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Musings on the state of the State of California

I’ve lived in California my entire life.  Born here.  Raised here.  Married here.  Had kids here.  Found the true love of my life here.  With all these positive experiences, we still face the imminent possibility of the “dark winter” President Biden warned us about.  Rather than complain about how bad it is, I like to propose solutions.  Take a look at a proposed theoretical amendment to the State of California Constitution I like to call, “The Convention of Counties and States”.  Look closely…it may resemble something we already know :).

Convention of Counties and Sheriffs Amendment – Constitution of the State of California

Section I – Introduction
The Counties and their respective County Supervisors of California, whenever a combined three fifths of the elected Sheriffs of each county in the State of California deem it necessary, or, at the formal signatorial request of legal voters of each county within the individual county boundaries that have been validated by picture ID who request their county Board of Supervisors sponsor or make such a request, shall call a Convention of Counties and Sheriffs for proposing Amendments to the California Constitution, and/or for the purposes of recusing political officials for egregiously improprietary behaviors in which they act above the law or above the mandates they have deemed it necessary to enforce, whether it be legally or illegally, and/or recalls of statewide elected officials, federal elected representatives of the United States House of Representatives and/or Senatorial representatives in the United States Senate of the Legislative Branch of the United States Congress, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of the California Constitution, when ratified by the Board of Supervisors of three fifths of the several Counties, or by Conventions in three fifths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Counties.  This amendment also guarantees that no County, without its Consent unless voluntarily recused of the County’s own volition as determined by a majority vote of the County Supervisors, shall be deprived of its equal representation or suffrage in the California Senate and that each County and County Sheriff will be given equal and open access to data and information used by the entirety of the managing government of the State of California to enforce data driven laws and mandates that each County and County Sheriff is tasked to enforce at any time under any circumstance.  The pertinent sections of this amendment regarding recalls are to be added as “adopted sections” to sections 13, 14, 15, 16, and 18 respectively.

Section II – Additional Powers
Should the majority of counties deem it necessary, the aforementioned Convention of Counties and Sheriffs may be used to overturn laws they deem are unjust, unfair and decrease the level of safety and freedom afforded the legal residents and constituents of the State of California.  In addition, this same Convention of Counties and Sheriffs may be used to propose new laws to the managing California Government should the majority of Counties and Sheriffs agree the managing government of the State of California, which includes the branches of the California Legislature, the California Supreme Court, and the California Governor, and other duly elected OR appointed statewide governing officials, are not properly pursuing and/or providing for the freedom of and/or welfare of and/or safety of the legal residents of the State of California. This convention also reserves the right to remove duly elected United States Senators and United States Representatives representing the citizens of the State of California within the United States federal government should those persons be found to be acting maliciously in the representation of the legal citizens of the United States of America and the State of California.

Section III – Procedure for Calling the Convention of Counties and Sheriffs
The majority vote and/or decision of each individually governed County Board of Supervisors shall represent ONE (1) vote for each county individually in the effort to call for a Convention of Counties and Sheriffs.  In the case that each group of each County Board of Supervisors individually reaches a stalemate, impasse or deadlock, the Sheriff of each respective County therein may cast a tie-breaking vote.

Addtionally, should no county choose to take action heeding the request of their constituents requesting a vote to call for the Convention to take place, a 3/5 majority of each duly elected or appointed County Sheriffs may call a convention in order to mandate a County Board of Supervisors vote for calling the Convention of Counties and Sheriffs.  Should the Sheriff vote be in favor, each individual County Board of Supervisors would be required to cast a vote in favor or against such a conference.

The vote of the duly appointed or duly elected Sheriff of each individual county is allowed to be the only vote cast should the County Board of Supervisors choose to abstain from a vote.  Should this happen, the Sheriff may act as the representative in both the County and Sheriff delegations.  In addition, if a County Board of Supervisors chooses to abstain, they may not send a delegate from their respective board, volunteer or gainfully employed staff to the Convention of Counties and Sheriffs.

Should an appointed or duly elected Sheriff decide to abstain from a vote in this convention or choose to not participate, the County Board of Supervisors for the respective county the Sheriff serves shall reserve the right to send a representative from their delegation to vote in the Sheriff’s place.

A Convention shall be called if three fifths (3/5) of the collected and certified votes of the collected votes from each county Board of Supervisors are in agreeance to hold the Convention.  The votes will be submitted by the Sheriff to the County Clerks office for certification and verification.  The vote must also be made publicly with each supervisor on record as voting for or against the Convention.

