San Diego – Former Mayoral Candidate Carl DeMaio announced today that he will continue his work as a government watchdog by heading up two reform groups – one focused on the State of California, and one focused on the City of San Diego.
“I’m excited to take on these two new roles that allow me to continue to shine a big light on state and local government and hold both accountable to taxpayers,” DeMaio said.
The California Reform Council is a project of the Reason Foundation, based in Los Angeles. The project will craft and promote a “Reform Agenda” to address ways to balance the state budget without tax increases while improving transparency, performance and accountability in state government.
DeMaio revealed that Pension Reform will be the project’s top priority in 2013 – with a focus on building a state-wide effort to reform California pensions using his highly successful San Diego Pension Reform Initiative as a model.
“California faces a pension tsunami, and without immediate state-wide action, we’ll see massive service cuts, closures of parks, fire stations, and schools, and a wave of municipal bankruptcies,” DeMaio said. “Through proven reforms, we can save taxpayers money and free-up funds to save vital services.” DeMaio noted.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Carl DeMaio on this project to devise a Reform Agenda for the State of California modeled after the work he did in San Diego,” commented Reason Foundation Vice President Adrian Moore in announcing DeMaio’s appointment as Chairman of the California Reform Council.
Reform San Diego is a research and political advocacy group that will continue the role of “watchdog” of city finances. The group will re-launch the “San Diego Citizens Budget Project” – the same project that DeMaio headed up in 2003 to help uncover the city’s financial problems and offer reforms to balance the city’s budget while improving city services.
“My focus with Reform San Diego is to make sure the City of San Diego stays on the course of fiscal reform, rather than sliding back to past practices that almost pushed our city into bankruptcy,” DeMaio said.
“We must hold the Mayor and City Council accountable for fully implementing the Pension Reform Initiative voters approved last year and implementing other reforms to transform how city departments serve our neighborhoods,” DeMaio noted.
For more information on both projects, visit www.reason.org and www.ReformSanDiego.org