Senate Standing Committee on Rules

Before we begin today's agenda, we'd like to be able to establish a quorum. Madam Secretary, good afternoon. It's good to see you. If you could please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Thank you so much, madam. Sector a quorum has been established. Ladies and gentlemen, who are here in the hearing room and those who are watching online, it is a busy day here in the California State Senate. We'll have Senator Eggman and Leader Jones, who will need to attend other Committee hearings.

What we're going to do today is, as we move through each of our potential appointees who are required to appear, we're going to put those items on call if they are not back, and then we'll add on each of those Senators as they come back after they vote in their other committees. And I want to say thank you so much to Ms. Eggman and Mr. Jones for their work, as they're juggling a lot on their plate today. So, thank you so much.

Before we bring up our distinguished guests, potential appointees before the Committee today, we would like to be able to take care of some housekeeping, some Committee business, if that's all right. It will take us just a few minutes. If there are no objections, I'd like to be able to take up. Under. Not required to appear. And Governor appointees, items two, e through g. Items two, e through G, do any Members wish to separate the votes?

All right. And the Vice Chair has made a motion. Under Governor, appointees not required to appear. Items two, e through G. Thank you so much, Madam Senator. Let's call the roll.

[Roll Call]

That is a 5-0 vote. Those appointees will be heading to the Senate Floor. We're now going to be moving on to Bill referrals. We'd like to be able to take up item three, reference of bills to committees we'll entertain a motion. We have a motion by the Vice Chair. Thank you so much, Madam Vice Chair. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Hot deal. That is a 5-0 vote. Thank you so much, Members, ladies and gentlemen of Committee, we're going to take up floor acknowledgments. This is our final item before we jump back to Governor appointees. We would like to be able to take up items four through seven. Four through seven for floor acknowledgments. Let's entertain a motion. Thank you so much, Madam Vice Chair. Madam Vice Chair moves. Thank you so much, Madam Secretary. Can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

That is 5-0 vote bipartisan. Look at that. We're moving. All right. We told you that it was going to be quick. We're coming now into. We're going to jump back to item number one. A Governor appointees required to appear. And again, we'll have folks coming in and out of Committee. And thank you so much for your understanding here today. We're going to advance two individuals who are required to appear. This is items one A and one B on today's calendar.

The appointments would be Raji Brar and Mark Ghilarducci. As Members of the California State University Board of trustees, we're going to invite both up. Yeah, please welcome. Thank you so much. So we'd like to lay out just a format, if that's all right, to each of the trustees. We're going to hear from each of you. Each of you have about a minute or two to be able to provide opening testimony to the Committee.

We're then going to open it up for Committee Members to be able to ask questions, advance any comments that they may have in your opening. We hope that you are able to welcome your guests, acknowledge any family or friends that are with you, and we want to welcome them to today's Committee. We'll be keeping time. Once you get close to that two minutes. Not at all trying to be pushy or rude.

We'll just give you a time as you are coming up and just want to state we're really grateful for your service. Thank you so much for appearing. Madam Trustee, we're going to start with you. Please. We welcome you to Committee. You have two minutes.

Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be here. First, I'd like to introduce my guest, my daughter, Ms. Amani Brar, a sophomore from Liberty High School in Bakersfield. Hey, honored to have her here with me, and I'm honored to be here. A little bit about myself. I'm a first generation Punjabi Sikh American. My parents immigrated to this country back in the early 60 s, and they started their life here in the Central Valley as farm workers.

And I grew up in farm labor camps until my dad decided to move us to the big City of Bakersfield for more opportunity. And went to Bakersfield, went to junior high, high school. I'm a double alumni from the CSU. I have a bachelor's in biology and a master's in healthcare from CSU Bakersfield. I worked as a chemist for a while and then in healthcare.

And one day I got a great call from my dad and said, it seems like you're not too happy in what you're doing. You want to do business in Arvin? And I did. I opened a subway franchise in Arvin, and that was 23 years ago. And I decided to join my dad in business. And today we employ over 600 people in the Central Valley. We have construction, retail development, and so many other things.

But the point of honor for me is that in my culture, daughters don't usually work with a family business. And my dad was a big visionary. And I'm happy to say that I'm able to grow business with my father also. During that time, I was asked to run for City Council, and I'm honored to be the first Sikh woman ever elected to a City Council seat in the State of California in 2006.

