Senate Floor

Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Members, a quorum is present. Members, I'd like to ask everybody to please rise at this moment for a moment of silence for the five marines who were killed in a tragic helicopter crash in San Diego County very recently. Thank you, Members. I'd like to ask everyone to remain standing. We're going to be led in prayer today, this morning by chaplain's sister, Michelle Gorman, after which, please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

We gather in God's presence, gracious God, as we celebrate another lunar new year, the year of the dragon. We give thanks for the changing of the seasons and the opportunity to reset our attitudes and perspectives as visionary leaders help us to live into this new year with the qualities of the dragon, vitality and strength to face the challenges ahead foreseen and unforeseen resilience in the face of seemingly unresolvable issues and confidence to know that all is held in your love and mercy.

We thank you for all that has been accomplished in the past year, and we ask your accompaniment as we seek to bring safety, healing and prosperity to all those we serve. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Thank you, Sister Gorman. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible justice. All right, we're going to begin with our agenda. Privileges of the floor. There are none. Messages from the Governor will be deemed read. Messages from the Assembly will be deemed read. Reports of Committee will be deemed read, and amendments adopted. We'll move next to motions, resolutions and notices. Don't see any microphones up.

We're going to move next to introduction and first reading of bills. Bills will be deemed read. We're going to move next to consideration of the daily file, your Senate third reading, item number seven. Clerk, please read.

Senate Resolution 59 by Senator Newman relative to the Special Supplemental Nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children.

Senator Newman, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. President. I rise to present SR 59, which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, colloquially referred to as WIC, and celebrates its invaluable contributions to the health and well being of mothers, infants, and children in our state. Since its inception in 1974, WIC has been a beacon of support to Californians, providing essential nutrition assistance, healthcare referrals, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, and relief in times of crisis to parents and young children in need.

WIC is much more than a hunger prevention program for participants. It is pivotal in ensuring healthy pregnancies, supporting postnatal care, fostering early childhood cognitive development, and setting the stage for future academic success. In California, the WIC program serves nearly 1 million vulnerable California caregivers, infants, and children per month, while channeling more than $70 million in healthy food purchases per month through local grocery stores, farmers markets, and military commissaries across California. WIC not only supports individual families, but also benefits our state's economy and community health.

WIC is an investment in our nation's future, ensuring that participants are healthy and able to thrive. Californians can be very proud of the five decades of service provided by local WIC agency staff, and they should continue to embrace WIC as an important community partner. Please join me in recognizing the 50th anniversary of the WIC program. I respectfully ask for your aye vote this morning.

Thank you, Senator Newman. Any discussion or debate on this item? Any discussion or debate? Seeing none. Clerk, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

On a vote of 34 to 0, the resolution is adopted. Members, we're going to return to motions and resolutions, and this will be the time to address adjourn in memories. I'd like to recognize the Senator from Sacramento, Senator Ashby.

Thank you, Mr. President. Let me start right off the bat by saying this is a tough one for me, so thanks for bearing with me. I rise today to ask the California State Senate to adjourn in the memory of my friend Lauren Hammond. She passed away unexpectedly on January 18 at the age of 68. Lauren was an iconic Sacramento City Council Member. She also worked here as Senate staff for more than two decades, she was a beloved Member of the Sacramento community.

Lauren left behind her loving wife of many years, Margaret, who she met in 1981 here in Senate special services. She also left behind her siblings Marcia, David, Carol and Kevin, sister in law Robin her Aunt Fran, cousin Ruben and nieces Emily and Lindsay, most of whom, along with other friends, are here with us in the gallery today. Lauren was born in Los Angeles, where she lived until the age of 13.

When she moved to Sacramento, she spoke often of the deep impression the Watts riots left on her young heart and mind. Living through that historic moment would later drive her efforts on the Sacramento City Council to find balance and transparency between law enforcement and community. She was a graduate of C. K. McClatchy High School and attended Sacramento City College before earning her Bachelor of Arts degree from Sac state.

She worked for the California State Senate for 22 years as a contract administrator in our special services division. Then she served in a variety of professional positions with the Senate Committee on Rules and as the Senate's coordinator for the Americans with Disabilities Act. Lauren was a trailblazer. In 1997, she made history as the first black woman ever elected to serve on Sacramento's City Council.

Lauren also served in many local and state organizations such as California's Gambling Control Commission, Sacramento's regional transit, our council of Governments, and our metropolitan air district, just to name a few. Lauren was admired for sharing her wisdom and experience through mentorship, guiding many women on their journeys of public service, including me. The first time that I met Lauren Hammond was in 2010. I had just won a contentious race to serve on the Sacramento City Council.

