Question 1

Stop Corruption in County Government

Accepted Answer

I was first elected to the City Council following a corruption scandal. It was my duty at the time to restore public trust from the ground up, and usher a new culture of honest and responsible government. Immediately upon installation, I launched the most sweeping management overhaul in the City’s history and the most extensive government reform measures in the entire region. I am proud of this early chapter in my public service, and the application of my technical background to profoundly alter the culture and internal control environment of the City.
 
I wish to bring the same discipline to County government. I support the following local reforms for Riverside County:
 
 • Mandatory bidding for all public contracts
 • Open and public discussion on all contract renewals (no automatic behind-the-scene "evergreen" extensions!)
 • Periodic rotation of Riverside County auditors and Riverside County attorneys (no advisors should be appointed forever)
 • Real-time public disclosure of all campaign contributions (including same-day disclosure at Board of Supervisor meetings whenever related contracts are up for consideration)
 • Caps on executive compensation and bloated benefits
 • Timely approval of balanced budgets, in advance of the applicable fiscal year
 • Immediate public disclosure of all auditor communications involving internal controls
 • Mandatory remediation of internal control deficiencies identified in audit reports
 • TERM LIMITS for County Supervisors, no exceptions!
 • Criminal prosecution of all corruption in Riverside County and related cities

Question 2

Term Limits

Accepted Answer

During my Mayorship, I authored one of the strictest TERM LIMITS ordinance in the entire state of California. In fact, I was "termed out" of my City Council position in direct consequence of the ordinance that I personally authored! I stood by my decision then, and I continue to support TERM LIMITS more broadly as a strategy for mitigating corruption and complacency in career politicians. I have observed the pernicious influence of vendors and contractors on incumbent politicians over time, the onset of corruption and conflicts-of-interest, and the comfortable complacency of multi-term politicians whether they realize this or not.

In Riverside County, I support mandatory TERM LIMITS for the Board of Supervisors, without exception. TWO TERMS. THAT'S IT!

Question 3

Pension Reform

Accepted Answer

Our state’s unfunded liability for combined pension funds (CalPERS, CalSTRS, and UC), together with promised healthcare for retirees, approximates $1 trillion of debt, according to the most recent estimate of the Stanford University Economics Research Institute.  This is a staggering amount, which is at least six-times the size of the State’s entire General Fund. As an economist, university lecturer in statistics, and one-time pension auditor, I can confirm (with mathematical certainty) that the system will be unavailable to deliver on promised obligations, and will increasingly encroach on city, county, and state budgets each year of the foreseeable future – threatening every aspect of public services.

If we extrapolate the same analysis to Riverside County, and overlay the more conservative discount rate used by Stanford economists (which are more closely aligned with the risk-free rate of return), we converge on an unfunded pension liability between $8 and $9 billion. The range of this alarming obligation dwarfs the County's entire annual budget and threatens the long-term viability of County services.

We need bold, responsible leadership NOW to reform a broken pension system. I demand that California pension funds use realistically achievable discount rates immediately (closer to the risk-free rate of return), instead of the generous and unrealistically achievable 7.15% assumption used by Riverside County bureaucrats to deliberately cloud the full extent of these obligations. In addition to immediate transparency, I support migration to defined contribution plans (or transitional hybrid plans) for new and existing employees in Riverside County; higher mandated funding levels for all funds; and re-evaluation of the so-called “California Rule” to enable good-faith renegotiation of fair and economically sustainable pension programs for existing participants. We must also end abusive spiking schemes and double-dipping scenarios, which inflate these obligations and further exacerbate their unfunded status.

Question 4

Compensation Reform

Accepted Answer

According to Transparent California,(https://TransparentCalifornia.com) at least a dozen County employees are compensated at greater than half-million dollars each year. Approximately 814 employees are compensated at quarter-million dollars (or more) each year. In addition, accrued obligations for overtime and sick pay now approach $300 million, according to the County's most recently published Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

This is economically unsustainable and morally irresponsible. The problem is further compounded by long-term contracts, bonus payments, pension obligations linked to compensation, and perpetual negotiations that ratchet the milestone even higher. For the fiscal year 2022-2023, a significant component of the more than $1 billion increase in the budget over prior year is attributable to compensation.

I support strict adherence to structurally balanced budgets and to the GANN limit, as moderating parameters on the County's appetite for compensation increases -- which are out of sync with both inflation and population growth. I support timely public notice of compensation decisions and immediate public transparency of all quantitative metrics related to compensation & benefits (including comparisons to budgetary ratios). I support immediate compensation caps for politicians and the most egregiously compensated executives.

Question 5

Election Integrity

Accepted Answer

Elections are the most consequential process in our representative democracy and each level of government with jurisdictional oversight over elections has a constitutional obligation to ensure that only legitimate votes are accounted for, and elections are managed with the highest level of verifiable integrity. The consequential stakes and the legal exposure are simply too great for any government agency to be complacent on this issue. I support audits, forensic examinations, and detailed evaluation of internal controls at each stage of the vote tabulation process in Riverside County. I began my professional career in the private sector evaluating internal control environments as an auditor with one of the largest international accounting firms in the world. I know how important well-designed internal controls are for detecting, preventing, and/or mitigating the susceptibility of fraud.

