Message from Ron Prentice

The 2009-2010 legislative session produced approximately 6,000 bills. Six thousand! At the close of each year of the two-year session, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was ultimately handed about 750 bills that had made it through the committee process and passed on both the Assembly and Senate floors. Midnight last night marked the deadline for the governor’s action on all bills.

Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law bills ranging from pedicabs and slot machines to healthcare reform and the age at which children may enter kindergarten. Unfortunately, of the bills watched most closely by California Family Council, one particularly egregious bill by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) was signed into law. SB 543 will allow minors as young as 12 to receive mental health counseling without the knowledge or consent of a parent. The decision whether to inform a parent or guardian of a child’s mental health counseling is instead left in the hands of a “professional,” such as a social worker or even a counseling intern. This bill undermines the relationship between parent and child while laws are already in place to protect children in circumstances of parental abuse. 

Schwarzenegger has earned a reputation for vetoing a higher percentage of bills than other recent California governors. This year’s veto count numbered 278 bills, or 37% of all bills submitted to him for consideration. 

Last evening, just prior to the legal deadline the governor vetoed Senate Bill 906, which would have established a new, “civil” form of marriage in the state’s family code. As the governor’s veto statement made clear, adding this new kind of marriage to California law would have only served to confuse terms. Senator Leno also authored SB 906, and CFC believes that creating legal confusion was precisely Leno’s intention, ultimately to contest the validity of constitutionally defined marriage as only between a man and a woman. California Family Council expresses its sincere gratitude to all who prayed and acted by communicating your opinions to the governor’s offices.

In recent years, bills targeting human trafficking and heightened supervision and punishment for convicted sex offenders have received bipartisan support. Aside from those, few pieces of legislation receive support from both liberal and conservative representatives.

Because of the imbalanced composition of the Legislature, with the number of Republicans amounting to only 35%, it is especially difficult to pass laws that align with the more conservative political platform – such as supporting preborn human life and the historic definition of marriage. All Senate and Assembly committees are heavily populated with Democrats, and seldom does a Republican-sponsored bill see the light of day. 

In fact, due to the currently gerrymandered districts, no representative seat has changed political parties in many years in California’s capitol! Perhaps the November general election will bring a few changes, as voters across the country are expressing their dissatisfaction with higher taxes, increased government spending, and representatives unresponsive to the demands of their constituency.

In just over a month we will know whether California’s citizens responded in strength – or indifference – to the current condition of our representation. Please do all you can to motivate your family, friends, and co-laborers to participate in our government.   

Sincerely,
Ron Prentice