She was leaving the city, so we only had a few weeks as colleagues. But she made a big impression on me. She observed my predecessor removing any history of the district prior to my arrival and decided that she would go through her own materials and find anything that might help me get a good start. She set it aside for me. In one cardboard box, I built a 12 year career of service to my city, starting only with the contents of that box.

Lauren helped many women serve our region. She led the Sacramento chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus for several years, an organization that courageously walks with women candidates through tough campaigns. She was humble, genuine, kind, loyal, and committed to upholding the strong principles established in her youth. She carried those standards with her all of her life. She was deeply devoted to her family and enjoyed spending time with relatives and friends. She was a loyal advocate and supporter of those sax state hornets, her Alma mater.

She enjoyed golfing, going on cruises, singing, dancing, especially to James Brown, a lover of sports, she dutifully cheered for her childhood Southern California teams, the Rams and the Dodgers. But ever the californian, she was ready to root for the Niners in the Super bowl. This year. I last spoke to Lauren just hours before she closed her eyes for the last time. Ironically, her last message to me was to say how great she was feeling.

I don't know what happened or why her time was cut so short and without warning, but what I do know is that she was happy and deeply in love with you, Margaret. Lauren was the kind of friend who cared about the details of your life, not just the headlines, but the context. She checked in regularly, provided encouragement, and was always available to talk, preferably over a good glass of wine.

Those kind of friends, the ones who have your back even when you're not in the room, those rare souls are irreplaceable. I'm lucky and grateful to have known Lauren and honored to have Margaret's friendship as well. Lauren's passion, spirit, and heart are already missed beyond measure by all who had the privilege of knowing her. On behalf of the California State Senate, I offer our sincerest condolences to Lauren, sweet Margaret, and to her family and to all who were touched by her incredible life.

My friend, Sacramento City councilwoman, trailblazer, and icon Lauren Hammond.

Thank you, Senator Ashby. We welcome Margaret and friends of Lauren Hammond here in the Senate chambers today. Thank you for being a part of our day today. I had the privilege of knowing Lauren both as a Member of underclassmen at C. K. McClatchy and as a junior staffer here in the building working for the Senate and having to visit with her in the high position of the Senate Rules Committee. And she's a wonderful person, and she will be deeply missed.

Senator Ashby, please bring her name forward so she can be properly memorialized in the Senate Journal. Senator Niello.

Thank you, Mr. President. I got to know Lauren while I was on the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, and she was on the City Council, and we served on a few joint powers authorities together. And she really became a very good friend, a person passionate about her political views. And we disagreed on some of those, but she had a tremendous sense of humor, and we did become pretty close friends, and we would sort of tease each other from time to time.

And I always found her a really fun person to be around. And one story that I remember in particular was a Sunday I went to my son's house who at the time lived in Hollywood Park, and there were precinct walkers there, and it was in Lauren's district and so I went to one of them and I said, is Lauren out here knocking on doors? She said, yes, she is. And I said, have her come to this house.

So I went inside with my family and knocked on the door. So I went to the door and I threw the door open. Lauren was there. And I said, I'm your new neighbor. And she said, zero, shoot. But she didn't say shoot. But that was her. She was a funny person and a fun person. And my friend from Sacramento was nice enough to call me when she heard that Lauren had passed away. I was shocked way too young.

And I also offer my condolences to her family up in the gallery.

Thank you, Senator Niello. Next up, we'd like to recognize Senator from San Jose, Senator Cortese, for purposes of adjourn in memory.

Thank you, Mr. President and Senators, I rise to adjourn in memory of Jeff Margolis, a lifelong public servant who passed on November 26 at the young age of 60. Jeff was born in Sacramento. After moving to Palo Alto, Kansas City and Denver. His family returned to Sacramento when he was a sophomore in high school, though he met his wife, Kristen, when they were 19 and 17. They reconnected in the 1990s and later got married in 2001.

Jeff was happiest at home with his wife and around their two kids. He loved sports, serving as a coach to his son's soccer, basketball and baseball teams. He was a Bruins, 49 ers, Kings, and San Francisco Giants fan. Jeff's father, Larry Margolis, was Chief of Staff to Speaker Jeff Sunru. So Jeff could see the value of public service through his own family, and he chose to continue that legacy, which, of course, we all know he upheld.

Beginning in June 2022, Jeff worked as chief counsel to the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. As a Member of the Commission, myself, representing the Senate, I could see firsthand the impact of his work and the transformational benefit it provided to our mental health system. His passion for supporting Californians was clear, and he was an inspiration to others doing this work.