Should a vote to hold the Convention be successful, each delegation from each County will consist of the current County Board Chairman and County Sheriff at minimum.  Regardless of the size of the delegation, each County will only be allowed one (1) vote while the Sheriff will be responsible for casting their vote within the Convention of Sheriffs representing the individual County Sheriffs from the other counties within the State of California.

Section IV – Procedure for Conducting the Convention of Counties and Sheriffs
  • The Convention of Counties will be conducted individually and separate from the Convention of Sheriffs.
  • A quorum of at least three fifths (3/5) of County Supervisors delegations is needed to hold the Convention of Counties.
  • A quorum of at least three fifths (3/5) of County Sheriffs is needed to hold the Convention of Sheriffs.
  • Each Convention shall designate a leadership group from within its respective delegates consisting of a speaker, certifying clerk and two tabulators.  These groups within each Convention are responsible for collecting, certifying and publicly announcing the votes on each item.  The tabulators will collect and count the votes, the certifying clerk will verify and certify the vote and the speaker will announce the votes.  The speaker of each convention will abstain from each vote unless a tie-breaking vote is needed.
  • Should a tie-breaking vote be necessary on an item, the Convention Speaker of each Convention shall be responsible for casting the tie-breaking vote.
  • Should an individual County Board of Supervisors have abstained from voting in favor of the Convention and thus abstained from sending a delegate to attend the Convention of Counties, the County Sheriff may vote at both conventions on each item. In such circumstances, such a delegate for the Convention of Sheriffs may not act as a member of either Convention leadership groups.
  • Each item to be addressed will require one (1) vote from each county for each individual item.
  • Each item to be addressed will require one (1) vote from each Sheriff for each individual item.
  • Multiple items cannot be bundled together.
  • Each County Supervisors delegation shall represent ONE (1) vote on each item.
  • Each Elected or Appointed County Sheriff may only cast ONE (1) vote on each item.  The only exception is if they are acting as a delegate to both conventions.  In such a case they may cast one vote for each item in each convention.
  • The convention of Counties shall NOT constitute or account for more than three fifths (3/5) of the total vote on each item.
  • The convention of Sheriffs shall NOT constitute or account for more than two fifths (2/5) of the total vote on each item.
  • The votes on each item will be combined from both conventions and publicized by both the leaders of both conventions, with up to 3/5 of the Convention of Counties being allowed and the Convention of Sheriffs accounting for exactly 2/5 of the combined vote.
  • Each item shall need only a combined three fifths (3/5) majority to pass.

Section V – Procedure for Passage of Items
Should an item be passed and certified by the Convention of Counties and Sheriffs, the item will be addressed by the Legislature of the State of California with certain stipulations:
  • In the event a law is overturned or a new law is written and passed, the Legislature of the State of California may only debate the merits of the decision on each item by the Convention of Counties and Sheriffs.
  • No branch of the government of the State of California may make any changes nor introduce legislation to contradict or limit the decision or law made or passed by this convention for one calendar year from the date the Governor of the State of California signs the law.
  • The Legislature of the State of California will be required to certify the decision or law by assigning it an official record in accordance to their governing procedures, add the appendage “as decided by the Conventions of Counties and Sheriffs”, record it and pass it on for signature by the duly elected Governor of the State of California.  This process shall take no more than one business week, or Monday through Friday.
  • Once the item, or bill, is within the Governor’s purview, the Governor must sign it into law within 48 hours, regardless of the date it was given to them. The Governor of California will hold NO veto power over a decision made by this convention and must sign the legislation passed by this convention without interference from personal or outside influences, discretions, preferences or opinions.  Failure to do so will result in sanctions against the Governor of California that can include litigation against their individual person, fines of up to $500,0000 per day the legislation is not signed and potential removal from office for willful obstruction of the law.
  • In the event a recall of a duly elected state official, a United States Representative or United States Senator is called for by this convention, the Government of the State of California shall consider such an individual suspended temporarily and an appointed individual will replace them until the recall election has been conducted.  Such a suspended individual shall have their pay and benefits suspended UNLESS they are re-elected to their post during the following special election.  Any loss of pay or benefits may not be reimbursed, recuperated or found to be retroactive under any circumstance, UNLESS the recall is a result of an ongoing criminal investigation in which the subject of the recall is the defendant and they are found innocent of the charges against them.
  • In the event that an appointed state individual is recused from their post by the Convention, that individual shall immediately resign and a suitable replacement appointed within a time specified by the Convention of Counties and Sheriffs.
  • This convention will have the power to remove appointed and elected state supreme court justices.

Nothing is ever perfect, but this is a good start that would go a long way to righting the ship.  I welcome thoughts and objectivity.  However, to quote a few generations ago…”if you don’t have sumthin nice to say, don’t say it at all…”