GOP mixed on prisoner release + Extremely long leases + Police chiefs pull endorsement
Welcome back, dear readers! The Legislature may not be back in session this week, but that doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of news. Let’s get into it, shall we?
CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS MIXED ON PRISON RELEASE
California Republican lawmakers had mixed feelings about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to release about 8,000 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmates early by the end of summer.
The move was hailed by Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron, R-Escondido, who called it “a major step” in a statement released Friday afternoon.
“The coronavirus brings into focus the serious threat that a pandemic and other disasters can inflict on the incarcerated population, staff and criminal justice operations in our state,” she said. “Recent media reports have exposed many problems in California’s prisons, including a lack of space, access to physical and mental healthcare, safety equipment and sanitary supplies, as well as shutdowns of services, building deficiencies, increased trauma due to disruptions in communication with loved ones, and of course a general lack of preparedness by the state.”
Waldron used the occasion to tout her bill, AB 2876, which would create a task force requiring the state to take action to develop and implement emergency preparedness plans for the state’s prisons.
“Nationwide, eight of the top 10 COVID hotspots are prisons. Worse yet, experts agree that prison cases have been severely undercounted,” Waldron said. “My hope is that the governor and my colleagues in the Legislature have finally recognized the seriousness of the situation and will commit to working on improving conditions and safety in our correctional facilities.”
Meanwhile, the California Republican Party tweeted in response, “And Dems want to defund the police with 8,000 newly released inmates in our communities? #CADeservesBetter #VoteDemOut”
Senate Minority Leader Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, also shared a link to a story about the release with the hashtag #CADeservesBetter.
And Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, tweeted that the release of 8,000 inmates “strikes me as using the pandemic for social engineering” and that the decision “raises the risk of contracting COVID for all of California.”
MOBILE HOME RENTER PROTECTIONS
Via Mara Hoplamazian...
On a hot evening in June, residents of the Glenbrook Trails manufactured home park for seniors in Loomis gathered outside in an empty site. Through their face masks, they discussed their fears about the new leases they’ve been offered.
The leases would last 25 years — a quarter of a century tied to the same management company.
“I’ll be 99 in 25 years,” said Sharon Fehling, a resident at Glenbrook Trails, in an interview with The Sacramento Bee. “It’s going to affect us for the rest of our lives.”
Long-term leases, like the 25-year lease offered to residents of Glenbrook Trails, are a tactic used by park management companies to avoid local rent stabilization and continue raising rent, said Linda Nye, the president of the Golden State Manufactured Home Owners League.
Mobile home leases longer than 12 months are exempt from local rent controls, meaning management companies can raise rents at whichever rate they set in the lease, even if it exceeds local rent stabilization ordinances.
Mobile and manufactured home owners are also not protected under the statewide renter protections that went into effect on January 1, 2020. Under Assembly Bill 1482, landlords cannot raise the rent more than 5 percent plus inflation each year, at a maximum of 10 percent. A bill introduced by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, in February would apply the same measures to mobile home park residents.
According to the Mobile Home Park Home Owners Allegiance, as of March 3, 2020, there were 83 cities and nine counties in California with local mobile home park rent stabilization ordinances. Most of the local rent stabilization ordinances listed by the MHPHOA stipulate that rent must increase by less than 100 percent of the change in CPI.
Though residents of Glenbrook Trails are not currently protected under any rent stabilization, the 25-year lease would mean that any new local rent control ordinance applied in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic would not protect seniors who signed the lease.
State Senator Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, proposed a bill in February that would close the loophole that exempts long-term mobile home leases from rent control. The bill, SB 999, would ensure that long-term leases are subject to local rent control ordinances. The bill passed the California Senate on June 22 and is now awaiting committee assignment in the Assembly.
“I wanted to make sure that those who lived in mobile home communities, mobile home parks, if the locality enacted rent stabilization ordinances, that they would be protected just like everybody else in the community,” Umberg said.
Mobile home parks are the last bastion of affordable housing in many places in California, Umberg said. According to the California Budget and Policy Center, more than half of renters in California are rent-burdened, meaning that more than 30 percent of their household income goes to rent. More than a quarter of California renters spend over 50 percent of their income on housing.
POLICE CHIEFS RESCIND SUPPORT FOR BILL
The California Police Chiefs Association no longer supports AB 1196, Assemblyman Mike Gipson’s bill to ban police from using chokeholds and carotid restraints, after the language of the bill was amended.
The amended AB 1196 adds a prohibition on “techniques or transport methods that involve a substantial risk of positional asphyxia,” which the CPCA called “open-ended and also vague in many respects.”
“The added language expands the bill’s scope in a way that lacks the clarity and specificity an issue of this magnitude deserves,” CPCA President Eric Nunez said in a statement. “No police chief supports prolonged force being used against an individual who is not resisting, but we cannot take away necessary tools needed to overcome combative suspects and expect our peace officers to be able to keep the public safe.”
The bill now also includes an urgency clause, meaning it would go into effect immediately after being signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom. This, the CPCA opposes because they say it would deny police departments the time they need to re-train officers.
This comes less than two weeks after the group announced support for the bill, with Nunez then saying, “Voices from across the country have made it clear that these control techniques, although used infrequently and successfully in most cases, have become detrimental to the relationship between law enforcement and the communities we are sworn to protect. We are listening.”
Nunez said in a statement announcing the withdrawal of support that his office has reached out to Assemblyman Gipson “to share our concerns and reopen the line of communication.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“California’s worsening COVID situation is reason for the Legislature to get back to work sooner, not later.”
- Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
California will release about 8,000 prison inmates early between now and the end of August, with the state corrections department on Friday introducing a combination of measures to free up space during the coronavirus pandemic, via Michael McGough.
A bill that would strengthen consumer protections against teledentistry giants passed the Assembly almost unanimously last month. But before it goes up for a Senate vote in the coming weeks, proponents will have to dribble past a new opponent: three-time NBA All Star Draymond Green, via Matt Kristoffersen.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration instituted pay cuts across state government in a six-week bargaining sprint that ended July 1. All of the agreements, which the state Human Resources Department has posted online, use a personal leave program to accomplish the savings. The program institutes immediate savings but the leave time adds to the state’s long-term liabilities, via Wes Venteicher.