California lawmakers ask Gavin Newsom to delay state worker return-to-office order
Lawmakers on Wednesday asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to delay the July 1 deadline for state workers to return to offices four days a week, citing concerns that the mandate will exacerbate California’s budget shortfall.
In a letter signed by a bipartisan group of 17 Assembly members, Josh Hoover, R-Folsom, and Robert Garcia, D-Rancho Cucamonga, urged the governor to push back the timeline for returning employees until the California State Auditor publishes a report analyzing the cost and efficacy of telework.
“We believe that our state workers have shown they can deliver for our residents effectively while working from home while reducing commute times throughout the state, whereby improving the quality of life for all Californians,” the letter states.
Three months ago, Newsom surprised many in the capital with an executive order that changed the state’s telework policy. The current policy requires employees with the ability to work remotely to be in-person two days a week. The new policy will require them to come into offices four days a week starting July 1.
The move, which the governor said was necessary to increase collaboration and mentorship among civil servants, angered state workers and the labor groups representing them. Unions have since filed unfair labor practices with the state employment board against the governor’s office and individual departments. Public employees have regularly protested the mandate and raised money to erect two billboards criticizing Newsom’s return-to-office order.
The letter noted that while working remotely state employees have increased productivity in many departments, decreased traffic on local roads, saved California money by avoiding maintenance of government buildings and reduced the state’s carbon emissions.
Authors urged Newsom to wait until an audit that lawmakers unanimously requested last year is published and the Legislature has time to consider recommendations made in the report. The audit is expected to be published sometime this summer.
“Furthermore, the RTO mandate has the potential to exacerbate our budget shortfall and hamper our ability to protect important programs from devastating cuts,” the letter read.
The Governor’s Office said in a statement that the implementation date is still July 1.
“As the Governor noted in the Executive Order, staff working together in person fosters innovation, team building, professional development, enhanced communication, and opportunities for our workforce to build relationships and learn from each other,” said Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office.
Additionally, the Governor’s Office fired back against the lawmakers’ letter, asking whether the Legislature would reconsider its own policy requiring employees to work from the office five days a week once the audit is published.
In response, Hoover said some state jobs — like those in the Legislature — require in-person work, while others can be done remotely.
“We want state agencies to be able to make those decisions for themselves, based on the job description, based on the job that’s required,” Hoover said in an interview. “Not only does that help state workers, it also helps save taxpayer dollars.”
Hoover said, if nothing else, the return-to-office order is a missed opportunity to save California money in the long run by reducing its footprint. Additionally, Hoover said state buildings and land used to as offices by workers could be converted to housing — an objective that the governor touted as recently as last month.
The Folsom lawmaker said he has heard anecdotally that some agencies are not prepared to bring workers back on July 1. That could mean the cost of implementation increases, Hoover said, because departments that don’t have sufficient space and will need to secure additional offices.
Other Sacramento-area lawmakers who signed on to the letter included Assembly members Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin; Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento; and Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove.
This story was originally published June 4, 2025 at 2:55 PM.
