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Old 07-31-2012, 09:30 PM
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Ayatollahgondola Ayatollahgondola is offline
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Default The Order of Succession

The Order of Succession
(or who's in charge after the big one hits)

For those of you who didn't tune in to SOS RADIO! on Tuesday July 31st, here is a condensed version of the show. The order of succession refers to the chain of command for the executive branch of the State of California, and who succedes them if they are killed or rendered unavailable due to war or enemy caused disaster.
Here are the dictating sections of the state constitution:
Quote:
Article 5, section 10 of the California State Constitution,
"The Legislature shall provide an order of precedence after the Lieutenant Governor for succession to the office of Governor and for the temporary exercise of the Governor's functions."
Quote:
Article 4, Section 21 of the California State Constitution.
"SEC. 21. To meet the needs resulting from war-caused or enemy-caused disaster in California, the Legislature may provide for: (a) Filling the offices of members of the Legislature should at least one fifth of the membership of either house be killed, missing, or disabled, until they are able to perform their duties or successors are elected. (b) Filling the office of Governor should the Governor be killed, missing, or disabled, until the Governor or the successor designated in this Constitution is able to perform the duties of the office of Governor or a successor is elected. (c) Convening the Legislature. (d) Holding elections to fill offices that are elective under this Constitution and that are either vacant or occupied by persons not elected thereto. (e) Selecting a temporary seat of state or county government."

The legislature enacted this section of the state government code to presumably comply with this, but I'm unsure:
Quote:
12700. As used in this chapter "disaster" means a war or enemy-caused calamity, such as an attack by nuclear weapons, which renders unavailable the Lieutenant Governor, or the Attorney General, or the Secretary of State, or the Treasurer, or the Controller. "Unavailable" means that any such officer is either killed, missing or so seriously injured as to be unable to perform his duties.
12701. As soon as practicable after the effective date of this chapter, and thereafter as soon as practicable after his election and qualification to office, each of the constitutional officers named in Section 12700 shall appoint and designate by filing with the Secretary of State the names of at least three and not more than seven citizens qualified to become candidates to the office as their respective successors in the event that such officer is unavailable as a result of disaster. Any such appointee may be replaced by the appointing officer at any time and for any reason. The appointees of the Attorney General may include persons holding the Office of Assistant Attorney General. The appointees of the Controller, Secretary of State, and Treasurer may include persons holding office as their deputies or assistants. In making appointments each constitutional officer shall give consideration to the places of residence and employment of his appointees and shall appoint from different parts of the State so that for each office for which appointments are made there shall be the greatest probability of survival in the event of a disaster of some or all of the appointees. The names of the persons designated pursuant to this section shall be submitted to, and be subject to confirmation by, the Senate as soon as possible after such designation is made. Each person appointed as provided in this section shall take the oath of office and shall deliver to the Secretary of State within 30 days after his appointment a written declaration under oath that he accepts the appointment and that he will faithfully perform the obligations imposed upon him thereby.
OK, sounds like the constitutional officers named have a duty to name their successors. So we want to know who these appointed successors are. We filed a public records request:
Quote:
California Secretary of State
Debrah Bowen
1500 11th street
Sacramento, CA 95814

Re: Public Records Act Request

To the custodian of public records,

I am requesting access to inspect the following records:

All documents relating to the current constitutional officer's designees /appointees that fulfill the requirements of section 12701 of the California Government Code. This would include the signed oaths of affirmation.

All documents relating to the term 2003 through 2010 constitutional officer's designees /appointees that fulfill the requirements of section 12701 of the California Government Code. This would include the signed oaths of affirmation.

Save Our State
After many days, here's what they came up with:

Quote:
Dear Mr. Rodrigues:
Thank: you for contacting the California Secretary of State with your two requests for documents
under the California Public Records Act.
With regard to your request for all documents relating to the current Constitutional Officers'
designees/appointees to fulfill the requirements of California Government Code section 12701 if
the officer is unavailable as a result of war or enemy-caused calamity and oaths of affirmation
for those designees/appointees, we have reviewed our files and have no records responsive to
this request.
There were documents from the term before this one, however only for the state treasurer. In fact, further review going back two decades, the state treasurer has been the only consistent filers of these required documents. Some others have done it, Dan Lundgren, March Fong, Gray Davis, John Van DeKamp, and a few others, but that's going back some years.
This current regime there are none thus far. Not a good sign as this is mandatory, not elective.

Save Our State drafted letters of demand to each derelict officer, and delivered them to each respective office:

Quote:
California State Attorney General
Kamala Harris
1300 I street
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Compliance with State Government Code section 12707

Ms Harris,

The results of a public records act request are indicating you have not complied with California State Government Code section 12701, which requires you to submit names of successors to that California State Attorney General's office, to the California Secretary of State and for confirmation by the state senate. As a constituent and the executive of a citizen advocacy group, we respectfully demand that you comply with the law without further delay.

Thank you for your consideration

Davi Rodrigues


Acting Chairman
Save Our State
Then we drafted a petition to the Governor:

Quote:
CIVIL PETITION

We The Undersigned, Do Hereby Petition:

Edmund G. Brown Jr, in his official capacity as Governor of the State of California
to consider the following, and to act using executive authority to remedy these grievances

Whereas this great state has an executive branch whose duties include the immediate management and caretaking of the State's citizens and residents during war caused disaster; and,

Whereas the Governor of this State is the commander of the State Militia, State Guard, and California National Guard; and,

Whereas many of California's citizens are currently performing their duties as soldiers in the California National Guard, The United States Army, The United States Marine Corp, The United States Air Force, and the United States Coast Guard; and,

Whereas those California citizens serving in those aforementioned military branches are doing so due to elevated threats to the security of this nation and this state; and,

Whereas those threats are so compelling that the President of the United States has ordered this state's citizen soldiers to battle in far away lands, infringed upon the citizen's 4th amendment rights, and signed into law the National Defense of America Act; and,

Whereas the previously aformentioned citizens/soldiers deserve a clearly known, stated, and understood chain of command should a disaster occur rendering the current chain of command at the executive level unavailable; and,

Whereas the State Legislature has provided section 12701 of the State Government Code directing the state's elected constitutional officers to appoint successors to their respective offices to act in their stead should a war caused disaster render them unavailable; and,

Whereas public records presently show that the current constitutional officers have failed to designate or appoint successors as prescribed by that state law; so,

We the undersigned, also signing for our own associates, do hereby respectfully request that you act using your executive authority under article 5, section 4; and under article 5, section 1, of the California State Constitution to compel the State's constitutional officers to remedy and correct this grievance

Signing for the following on this 30th day of July, 2012:

Save Our State, a California non-profit public benefit corporation
Jean E Mcleod - Chief Financial Officer
Davi Anthony Rodrigues - Chief Executive Officer
All Save Our State Associates So Designating Their Agreement

We have made further records requests in regards to the legislatures requirement to comply with the section of the constitution that says
"The Legislature shall provide an order of precedence after the Lieutenant Governor for succession to the office of Governor and for the temporary exercise of the Governor's functions."

We'll keep you advised when they answer.

I urge you all to either download or otherwise listen to the SOS RADIO broadcast recording from this evening because it goes into a bit more important detail, and explains why this is important

Listen now:
http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web...49065&cmd=apop


Download and listen later:
http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-92684/TS-649065.mp3

Last edited by Ayatollahgondola; 07-31-2012 at 09:40 PM.
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  #2  
Old 08-01-2012, 08:09 PM
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Ayatollahgondola Ayatollahgondola is offline
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Update:

Quote:
In the event of a vacancy in the office of the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor shall become Governor. In the event of a vacancy in both the offices of the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor, the succession order is as follows: first, the last duly elected President Pro Tempore of the Senate; second, the last duly elected Speaker of the Assembly; third, the Secretary of State; fourth, the Attorney General; fifth, the State Treasurer; and lastly, the State Controller.
OK, so if Brown and Newsome are dead, missing, or rendered unavailable, we get Darryl Steinberg. If Steinberg gets it too, we get Perez (yikes!); If God has any mercy, we'll skip him and go to Bowen. If Bowen is out too, we Kamala Harris (yikes again!); After that it's Lockyer, and lastly it's Chiang.

