Below the surface of all the big issues facing California -- education, prisons, transportation, immigration, political reform -- lies the disturbing reality that the grassroots of citizen political involvement are drying up. In recent years, alienation between Californians and their government leaders has burned like a wildfire across the state, melting voter turnout and heating up cynicism toward the political establishment in Sacramento...

Until we find a way to rebuild citizen participation, and a sense of trust between Californians and their elected officials, solutions to the state's serious long-term problems will elude us. To that end, I have a modest proposal to begin watering the grassroots of California's democracy: a statewide citizens assembly to review ballot initiatives prior to elections...

A citizens assembly has been used with success in British Columbia to empanel a representative, bipartisan group to deliberate over matters of political reform. There 160 citizens met one weekend a month to develop a method of political reform that was considered too "hot" for politicians to handle. In a recent survey commissioned by the nonpartisan New America Foundation, three-fourths of California voters participating said they would support a similar citizens assembly to deal with the thorny issue of state political redistricting...

For the complete article, please visit the San Francisco Chronicle website.