Rebooting California: Initiatives, Conventions & Government Reform September 24, 2010

9 a.m.-5:45 p.m.
Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Free ($20 for MCLE credit)
(213) 736-1071
www.RebootCA.org

The Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review is hosting a symposium, "Rebooting California: Initiatives, Conventions & Government Reform," on Friday, Sept. 24 in Robinson Courtroom on Loyola Law School’s downtown Los Angeles campus. The event will feature top legal scholars, jurists and politicians on a slate of panels: Fiscal and Budgetary Problems and Reforms; Electoral and Structural Reforms; Mechanisms for Constitutional Reform; and The Future of Direct Democracy–Reforming the Initiative Process. Former California Gov. Gray Davis will deliver the lunchtime keynote address. The dinner speaker will be Dan Schnur, chair, California Fair Political Practices Commission; professor and director, Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, University of Southern California. Panel moderators include veteran political reporters and analysts: Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, KNBC-TV political analyst and senior fellow at USC's School of Policy, Planning and Development; Karen Grigsby Bates, correspondent, NPR; Warren Olney, host of Public Radio International's To the Point and KCRW-FM's Which Way, L.A.?, and Dan Walters, senior political writer for the Sacramento Bee. A full schedule, blog updates, press coverage and video interviews are all available at RebootCA.org, which also includes a link to the registration page.

The first panel, “Fiscal and Budgetary Problems/Reforms,” will feature panelists Jon Coupal, President, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (Tax and Budget Limitations); John Heilman, Mayor, West Hollywood; Professor of Law, Whittier Law School (Budgetary Impacts on California's Cities); Robert Hertzberg, Former Speaker, California Assembly; Co-Chair, California Forward (topic: Bipartisan Fiscal Reforms); and Sheila Kuehl, Former Member, California State Senate (topic: Tax and Budget Issues). Walters will moderate the panel.

The second panel, “Electoral & Structural Reforms,” will feature panelists Jessica Levinson, Director of Political Reform, Center for Governmental Studies (topic: The Constitutionality of Open Primaries); Justin Levitt, Associate Professor of Law, Loyola Law School Los Angeles (topic: The Potential of Citizen Redistricting); Bruce McPherson, Former California Secretary of State; Leadership Council, California Forward (topic: Get Real, and Reform); and Allan Ides, Christoper N. May Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles (topic: Proportional Representation in the Legislature). Bebitch Jeffe will moderate the panel.

The third panel, Mechanisms for Constitutional Reform, will feature panelists Joseph Grodin, Former Associate Justice, Supreme Court of California; Distinguished Emeritus Professor, University of California, Hastings College of the Law (topic: Popular Sovereignty and its Limits); Thad Kousser, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California San Diego; Visiting Associate Professor, Bill Lane Center for the West, Stanford University (topic: The Blessings and Curses of Piecemeal Reform); Ann Lousin, Professor of Law, John Marshall Law School (topic: How to Conduct a Constitutional Convention); Steven Miller, Hanson Bridgett LLP, Attorney for Repair California (topic: Getting to a Constitutional Convention); and Raphael Sonenshein, Executive Director, Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission; Professor, California State University, Fullerton (topic: Constitutional Revision Commissions). Grigsby Bates will moderate the panel.

The fourth panel, “The Future of Direct Democracy – Reforming the Initiative Process,” will feature panelists Bruce Cain, Director, Institute of Governmental Studies; Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley (topic: Fixing Ballot Box Budgeting); Christopher Elmendorf, Professor of Law, University of California, Davis (topic: Why Sensible Judicial Enforcement of the Amendment/Revision Distinction Requires a Constitutional Revision); Robert Stern, President, Center for Governmental Studies (topic: Improving the Initiative Process); and Gerald Uelmen, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law (topic: Enforcing the Single Subject Rule for Initiatives). Olney will moderate the panel.

“California is in crisis. Everyone knows it. But no one, it seems, is able to do anything about it. State government is failing its citizens in education, infrastructure, parks and elsewhere. Our chronic budget deficits cause havoc in the delivery of public services and depress economic growth,” said Professor Karl Manheim, a founding organizer of the event. “Our ‘dysfunction’ is by now common knowledge and worldwide attention. What is less understood, indeed seemingly beyond reach, is how to fix California. That is why we created the Rebooting California event.”

Co-sponsors include the California State Association of Counties, the California Supreme Court Historical Society, the Center for California Studies at Sacramento State University, the Center for Governmental Studies, the Civil Justice Program at Loyola Law School, the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, the League of California Cities and United Ways of California.

Official Website: http://www.rebootca.org