Final grades, exit interviews - Bites - Opinions - November 22, 2012 - Sacramento News & Review

Final grades, exit interviews - Bites - Opinions - November 22, 2012 - Sacramento News & Review:

Final grades, exit interviews

Local Reep fails Mother Earth, K.J.'s opposition says goodbye, school-board member bails

By Cosmo Garvin 
cosmog@newsreview.com

This article was published on 11.22.12.

Related stories: Losing it K.J.'s rent problem, Blue Diamond roughs up union.SN&R, 11.27.08.

The Sierra Club’s annual legislative report card is always good for a couple of head-scratchers. For example, RepublicanAssemblywoman Beth Gaines was our only local rep to vote against a new law recognizing that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water.” Not so surprising, you say? We all know how the GOP hates entitlements—and human beings.
Then what about DemocraticAssemblyman Richard Pan’s lackluster 54 percent score? That’s an F, doc, even in California. (Pan got dinged for voting against a ban on polystyrene food containers, while supporting a measure that would make it harder for cities and towns to regulate landfills.)
Other grades fell along the usual curve. Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada got an overachieving 92 percent, Assemblyman Roger Dickinson got a solid 85 percent, as did State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. And the aforementioned Gaines got just 15 percent. But perhaps the Sierra Club ought to be easier on the Republicans. They are a California endangered species, after all.
Goodbye and good luck to Sacramento City council members Rob Fong andSandy Sheedy. Their last days in office are this month, and each deserve long, glowing profiles, listing their years of service and