Before his time with the Commission, he spent more than 20 years working with the Department of Insurance in several roles, this including providing direct legal advice to California's insurance Commissioner. He even worked in both the state and federal legislatures. Jeff advocated for communities facing discrimination. He helped develop and adopt regulations covering mental health parity, gender nondiscrimination in health care, and gender nondiscrimination in automobile insurance. He also played a significant role in addressing racial discrimination and life insurance.

Prior to this adjournment, I can't tell you the number of folks who've contacted me and my office as a Member, as I said, of the Commission asking for us to conduct this adjournment today and this memorial. But also speaking with such fond remembrance of Jeff. He was certainly somebody who touched in a positive way everyone around him. He will be remembered for his love of his family, sports, as I said, and film, as well as his friendliness and his sense of humor.

He will be deeply missed. Thank you, Mr. President. And I respectfully ask that we adjourn today in Jeff Margolis's memory.

Thank you, Senator Cortese. To the family and friends of Mr. Margolis, our condolences. Senator Cortese. Please bring his name forward so he can be properly memorialized in the Senate journal. Next up, I want to recognize the Senator from Fair Oaks. Senator Niello.

Thank you, Mr. President. On this kind of anniversary of his unfortunate and untimely passing I rise to ask all of you to join me in a journeying in the memory of a longtime friend, mentor, advocate and hero of our capital community, Rex Heim. He was a fixture in this arena for nearly 50 years who both professionally and personally distinguished himself as a fierce advocate and champion of many causes. It's with great sorrow and true sense of personal loss that we adjourn in his memory today.

Like many of you, I was very lucky to count myself as one of Rex's personal friends for a lot of years. So a little about his personal history that some of you may know, but it's really quite extensive. He was born and raised in California. He went to UC Davis and received a bachelor's degree in political science and then on to the UC Davis Law School where he received a law degree. He then served in the United States Army Reserve and the California National Guard.

Retired from that in 1990 as a major. I know he was very proud of that service. For most of his career, we here all knew him as the face of the commercial real estate industry as President and CEO of the California Business Properties Association for 37 years. Almost four decades in that position spent much of his life working for the advocacy of that industry. But that's only a piece of what Rex did.

Before joining CBPA, he served as Governor Reagan's educational education staff Member and as an assistant to the Director of the California Department of Consumer affairs. Later, he served as Executive Director of the California Commission for Economic Development Director for the California Agricultural Commissions and Sealers Association, special assistant to the lieutenant Governor and here in the Legislature as the senior assistant to the minority leader of the Assembly. But that's not all.

Outside of all those jobs, Rex served on the Tahoe Regional Planning Authority, the California Task Force on Violence Prevention, as a Regent of the University of California, and as a trustee and chair of the Greater Sacramento Area Valley Leukemia and lymphoma society. He also served as President of the UC Davis Alumni Association and in various supportive capacities for that campus that he loved so much.

He is well known for his passion and his volunteer work with the California State Fair in particular, for which he served as chair, Vice Chair, and board Member at Cal Expo for more than 20 years and earned the distinction of being the only board Member to receive the appointment. By five, count them, five different governors, obviously from both sides of the aisle. Truly a life of accomplishments far beyond his chronological years. He strongly valued his long friendships with people.

Some of you in here that may not have shared his views necessarily, but he always shared a laugh. Everybody liked Rex. He was known throughout the halls of the Capitol for wearing his trademark Hawaiian shirts. That was his formal dress code, a Hawaiian shirt, and for his really no nonsense, goal oriented approach that still left room for him to crack a joke. He left an imprint on our capital community for sure. And he left us far too soon for sure.

He leaves his pass in his passing, his wife, Gwen Bickerheim, who also is a Member of the Capitol community, his three sons, Rex William Hein, Heim, Reagan Stewart Heim, and Trevor Anthony Plescia, and all of his friends, families and colleagues. Thank you for joining me in adjourning in the memory of a great guy, Rex Heim.

Thank you, Senator Niello. On this item we recognize.

Senator Dahle thank you, Mr. President. Members, I, too, would like to adjourn along with my friend from Fair Oaks in memory of Rex Heim, who is very interesting. We had the opportunity to compete, actually, for this seat. Rex and I ran against each other, and quite frankly, he was just that, a great guy out on the campaign trail, very respectful. And we had a friendship before that.

He actually supported me for my races, and then we got to run against each other and had a fun time beating up one of our Republican colleagues who's now in Congress. But we had a great time together. We both have sons, the names of Reagan, and along the way. So I just wanted to give my condolences to a wonderful, awesome family and to a father and a husband who was just a very respectful, great guy all around.

