Audit finds that CDPH doesn’t collect LGBTQ data + NFIB wants Prop 47 amended
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
STATE AUDIT FINDS CDPH FELL SHORT ON COLLECTING LGBTQ DATA
Last week, California State Auditor Grant Parks released a new report finding that the California Department of Public Health has missed several opportunities to collect and report Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) data.
“We determined that Public Health has been slow to adopt and enforce standardized guidelines to ensure the consistent collection and reporting of SOGI data, which has limited its ability to identify and address health disparities among those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning population,” Parks wrote in a letter to the governor and legislative leaders.
According to the audit, out of 129 forms reviewed, 105 of them were exempt, but not prohibited, from collecting SOGI data. Only 17 forms collected such data in a complete manner, while seven did so in an incomplete way.
California law requires CDPH to collect voluntary SOGI information from people when it collects ancestry and ethnic origin information.
The audit makes several recommendations, including calling for the Legislature to amend the SOGI data collection law to require CDPH to collect that data from third-party entities, such as local health jurisdictions, on any forms or electronic data systems unless prohibited from doing so by state or federal law.
News of the audit was greeted by concern from Equality California, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization.
“Despite the advancements we have made in creating a more just and equal society for LGBTQ+ Californians, by virtually every measure of success, our community remains at the bottom — including when it comes to health care outcomes,” Executive Director Tony Hoang said in a statement.
It also was greeted by a call to action from Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who called the findings “extremely concerning.”
In a statement, Wiener said that CDPH continues to use an overly narrow approach to SOGI data collection.
“The department needs to institute a centralized, comprehensive approach to collecting this data, update its data collection and analysis systems, and require data collection from third parties. I’m seriously considering legislation to implement the Auditor’s recommendations,” Wiener said.
NFIB RAILS AGAINST FAILURE OF RETAIL SHOPLIFTING BILLS
With one bill to undo part of Proposition 47 in order to address repeat retail shoplifting dead and another in limbo, the National Federation of Independent Business is crying foul.
The Senate Public Safety Committee defeated SB 316, by Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, while AB 1708 from Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, awaits a future Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing after being granted reconsideration.
“Both measures sought to make modest modifications to Prop. 47 that would not have threatened the main goals of the ballot measure that passed in November 2014, and both enjoyed bipartisan support,” John Kabateck, NFIB California director, said in a statement. “What is it about the highly flawed and mis-sold Proposition 47 that has turned so many of California’s legislators into cult-like worshipers of it? They willfully and stubbornly will not recognize any flaw in their criminal creed.”
A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies/Los Angeles Times poll in 2022 showed support across the political spectrum for amending Prop. 47, which reduced several theft and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and raised the threshold for felony theft from $400 to $950.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’m sorry. But if Newsom really gave a rip about fentanyl he would have engaged before the hearing yesterday. You know, the one where all the important bills were killed or punted?”
— Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, via Twitter.
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