Constitutional convention town halls slated for Santa Monica and L.A.

Repair California, an organization formed to promote the need for a state constitutional convention, will hold a free forum Friday in Santa Monica to discuss the topic.

Participants will gather at 6:15 p.m. at the Broad Stage at Santa Monica College, 1310 11th St. Among the speakers will be Steven Hill of the New America Foundation; Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies; Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica); and Jim Wunderman, president and chief executive of the Bay Area Council, whose August 2008 opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle about dysfunction in California's government helped launch the movement.

Repair California is holding town halls and forums throughout the state. It plans to finalize language for two related ballot initiatives and submit them to the state attorney general on Sept. 25. The first measure would give the people the right to a constitutional convention, and the second would call a convention and set the process. The next step would be to gather signatures to qualify the measures for the ballot and submit those by April 16. If voters approved the measures in November 2010, a convention would be held in 2011.

On Saturday, the group will hold a town hall at USC's Davidson Conference Center, 3415 S. Figueroa St. The cost, including lunch, is $25.

For information, visit the Repair California website.

-- Martha Groves

Comments

[Mike Feinstein]

Thanks to Marta Groves and the LA Times for blogging about these important community events - another reason why credible, reliable daily newspapers like the LA Times are a must for a functioning democracy!

Here are direct links for the Friday event in Santa Monica

http://www.repaircalifornia.org/santamonica

and Saturday at USC

http://www.repaircalifornia.org/southern_ca