So I wanted to just stand up and also recognize him as well. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Dahle. Mr. Heims was a friend of many here on the floor. Senator Niello, is there something you wanted to add?

No. Just thank you all for allowing us to pay tribute to a great guy, Rex Hines.

Thank you, Senator Niello. Please bring his name forward so we can be properly memorialized in the Senate journal. Next up, I'd like to recognize Senator from Berkeley, Senator Skinner.

Thank you, Mr. President. Members, I rise today to ask that the Senate adjourn in memory of my former. Sorry, not a former friend, always a friend, but a former Richmond mayor, Irma Anderson, who was a trailblazer and a visionary and died at home on January 28. She was 93. Irma was the first black woman to be elected mayor of the City of Richmond, and she was the first black woman to be elected to serve on the Richmond City Council.

She's the only black woman that served mayor from her days working in the civil rights movement to fighting the AIDS epidemic as a healthcare professional, which she was in her entire career, to her groundbreaking career in public service, Irma's legacy was far greater than her five foot two stature. Her son Ahmad always stated, from the small acorn comes the mighty oak. My mother was the giant amongst giants. She was a pillar for voices that were unrepresented and a lighthouse for folks in troubled waters.

Her dear friend Contra Costa supervisor John Joya noted that Irma was steadfastly dedicated to improving health care and opportunity for all of Richmond's residents, but especially for the African American community. And Richmond, if those of you who know my district, while it is the second largest city in Contra Costa County, it is very often ignored. And she fought hard for it never to be ignored. John said that Irma saw issues through the lens of community health.

She was a nurse, she was a fierce advocate, but she had a great bedside manner. She cared about people. She was born and raised near Boston, and she was very known for her Boston accent, which, even though she moved to California in the accent, was thick. I've mentioned her first at Richmond City hall, but she collected a number of firsts before she was even elected to any office in Richmond. She was valedictorian and student body President of her high school.

She earned two nursing degrees from Cornell University. She was the only African American to graduate in her class at Cornell. And after moving to California, she got her master's of public health at UC Berkeley. She worked at the Contra Costa County Public health Department.

She was there for 20 years as a nurse at that Department, but then was appointed the health department's first black public health nursing Director in 1983, and she held that position for over a decade, during her long career in public health, she was dedicated to eradicating and being very upfront about things like the scourge of AIDS and not hiding it. And she organized the West County AIDS Task Force. And of course, in her community, it was something that was really trying to be buried.

That, in other words, people did not want to talk about it. And she understood that if we do not talk about it, if we are not upfront about it, then that many more people, we are spreading AIDS. After her retirement, Irma was elected to the Richmond City Council in 82. And like me, she was very inspired by Shirley Chisholm. Quoting Chisholm often, and her favorite quote was, service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.

Irma was credited while she was at Richmond City hall with initiating the highly successful violence prevention program in Richmond that's now known as the Office of Neighborhood Safety. When I was elected in the Assembly in 2008, Richmond was the murder capital of the United States. Richmond today has the lowest homicide rate it has had in decades.

And the work of that office and the other work that she initiated is the reason when her health started to fail, she greeted the moment with peace and said, I have lived a good life. And that she did. Irma, your family, your friends and I will deeply miss you, as will your beloved city, Richmond and the East Bay. And I ask the Senate to adjourn in Irma Anderson's memory.

Thank you, Senator Skinner, for your thoughtful words. I'd like to recognize on this item. Senator Dodd.

Mr. President, I'd like to add my voice to this wonderful adjourned memory by my great colleague from Berkeley. Irma was a wonderful woman. I served on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission with Irma for many years. And she was an amazing Commissioner. The first black Commissioner on MTC as well. And she was a fierce fighter for Contra Costa County, a fierce fighter for the City of Richmond. But more than anything else, she was a collaborator coming in.

And I would consider her a good friend and a lot of fun to be around.

Thank you so much, Mr. President. The Senate will be adjourned until Monday. And I don't have the date of Monday. Monday, February twelveth. Thank you so much. Have a good weekend.

Thank you, Senator Dodd. Senator Skinner, you would bring her name forward so she could be properly memorialized in our journal. Members, if there is no other business before the Senate. Senator Mcguire pro Tem Mcguire, the desk is clear.

Ladies and gentlemen, Members, as we adjourn today, please keep in your hearts the five Marines who were killed way beyond their time. The Senate will be in recess until 03:30 p.m. At which time the adjournment motion will be placed. We will reconvene on Monday at 02:00 p.m.. Members.