Question 6

Education Reform & Parental Rights

Accepted Answer

When I was Mayor, I took on the public schools and WON! Even though public education was not within the purview of my formal jurisdiction, it was certainly within the purview of my moral obligation. I held public hearings on the quality of education and organized parents to reform one school's entire administration. Similarly, I will use my podium as Riverside County Supervisor to advocate for parental rights, education reform, and sound academic curriculum rooted in traditional subjects.

Our educational system requires immediate overhaul. At one point, California’s educational system was the best in the nation. Today, it ranks near the bottom – 46 out of 50 states in terms of student achievement, and nearly half of our children cannot read proficiently at grade level. The achievement gap is the widest on record, with children from underprivileged communities falling further and further behind – notwithstanding rising educational outlays in California, and per-pupil spending above the national average. We NEED accountability now, to demand that local school districts allocate greater shares of their budgets to the classroom, instead of bloated administrator salaries, excessive pensions for district executives, and central office overhead – which now, collectively, account for a majority of the education budget.

I support school choice, school competition, and student vouchers so that parents can send their children to better performing schools – including those reserved for the children of Sacramento’s political elite. I support overhaul of arcane tenure rules, so that teachers are evaluated (and rewarded) based on student performance and achievement in the classroom. I support return of traditional academic disciplines and curricula focused on college preparation and the high-skilled jobs of the future. I am NOT beholden to union bosses, political elites, or the special interest industrial complex which works diligently to perpetuate the decrepit status quo. I will champion the civil rights of children and their parents.

Question 7

Responsible Budgets

Accepted Answer

For the current fiscal year (2022-2023), the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved a 15% increase in expenditures during a period of 1% population growth. Most of the change was attributed to compensation increases. I do not agree with excessive budgets that significantly exceed population growth plus inflation. In fact, state legislation called the GANN LIMIT was approved decades ago to limit government's expansion. I support the GANN LIMIT concept and would temper the County's appetite for bigger and bigger government. Excess revenue above basic parameters (like population, inflation, or the cost of one-time capital improvements), should be RETURNED TO THE TAXPAYER IMMEDIATELY.

Furthermore, I support the following budgetary reforms:
 • Lower taxes and fees, across the board
 • Control excessive debt
 • Improve the County's credit rating
 • Zero-based budgeting (i.e., every department must justify its budget!)
 • Internal control audits, and then more audits!
 • Audit every County department's financial condition and budgeted expenditures, without exception

Question 8

Business Climate and Lower Taxes

Accepted Answer

Every major survey of business climate consistently ranks California dead last (50 out of 50 states) in terms of business-friendly environment, with over 13,000 businesses leaving the state of California in the last 10 years, including major employers with ties to Riverside County. This dire predicament for companies, employees, and working families, is the direct result of over-taxation, over-regulation, and arcane licensing processes that are prone to abuse, favoritism, and in the worst cases, corruption. We need to reduce excessive taxation across the board; streamline the convoluted business permit and licensing process (without special treatment for campaign donors or the expensive lobbyists who represent them); and provide greater efficiencies in regulatory monitoring and compliance.

I join mainstream economists across the political spectrum who recognize that excessive taxation is hurtful not only to businesses and private sector jobs growth, but to the state's ability to achieve sustainable tax revenue -- due largely to the deleterious disincentives that excessive taxation has on production. This concept can be illustrated through the Laffer Curve, which was first described by economist Arthur Laffer of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors, and which has since received broad academic recognition even from left-wing economists like Christina Romer of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors. Basically, excessive business taxation (like the California status quo) crosses a critical inflection point on the Laffer Curve, beyond which higher tax rates actually produce declining tax revenue to the state. Every member of the State Legislature should be mindful of this inter-play between tax rates and tax revenue.
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https://youtu.be/FqLjyA0hL1s?si=0a-3udF2KbPjl7u5

Question 9

Public Safety

Accepted Answer

I support safe streets, peaceful communities, and optimal allocation of emergency resources as a principal function of government. This means aggressive prosecution of all violent crime; zero tolerance for crimes against children; higher mix (or ratio) of sworn personnel; active community policing programs; partnership with Christian and faith-based organizations to rehabilitate non-violent youth offenders; and strong financial/ budgetary oversight (including regular audits) to ensure efficient management of resources.

I also support public safety decisions rooted in facts & data, evidentiary support, quantifiable risk assessment, and statistical analysis. Indeed, I will leverage my skill-set and professional background in statistics to advise the Board and assist the Sheriff with operational improvements, efficient allocation of resources, and greater return-on-investment.

When I was a city council member in Los Angeles County, I worked independently of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to evaluate three years of raw historical data (which had never been analyzed by the Sheriff’s Department for my city’s geography). Using my own background in statistics and econometrics (including correlation analysis), I evaluated the nature, geographic dispersion, and chronological trends of all public safety incidents and calls for service in the city and converged upon a sound proposal for optimizing resources (by shift!), enhancing public safety, improving response times, and achieving favorable return-on-investment. At the time, the city manager (experienced over the course of three decades) remarked that he had never observed a City Council member perform this level of analysis in his entire career. The same discipline that worked for me as an objective, independent, public policy maker is what I expect of my service to Riverside County.

JACK'S POSITION

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