NEWSOM HIGH ON POT

State Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom told an enthusiastic crowd in Marin County last week that he supports legal weed, with the usual and expected caveat: Keep the boo away from junior until he’s at least old enough to drive.

Our bud Newsom’s long-held pro-legalization posture is at odds with ol’ Gov. Jerry Brown, who opposes legalization and whose economy-boosting priorities these days revolve around the great cosmic death frack.

If Newsom were running the show, he’d let the Cali-cool freak flag fly proud, pungent and profitable. Legalization is a far more popular stimulus option among the progressive base that Brown’s been bogarting all these years.

But Brown’s a shoe-in for reelection this year, he don’t need no stinkin’ progressives, and the pot issue is neutralized anyway since Brown’s opponent in the fall election, Republican Neel Kashkari, also opposes legalization.

Yet Kashkari (shown) made headlines of late when he “dressed up” like a homeless person in order to, you know, get a feel for the street life. We think he might have been trying to score some Mexican dirt-weed as a way to take the sting out of his party’s anti-immigrant animus, but that’s just us. Get yourself a dispensary card, brother. That street stuff is bunk.

For Gen X pol Newsom, this is no mere dab into pot politics. The Kentfield resident lit up the joint in Marin when he told the crowd, as reported in the Marin Independent Journal, that he’d stump around the state for a 2016 legalization ballot measure.

Newsom’s pro-pot speech came on the heels of a stunning recent New York Times editorial that laid out the rolling-paper of record’s newfound pro-legalization posture, despite Maureen Dowd’s recent and hilarious psychotic encounter with a pot-laced candy bar in a Colorado hotel room. If the gray lady can get with the greenery, can the S.F. Chronic be far behind?

Newsom has on occasion huffed and puffed about running for higher office—he would have run for governor this year if Brown had bowed out of the race—and Debriefer’s down with that plan: Aim high, sir! The people are with you on this one.

DOGS AT THE TABLE

Speaking of Jerry Brown going completely to the dogs, the governor has a bill headed to his desk that he better sign—oh, but he better! Yes, Debriefer is referring to our favorite bill outta Sacramento this year, our pet bill, Napa assemblywoman Mariko Yamada’s dogs-in-restaurants bill, which would localize decisions about whether Fido’s welcome in al fresco dining settings. Her office e-blasted Debriefer with the news last week that the bill made it through both houses in Sacramento. Roll a bone and go for it, Gov.

PENSION PUFFERS

And in other wacky-tobaccy news we first read about in the Marin IJ, Nels Johnson had a great zinger in his piece last Friday about Marin County supervisors barring the sale of tobacco in unincorporated parts of the county. Johnson took the opportunity to remind readers about the county’s pension fund: “The supervisors barred tobacco sales without mentioning the county pension system’s
$8.7 million investment in tobacco stocks, half of it in Philip Morris.” Love that unfiltered reporting, Nels.—Tom Gogola

In 2008, the California Teachers Association declared a “state of fiscal emergency” when the state’s education budget was slashed by $18 billion. Libraries went unstaffed, teachers were laid off and schools closed, including some in the North Bay.

Enter the Boys & Girls Club, whose Roseland Elementary School site was honored in June by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America as the best in the country—out of more than 4,000 contenders.

“It’s almost like winning the best movie award at the Oscars,” says Jason Weiss, co-CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Sonoma County. “What’s unique for us is we run the same program at all our club locations. For us, it felt more like an organizational award.”

The Boys & Girls Club steps up when budgets are slashed and programs cut. It’s more than just a place for kids to hang out until parents can pick them up—each club tailors its offerings to fit the needs of each site. If a school had its physical-education program cut, a club can offer it as an activity. Library shut down? The club will put extra attention on reading and literacy tutoring. Art program canceled? You get the picture.

“We have more flexibility than the school does during the day,” says Weiss. “Our whole goal when we open on a campus is to be a partner at that school. We have a lot of communication with the principal and teachers.”

If programs are cut, he says, “we can very often fill some of those gaps for the kids.”

The club serves at least a hundred students at each site, says Weiss, most of whom are from disadvantaged circumstances. “We’re filled to the max at these places,” he says.

The Sonoma County program came about through a years-long centralization process that put 28 individual clubs in the county under one umbrella organization, which is by far the largest in the North Bay. There are also independent groups in Sonoma and Petaluma, the latter of which has eight clubs in Petaluma and three in Marin County. The Boys & Girls Club of Napa Valley has 11 clubs in Napa and American Canyon.

At Roseland Elementary, principal Dana Pedersen says the club serves about 200 of the school’s 650 students, 90 percent of whom are Hispanic. “And we always have a waiting list,” she says. “It gives students, especially second-language learners, access to important skills and language practice.”

Roseland’s was the first on-site club in the district, and its success spawned other clubs. Now it’s an essential part of the school. “It’s just an extension of who we are,” says Pedersen. “Our students would really suffer without them.”

The club takes great care to integrate the school’s curriculum with their own. “They have their own services, but they complement our services really well,” says Pedersen.

“For us, it effects the wholeness of a child, in a certain way,” says Weiss. “If they’re missing out on things that kids 30 years ago used to get in school that really completed their childhood, that’s something we try to pick up the slack on.”

The club’s funding comes mostly from government grants and private donations; 10 percent of its budget comes out of fees and dues charged to members. . The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Sonoma County runs on an annual budget of just over $5 million and doesn’t have to worry about state budget crises. “The government funding we receive from the state of California is designated for after-school programs and would require a vote of the people to overturn,” says Weiss.

The investment has paid off. The group has the 12th largest daily attendance among 1,000 clubs around the country, and serves almost 3,500 after-school students each day at 28 sites, 20 of which are located at the schools themselves.

And they’re making the most of the centralized organization. The group received a recent grant for 50 iPads and created a mobile technology center that rotates between clubs, which gives all students access to the tools, instead of just those lucky enough to attend a certain school.

“They pride themselves on providing quality programming,” says Pedersen.