Two women allege misconduct by Brough + Private prison divestment + Why veto SB 1?
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BROUGH’S ACCUSERS
Bryan Anderson writes...
Two more women have gone public with concerns about Assemblyman Bill Brough, and one of them wrote that she filed a sexual harassment complaint against the Orange County Republican two years ago.
Heather Baez and Jennifer Rodriguez wrote they decided to disclose their names because Brough referenced them in a message he recently sent to supporters.
The Sacramento Bee last week reported that the Legislature’s Workplace Conduct Unit had opened an investigation into allegations against him, and two women previously had described alleged misconduct by Brough.
On Monday, Baez revealed she filed a sexual harassment complaint against Brough in 2017.
“As outlined in my original complaint to the California State Assembly, he made repeated and unwanted advances towards me for years, including inviting me to drinks, dinners, an overnight hotel stay, and an extremely offensive and non-consensual physical contact,” Baez said in a statement.
Brough’s message to supporters said he had met Rodriguez “once in 2015.”
In response, Rodriguez said in a statement, “That is interesting because the first thing he said to me during that ‘one time’ was, ‘I have been watching you for a long time and wondering why you weren’t married.’ He even described a dress he had seen me wearing at a previous event. He then went on to tell me that he was ‘on the Elections Committee’ and could help me out if I went home with him. When I told him that I was insulted and disgusted by his proposition, he sat there and smiled.”
Brough has disputed all the allegations raised against him, saying he has “done nothing wrong.” He has also disputed allegations raised in a separate ongoing investigation into potential campaign misspending.
Brough in a recent letter to the editor at the Dana Point Times wrote that he is the victim of “a recent slanderous and politically motivated allegation” that he considers “retaliation” for a bill he introduced in February to rein in the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies.
Patricia Wenskunas, an Orange County-based advocate for crime victims, said in a statement Monday that she would call on Brough to resign immediately during Monday night’s Orange County Republican Party Central Committee meeting. The committee, which has already declined to endorse Brough, approved resolution condemning him Monday night “based on the totality of the circumstances and controversies” surrounding him. The county party urged him not to file for re-election. Brough vowed to pursue a 2020 re-election bid.
The committee, which has already declined to endorse Brough, approved a resolution Monday night urging him not to seek re-election “based on the totalities of circumstances and controversies surrounding” him.
PENSION FUND DIVESTMENT
Wes Venteicher writes...
About two dozen people urged CalPERS on Monday to divest from two private prison companies that operate immigrant detention facilities for the federal government.
Calling the facilities morally wrong and questioning their investment value, CalPERS members told the $380 billion fund’s board to get rid of its stakes in GEO Group and CoreCivic, the nation’s two largest private prison companies. The companies operate detention facilities under contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The California Faculty Association organized Monday’s showing, and its members have shown up to protest at the last three meetings, according to a news release. CalPERS has invested a total of $11.4 million in the companies, according to the association. Several board members sympathized with the members’ positions, saying they were examining the investments.
CalSTRS voted last fall to get rid of $12 million worth of holdings in the two companies.
The teachers’ retirement fund faced calls for more divestment last week, when a group of teachers and public school students urged the $240 billion fund to unload $6 billion worth of fossil fuel investments.
State Treasurer Fiona Ma broke with the rest of the fund’s investment committee and urged her colleagues to consider pulling money out of oil and gas. She’s also a member of the CalPERS Board of Administration.
“Where we invest our money reflects our values, and we should be valuing a clean energy future for California,” Ma said in a news release.
Both CalPERS and CalSTRS are considered underfunded because their assets are worth far less money than what they owe California public employees and retirees. Critics of divestment argue the pension funds have an obligation to earn as much money as they can from any legal investment.
AVOIDING WATER WARS
When a bill to restore environmental policies in California to the pre-President Donald Trump days made it to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk in the wee hours of Saturday morning, it seemed like another perfect opportunity for the state to duke it out with the White House.
But less than 24 hours after the proposal sparked debate in the Capitol late Friday night, including among Democratic lawmakers, Newsom said he’d veto Senate Bill 1.
Newsom said he supports protecting California’s resources and endangered species, yet he saw SB 1 “as a mortal threat to something he’s been supporting since shortly before he took office: a tentative truce in California’s longstanding water wars,” per The Bee’s Dale Kasler and Kate Irby.
For years, Kasler and Irby write, the State Water Resources Control Board, havs been negotiating a plan around the flow of water in and out of two river systems - the Sacramento and San Joaquin.
“But if Newsom had signed SB 1, water agencies — specifically the farm irrigation agencies in the Central Valley — were threatening to pull out of the compromise,” the pair wrote.
The legislation would have generated another era of water wars, critics warned, with court dates and litigation to look forward to.
Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, said she was “strongly disappointed” in Newsom’s decision to veto her signature legislation.
“(Newsom) has been a partner on working to ensure a bright future that includes an environment hat is clean and healthy and working Californians who are safe and secure,” she wrote. “However, we respectfully disagree regarding SB 1.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
September 17 — Assembylyman Ed Chau, D-Arcadia
September 17 — Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton
September 17 — Assemblyman Tim Grayson, D-Concord
TWEET OF THE DAY
Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!
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This story was originally published September 17, 2019 at 4:55 AM with the headline "Two women allege misconduct by Brough + Private prison divestment + Why veto SB 1?."