Fast times at the California Capitol

From: POLITICO California Playbook - Tuesday Feb 21,2023 02:10 pm

Feb 21, 2023

By Lara Korte, Jeremy B. White, Matthew Brown and Ramon Castanos

THE BUZZ: A California Legislative session isn’t really complete without a labor fight, is it?

Fear not — it looks like we’re in for another round of clashes between business and worker interests this year after Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) introduced a new bill on Friday re-upping efforts to enshrine protections for fast food workers.

Assembly Bill 1228 would require fast-food companies to share liability for health and safety violations at franchise locations. Proponents, including the SEIU, say the current system protects powerful global corporations from the legal and financial repercussions stemming from wage theft, harassment, discrimination and other employment law. (New York lawmakers introduced a similar bill last month.).

If this seems familiar, that’s because it is. The same joint liability provision was stripped out of Assembly Bill 257 last year, the legislation Holden championed to establish a state-run Fast Food Council to set working conditions in California restaurants and push wages to as high as $22 an hour.

The act was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September despite fierce opposition, but businesses found another route. The Save Local Restaurants Coalition, backed by major brands like Starbucks, In-N-Out and Chipotle, raised more than $12 million to pass a referendum on the law, stalling its implementation until voters can weigh in next fall.

That brings us to last week’s bill, which could very well be seen as an effort to strike back against the companies that labor advocates are accusing of skirting responsibilities by passing a referendum on the FAST Act.

It took almost no time for business advocates to react. AB 1228 will “destroy tens of thousands of local restaurants” warned International Franchise Association President and CEO Matthew Haller.

“California voters have made it clear they don't want government meddling in the restaurants they frequent every day, raising prices and crushing jobs,” he said in a statement.

SPEAKING OF LABOR — Californians are rallying around U.S. Deputy Labor Secretary and former California Labor Secretary Julie Su, who is reportedly on President Joe Biden’s short list to permanently replace U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh.

SEIU California President David Huerta: “Wherever there is a fight for the dignity of overlooked and exploited workers, Julie Su has been on the frontlines.”

Someone who’s not a fan? Rep. Kevin Kiley, who on Friday led fellow California Republicans in a letter to the president raising concerns about EDD fraud and Su’s support for Assembly Bill 5: “Together, these two situations scream ‘incompetence,’” they said.

BUENOS DÍAS, good Tuesday morning. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a closely watched case involving tech giant Google that could determine whether companies should be culpable for hateful speech others put on their websites. More on that here.

Got a tip or story idea for California Playbook? Hit us up at jwhite@politico.com and lkorte@politico.com or follow us on Twitter @JeremyBWhite and @Lara_Korte.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “While it has been made abundantly clear that there is no legal or ethical conflict in my serving as chair of Budget Subcommittee 5 as requested by the speaker, I believe as legislators we have an obligation to ensure the people of California have absolute confidence in the legislative process." Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) recusing herself from matters related to her husband, Attorney General Rob Bonta.

TWEET OF THE DAY:

MayorOfLA

WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.

SPOTTED — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at Palisades Tahoe over the weekend, per a tipster.

JOIN POLITICO ON 3/1 TO DISCUSS AMERICAN PRIVACY LAWS: Americans have fewer privacy rights than Europeans, and companies continue to face a minefield of competing state and foreign legislation. There is strong bipartisan support for a federal privacy bill, but it has yet to materialize. Join POLITICO on 3/1 to discuss what it will take to get a federal privacy law on the books, potential designs for how this type of legislation could protect consumers and innovators, and more. REGISTER HERE.

TOP TALKERS

— “Disbelief after L.A. bishop who devoted his life to others is brutally gunned down,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Robert J. Lopez and Paige St. John: “Auxiliary Bishop David G. O'Connell, 69, was killed Saturday afternoon in the Catholic archdiocese-owned home in Hacienda Heights where he lived alone. On Sunday, the street in front of the sprawling ranch house was crowded with homicide detectives and crime scene technicians alongside parishioners who came to grieve the religious leader who ministered to their South Los Angeles communities for nearly half a century.”

— “Video: Mia Bonta won't answer questions about conflict of interest issue,” by KCRA’s Ashley Zavala: “As KCRA 3 first reported, the assemblymember is set to lead a budget committee that directly oversees funding for her husband, the attorney general's budget. State budget documents show the Department of Justice accounts for about $1.2 billion in taxpayer funds this year.”

CAMPAIGN MODE

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON 2024? — The Los Angeles-based self-help author and former 2020 presidential candidate says she’s exploring the possibility of running for the Democratic presidential nomination and will make an announcement in Washington, D.C. on March 4. For more on her thinking, read her conversation with POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook.

CHECK OUT NO. 5 — “The top 10 Democratic presidential candidates for 2024, ranked,” by The Washington Post's Aaron Blake: “The California governor has embarked on a quest to make his party more aggressive. Not content to only go after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), he has also in recent days attacked GOP policies and proposals in Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, Virginia and, of course, Florida again.”

— “L.A. Council President Paul Krekorian won't join the crowded race to replace Schiff,” by the Los Angeles Times’ David Zahniser: “Over the past few weeks, Krekorian had been weighing whether to enter the race to replace him, which features such candidates as state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank), Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), former City Atty. Mike Feuer and L.A. school board member Nick Melvoin, as well as Silver Lake Neighborhood Council member G.”

CALIFORNIA AND THE CAPITOL CORRIDOR

‘THE NEED IS THERE’ — “Abortion navigators get patients to California from out of state, including some who’ve never left home,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli: “Heeva Ghane has been a surgical nurse with Planned Parenthood for a year, but since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in June, she has taken on a new role: helping people from other states get an abortion in California.”

