Bump at pump in January to help speed bullet train project

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California drivers are going to see a bump at the pump starting Jan. 1 - with a good chunk of the money going to kick-start Gov. Jerry Brown's struggling high-speed rail project.

Reason: Starting next year, tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks will come under California's cap-and-trade program, which is designed to reduce greenhouse gases.

The result will probably be increased costs to gas wholesalers, who in turn will pass them along to drivers.

Estimates on the price vary. Industry insiders are predicting a jump of 15 to 20 cents a gallon, while clean-air advocates say it may be less.

"The best guess at this point is that it is not going to go up much over 12 cents a gallon - but it definitely won't go down," said Severin Borenstein of the University of California Energy Institute.

Rough estimates have the gas money amounting to $2 billion to $3 billion a year, according to state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, chairman of the Senate's budget committee.

Brown wants a third of it to shore up funding for the proposed bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The rail project is facing a court challenge because it lacks a steady source of money.

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, is proposing a long-term plan that would devote 15 percent of the gas cap-and-trade revenue to high-speed rail.

Either way, the remaining billions will be split between other transit operations, clean-energy and water projects, and a fund to build more affordable housing and "sustainable communities" along transit corridors.

Premium: With all the top staff changes going on at Oakland City Hall of late, lawyers have been kept busy drawing up some hefty new contracts.

Incoming interim (and former) City Administrator Henry Gardner - who replaces departing interim City Administrator Fred Blackwell, who replaced Deanna Santana - is expected to receive $23,437 a month in base pay. He's in line for an additional $1,619 a month in lieu of a medical and dental plan and a $750-per-month auto allowance.

That works out to $309,672 annually - or $22,218 more than either Blackwell was getting or Santana before that.

But then, city officials say they'll also save $154,000 a year because they won't have to pay into Gardner's pension and pony up for other costs as long as he's on the job. He retired as city administrator back in 1993 after 12 years.

Meanwhile, Blackwell will stay on as a paid consultant to help Mayor Jean Quan push ahead with plans for the Coliseum City project, though the terms have yet to be disclosed.

Down the street, Sean Whent - whom Quan just named as permanent police chief after he spent a year auditioning in an interim role - will get a four-year contract at $226,438 base pay annually.

Whent will also get $36,440 a year in premium pay - including longevity pay, uniform allowance and education incentives. That brings his annual total to $262,878.

Which, as far as we can tell, is about $14,000 less than his predecessor, Howard Jordan, made before he announced his retirement last year, citing medical reasons.

Coming out: In terms of theater, Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan made a good show of her mayoral campaign kickoff.

Kaplan stood at a lectern Thursday on an East Oakland sidewalk that was strewn with heaps of trash, as she declared her intent to bring "safe neighborhoods, local jobs and ... a fresh start for our city."

Then, with an eye toward Mayor Jean Quan, Kaplan added what will probably be the slogan of her campaign: "Oakland isn't ungovernable, it's just ungoverned."

Kaplan's campaign people insisted that the garbage drop had not been staged. They said they had picked the corner - next to a post office - because it was the spot where a dead dog lay for several days last month before animal control officers finally removed it.

The decision to run against Quan was a turnaround for Kaplan, who four years ago helped propel her into office under ranked-choice voting by joining her in an "anybody but Don Perata" strategy.

Kaplan said she's not looking to step on anyone's toes to get elected, and will be asking supporters of every other candidate in the race - Quan's included - for help when it comes time to fill out their second and third choices.

"My job isn't to tell (other candidates) they're wrong," Kaplan said.

Just that they can't govern.