Snapshots of life in the Golden State. : State Takes Notice of Cost of Public Meeting Postings

Just how much does it cost local government agencies to type up and post notices of public meetings?

The answer seems to vary wildly from city to city. Los Angeles, for example, has socked the state with a fiscal 1992 bill for $104,000. Long Beach charged $58,836. And the city of San Francisco filed no claim at all.

Local agencies have the right to seek reimbursements because the posting of agendas is mandated under California’s open meeting law.

However, the state’s guidelines for eligible costs are less than precise.

Indeed, a recent audit by the California First Amendment Coalition has revealed examples of local governments claiming the cost of secretaries’ entire salaries.

The state controller’s office says it is conducting its own audit of $4 million worth of claims submitted last year by municipalities.

The coalition, fearing that the open meeting law may eventually be terminated by legislators citing the potential drain on the state budget, is calling for tighter reimbursement guidelines.

“If there was a conspiracy to scuttle the Brown Act, there couldn’t be a more elegant way to do it,” said the coalition’s executive director, Terry Francke. “We don’t think the Legislature intended to fund full-time secretaries.”

High-Speed Chases

The number of vehicle chases by the California Highway Patrol ha s been rising since the keeping of statistics began in 1988, with a slight dip in 1991. These are the pursuits reported by the CHP on California highways:

YEAR PURSUITS DEATHS INJURIES 1988 751 6 9 1989 935 15 141 1990 1,199 10 216 1991 967 11 191 1992 1,341 12 N.A.

Deaths and injuries include CHP officers, suspects and innocent parties.

Source: CHP Office of Public Affairs, Sacramento

Compiled by Times researcher Tracy Thomas

Deep freeze: Sponsors report that entries are pouring in hot and heavy for a contest in which the winner’s body will be frozen at minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit in a Riverside County warehouse.

The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which advocates cryopreservation as a way to defeat death, says several hundred essays are already in hand for its “National Immortality” competition, co-sponsored by Omni magazine.

“We haven’t had too much of the thing about, ‘I ought to be frozen because I’m wonderful,’ ” said Alcor President Stephen Bridge. “The main thing people have talked about is how exciting the future is going to be.”

Entrants must meet a June 1 deadline for inking an essay of 250 words or less on why they deserve to be frozen for free until medical researchers discover how to cure disease and bring people back to life.

The winner, who would not claim the prize until declared legally dead, would be placed beside 10 bodies and 16 heads already being preserved by Alcor.

Back from the dead, Part 2: A second story out of Riverside concerns the historic Mission Inn, which finally reopened Dec. 30 after being shuttered since the mid-1980s.

For four of those lean years, Bobbie Bratton has run Gram’s Mission Bar-B-Que Palace directly across the street from the inn, making a modest living selling ribs in the city’s sleepy downtown business district while anxiously awaiting the return of the vaunted hostelry.

While the inn was closed, Bratton was never hassled by city zoning officials for grilling pork, beef, chicken and fish in a 50-gallon drum on the sidewalk. But now that the inn is open and Bratton’s business has soared by 25%, city code officers are demanding that he remove his new $8,000 cooker from the street by April 7.

“It’s on city property--a city sidewalk--and it needs to be moved,” said city code compliance manager Cecilia Lawson. “He’ll either have to relocate or make modifications to meet fire regulations.”

Bratton, who is contemplating a lawsuit, believes it is more than a bit coincidental that he was never busted until the inn reopened. “I can’t understand why all of a sudden complaints have started. If I knew there would be this hassle, I wouldn’t have tied up my money here for four years waiting for my big shot.”

Lawson contends that the action was spurred by complaints about Bratton’s business, but none from the Mission Inn itself. As for why he was never busted in the last four years, she said, “He’s been lucky.”

Against all odds: So what would happen if, by some miracle, too many people started winning the Keno game run by the California State Lottery?

The possibility exists--albeit extremely remote--that the state would simply not pay up when the winners came knocking, according to a legal declaration by the lottery’s director.

“In the extremely unlikely event that the prize pool might prove to be insufficient to pay out Keno prizes, those awards in excess of the prize pool would simply not be paid,” wrote director Sharon Sharp in response to a lawsuit by Indian bingo operators seeking permission to expand into full-scale gambling.

For those Keno players worried about winning--yet still losing--the odds of the Lottery going bust are “in the billions,” a spokeswoman claims. So far, not one Keno player has picked all 10 numbers in a single draw, a feat that calls for a prize of $250,000.

EXIT LINE

“(Californians) don’t read one another’s newspapers and we don’t have any statewide television or radio networks. For decades we’ve gloried in the geography or the mind-sets that distinguish our cities and regions from one another and our state from the rest of the country.”

--From a “Letter From California” by Susan F. Rasky in The Nation.