Toilet paper runs and blood drives. Lawmakers on district duty while Newsom steals the show
California Republican Assemblyman Jay Obernolte’s frustration came through during a recent legislative budget subcommittee hearing even through the computer screen of a remote Zoom call.
The Big Bear Lake Republican accused Gov. Gavin Newsom of violating emergency legislation rules by using some of the $1 billion the Legislature approved in mid-March not on coronavirus needs, but on “shoring up” social safety net programs.
“Though that may be desirable, though that might even be wise, though that might be something we agree with when we’re deliberating it in a setting where we are partnering with the governor in discussing it,” Obernolte said during an April 20 hearing, “It’s not something I feel was given him the authority to allocate money for under Senate Bill 89.”
Obernolte’s not the only member of the Legislature questioning Gov. Gavin Newsom’s actions during a legislative recess that began on March 16.
Under jurisdiction authorized by emergency declaration, the Democratic governor has relied on executive orders to cope with the coronavirus emergency. He’s made decisions within a matter of hours on issues that sometimes take the Legislature years to find a majority vote to accomplish.
The Legislature also serves as a co-equal branch of government tasked with oversight powers many members say is now compromised through an executive-run state.
They’ve been denied details of an expensive contract Newsom has signed to procure personal protective equipment. They don’t understand the models his administration is using to predict infection rates. Many don’t even have answers, they say, when their constituents turn to their elected official for basic questions.
The members lament that Newsom’s team is rejecting their expertise and decades of experience in government. They claim he’s forgotten their Rolodex of relationships with local leaders and connections to cities, counties, hospitals, nonprofits and small businesses in their district.
“I have a health committee staff that has over 100 years of health policy experience and we have not been engaged, and we have been trying to engage,” said Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Santa Rosa. “It feels like every effort I make to get to another level, I meet resistance, quite frankly.”
This week, Newsom acknowledged the Legislature’s collective anxiety. He said he connects twice a week with Democratic leadership and has already talked with more than half of the 120 members.
“It’s all inclusive, an all-hands approach,” Newsom said, adding that “It certainly can improve.”
Budget decisions coming
Newsom is scheduled to release his revised budget blueprint in just a few weeks. Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said he expects more collaboration between the Legislature and the governor’s office as California moves into its next phase of the coronavirus.
“The emergency powers that were granted were with an understanding that this would be for a certain amount of discrete time. It wasn’t the sense that there was a blank check or we would just be notified after expenditures were already committed to,” Ting said.
Some patience is warranted, said former Democratic governor Gov. Gray Davis, who governed in a state of emergency in 2001 during an energy crisis.
During California’s power blackouts, Davis said he spent hours on the phone each day handling “a whole lot of moving parts.”
“I was literally calling, every day, power companies to make sure we had enough electricity for the next day and the day after,” Davis said. “Give the governor a pass, because he’s trying to get the best information he can on what the problem is, how it can be solved, and how we can get the resources.”
Newsom’s administration has for the last month and a half operated on an always-changing schedule dictated by the evolving data of positive coronavirus cases and intensive care unit patients. The governor has relied on less-familiar faces in his administration, like Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly, to help guide California through COVID-19.
He’s often acting with the little information available during a crisis, and can’t necessarily take the time to call each member and weigh 120 perspectives on the best path forward, said Garry South, a California Democratic strategist.
“You can argue about whether Newsom is doing the right thing or whether he got snookered by Elon Musk on ventilators. But in a state of emergency, he has the right to do anything that he chooses to do. (Legislators) are stamping their feet, ‘How can he do this, under what authority?’ Go back and read the law,” South said. “They’re barking up the wrong tree here.”
District work
In the meantime, the coronavirus has forced members into acting more like a local official than a state lawmaker.
COVID-19 has wiped the legislative calendar clean. In its place, members have scheduled food and blood drives, grocery shopping for neighbors and virtual town halls.
For Sen. Ling Ling Chang, R-Diamond Bar, that grassroots work includes sending 36,000 rolls of bread to schools and districts and delivering toilet paper and paper towels to an 80-year-old woman whose car broke down.
“We have food drives. I’ve done several grocery distributions,” Chang said. “We’re trying to do whatever we can to help my constituents meet their daily needs.”
Writing policy isn’t a main priority, said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego. It’s finding resources to help the immigrant community in her mixed-status district.
“We have to differentiate what is available according to immigration status that won’t put you at risk of deportation or not being able to get a green card in the future,” Gonzalez said. “The work looks different. It’s by far a shifting of focus from things that happen in Sacramento from things that happen on the ground in the district.”
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.