Newsom’s big, rushed contracts + COVID-19 fears for Latinos, blacks + Rideshare drivers are hurting
Happy Thursday to you! Here’s hoping you get outside this (hot) weekend and enjoy some fresh (hot) air!
WRITING CHECKS IN ‘URGENCY AND PANIC’
A massive shortage of masks to protect doctors, nurses and other critical workers from the coronavirus sent California officials scrambling to vet companies on an unprecedented timeline, documents the State Treasurer’s Office released Wednesday show.
In at least two cases, high-dollar contracts for medical equipment fell apart after the state cut checks for them. One $456 million deal was with a company now under investigation by the Justice Department. Another for $8.75 million went to a Brazilian company that has been selling medical equipment for the past couple of months.
In some instances, officials readied money to send before the companies the state contracted with had been fully vetted. In one exchange about a $495 million wire request, a deputy director in the State Treasurer’s Office asked an official in the governor’s Department of Finance whether the company had been checked out.
“They’re vetting the vendor as we speak,” the official replied.
The exchange illustrates the unprecedented position California officials have found themselves in as they raced to secure needed equipment to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Treasurer Fiona Ma said standard screening processes have been disrupted and that her office, which normally just carries out the final stages of these financial transactions, has taken on an oversight role.
“This is a very unusual situation,” Ma said. “The sense of urgency and panic, trying to get the supplies, rushing to compete with the federal government and other states created a lot of tension at the beginning because they weren’t going through the proper process.”
The company involved in the $495 million wire transfer, Chinese auto manufacturer BYD, was reviewed by state officials and determined to be a legitimate supplier, according to the emails.
The BYD deal for surgical and N95 masks ultimately went through. Some of the surgical masks have already arrived, although the Newsom said the N95s have been delayed as they await federal certification. The governor’s office says $247.5 million of the initial wire transfer is being refunded because of the delay.
Another mask deal fell apart after the state sent $456 million to a company called Blue Flame that The Washington Post reported is now under criminal investigation by the Justice Department.
The Blue Flame deal, first reported by news outlet CalMatters, fell apart six hours after state officials initiated the wire transfer to the company for 100 million face masks. The state kept the money, but Newsom described it as a cautionary tale at a news conference Wednesday.
In another deal, California has had to recover money after masks shipped to the state were found to be moldy, Newsom said. In other cases, customs and border protection have intercepted equipment shipments.
He described the situation as a “remarkable moment in our history.”
“We all took off on a plane that we were building as we were flying,” Newsom said.
We have a lot more on the contracts in this report, ‘Urgency and panic.’ Inside Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rush to buy coronavirus gear.’
PEOPLE OF COLOR FEEL MORE AT RISK
Work puts people of color at greater risk of COVID-19 in California, according to a new survey published by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.
The Berkeley IGS poll finds that 61 percent of white people report being able to work from home, compared to 53 percent of black people, 41 percent of Latino people and 58 percent of people of Asian descent.
Asked how serious a problem working in proximity to others was, 27 percent of black people said it was very serious, 28 percent of people of Asian descent and 39 percent of Latino people. That’s compared to just 14 percent of white people saying it was very serious.
The poll found that 50 percent of black people have jobs that take them outside and into contact with other people. That number was 53 percent for Latino people, 42 percent for people of Asian descent and 40 percent for white people.
Black (53 percent), Latino (59 percent) and Asian (44 percent) people all were much more likely to declare COVID-19 to be a threat to their personal or family finances than were white people (37 percent).
Support for a nationwide stay-at-home order was strong across races, though white people (32 percent) were much more likely to be concerned about the economic effects of too long a closure than were black people (19 percent), Latino people (27 percent) or people of Asian descent (24 percent).
Berkeley IGS’s survey was conducted online in English and Spanish between April 16 and April 20, and featured responses from 8,800 registered voters from across California.
RIDESHARE DRIVERS REPORT HARDSHIPS
Speaking of surveys, there’s a new one out conducted by pro-AB 5 groups We Drive Progress and Mobile Workers Alliance, which finds that more than half of those surveyed, 67 percent, say that it is unlikely that they will be able to pay their mortgage or rent for the month of May.
More than a quarter, 26 percent, said that they have no health insurance, while 68 percent said that the companies that they worked for, rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft, had not provided them with personal protective equipment.
Nearly half of those who responded, 48 percent anticipated applying for food assistance for the coming month, while 49 percent said they had already filed for unemployment insurance, with another 14 percent saying that they intended to apply.
The survey of 1,087 rideshare drivers was conducted online in Spanish and English from April 24 to April 30.
The groups released the survey findings one day after California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced a lawsuit againt Uber and Lyft, alleging that those companies have misclassified their workers and denied them lawful benefits.
LAWMAKERS ANNOUNCE VOTING RIGHTS BILL PACKAGE
Two ranking lawmakers have introduced a bill package aimed at making voting easier this coming November.
Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Garden Grove, who chairs the Senate Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments, and Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting, introduced a pair of bills.
Assembly Bill 860 would require that every registered California voter be provided with a vote-by-mail ballot for the November general election, while Senate Bill 423 would require county elections officials to open and maintain a minimum number of polling places and vote centers.
Together, the bills are aimed at alleviating both public health concerns involved with going to the polls in the time of coronavirus pandemic and long lines that some voters encountered during the California primary election last February.
The two lawmakers also, in a letter to Gov.. Gavin Newsom, requested that the governor sign an executive order immediately authorizing that all California voters receive a mail-in ballot.
“Immediate action by Executive Order will allow counties to begin the procurement of equipment and materials to allow for every Californian to receive a mail ballot,” the letter to Newsom reads in part.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The nice thing about these staggered, slow committee hearings is that I get to hear the policy discussion on almost every bill coming to us in Appropriations while reading the committee analysis. Preparing for suspense is going to be much easier and quicker.”
- Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, via Twitter. Gonzalez chairs the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Best of the Bee:
Native American tribal governments, forced to lay off employees and increase expenses during the coronavirus pandemic, were promised $8 billion in funds by April 26 under a coronavirus relief law President Donald Trump signed. The roughly 400 tribes splitting the money still haven’t received the aid, via Kate Irby.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday he has signed an executive order to waive the 10 percent penalty on late residential and small business property tax payments for those unable to pay on time due to the coronavirus emergency, via Hannah Wiley.
Federal certification for the N95 masks California ordered from Chinese company BYD has been “delayed,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday, via Sophia Bollag.