And eventually a few years of that, I decided to step away from that and focus on business and family. And it was a great decision. But as you all know, you get a phone call. And I got a call many years ago and asked me to serve on various different boards for the state.

And I was honored to do so, from the fair board to the Water Board and now to this appointment, which is really amazing, because if confirmed, I'd be the first Sikh ever to serve on the CSU board of trustees, something I'm very proud of. I also have a nonprofit, the Sikh Women's Association, which I formed, which helps young women in my culture community. It's very patriarchal community, but basically helps them advance in life.

We have a first of its kind phone line that's bilingual, Punjabi, and English to help with domestic violence and so many other issues. And we raise money for scholarships for kids to go to college, especially the CSU. And I would not be sitting here if it was not for the CSU. So I'm very honored for that.

And I want to say that the CSU has opened doors for me, and I love to say that I am the promise of the CSU actualized sitting in front of you. And I was lucky to go to CSU because the opportunity to have financial freedom and make decisions for myself that I, quite frankly, would not be able to make if I didn't have my education. Thank you so much for this opportunity, and I absolutely cherish my role as a trustee.

It's a responsibility I don't take lightly. And I'm happy to say that usually in rooms, I was always one of many, but today there's two, because my daughter's here today, so it's pretty amazing. So thank you.

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair.

Please, madam Vice Chair.

And your favorite Senator is?

Shannon Grove from Kern County in Bakersfield. And Arvin. And actually, excuse me, I wanted to say hello to each of you, but of course, Shannon, she's from. Just correcting the record, sir. Just correcting the record. Hometown Arvin, California, Kern. County.

Madam Vice Chair is breaking out the two by four already. So there we go. I like it. Madam Trustee, thank you. Real California success story. Really grateful that you're here. Thank you so much for your service. Ladies and gentlemen of Committee, we're now going to be turning Mr. Ghilarducci. Trustee Ghilarducci, it's wonderful to see you. And it's also good to see you not in a disaster zone. Thank you. And the floor is yours, sir.

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Yes. Well, some days here early, so early. Yeah.

Well, it's always wonderful to follow Raji. He's such a superstar. And don't ask me who my favorite Senator is, because you're all there.

oh, jeez.

I just points out right from the get go on that. Anyway, it's great to be with you all today, and, of course, to see manytime colleagues honored to speak before you today about my confirmation for California State University trustee. I'm very grateful to the Governor and for the opportunity to serve in this critical role and contribute to continued success and the excellence of the CSU.

As most of you know, I recently retired after a decade of serving as agency secretary and Director at the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, a time when our state faced countless complex challenges and several catastrophic disasters. Shortly after retirement, Governor Newsom appointed me as a trustee to bring my experience and perspective to the board of trustees. Throughout my career in emergency management and public service, I have dedicated to equitably serving the people of California and ensuring the safety and well being of our communities.

I believe that my expertise and experience in crisis and security management, strategic planning and collaboration make me well suited to help guide the CSU in addressing the current and future challenges and opportunities facing higher education in our state. This opportunity is particularly special to me.

Born in the Bay Area, growing up in California, coming from post depression era working class parents who instilled the values of family, hard work, community service and the importance of an education, I was the first generation to obtain a four year college degree, graduating from UC Davis, an experience that reinforced in me the value and importance of a college education and helped me shape and advance my entire career.

I'm particularly attracted to the mission and the values of the CSU, fostering diversity, equity and inclusion, and promoting academic excellence and student success. I was able to observe this firsthand as my daughter received an outstanding education that prepared her for successfully entering the workforce.

Graduating from Cal State San Marcos with a degree in communication, I look forward to working collaboratively with my fellow trustees, faculty, staff, students, the community, community partners, and all of you to advance the goals of the CSU and to ensure that it continues to be the driver of social mobility, economic success, and a beacon of opportunity and innovation for all Californians. I thank you for consideration for my nomination for the opportunity to address you today.