— “Born in 2007 or later? This California bill would bar you from ever buying a tobacco product,” by The Sacramento Bee’s Andrew Sheeler: “Assembly Bill 935, by Assemblyman Damon Connolly, D-San Rafael, would prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2007. That means today’s 15-and-16-year-olds, and anyone younger.”

DISPATCH FROM EAST SAN JOSE — ‘My kids are being poisoned’: How aviators escaped America’s war on lead, by POLITICO’s Ariel Wittenberg: Paint can be removed. Pipes can be replaced. But Licon lives directly under the flight path to Reid-Hillview Airport in East San Jose, Calif. The small airplanes and choppers flying overhead run on leaded gasoline, dusting her home with a neurotoxin that research links to lowered IQ and behavioral problems in children.

— “Decades after California's affirmative action ban, legal debate stalls funding for Black students,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Mackenzie Mays: “Groups including the NAACP and Al Sharpton’s National Action Network asked the governor for state funding to go specifically to Black public school students, who consistently fare worse academically than their peers. What Newsom offered in his state budget after meeting with advocates, though, does not mention race.”

— “'He baked': Heat waves are killing more L.A. homeless people who can't escape broiling sun,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Summer Lin: “As her son hit the streets, Southern California experienced one of the most grueling and intense heat waves of the year. Triple-digit temperatures bore down on the region for days during Labor Day weekend. The city opened nine cooling centers and added two more, but few people used them.”

— “California AG Rob Bonta launches new team to investigate wrongful conviction cases,” by The Sacramento Bee’s Maggie Angst: “The DOJ’s new Post-Conviction Justice Unit joins a growing movement among prosecutors’ offices across the country using new exculpatory information or advancements in forensic science to review claims of wrongful conviction or innocence.”

— “'They're only getting more essential.' California home caregivers seek statewide bargaining power,” by The Sacramento Bee’s “California’s in-home caregivers, a historically underpaid workforce that serves a rapidly aging population, could receive a significant boost in bargaining power under a new bill introduced Friday. The In-Home Support Services Employee-Employer Relations Act, authored by Assemblyman Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, would allow the state’s in-home supportive services caregivers to unite under one statewide bargaining unit.”

— “How California could become the model for getting cops out of traffic stops,” opines Eirka D. Smith in the Los Angeles Times: “More than most people, Patrisse Cullors knows the highs and lows of fighting for police reform. Of believing that, at long last, a new law is about to enacted that will require more from those who carry badges and guns — only to realize that, no, it’s not actually going to happen. She is, after all, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter.”

— “Amid an overdose crisis, a California grant that helped syringe programs is drying up,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Emily Alpert Reyes: “The California Harm Reduction Initiative provided $15.2 million from the state to support dozens of syringe services programs after lawmakers approved the funds in 2019. But the money dries up later this year — and there is no funding that specifically replaces that $15.2-million allocation in the budget proposed last month by Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to the California Department of Finance.”

BIDEN, HARRIS AND THE HILL

— Jimmy Carter to receive hospice care at Georgia home, by POLITICO’s Kierra Frazier: “After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention,” the statement reads. “He has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.”

— “Changes needed to save second-largest U.S. reservoir, experts say,” by The Washington Post’s Anumita Kaur: “Water levels in the nation’s second-largest reservoir dropped to a record low last week, raising the alarm that major changes are on the way for the seven states — and millions of Americans — relying on that system, experts say.”

SILICON VALLEYLAND

— “Silicon Valley tech layoffs: Why so many jobs were slashed, and who’s hiring amid fierce competition?” by The Mercury News’ Ethan Baron: “In the San Jose metropolitan area, including Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, listings for software-related positions have nose-dived 45 percent since just before the pandemic, and information technology postings have dropped 37 percent, according to data from employment marketplace company ZipRecruiter. In the metro area encompassing San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont, software job listings plunged 53 percent and IT postings dropped 28 percent.”

TICK TOCK — “'A race against time': U.S. tech layoffs put foreign workers on ticking clock,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu and Cindy Carcamo: “Foreign workers on H-1B visas, which are used by tech companies to employ highly skilled non-U.S. citizens, have a strict 60-day grace period to find a new employer willing to sponsor them or leave the country. More workers could be vulnerable: 85,000 visas are granted annually under the H-1B scheme, and some reports estimate that more than 70% of tech workers in Silicon Valley were born outside the U.S.”

HOLLYWOODLAND

— “‘Rust’ prosecutors downgrade Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter charges,” by The New York Times’ Julia Jacobs: “Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers argued this month that the Santa Fe County district attorney had incorrectly charged the actor under a version of a New Mexico firearm law that was passed months after the fatal shooting in October 2021. If convicted under that law, called a firearm enhancement, Mr. Baldwin would have received a minimum prison sentence of five years.”

MIXTAPE

— “She fled the war in Ukraine but failed to find a safe haven in S.F. middle school,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jill Tucker.

— “Lowriders, stars of California car culture, await the return of legal cruising,” by The Wall Street Journal’s Jim Carlton.

— “There aren’t enough veterinarians in some California communities. Can student debt relief help?” by the Los Angeles Times’ Emily Alvarenga.

— “How climate change is making tampons (and lots of other stuff) more expensive,” by The New York Times’ Coral Davenport.

CALIFORNIA POLICY IS ALWAYS CHANGING: Know your next move. From Sacramento to Silicon Valley, POLITICO California Pro provides policy professionals with the in-depth reporting and tools they need to get ahead of policy trends and political developments shaping the Golden State. To learn more about the exclusive insight and analysis this -only service offers, click here.

Want to make an impact? POLITICO California has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Golden State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com.

DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID.