It’s campaign season and that means it’s time to look at who is giving to candidates and how much they’re spending. Bethania Palma Markus is doing a story on the Pico Rivera City Council election. Sandra Molina has a couple of stories planned for the Santa Fe Springs City Council election and I have one planned for school and water boards.

Unfortunately for the story about the school and water boards, 12 of the 50 candidates in the Whittier area as of Wednesday afternoon had yet to file their state-required campaign finance reports with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s Office. The reports were due in at the office by 5 p.m. Sept. 24 or had to be delivered by mail and postmarked at the same time. Candidates, who are late could face fines of $10 per day they’re late.

Here are the 12 candidates, whose reports weren’t at the county on Wednesday afternoon, and the districts in which they are running:

Victoria (Vikki) Aguilera Garza, Pico Water District
Rachel Canchola, El Rancho Unified School District
Octavio (Toby) Chavez, Orchard Dale Water District
George Edwards: La Habra Heights Water District
Art Escobedo, Los Nietos School District
Andres “Andy” Gonzalez, Pico Water District
Jeff Heintz: La Habra Heights Water District
Marisa B. Hernandez, Los Nietos School District
Estela Machorro, Orchard Dale Water District
Rita Jo Ramirez, El Rancho Unified School District
Margarita L. Rios, Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District
James B. Roybal, Pico Water District.

In the story about the money school and water board candidates are raising, we’ll be reporting which candidates are still late. Hopefully, the number is down by the time we’re ready to report.

Judy Henderson, dean of Social Science Humanities and Philosophy at Rio Hondo College is taking a ride in a F-18 with the Blue Angels today.

So we were told by her husband, Whittier Mayor Bob Henderson.
Good luck Judy.  

There are new developments in the legal battle over medical marijuana dispensaries. Call this one a win for the anti-medical marijuana dispensary. We’re watching this in Whittier because  the City Council in October will consider whether to allow one here.

This week, a state appellate court has decided to make its decision upholding the city of Claremont’s right to ban them enforceable on other courts. The publication of the opinion, City of Claremont v. Kruse, means that it is a precedent-setting case. This comes at the same a federal appellate court is considering the same issue, said Claremont’s attorney Jeffrey V. Dunn.

“With this published opinion, cities now have legal guidance on what they can do to regulate marijuana dispensaries,” said Claremont’s attorney Jeffrey V. Dunn. Dunn said the opinion issued by the 2nd District Court of Appeal earlier this week means the Compassionate Use Act does not preempt a city’s traditional zoning or business license decisions.
The opinion also thoroughly analyzes state preemption law and determines that cities and counties can retain their broad police power to regulate and, if necessary, restrict such land uses in their jurisdiction, he said.

A key argument in the battle over medical marijuana dispensaries has been that they’re illegal under federal law and that cities should ban them. At least that’s the argument by Whittier Council members Cathy Warner and Joe Vinatieri. That argument is going to get tested in a U.S. federal appellate court at 1 p.m. today in the US. Fourth Appellate District Court in Santa Ana.

The court will hold a hearing in the case of Qualified Patients Association v. City of Anaheim. Anaheim placed a ban on such dispensaries in July 2007. Qualified Patients Associate sued short after the ban. In September 2007, Orange County Superior Court ruled in favor of Anaheim. The case was then appealed.

The Anaheim case is the first lawsuit of its kind to reach the appellate courts in California, and stands to shape the issue of access to medical marijuana for the state,” said Kris Hermes, media liaison for Americans for Safe Access, a group that supports safe and legal access to marijuana for therapeutic use and research.

This case could have an enormous effect on many cities including some in the Whittier. More 40 localities have adopted ordinances regulating medical marijuana dispensaries, but at least 120 localities (La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs) have banned them.

The Whittier City Council at its 6:30 p.m. meeting tonight is most likely going to approve a water bond issue of a little more than $8 million. But included in the staff report is some interesting information about water usage in the city — at least the 53 percent of Whittier served by the municipal system.

However, the information probably isn’t too surprising. The biggest user of water is the city itself for its parks. And the city also thus provides the most money to the water system.
And yet there are no large users. Whittier is responsible for 2.3 percent of consumption and 2.8 percent of revenue.

Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital is the largest private user. The top users also include four schools and two senior citizen complexes.

The top 10 users make up for 236,060 100 cubic feet in water use. Total consumption in the city is nearly 3.3 million of 100 cubic feet. They also produce $483,333, with total water sales of $6.3 million. Here are the numbers in hundred cubic feet and annual revenue for the top 10 users.

Whittier city parks,       76,987  $156.2 million
Presbyterian Hospital    58,938 $117.6 million
Whittier College            47,964 $104.7 million
Whittier High School      9,971   $19.9 million
Chateau-Merrill Gardens 8,606   $17.3 million
Whittier Market Place    8,436   $16.8 million
Lutheran Towers            8,420   $16.9 million
D. Quan Laundromat      6,034   $12 million
Dexter Middle School     5,476   $11 million
Ocean View School       5,228    $10.5 million

The most interesting part of the scandal involving former Assemblyman Mike Duvall, R-Yorba Linda, could be about it surfaced publicly. The comments come near the end of a tape of an Appropriations Committee hearing July.

So many blogs as well as the Orange County Register are  wondering gave the tape or tipped off the OC Weekly and Channel 9, which broke the story. It appears to be the talk of Sacramento although no one is speaking on the record to this reporter.

Still, it’s being highly discussed on the web.

The Register, http://totalbuzz.freedomblogging.com/2009/09/10/who-leaked-the-duvall-tape/21489, has reported that Assemblyman Jeff Miller, R-Mission Viejo obtained a tape of the July 8 Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing on which Duvall’s comments were made.

Other blogs are doing speculating about who could be involved. A blog from Editorials from Hell’s Leading Daily Newspaper, http://thedisbrimstone-dailypitchfork.blogspot.com/2009/09/fallout-from-mike-duvalls-storytelling.html has its own speculation. Beware on this one. There is mature adult content halfway through.

Other blogs in Orange County, http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/09/did-crp-vice-chair-jon-fleischman-bring-down-mike-duvall/, http://www.theliberaloc.com/2009/09/11/why-fleischman-turned-on-duvall/ and http://www.redcounty.com/duvall-scandal-update-scrutinizing-jeff-miller?taxonomy=29  are doing their own speculation.

There could be some interesting times for the Assembly Republican caucus in the future.

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The official “for sale” sign is now up at the now-closed Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility, only nine days after state Sen. Ron Calderon planted a one at the entrance.
However, this one is a little bigger and has on it the official Web site with information on the property.

Here are some pictures I took of the official sign and the unofficial sign:

Here is the one that Calderon nailed last week: