Press Release from the California Office of the Governor

Status
Not open for further replies.

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
A bill was signed early this morning (12:01 a.m. April 1, 2012) giving direction to all agencies to begin using abbreviations of their agency names .

Sacramento, California. Office of the Governor. April 1, 2012 (note name change in list below)

Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill to rename all California agencies to conform with the "Cal ........." abbreviation format. Governor Brown said "the renaming of Caltrans, Cal Fire, Cal Boating and CalEMA produced benefits we never anticipated. These name changes have resulted in fewer characters being used on official correspondence, reducing the amount of paper used, reduced hard disk space on computers and shorter times when transmitting data. It appeared to be minor at first, but after a year or two the savings became significant. That is why it gives me great pleasure to sign the 'California State Agency Abbreviation Act' to be known as CSAAA. - to be pronounced as SISAH"

The governor declined to give a dollar amount to the savings the act would produce, however, he did state "right now we have to look for every savings and all the cuts we can, we are desperate."

A full list of these abbreviations are available on the state's website: Agency Directory

A partial list of agencies affected are listed below:

Access for Infants and Mothers: CAL MOM
Acupuncture Board: CAL PRICK
Aging, Department of: CAL OLD
Air Resources Board: CAL COUGH
Alcoholic Beverage Control, Department of: CAL DRUNK
Archives, California State (Secretary of State): CAL MUSTY
Attorney General (Department of Justice: CAL THEMAN
Automotive Repair, Bureau of: CAL GREASE
Barbering and Cosmetology, Board of: CAL CUT
Cemetery and Funeral Board: CAL DEAD
Chiropractic Examiners, Board of: CAL CRACK
Climate Change Portal, California: CAL HOT
Deaf Access, Office of: CAL HUH?
Dental Board of California: CAL PAIN
Dental Hygiene Committee of California: CAL SCRAPE
Earthquake Authority, California: CAL SHAKE
Education, Department of: CAL TEACH
Emergency Communications Office (911), California: CAL HELP
Emergency Medical Services Authority, California: CAL HURT
Energy Commission, California: CAL ZAP
Finance, Department of: CAL BUCK
Firearms, Bureau of: CAL BOOM
Fish & Game, Department of: CAL CRITTER
Governor, Office of the: CAL BOSS
Guide Dogs for the Blind, Board of: CALL WOOFSEE
Habeas Corpus Resource Center: CAL KILL
Health Care Services, Department of: CAL SICK
Highway Patrol, California: CAL CHIPS
Insurance, Department of: CAL SURE
Justice, Department of: CAL BUST
Juvenile Justice, Division of: CAL JERK
Lottery, State: CAL CHANCE
Motor Vehicles, Department of: CAL CAR
Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources: CAL DRILL
Optometry, Board of: CAL SQUINT
Parks, California State: CAL FUN
Pesticide Regulation, Department of: CAL BUG
Pharmacy, Board of: CAL PILL
Physical Therapy Board of California: CAL STRAIN
Podiatric Medicine, Board of: CAL FOOT
Prison Health Care Services: CAL SICKCON
Procurement Division: CAL GET
Public Utilities Commission, California: CAL PUCK
Respiratory Care Board of California: CAL TORTURE
Security and Investigative Services, Bureau of: CAL RENTCOP
Seismic Safety Commission: CAL FAULTS
Safety of Dams, Division of: CAL DAM
Status of Women, Commission on: CAL M'AM
Unclaimed Property: CAL COMEGET
Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board: CAL IWANT
Unemployment Insurance Program: CAL BROKE
Water Resources, Department of: CAL DRIP
Welcome Centers, California: CAL HI
Worker's Compensation, Division of: CAL OUCH

"the times, they are a changin" Dylan
 
Last edited:

gmclam

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 15, 2006
Messages
6,335
Location
Fair Oaks, CA
I guess this will be null and void at midnight April 2, since it will no longer be April Fools Day.
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
Sounds like something Gov Moonbeam would do!!

Interesting you should say that. I read a report sometime in the last ten years prepared by the California telecommunications agency (I'm not going to look up the correct name) that stated a communications satellite owned by the state would be cost effective. The report estimated the cost of long distance phone service vs. the cost of building and launching a satellite. Of course, this was a couple of decades following Gov. Brown suggesting that the state do such a thing and most had forgotten why he had been given the name.
 