As an added note, the webmaster of the Secretary of State informs us that this information was up on the website as of 2004, so that is likely how the state is in compliance with Article 5, section 10 of the state constitution.

The officers however, do not seem to be in compliance with the government code on appointing successors.

Looks like we get no relief from democrat rule even if the SHTF in California.

Last edited by Ayatollahgondola; 08-02-2012 at 08:08 AM.
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Old 03-28-2013, 08:47 PM
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Ayatollahgondola Ayatollahgondola is offline
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Update:

We made movement!
Save Our State caused the Attorney General of this state, Kamala Harris, to fulfill the requirements of GC 12701.

Quote:
California State Attorney General
Kamala Harris
1300 I street
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Compliance with State Government Code section 12707

Ms Harris,

The results of a public records act request are indicating you have not complied with California State Government Code section 12701, which requires you to submit names of successors to that California State Attorney General's office, to the California Secretary of State and for confirmation by the state senate. As a constituent and the executive of a citizen advocacy group, we respectfully demand that you comply with the law without further delay.

Thank you for your consideration

Davi Rodrigues


Acting Chairman
Save Our State

Quote:
February 26,2013
The Honorable Debra Bowen
California Secretary of State
1500 11th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Madam Secretary:
This letter is being sent to you on behalf of California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, and,
in accordance with section 12701 of the Government Code, Attorney General Harris hereby
appoints the following persons to serve as Attorney General ifshe is unavailable as a result of
disaster:
1. Rochelle C. East, Chief Deputy Attorney General
2. Kathleen A. Kenealy, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Division of Civil Law
3. Mark Breckler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Public Rights Division
4. Dane Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Division of Criminal Law
In accordance with section 12702 of the Government Code, the powers and duties of the
Attorney General's Office shall devolve upon the appointees in the order provided above.
The above designations shall remain in effect until rescinded in writing by Attorney General
Harris.
Sincerely, 1l1lWl.
TAD EGAWA
Deputy Attorney General
For KAMALA D. HARRIS
Attorney General
SA2012107244
11048346.doc
Our original demand was on July 26th, 2012. We issued another records request in February of 2013 for each constitutional officer to supply us with the records of their choices for successors. AG Harris transmitted her list to the secretary of state as required shortly after receiving our PRA. Her office contacted us that same day and scheduled a meeting to review the document, and give us a copy. That copy is attached to this post below for you viewing pleasure

Not only her, but the Lt. Governor Gavin Newsome's office responded as well, but in as much admitted they hadn't complied with the code yet, but indicated they would be doing so, and would contact us with the copies as soon as they were finished!

This may not seem like it's a big deal, but you have to think about what we accomplished here. Two of the highest elected constitutional officers of the state of California did something we requested/demanded. How many other organizations can make a statement like that? We got them to comply with the law!
And Save Our State's name goes across the desks of both of those officers
Attached Files
File Type: pdf State AG Successors.pdf (420.3 KB, 1116 views)
File Type: pdf Lt Governor Successors.pdf (270.7 KB, 1160 views)

Last edited by Ayatollahgondola; 03-29-2013 at 08:51 AM.
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Old 03-29-2013, 09:35 AM
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Jeanfromfillmore Jeanfromfillmore is offline
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Posts: 4,287
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If it had been Obama he would have just ignored us and used threatening tactics. AG this country could use about 1,000 like you, you just don't give up!!!
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Old 03-29-2013, 09:05 PM
Rim05 Rim05 is offline
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Location: So CA
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This is much appreciated information. I admit, I have never thought about these things. I wonder how many others knew about this. Keep up the good work.
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Old 03-30-2013, 11:37 AM
Patriotic Army Mom Patriotic Army Mom is offline
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Thank you. Thank you.
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