Thanks. Thank you so much, Mr. Trustee. Very grateful. Appreciate both of you for being here. We're going to open it up to questions, comments from the Rules Committee. Madam Vice Chair, would you like to kick us off, please?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have the opportunity, a unique opportunity that I know both of you personally. I've worked with you on the creek fire, on the Esquire fire. I've worked with you, Erskine Fire. You are an out of the box thinker, a problem solver, and I would never in a million years vote no on a confirmation that you have been appointed to. And I appreciate all your work and your willingness to participate in this venture. On the other hand, no.

I have the same comments about you. Raji, you are one of our community leaders. You go out of your way to elevate the entire community. You are a product of the CSU system. And to have Imani here, that's just amazing that she will one day follow in her mother's footsteps and what you bring and have brought to the elevation of the Sikh community and women in the Sikh community culturally and advancing that culture.

And again, a City Council, but also another City Council Sikh Member just got elected, so you are making headway. And I would never vote against you either. I would support you on any confirmation that you have. Besides, your dad would yell at me. I'm teasing. He wouldn't. He loves me, too. So I am all in for both of them.

Thank you so much Madam Vice Chair. Very grateful. Please, Mr. Laird.

Well, jeez, that just opens so many things. Invite me. When your dad yells at her, I want to be there. And now that you both have blank checks that she would vote for you for any single confirmation, you should both seek a statewide constitutional office or do something because she is locked in. Well, let me thank both of you for the time to meet this morning. I really appreciated our conversation, and obviously, I served in the cabinet with Mark.

And it's hard to say you have fond memories about disasters, but I at least have fond memories of us working together as dams were overflowing and towns were burning down and things were happening. I think I'd like to ask about a couple of the things that we talked about in our meeting. And the first one is that there have been established compacts for the UC and Cal State University system.

And the proposal this year is that the 5% that would come to CSU this year would be deferred to next year, which actually would make 10% due to CSU and UC next year, which could be a stretch if we are in another substantial budget deficit next year.

So I thought it might be good of talking about your vision of having the fiduciary responsibility of the budget and how each of you are going to face sort of having to be on the trustees at the time of a difficult budget time. And maybe we'll start with Director Ghilarducci.

Well, thanks for the question. I mean, certainly as a trustee, our primary responsibility is to ensure for the sustainability of the University system and the ability to have all the programs we have delivered effectively. We understand and well appreciative of the Governor for the compact this year with the deferral. It's something we understand is a budget challenge for the state.

As a result, we have considered that at the board of trustees, we are constantly reviewing the various, I guess you would say, scenarios that are going to come at us with regards to potential budget cuts. And I think we are able to navigate that through this year. It is something that we continue to have to assess. If it goes into the next go around, it's going to be tougher, and it is going to have to require the trustees of having to make tougher decisions.

But in the context that we want to maintain the great educational experience that Cal State University presents. So I think that we are, like most of government, navigating through this, and it is something that we're taking as and planning for accordingly.

Thank you, Trustee Brar.

I agree with the, I echo the comments of my fellow trustee. Obviously, it's a great time when there's tons of money and you can do everything you want to do. I would echo his comments that this year we understand that we'll be okay. We'll try to make things work this year, but it's going to be very difficult in years to come. We have to make some tough decisions. We'll have to reallocate things, prioritize everything.

But we're going to do what's in the best interest of our students, and we're going to have to sit down with our finance team and all the TSU presidents and ask what's a priority at each campus. And without repeating everything trustee Ghilarducci said, that's how it's going to be for us. It's going to be a tough time, but we're going to get through it.

And as I mentioned this morning, the Legislature tried two years ago to give more money than the compact required, particularly to CSU, because of certain labor agreements to try to help CSU navigate that. And that is still out there. So that's something I know we're very conscious of.

Then let me ask you about one of the other things we talked about, and that is we talked about how fortunate you are that you weren't one of the four trustees we had to confirm a couple of weeks after the previous chancellor resigned, and there has been a system wide issue over Title IX and certain issues regarding sexual harassment. And I was going to ask how you take your responsibility as a trustee on that issue, and maybe we'll start in reverse this time.

Well, at the CSU, we take it very seriously. The report from Cozen O'Connor and the state auditors report, it's something that is number one priority for us. Title IX is top of mind. We've already went ahead and began the recommendations that Cozen O'Connor recommended. We're already implementing them. We've hired a vice chancellor for the Civil Rights Department. We are setting benchmarks for every two months to see where we are on the process. This is something that nobody on that trustee board takes lightly at all.

