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Mayor Pico did not disagree with Ms. Ayala's comments. He was not sure if this would be the fight way to fix it. He believed a right fix needed to have a more positive involvement of all of the stakeholders and, perhaps, a little more common ground. He indicated that he was supportive and if Council needed to take some type of action this evening, he would rather see Council take some action than none. From what he had seen on a preliminary basis and in reading the staffreports and comments from people who are opposed to the bills, it appeared to him that there is more than one area of these proposals that may go further than he personally would like to go. Ms. Hosterman concurred with Mayor Pico's comments. She noted that the workers' compensation needed some type of reform, if not restructuring altogether. She appreciated Governor Schwarzenegger's position in wanting to come in and fix everything, which she believed was admirable and she supported those efforts. She recalled that the legislators had been working on this issue for a period of time, and pointed that AB 227 and SB 228 speak to workers' compensation reform, which just went into effect. She believed it was important to wait and see how AB 227 and SB 228 were implemented before piling on all different kinds of legislation. She was very concerned about the employees and their rights, and noted that she had voiced her opinion during the workshop. She did not want anyone telling her what physician she needed to see if she were injured on the job. She had very grave concerns about a number of different issues. She recalled that she was supportive of supporting, on a broader basis, workers compensation reform and sending that message to its legislators stating that the City of Pleasanton is very concerned about this issue and we would like to dialogue with our legislators and have some input and engage in this process in a public way. But to just identify a handful of bullets that, in her opinion, were ripe with problems was not the right way to handle it. Ms. Ayala disagreed with Ms. Hosterman's comments, and pointed out that the recommendation would be to support both SB x43 and AB x41. Ms. Hosterman said she was not in support of these two bills. Mayor Pico opened the matter for public comments. David Bouchard, 434 Vineyard Place, Chief Executive Officer of the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce, stated that the Board of Directors of the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce met this morning to discuss this issue. The Board of Directors felt strongly enough about it that it moved ahead with its recommendation to its legislators that they impose some type of reform to the workers' compensation system, and more specifically, the Governor's reform package that is currently being proposed. The Board of Directors believed that this option should be placed on the table. As indicated by Mayor Pico earlier, he believed that in order to get minimal reform, it would require some type of bipartisan compromise. He reported that the California Chamber of Commerce and the Workers' Compensation Action Network are spearheading an effort to have business people and interested parties phone its legislators tomorrow urging them to act on the Governor's reform package in order to get something moving. He encouraged Council Pleasanton City Council 29 02/17/04 Minutes