Business Meeting

AGENDA

Business Meeting
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Legislative Counsel Conference Room
925 L Street, Lower Level
Sacramento, CA

The Commission will consider agenda items I-V at approximately 12:30 p.m. The precise time will vary depending upon the testimony of witnesses and will be determined at the discretion of the chair. Members of the public will have an opportunity to make comments about Commission agenda items during the meeting.

1. Business Meeting Minutes from September 25 and October 23, 2012
    
2. Draft – Energy Governance Report 
    
3. Draft – Biennial Report
    
4. Subcommittee Reports/Project Selection
    
   1. Summary of October 31, 2012 State Parks Advisory Committee Meeting
       
5. Reports from Bureau of State Audits

PUBLIC NOTICE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2012

For Additional Information Contact:
Stuart Drown, Executive Director
(916) 445-2125

Notice of Meeting

On Tuesday, November 27, 2012, the Little Hoover Commission will conduct a public hearing on bail schedules, sentencing reform and realignment as part of its ongoing assessment of public safety in California. The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. in Room 437 of the State Capitol in Sacramento.

At this hearing, the Commission will determine whether a deeper examination of bail in California is warranted, given how bail schedules are set and how they differ by county. As part of this review, the Commission also wants to learn more about alternatives to bail that are employed by several counties in California. The Commission is interested in learning what conditions and capacity must exist at the local level for programs such as alternative supervision to be successful. The Commission is looking at two counties that have adopted such strategies, Santa Cruz County and Yolo County, to learn what has worked to help reduce the proportion of detainees that are awaiting trial. Realignment has made the management of jail populations in California counties a pressing issue, particularly in those counties that are operating under court-ordered jail capacity caps. The added pressure on jail resources from new, realigned, offender populations raises questions about the use of bail, and whether bail practices should be changed, or standardized, to enable the pretrial release of more people who are determined to be eligible for bail.

The Commission will hear from the sheriff of Fresno County, which is dealing with jail overcrowding, as well as from a Fresno bail service owner who also is an advocate for the bail industry. The Commission also will hear from the probation department chief of Santa Cruz County, which has a well-established pretrial services program, and from the interim probation chief of Yolo County, which is two years into the development of its pretrial services program. The Commission, as part of an update of its 2007 study, “California Corrections Crisis: Time is Running Out,” will learn about progress being made toward sentencing reform at the new San Francisco Sentencing Commission and learn what more is needed.

There will be an opportunity for public comment at the end of the hearing. The Commission also encourages written comments.

Immediately following the hearing, the Commission will hold a business meeting in the Legislative Counsel Conference Room located on the lower level of 925 L Street in Sacramento.

All public notices for meetings are on the Commission’s website, www.lhc.ca.gov. If you need reasonable accommodation due to a disability, please contact Stuart Drown at (916) 445-2125 or littlehoover@lhc.ca.gov by Tuesday, November 20, 2012