We want everyone to feel safe in the workplace. We want students, faculty, staff, everyone to feel safe. We want a way that folks have a way to report situations that are happening. And I know before we came in, the CSU's role was more of an advisory. Now we are more of oversight, and we're going to be more involved. And there's no question that this is top priority for us.

And I think by hiring our vice chancellor now and for the office and then just getting every campus on board is how we're going to make sure this is implemented. I know this morning we also talked about making sure that we have programs in place, whether it's a campaign that talks about if you see something, say something to make sure that students are aware this is out there, make sure that faculty that is aware this is out there. So it doesn't just go by.

We have a meeting behind some closed doors. The students don't know what's happening. I think that's really important to keep that dialogue about Title IX and sexual harassment going so that everyone's aware on campus.

Thank you. Anything to add? If you start talking?

If I can make it work, just come on. Okay. Great. Technology, you know? Well, I would just tell you that since I've been appointed to the board, every board meeting we have, we address the issue of Title IX and the Bureau of State Audits report and the Cozen O'Connor report, trustee Barr mentioned the associate chancellor for civil rights programming. We also formed civil rights oversight Committee to track and ensure that every recommendation is implemented. And we are going to meet every timeline that's been set forth. And that oversight is really. It's oversight and direction.

It's metrics. Right. Case management, prevention, education, and data collection to ensure that we are staying out in front of this. It is a lot, and it is something that we work with all 23 campus presidents to ensure each campus has got an office of civil rights, that those metrics are in place, and that there's constantly this back and forth feedback, and it continues to evolve, but it is something that is of top priority for us.

Thank you. And then a quick last question, because this morning, trustee Barr, I asked you about diversity, and you said you had visited Cal Poly. And I should clarify, it's not the Cal Poly that is represented by the chair of the Committee. It is Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. But that you had a visit there that sort of reflected on this when you were there.

Yes. I think we were talking in terms of as far as equity and students that felt included at certain campuses or not kind of changing that equity gap. And I did go to Cal Poly, and we were talking about black student success, and I had mentioned that I went to the black student organizations on campus, which was actually a really wonderful meeting because I was able to talk to the students on campus, because, as you had mentioned, Cal Poly has a very small, small percentage of African American students.

But these students I sat with and I asked how they felt, and they actually felt very welcomed by the staff, by their professors, and they really enjoyed their time at Cal Poly San Luis. So for me, that was a great benchmark to see that these programs are working and the intention behind these programs are working, because if you look at the numbers, you would think that's not the feeling they have.

But they said that they have been very welcomed, and they know that there's an extra effort being put in to support them. So for us, as trustees, that's a great benchmark that we are going in the right direction. And I know we discussed the black Student success initiative, and I think that was just really crucial, instrumental to having these conversations with African American students, with our professors, with our presidents across the state, to have open dialogue about what they are going through and honest dialogue.

And those recommendations were just put out in a report, and we're looking at that to see how we can implement their recommendations statewide. That way, we make sure we keep closing that equity gap between our students, and they feel more welcome. And I know we discussed this. It's so important for a student to see a Professor that looks like them. It's just a comforting feeling to go in and you learn better and you understand what's happening.

And I think I spoke to it myself earlier when I mentioned I'm used to going to rooms, and I was kind of the only one. Nobody kind of knew what I was. We just guess. But that's changing, which is very positive, as Shannon mentioned, it's changing. And I think at the CSU, we are very diverse. We're the one of the most diverse systems out there. But I think our staff and our faculty should reflect that as well. But I was very happy to see what was happening at Cal Poly SLO and having that conversation.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I have a few items would like to be able to see if there's any additional issues that the Committee would like to.

I had one quick follow up. Yes, please. I was going to ask if you could explain to the Committee the definition of pataka.

Okay, so Pataka in Punjabi means firework or firecracker. And Senator Grove in our community is known as pataka. So she is our firework or firecracker. So she's a little bit bilingual. She's understanding Punjabi, but she is, and we gave her that name because she is, as you all, I'm pretty sure, know, a firework and a firecracker. But we say that about her because she really fights for her constituents, regardless what if it's a d or r next to their name? So she's a firework. Something new today.

