Newsom’s free legal counsel + SB 50’s local control makeover + An even greener California?

Well, Monday was a lot! New legislation, upgrades to old bills, a hustle in the Capitol that, to be honest, I really missed. Let’s see if I’m so enthusiastic in a few months.

PRO BONO

Via Sophia Bollag

High-powered law firms have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free legal work for Gov. Gavin Newsom since he took office, giving counsel on California’s death penalty moratorium and the state’s legal battle over prison health care, public records show.

Law firm Boies Schiller Flexner provided more than $405,000 in legal services to help Newsom with his death penalty moratorium, according to records filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission. Another firm, Robins Kaplan LLP, contributed nearly $450,000 in free representation in Coleman v. Newsom, the ongoing case that prompted California’s prison realignment.

Newsom reported the work as “behested payments,” donations made at an elected official’s request for charitable or governmental purposes.

Seeking legal advice from outside counsel isn’t unusual in state government, said Jessica Levinson, a government ethics expert and Loyola Law School professor.

“This is a pretty big win for taxpayers,” she said. “These are top notch lawyers providing legal expertise to Californians.”

Newsom spokeswoman Vicky Waters declined to answer questions about the law firm’s work, citing attorney-client privilege, but gave a general statement.

“The Administration seeks guidance involving various issues of public interest from experts in many fields, including in the legal realm,” she wrote in an email.

To read Bollag’s full report, please click here.

SB 50’S RETURN

It’s been about eight months since Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, was left disappointed with his chamber’s decision to halt Senate Bill 50 in Appropriations.

Since the high-profile housing bill was blocked by the committee, Wiener has worked with stakeholders to renegotiate a solution that hands more authority to local governments frustrated by the state’s attempt to impose its own construction requirements.

The updated bill would give cities some flexibility to achieve home construction targets on their own before losing authority over their zoning standards, according to Wiener’s office.

The revisions still require cities to plan for more housing. It gives them two years once the bill is signed to create a development blueprint that caters to their region’s needs.

If that plan is approved by the state Department of Housing and Community Development, the city would receive an exemption from most of the home construction law.

At a minimum, the city must zone for the same amount of housing that SB 50 would create.

Wiener has argued that the legislation would dramatically increase housing production amidst a statewide shortage that’s spurred an affordability and homelessness crisis. Proponents of SB 50 said that it’s also a necessary strategy to propel multi-family construction that would ultimately shorten commutes and ease environmental concerns exacerbated by transportation emissions.

“We have a multi-million unit home deficit in California,” Wiener said during a call with reporters on Monday. “And we want to make sure that as we build those homes that we definitely need, we aren’t building sprawled.”

AN EVEN GREENER CALIFORNIA?

ICYMI — Democratic lawmakers unveiled a plan on Monday called the California Green New Deal that would aim to reduce homelessness, cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve living standards in poor communities, all within a decade.

The specifics? TBD.

“Their bill does not yet include any specifics about how they want the state to reach those goals or how they’d pay for the mandate,” the Capitol bureau’s Bryan Anderson reports.

The name mimics a national Green New Deal proposed by New York Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, called his California version a “big, ambitious bill” that would “establish a framework of firm principles and goals.”

OTHER NOTABLE NEWS

• Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, announced on Monday that Drew Liebert was hired as his new chief of staff. Liebert brings more than 25 years of California legislative experience, Hertzberg’s office said, including 18 as chief counsel of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. He’s also lectured at the Santa Clara University School of Law, the Panetta Institute for Public Policy and McGeorge School of Law, according to the press release for the hire.

“I have long admired Senator Hertzberg’s incredible intellect and legendary capacity to engage on an extraordinarily broad array of our most pressing public policy issues. I am honored to join his excellent staff to lead his ambitious legislative agenda,” Liebert said in prepared statements.

• Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, announced a bill to repeal a California law that takes “deferential pay” from a school employee’s salary to pay for their substitute while on sick leave. Instead, employees would receive their full paycheck while out on extended leave.
• Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis joined Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, yesterday to reintroduce a ban on selling flavored tobacco products in California.

“Flavored tobacco products are the gateway to nicotine addiction,” Hill said in a press statement. “The tastes and aromas of candy, fruit and other popular flavors insidiously entice children, teens and others into unhealthy and potentially life-threatening habits.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“There’s many things we do we don’t ask how it’s going to be paid for. The money shows up. It turns up. When we’re trying to save our planet, you would think there would be a political will to make the investment.”

- Assemblyman Rob Bonta during a press conference to unveil his Green New Deal

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• Employees at a California tax agency started to suspect something was up when a compliance officer emailed everyone a reminder not talk with the media one morning in March, by Wes Venteicher

• Californians love to reject billionaire political candidates. Will 2020 be different? by Gil Duran