DPD1

Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2005
Messages
1,994
The sad thing is... I wouldn't have been that surprised if it wasn't a joke.
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
When I first saw a truck with the "Caltrans" emblem around 1972 I thought it was a bit different. Later I saw other states start calling their Departments of Transportation "DOTS." Arizona has emblems on the sides of their trucks that said "ADOT," Colorado has "CDOT," Nevada has "NDOT," and Oregon "ODOT." I don't know if they have abbreviations for other state agencies but it would not surprise me.
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
Interesting you should say that. I read a report sometime in the last ten years prepared by the California telecommunications agency (I'm not going to look up the correct name) that stated a communications satellite owned by the state would be cost effective. The report estimated the cost of long distance phone service vs. the cost of building and launching a satellite. Of course, this was a couple of decades following Gov. Brown suggesting that the state do such a thing and most had forgotten why he had been given the name.

Additional, maybe Brown wasn't really Governor Moonbeam after all, maybe he was just ahead of his time.
 

Duster

Supposedly Retired...
Database Admin
Joined
May 16, 2003
Messages
798
Location
Northwest KS
Interesting you should say that. I read a report sometime in the last ten years prepared by the California telecommunications agency (I'm not going to look up the correct name) that stated a communications satellite owned by the state would be cost effective. The report estimated the cost of long distance phone service vs. the cost of building and launching a satellite. Of course, this was a couple of decades following Gov. Brown suggesting that the state do such a thing and most had forgotten why he had been given the name.

Funny you should mention that Fred!! I was working for San Bernardino County about that time, and there was serious discussion about using a satellite-based system for our new (at that time) 800mhz radio net to provide coverage to the remote areas (which incidentally was where I was working). Of course, it sort of just faded away...kind of like the radio traffic in Afton Canyon and Trona... LOL
 

k7ng

Electronics professional
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 31, 2008
Messages
379
Location
CN73
Interesting you should say that. I read a report sometime in the last ten years prepared by the California telecommunications agency (I'm not going to look up the correct name) that stated a communications satellite owned by the state would be cost effective. The report estimated the cost of long distance phone service vs. the cost of building and launching a satellite. Of course, this was a couple of decades following Gov. Brown suggesting that the state do such a thing and most had forgotten why he had been given the name.

In 1980 I was working at a Silicon Valley company in the Satcom division, and I was part of a team that was working on a proposal to provide C-band satellite services for voice and data to approximately 2400 separate locations in California, for many, multiple agencies of the State of California. The system would have eventually expanded to several times that size. I believe that a state-owned satellite was part of the state plan, even though that wasn't what my company was working on.

The proposal was in response to an RFP tendered by the State.

Back then, every single piece of hardware right down to transistors and rivets, on the ground and in space could have been provided by California corporations.

Apparently the project never got any farther than the RFQ.
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/weekinreview/07mckinley.html
But the nickname accompanied Governor Brown as he declared his fascination with outer space, proposed that California launch its own space satellite and made headlines dating the rock star Linda Ronstadt.

My point was that Brown's proposal was viewed as a hair brained idea when he made it. Later a formal analysis was done finding the concept to be one that should be seriously considered. The article you provided stated that Royko's conclusion was that Brown's thinking went beyond the status quo, something we now call "thinking outside the box."

Brown served as the mayor of Oakland and he quietly received bi-partisan praise for his performance. He then worked his way through a couple of elected positions in the state government prior to running for governor again. His performance in these positions is what gained him support in his second bid for governor.

A lot of people are fascinated with outer space so he is in good company there. It took about 300,000 people to put men on the moon, my dad being one of the engineers on the Apollo project. They were all enamored by outer space and its exploration. There was an element of beating the Soviets as part of the cold war, but what I observed, most of it through my dad, was intense curiosity for going beyond the confines of status quo thinking and doing something many thought impossible.

Linda Ronstadt was stereotyped as a rock star but over the years proved herself to be a very talented and diverse artist. She recorded a lot of music that was considered country western and much of the rock music she sang had a country western flavor to it. She also bucked the status quo when she started to produce music working with Nelson Riddle's orchestra and singing classic songs from the 30's and 40's. She was told it would end her career and her record label and manager strongly advised against it. The effort was an overwhelming financial and artistic success. She did not demonstrate the lack of stability and morality that brands many in the music industry. As you can tell Ronstadt is one of my favorite artists. I don't think Jerry Brown should criticized for dating her.

I'm not defending Jerry Brown, I just don't like to see stereotypical names and stories used in a public realm. It leads to sound bite type thinking applied to issues and campaigns, inhibiting realistic evaluation of ideas and individuals. The stereotyping, name calling and simplification is used to hide the truth, something that has been going on for thousands of years. However, in just my lifetime I've seen it become more pervasive at an alarming rate.

If we all thought in ways to keep the status quo we would still have lords and serfs with kings who received their power by being in the right family.
 
Last edited:

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
I agree. I got pulled in again. I keep telling myself to stop responding to off topic comments with epistles.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top