Bills before governor l ip"
State Catholic Confe rence says make views known to Gov. Davis on p ending laws
By Patrick Joyce Health insurance for the working poor, rights of the Church , rights of parents and the death penalty are some of the major issues at stake as the deadline approaches for California Gov. Gray Davis to either sign or veto legislation, The California Catholic Conference , the public policy arm of the state 's bishops, is urging Catholics to make their views on these and other bills known to Gov. Davis who has unti l October 12 to act on a flood of legislation passed by the Legislature before it adjo urned two weeks ago. The conference supports SB 2 , a major expansion of health insurance th at would affect an estimated one million workers, "as an initial improvement to a mosaic of health care coverage for all Californians , " said Ned Dolejsi , executive director of the conference, the public policy arm of the state 's bishops. Mr. Dolejsi cautioned , however, that "many challenges remain. " Follow-up legislation will be needed to deal with questions left unanswered by the bill, which was passed hurriedly at the end of the session, he said. Among the questions are possible conflicts with federal law, inequities in fee schedules and provisions that might encourage employers to drop existing health care benefits. "The Catholic bishops in the United States and in California BILLS, page 17
Op ened in 1891, St. Mary's Cathedral was built with contributions f rom lay Catholics under the leadership ofArshbishop Patrick Riordan.The church at Van Nessand O'Farrell was destroy ed by f i r eSep t. 7, 1962. See Catholic leadership story on Page 14
Mayoral Candidate Forum
Controversy f l ares over exclusion of f ormer Chief Ribera
The exclusion of retired San Francisco Police Chief Tony Ribera from a planned mayoral candidate forum at the University of San Francisco has drawn protest from Ribera, numerous politically active Catholics and the City's Republican Party. In addition, San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada has written a letter to the debate 's organizers urging them to invite Ribera to participate. i The mayoral candidates debate wasoriginally conceived by a group of faith-based service providers convened by Father John Hardin of St. Anthony Foundation to discuss the upcoming election and the "Care Not Cash" initiative. The group originally included Episcopal Community Services, The Salvation Army, Catholic Charities CYO, the archdiocesan Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns and others. This gathering then jo ined with the Leo T. McCarthy Center at USF, Senior Action Network and a coalition of dozens of other service providers to host a "Mayoral Candidate Forum " to debate issues including homelessness and affordable housing, according t o George wesolek of the archdiocesan Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns.
A subcommittee of organizers established a mathematical formula to determine which candidates would be invited to the debate , Wesolek said. Only candidates achieving five percent or higher in published polls of San Francisco voters were to be included. At the time, and still , Ribera has polled below five percent. Former Police Chief Ribera says he has been invited to nearly every other non-partisan forum in the City. For those from which he has been excluded, the organizers have given him a specific political reason , and not relied on polls . Ribera said an abortion advocacy group excluded him because he is pro-life and a public school teachers group excluded him because he expressed interest in a voucher system for inner-city school children. He told Catholic San Francisco that he is not opposed to being excluded from forums "for very specific reasons if it is related to a sponsor 's charter and the values they represent." However, he believes to be excluded by a non-partisan group on the basis of polling is unfair. "The race is just starting up and people are focused on the
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recall, " he said. In addition , he has since been endorsed by the San Francisco Republican Central Committee, which represents 57,000 registered voters in the City. On September 17, the Republican Central Committee voted unanimously to convey its concern to Archbishop Levada that "the archdiocese , through its entities, is perceived to be in a coalition sponsoring a debate at USF that has excluded the Republican candidate." George Wesolek said that his office had intervened early on in Ribera 's behalf because he is the former police chief and "the only candidate running as a Republican. " Wesolek also said Ribera "offers a dif ferent voice than the leading candidates" and should be included. Still he does not believe there is any ill intention on the part of other organizers who still wish to exclude Ribera. "It is my belief that this decision was made not to exclude anyone , but purely to find a reasonable way to limit the numbers of people in the debate by using a mathematical formulation ." MAYORAL FORUM, page 9
Farm workers struggle on the Peninsula ~ Page 11 ~
Immigration pressure
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