Capitol Alert

A bill that would have required the state's minimum wage to automatically adjust every year based on inflation was killed in the Assembly today.

AB 1439, by Assemblymember Luis Alejo, would have measured inflation using the California Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Alejo's chief of staff, Marva Diaz, said the lawmaker will try again.

"The new bill introduction will happen I think in December, when the new session begins," Diaz said.The bill, she added "is a top priority of his."

The current minimum wage in California is $8.00 an hour. Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. The bill would have raised minimum wage about 14 cents an hour starting in January.

The California state government employs 91,272 minimum wage workers, according to the state Controller's Office. If passed, the bill would have cost the state nearly $800,000.

When Assemblyman Roger Hernandez was stopped on suspicion of drunken driving after pulling into the parking lot of a Concord hotel two months ago, he had a question for the police officer who stopped him.

"I'm here at the hotel and I'm not driving any more, can't you just let me go?" Hernandez asked, according to a Concord police report of the incident released Friday by Contra Costa Superior Court.

The West Covina Democrat subsequently was arrested on a drunken driving charge, pleaded not guilty, and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court for a pretrial hearing June 20.

Hernandez has apologized for getting behind the wheel after drinking, but he has insisted that he was not impaired. Tests pegged his blood-alcohol level at 0.08 percent, the level at which a motorist can be charged with drunken driving.

The second-year legislator, accompanied by a 29-year-old woman, was stopped by police about 2 a.m. on a weekday, March 27, in a state-owned Toyota Camry. His request to be "let go" came while the officer was asking a series of questions about his plans for the night.

SAN FRANCISCO -- While Gov. Jerry Brown attended a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge this morning, someone pointed out that his father, the late Gov. Pat Brown, had served on the bridge authority decades ago.

"I'm glad you reminded me ... but it took no reminding, because growing up as kids, we had a free pass," Brown said to laughter, "and every time we went across the bridge, we never had to pay the toll."

"I felt that was a little unreasonable," he added, "and that's where I first got my notions of political reform."

Brown helped create the Fair Political Practices Commission when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983. He appeared to be conflicted, though, about the lifetime bridge pass.

"You know, it wasn't such a bad thing," he said. "We've lost a few of those good perks that stimulated a lot of good work."

Brown's older sister, Cynthia Kelly, was also in the audience. She walked across the bridge the day it opened in 1937.

"I wasn't born yet," the 74-year-old governor said, drawing chuckles from the crowd.

"Believe it or not," he said. "I wasn't."

A bill that would prohibit public and private postsecondary schools or employers from asking students, employees or job applicants to provide a user name and password for personal social media accounts passed in the California state Senate today.

"The reality is that in a social media account there is a lot of private information," said Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, the author of the bill. Yee added that there is information such as religion on social media accounts that "is protected by state and federal law."

Senate Bill 1349 was opposed by Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Rocklin, who said he was concerned that the bill would hinder employers from intervening to prevent the escalation of workplace harassment. "I want to make sure we are protecting people's privacy," Gaines said. "I have a concern with being able to address early harassment issues."

The bill passed 28-5 and now heads to the Assembly.

"This is a pretty simple issue," Yee said. "Given the reality of social media ... when we first started using these social media platforms, no one imagined that the information in them would be open to the general public."

The Senate today approved a bill requiring motorists to give bicyclists a three-foot-wide berth when passing them.

Current law requires a motorist to keep a "safe distance," something that Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, the author of Senate Bill 1464, said is dangerous and unclear.

"Providing a three-foot statute is removing the ambiguity that currently exists," Lowenthal said.

SB 1464 is similar to a bill vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year. Lowenthal removed provisions to which Brown objected that required motorists to slow to 15 miles per hour when passing bicyclists.

"As a result of the changes we've taken, this bill, this year, has no opposition," Lowenthal said.

The measure passed 27-6 and now goes to the Assembly.

PHOTO CREDIT: Members of the BMC Racing team pedal through L Street traffic near the Capitol in Sacramento on Friday, February 13, 2009. Randall Benton/The Sacramento Bee

The Independent Voter Project, the group that wrote the measure that led to the top-two primary, is sending fliers and using social media to urge people with no party preference to vote in the June 5 primary.

One flier pictures two men smoking cigars and says, "Political bosses made their choices" and "you were not involved." It adds, "This time you're invited...the new open primary puts you in charge."

The flier was sent only to people who listed "none" as their party preference when they registered to vote. It was sent to about 250,000 people, said Steve Peace, a former state legislator and chair of the Independent Voter Project.

"Our core message is for independent voters to know they can vote for candidates," Peace said. "They're not used to being able to vote in June."

Dan Walters says California legislators have spent this week talking about cutting funds for kids, the elderly and the disabled while making sure they keep their own "per-diem" checks flowing.

Have a question you'd like Dan to answer? Post it on our Facebook page.

See other Dan Walters Daily clips here.

VIDEO: Today's "per-diem" session in the California Legislature captures the attention of Dan Walters in his latest video report.

Gov. Jerry Brown is in San Francisco this morning, helping to celebrate the Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary.

Brown, who was born less than a year after the bridge opened to traffic, is scheduled to speak at a "Gifts to the Bridge" ceremony around 10:15 a.m. Brown will help dedicate a new visitors' center and programs as part of the anniversary celebration.

Today's event comes two days before the Golden Gate Festival, which runs all day Sunday. For more information on the celebration, click here.

Back in Sacramento, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson heads to Kit Carson Middle School for its annual career day.

Other listed speakers include Sacramento Democratic Assemblymen Richard Pan and Roger Dickinson, as well as Mayor Kevin Johnson among others. That event starts at 9:30 a.m. at the school, 5301 N St.

Both the Senate and the Assembly have scheduled floor sessions for 9 a.m., after which budget panels meet in both houses. The Assembly Appropriations Committee also will work through its long list of bills after the lower house adjourns. Click here to read the Senate's schedule, and click here to read the Assembly's.

CAPITOL STEPS: Members of Black Farmers and Agriculturalists celebrate Africa Day starting at 11:30 a.m. on the north steps.

MEMORIAL: Members of Vietnam Veterans of America conduct their annual reading of the names etched on the walls at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Capitol Park starting at 7 a.m. Sunday.

CAKE AND CANDLES: Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, D-Sylmar, turns 41 today.

PHOTO CREDIT: The Golden Gate Bridge is seen at dawn, Nov. 10, 2006. (Robert Durell/ Los Angeles Times file)