Sac State co-hosts constitutional reform conference

Sacramento State’s Center for California Studies will co-host a fall conference exploring the pros and cons of reforming state government through various paths to constitutional change.

The session, Getting to Reform: Avenues to Constitutional Change in California, will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, in the Sacramento Convention Center. The event is free, but registration is required.

Joining the Center for California Studies at the conference will be the Institute for Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley and the Bill Lane Center for the Study of the American West at Stanford University.  

Organizers say years of budget deficits and apparent governmental gridlock have triggered serious past consideration of constitutional change in California. This conference, the sponsors say, will offer a “balanced and objective look” at the arguments for and against constitutional conventions, revisions and other reforms.

Discussions by academic experts, interest group leaders and policymakers will include the lessons learned from California’s past reform efforts, how other states and nations have approached reform, the legal complexities involved in the change process and how California reform proponents can win broad public support for their proposals.

“The next few months will be critical to the future of California and this conference by providing impartial information and facts that will help shape how Californians debate and discuss constitutional change,” says Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for Calfornia Studies.

To register, go to http://igs.berkeley.edu/events/reform2010.html.