't trust the legislature." Then you have the no side having three judges come in, three white men, and they're coming in and saying, "You want us to do this? Unelected judges doing this?" So we're going to see, again, lots of ads for and against. The voters will have to look at their ballots and see who's supporting and who's opposing and take a look and see what they think about redistricting.
Even though they think it does not affect them, it really does. Because what happens is, when you have districts that are so one-sided, the voters really don't have much of a choice in November when they're voting for legislature. The choices are made for them in the primary election and the governor will argue that, if this passes, we'll see more of a moderate legislature, that we will see less liberal Democrats, less conservative Republicans and more moderates coming to the legislature. That's a rallying thing to be able to work better with the legislature and solve the problems and that's why he's pushing it so hard this year. Because he basically wants a different legislature that he can work with.
Toni Guinyard>> One of the other things that I've been seeing in encouraging voters to vote yes on this is the argument that legislators are essentially protecting themselves. Both Democrats and Republicans are making sure those boundary lines are drawn so they can maintain a predominantly Democratic or Republican constituency.
Bob Stern>> Nobody argues with that. Everybody agrees that the way the lines are drawn by the legislators, the number one goal is to protect themselves so that they get re-elected. When the courts did it in the 1970's and the 1990's, their goal was to make it fair.
Toni Guinyard>> But what is fair?
Bob Stern>> Well, that's right. It was more competitive. It clearly was more competitive and the Democrats were in control for a while in the legislature, then the Republicans came into control. So you clearly could have changing demographics reflected by the changing of the votes. One more point of this proposition, it lets the voters approve or reject the lines written by the judges. So after the judges do this and actually after a primary election, the voters will have it on the ballot to decide whether they approve of these lines or not. So it gives the voters an opportunity to reject the lines that are actually drawn by the judges. In the current law, the voters have no say-so.
Toni Guinyard>> Now the Center for Governmental Studies has done a lot of research on the issue of redistricting and how to do it fairly and I think it recommends that, yes, you need a panel, but how that panel is chosen is at question.
Bob Stern>> We did a report called "Drawing Lines", a public interest guide to real redistricting and reform. We suggested quite a bit of a difference in the panel than Proposition 77 has. Proposition 77 only has three judges, retired judges, doing this. We suggested there be nine people doing it and not all judges, that maybe half be retired judges and half not. We had also a lot of different criteria in here. Proposition 77 gives it to three judges and then says they have to do it very quickly next year.
Toni Guinyard>> By 2006.
Bob Stern>> That's right. So it's in effect for the June 2006 election. The County Registrars are saying that they don't have the time, that they won't be able to get it into effect.
Toni Guinyard>> But that shouldn't be taken into consideration when you're actually voting on the proposition.
Bob Stern>> Oh, I think it should.
Toni Guinyard>> Really? Why?
Bob Stern>> Well, there are two reasons. One, we want to make sure the elections are smooth. So we want to make sure it's done carefully. We don't want it rushed through so that people don't have input.
Toni Guinyard>> Bob Stern, President of the Center for Governmental Studies, thanks again for trying to teach us a little something about Proposition 77.
Bob Stern>> Thanks for coming in.
Toni Guinyard>> As part of its video voter project, the Center for Governmental Studies has put together what it calls "Voter Minutes". They are brief, easy to understand explanations of all of the propositions that will appear on the special election ballot. One of them is Proposition 73.
Marc Istook>> "Hi, I'm Marc Istook and this is a Voter Minute on Proposition 73, whether to change the California Constitution and require doctors to notify parents or legal guardians before performing an abortion on a pregnant minor.
A yes vote means the State Constitution would be changed requiring doctors to notify parents at least forty-eight hours before performing an abortion on a pregnant minor. Supporters say this move will let parents better counsel and care for their daughters and that more than thirty other states are doing the same.
A no vote means minors would keep the same abortion rights as adults. Opponents say scared pregnant teens need counselors, not judges, and that this change could result in an increase in unsafe illegal abortions.
Supporters of Proposition 73 include James Holman, publisher of the San Diego Reader, and former California Assemblyman, Don Sebastiani. Opponents include the League of Women Voters of California and the state's Planned Parenthood affiliates. If you have questions about this proposition, you can find more information online at healthvote.org, parentsright2know.org or noonproposition73.org. Don't forget to vote on Proposition 73 on Tuesday, November 8."
Toni Guinyard>> If you would like to watch the other Voter Minutes and learn more about the propositions, go to kcet.org and click on Life and Times.
Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address:
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Val Zavala>> Getting kids to eat healthy food these days is a major challenge and many times the food they serve at school cafeterias isn't much help. But now the Compton Unified School District has a solution. As Toni Guinyard tells us, they've found a way to make -- would you believe it -- the salad bar a popular spot.
Toni Guinyard>> Jim Churchill knows produce. He's a farmer in Ojai. His crops include twelve acres of tangerines. The Pixie Tangerine is helping him forge a somewhat unlikely relationship with a new crop of customers, children miles away in Compton.
Jim Churchill>> When you say we'd like to bring locally grown fresh produce into the school lunch program, most people say, well, yeah. You know, I mean, it's like a "duh" kind of an idea. It's difficult to implement because the institutions are not set up for it on both sides.
Toni Guinyard>> Despite the obstacles, and there are many, a group of Ventura County farmers has succeeded in getting their produce delivered to some Los Angeles area schools.
Martin Anenberg>> "One carrot, one cucumber, one romaine, two tangerines."
Toni Guinyard>> It's part of what's called the farm-to-school program and it's aimed at changing the eating habits of students by getting locally grown fruits and vegetables from farms to campuses and into school lunch meals. Thirty school districts statewide have established a farm-to-school plan, including the Compton Unified School District.
