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Sacramento sunset review for California State Athletic Commission this Monday at the Capitol
By Zach Arnold | April 2, 2013
To read all CSAC-related articles, dating back to May 2012, CLICK HERE.
The quick and the dirty on what’s about to transpire.
This Monday (between 10 AM and Noon) at the John L. Burton Hearing Room (4203) at the state capitol in Sacramento, there will be a Joint sunset review hearing for the California State Athletic Commission. It will be led by the Senate Business, Professions And Economic Development committee (powerful body in California’s state senate) and also feature non-voting members from the Assembly Business, Professions And Consumer Protection And Assembly Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, And Internet Media committee. It is expected that Andy Foster, the new Executive Officer for CSAC, will be in attendance (along with others).
This is largely going to be a dog-and-pony show for the political press. SBP will not vote to sunset the commission. It will be largely two hours of politicians bloviating about the woes of CSAC and past members and how great the Department of Consumer Affairs is. In other words, a bunch of hot air and no real substance.
So, let me give the politicians & their staff members a heads up about how to make their sunset review hearing interesting & relevant. We know that the politicians are going to use George Dodd, the former Executive Officer, as their straw-man to beat up. However, there’s no reason for the politicians to come up with a straw-man that doesn’t exist any more. You already have a whipping boy in place at CSAC (via DCA) who just happened to be a primary cause for all the turmoil at the commission in the first place.
If the politicians want to make their Monday hearing relevant, don’t bother reading personal proclamations or spending time questioning Andy Foster when he had nothing to do with the current state of affairs. Instead, spend the two hour time frame calling up Che Guevara to the Capitol. Put him at the table, make him swear under oath, and grill him for two hours with all the numbers and facts from the Bureau of State Audits about what has happened. There’s one guy who still exists who created the mess that CSAC is dealing with today and it is the Chief Athletic Inspector, Che Guevara. He’s the guy who, according to BSA, booked over 50% of inspectors from out-of-region to shows throughout the state. It is Che Guevara who didn’t properly teach lead athletic inspectors how to calculate box offices, costing California hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. It is Che Guevara who has been disciplined in the past for his situational ethics.
If you aren’t willing to put Che under the microscope for two hours and ponder why DCA hasn’t fired him from his job, then you’re simply wasting everyone’s time with the Monday hearing.
The sunset hearing will not be televised on The California Channel. However, there will be live audio streaming from the hearing and you can click on the link provided here to listen to it when the Monday hearing takes place.
As for Andy Foster, he is going to live up to his word in terms of promising dramatic changes. Those changes are going to happen shortly, as in a couple of months.
Expect a new cast of athletic inspectors. If you’re currently an athletic inspector, your job security may be very tenuous. If the trend is your friend, then here are the following benchmarks to pay attention to regarding job security:
- A background in security, law enforcement, or firefighting
- Previous experience as a fighter or extensive martial arts training
- Not a full-time state employee
- Highly thought of in terms of qualifications by Big John McCarthy and/or Jack Reiss
If you match at least two of these criteria benchmarks, you should be OK. If you match more than two of the benchmarks, you’re set. If you don’t match any of the benchmarks, your job security is in real trouble. You’re an endangered species. You won’t be working many shows, if any at all in the future.
While I don’t know the full extent of who all the new inspectors will be, I did find out some names and the backgrounds of the individuals coming in. Expect a strong presence from the Los Angles Police Department, especially their boxing league. The names Rudy Barragan and Ivan Guillermo have been booked.
The most experienced of the new CSAC inspectors getting booked is Chris Crail. He’s worked over 100 shows as a CAMO inspector and is a BJJ brown belt with extensive training in wrestling. He will be a very good asset for the MMA shows in Southern California. Should fit right into the mix without any problems. This is a solid upgrade to the inspector corps.
Up North, a man named Gene Fields is getting booked and the new, hot name getting booked for shows is a man named Hanley Chan. He’s a CAMO inspector who has a background in security. He’s already starting to work shows and will work the upcoming UFC event on April 20th at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.
So, yeah, a lot of changes are coming at a quick rate and I would expect to hear a lot of noise from those who are about to get pushed aside. The shift will be quite dramatic.
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