Governor Making Politics Local

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to take his plans for changing state government to the people, he probably didn’t think about how it might set colleagues at odds.

But that’s what happens when real people become campaign spokesmen.

Mike Parham, an Irvine Unified School District trustee, is the man in the blue shirt sitting next to Schwarzenegger in a television commercial as the governor touts his ideas as essential to the state’s financial health.

Wendy Bokota, who chairs the Irvine PTA’s legislative action committee, criticized the governor in Newsweek magazine after attending a rally at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim to denounce the governor’s plan to alter the equation for school funding.

And when Parham dined in March with Schwarzenegger as a guest at an Irvine fundraiser, Bokota stood outside in the rain with 2,000 other protesters shouting, “Shame on you!� Her sign read, “Protect Prop. 98,� an initiative passed by voters in 1988 that set aside 40% of state revenues for schools.

Schwarzenegger is proposing to change those minimum-funding guarantees, one of three proposals his allies have sent to the secretary of state for placement on a ballot.

The governor has said he would decide by June 10 whether to have a special election on the measures this year, or wait until the June 2006 primary.

Parham and Bokota represent both sides of the political coin Schwarzenegger flipped into the crowd in January when he pledged to take his plans directly to voters.

Usually, the political machinations of crafting and adopting laws play out among the professionals in Sacramento. But by unilaterally drafting his ideas as initiatives, the governor shifted the debate from the Legislature to local communities, a strategy that has caused both sides to take to the streets.

When the governor filmed one of his TV commercials hawking his positions, he chose the lunchroom of an Irvine biotech company as his backdrop. And there, sitting at Schwarzenegger’s left elbow, is Parham. He is not identified and he doesn’t say anything, but many people in Irvine certainly recognized him as one of their school trustees.

And in short order, Parham, 35, a vice president of an investment banking firm, was asked to explain his support for the governor at the Irvine PTA’s legislative action committee meeting. He had already piqued PTA members and others by voting in the minority to oppose a school board resolution to protect Proposition 98.

“I support the governor’s efforts to change the system,� Parham told 15 volunteers at the PTA meeting.

“Companies that I work with are deciding that instead of buying in Arizona or Nevada, they’re going to stay in California because they’re comfortable with what the governor is trying to do,� he said. School funding will benefit by such corporate decisions to keep their business here, he said.

Parham, whose children are in first and fourth grades, prefaced his half-hour remarks by saying that he too was disappointed that a $1.3-billion revenue windfall announced this month was earmarked for roads and prisons, with none for education. But he said one idea he pushed -- paying master teachers and administrators to help under-performing schools -- was included in the governor’s proposed budget.

“The governor is operating in a real world with a real pie that’s finite,� Parham said. “Parents are paying taxes for a lot of reasons, not just education.�

Diplomacy aside, Bokota, 39, a mother of three, said parents must be warned that the governor’s spending proposals would “decimate� Proposition 98. One proposal, for example, would prohibit spending in good years from being set as base funding for future years.

Schwarzenegger introduced his initiative, the “Live Within Our Means Act,� even as he was being lambasted for reneging on a pledge to repay $2 billion taken last year from schools.

The governor countered by saying schools would get $3 billion more this coming year than last year.

The threat of future education cuts should be enough to get parents out onto street corners and holding picket signs, Bokota said.

Public confrontation is uncommon in the business world, she said, but is appropriate in policy debates. “We’re telling them, ‘You’re messing with our kids,’ � she told Parham. “You have to show them some passion.�

The discussion distressed Jane Cashell, who said after the meeting that she felt powerless and frustrated in the face of a pending vote because there was no way to change what was going on the next ballot. About the only thing she can do is protest, she said -- something she hasn’t done since the Vietnam War ended.

“I hate government by initiative,� said Cashell, the mother of three boys and a member of the Stone Creek Elementary PTA.

“This has made me feel like all I can do is be negative.�

PTA volunteer Dan Chmielewski said he believed Parham was sincere in wanting to raise Irvine’s profile with the governor by appearing in the commercial. Though located in one of the wealthiest areas of the state, the district receives only about $5,000 per student annually in state education money, far less than the state average of about $7,000.

“If Mike can get a seat at the table, I hope he can make a difference for Irvine and other underfunded districts in the state,� Chmielewski said. “But what can Mike offer the governor that will help Irvine? I don’t know how it will benefit us in the end.�

Despite the negative attention he has received, Parham said he would go on TV again for the governor.