Tracie Thomas>> It's harvested on Mondays, it's delivered to our kitchens on Tuesdays and our kids are eating it on Tuesdays. You can't get any fresher than that and there's nothing like it.
Martin Anenberg>> What we hope they're going to get, one, is obviously better eating habits and not reach for nachos, not reach for the Doritos and instead reach for a piece of fruit, a Pixie Tangerine, something like this. I mean, this is amazing. Pixie Tangerines. The kid that's small, they can open it, they can eat it.
Toni Guinyard>> It's fruit from Jim Churchill's orchard delivered to Rosecrans Elementary in Compton by self-described social entrepreneurs, Martin Anenberg and Jeremy Moy. They connect schools with Ventura County family farmers by purchasing the produce and making daily deliveries to schools within a one hundred fifty mile radius.
Jeremy Moy>> The more that we expand our business, the better it is for the community and really we wouldn't be in this business if there wasn't such a huge need for, again, fresh produce that is sustainably grown, organically grown.
>> "In the center aisle, come on."
Toni Guinyard>> Five days a week, the fresh produce appears on salad bars at the elementary schools. The students have a choice, salad bar or hot lunch. On this day within minutes of the start of the lunch period, the line for the salad bar snakes out the door.
Lauren Bates>> I have some cheese and cucumbers and oranges and some grapes and some milk and cookies.
Toni Guinyard>> What's the best part of it?
Lauren Bates>> The salad.
Toni Guinyard>> Why?
Lauren Bates>> Because it's good.
Tracie Thomas>> We don't force-feed them. We have a fabulous hot lunch program. We have a fabulous salad bar program. But when students come in and they choose the salad bar over the traditional hot lunch as an everyday option for them, that's indicating change.
Toni Guinyard>> Tracie Thomas is the Assistant Director of Student Nutrition Services for the Compton Unified School District. She used to hold a similar position for Santa Monica-Malibu schools where she was instrumental in helping build a relationship between the schools and the local farmers' market. Santa Monica's salad bar program made headlines when it was introduced years ago, but this is different territory. There are no farmers' markets in this community and nearly all students enrolled in Compton's schools qualify for the free school meal plan.
Tracie Thomas>> It's the low-income communities. There are some kids who don't know what they're going to have for dinner on some nights.
Toni Guinyard>> If anything?
Tracie Thomas>> If anything at all.
Anupama Joshi>> Tracie's done a remarkable job at, you know, with the salad bar programs at the different elementary schools.
Toni Guinyard>> Anupama Joshi is the national farm-to-school program manager with the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College.
Anupama Joshi>> We've done some evaluation studies and we're going to be doing evaluation studies at Compton as well that show us that kids are eating more fruits and vegetables as part of the program. Kids are also getting a better understanding of why is it important to eat what they're eating from the salad bar.
Toni Guinyard>> Joshi and her colleagues are supporting Assembly Bill 826, legislation that will create the California Farm-to-School Child Nutrition Improvement Program. It would, in part, establish workshops and provide grants to expand farm-to-school programs statewide, putting fresh locally grown produce on the plates of more children.
Tremont Caldwell>> Carrots, grapes, cheese, oranges and meat and lettuce.
Anupama Joshi>> You know, there are two ways of solving the school food issue. One is to take out stuff that is bad or that is supposed to be bad like sodas and junk food. And the other is to give them healthy options. I mean, if you were to take out the junk food, you really need to provide them some other, you know, healthy options as well.
[Film Clip]
Toni Guinyard>> She says the farm-to-school program provides that healthy option, but it also provides local family farmers support.
Tracie Thomas>> If we take away all the agriculture in our communities, kids think apples just show up in a grocery store. They don't know that they have to actually be planted, seeded and harvested, so it's a whole education process for our students.
[Film Clip]
Tracie Thomas>> We do workshops for our teachers here in Compton on Saturdays and those workshops are geared to educate the teachers on how to incorporate nutrition education into their already mandated curriculum. They have to teach math. Can you teach math with apples? Yes, you can. How can you teach math with apples? You can do fractions.
Toni Guinyard>> Thomas is the first to admit that getting others to embrace the program takes work.
Tracie Thomas>> Is it easy, they ask me? Absolutely it is not. Well, why do we need to do it? Shame on you if you don't because it's exposing kids to a nutritional aspect that they otherwise would not be able to have been exposed to.
Yvonne Nolan>> My honest reaction was, oh, no, not another thing that they'd be throwing or dropping on our laps. But once we got involved and we got proper training, we got more educated on how important it is for kids, you know, because they're overweight with this obesity issue.
Toni Guinyard>> In the first few months that the salad bars were introduced in Compton Unified School District schools, eighty percent of the students decided the salads were what they wanted to eat. The novelty has worn off a bit, but the lessons about health have not been lost.
Umar Baba>> Nowadays, kids are eating "junk food", so part of our school program is to make sure that we bring them into the school and eat healthy food.
Toni Guinyard>> But it's clearly an uphill battle. We spotted one student getting lunch at the salad bar while clutching a bag of chips and a drink brought from home.
Tracie Thomas>> You know, when I go on a campus, be it secondary or a high school, and I see a kid eating a bag of chips and a soda, it breaks my heart because these kids are not going to be able to perform academically.
Toni Guinyard>> And it's not enough to just make sure students aren't hungry when they're in class. Rosecrans administrators want them to eat well.
Lauren Bates>> I will tell my mommy to make some salad so I could eat it and be healthier.
Toni Guinyard>> It's a lesson even a first grader understands. I'm Toni Guinyard for Life and Times.
Val Zavala>> And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
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