California Watch/San Francisco Chronicle, February 2, 2011
As California copes with yet another huge budget shortfall, the once strange-sounding prospect of selling government goods on eBay has come up again. In contrast to the property sold in the past - a leather jacket signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, used Highway Patrol cruisers, discarded desks and chairs - now it's equipment for the state's emergency mobile field hospitals that could wind up at auction or sold off. The eBay idea emerged because Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed slashing $5.8 million spent annually to maintain and store $166 million worth of hospital beds and medical equipment kept for use during a major disaster, such as an earthquake destroying a medical facility.
