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California Politics Today #174:

Mitchel Benson, Director of Communications in the Office of California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, says that responsibility for monitoring the Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee set up by Proposition 71 to conduct $3 billion in stem cell research for conflicts-of-interest will reside with the Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee itself

Sacramento, California
November 4, 2004

By Marc Strassman
Reporter
California Politics Today
Etopia Media Political News Networks
Etopia Media News Networks

Phil Angelides, California State Treasurer

With support from fifty-nine percent of California voters, Proposition 71, the Stem Cell Initiative, was passed on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. It put into the California Constitutions provisions to establish an Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee (ICOC) which will create and govern the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) which will, in turn, be authorized to distribute up to $295 million in grants annually to build medical research facilities and conduct stem cell research over a ten year period.

The responsibility for selling the bonds to raise the $3 billion necessary to pay for these grants falls to the California State Treasurer, Phil Angelides.

Mitchel Benson is the Director of Communications in Mr. Angelides' office. He spoke today with California Politics Today about the details involved in the sale of these $3 billion in "GO" (general obligation) state bonds.

Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee will be self-policing as regards conflicts of interest

Asked to comment during that interview on the possibility that conflicts-of-interest might arise from the presence on the ICOC of individuals thereby in a position to benefit themselves through CIRM grants, Mr. Benson said that monitoring this operation for such conflicts would be the responsibility of the ICOC itself.

How the Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee will be constituted

He also explained the process according to which the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the grant giver, would be established.

The first step will be the certification of the ballot measure's passage by the Secretary of State, Kevin Shelley. This step, he said, needs to be completed within 39 days after the election, or by December 11, 2004.

Once that's been done, as he explained in detail in a brief follow-up audio interview, 27 members will be appointed, and two will be elected, to the Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee, according to the formula set out below. These 29 ICOC members will create (and then govern) the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

Here's how the appointment/election process will work:

Chancellors of each of five University of California campuses ( San Francisco, Davis, San Diego click and read UCSD Chancellor Mary Ann Fox's day-after-election statement on the passage of Proposition 71), Los Angeles, and Irvine) will appoint one member.

Speaker of the California Assembly Fabian Nuñez--------President Pro Tem of the California Senate John Burton

The Speaker of the California Assembly, Fabian Nuñez, and the president pro tem of the California Senate, John Burton, will each appoint one member.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (with his wife, Maria Shriver)---Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante

Four state constitutional officers ( Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante, Treasurer Phil Angelides, and Controller Steve Westly) will each appoint a member from each of these three categories: a California non-University of California university, a California non-profit/academic/research institution, and a California life science commercial entity.

California Treasurer Phil Angelides-------------California Controller Steve Westly

Eight members will come from disease advocacy organizations, with each of the four above-listed constitutional officers appointing one member from each of two such groups. Treasurer Angelides will appoint one from a Type I diabetes group and a heart disease group.

These twenty-seven members will then vote among themselves to elect a Chair and Vice Chair, candidates for these two positions having been nominated, one for each spot, by these same four state officials.

Creation of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine

This Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee will then beget the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, which will develop rules for its operations and for the selection of grantees, and initiate the process of accepting applications for, and selecting those to receive, their grants.

Spending and raising the $3 billion

To start with, the money to fund these grants will come from the state's "Pooled Money Investment Account," a kind of money market-like fund that the state can use to pay for appropriate expenses.

When, at the discretion of the Treasurer, it becomes appropriate to sell some general obligation bonds to cover the money disbursed to the CIRM, these bonds, mixed in with a variety of other California general obligation bonds, will be sold to one or more of the State Treasury's regular underwriters, who will themselves re-sell the bonds to investors.

Raising the requisite funds at the lowest possible cost to California taxpayers, not economic forecasting, is the job of the Treasurer's Office

Asked about the overall impact of the spending of the money raised by the Proposition 71 general revenue bonds on the California economy, the spokesperson for Treasurer Angelides said that questions like that could best be answered by economists. The responsibility of the Treasurer's office he said, was "to try to sell bonds at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayers of California."

Listen here

You can hear the California Politics Today interview with California Treasurer Phil Angelides' spokesperson Mitchel Benson in its entirety by clicking here.

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