I just don't know why I did that.

Senator Laird, now you know what a pataka is, and I guarantee you're going to keep talking about that word, pataka.

I am, but I knew what a Pataka was. I just didn't know that was the word. Thank you very much.

He wants that nickname.

That's what it is.

I love that. Thank you so much. I'd like a bit of touch on two items carrying forward in regards to the discussion that Senator Lair just had in regards to the sex harassment that we've seen across the system. Right. And just being super candid about it, I think that there are so many institutions, both public and private, that have had their day or candidly days of reckoning, of needing to be able to change culture within a system.

And I know that we have seen this candidly on the north coast at our two CSU campuses, both Cal Poly Humboldt as well as Sonoma State. Do you feel that the. And I heard you, Director Ghilarducci, in regards to office of Civil Rights and that movement has been made. Do you feel that there's more work to come on this throughout the system?

And if you can describe specifically on where you think the system needs to go to ensure that that culture is established at each of the campuses, if you don't mind each chiming in, who would like to be able to kick us off, madam Trustee?

Absolutely. I think definitely there should be more work. We have to keep moving forward on it because we never want to have. This situation has to be something that people should not be afraid to discuss or talk about. It should be top of mind. And I think the goal with the recommendations is not only are we going to implement them, but like I had mentioned before, have, whether it's a marketing campaign around it to make sure it stays top of mind.

So it's always on everyone's radar that this is important, that there's zero tolerance for sexual harassment, so zero tolerance for folks behaving in this manner. So I think this is going to become part of the fabric of everything we do as a board and as trustee Ghilarducci mentioned, this is something that we discuss at every single meeting, it's not going to go away. Meaning we want it to go away. Yes.

That behavior is not acceptable, but it's not going to go away, meaning as a priority for us. And I think that is what's coming out of the recommendations. And now with the every two month benchmarks. And then, like I said, we had such a robust and productive meeting, talking about a campaign around this, whether it's a social media TikTok, simple, effective tool campaign on campus, having banners call this number, don't ask, don't tell. So the point where people understand, like, there is zero tolerance for this.

So absolutely, I think we have to continue working towards this because whatever happened before, it was not acceptable. And we as trustees totally understand now this is not an advisory role, this is an oversight role. So that's going to help with the accountability on our end.

Thank you, Madam trustee. Mr. Trustee.

Yeah, just building on trustee Burr. I mean, this is cultural, right? This is building in. It's not a one and done. It's building in an ongoing way that we do business in the CSU. It has to do with training. It has to do with reoccurring. Training, has to do with zero tolerance policies, and it has to do with the ability to have swift action when things do occur so that it does not occur again.

And this is a very large system in many campuses, where we like to say many campuses, but one system. And it's incumbent upon the board of trustees to not be casual observers, but to be active guardians of that. And that is being able to effectively provide that oversight, as I mentioned earlier.

Yeah. Again, this is more of a comment than a question. And following up is, I think it is difficult for the public to understand that when an investigation comes back and an individual may be demoted but still is employed on campus and that individual is found, quote, guilty of whatever that harassment may be, can still be employed at a system, and that's going to be some greater change. Right. But I think that is an issue that we're going to need to continue to work through.

And by the way, this isn't just at the CSU. We also see this at the UC system as well. So I don't want to just single out the CSU system, but I think that is an issue that longer term that we're going to need to be able to work through. And there are some additional hurdles there.

I think the Legislature, there's been some solutions that have been advanced on that and would love to be able to continue having that conversation, because ultimately those aren't the folks that we will want working with our kids, students. Right. Or intermingling with faculty. I'd like to be able to transition to the issue of Cal Poly Humboldt, and I will rarely bring my own agenda into this.

But look, the investment that the state is making in one of the most rural parts of California is literally a game changer for one of the most impoverished areas of our state and truly grateful for what we've seen. And this is going to be a game changer when it comes to the offerings of students. This is going to be a game changer for the local economy as we're going to see additional businesses start up.

It's going to be a game changer for private employers offering health care benefits based off of the type of business they're going to now be able to found in their hometown where they went to college. Just like what we've seen at Pomona and like what we've seen in San Luis Obispo. And we're in two years, I think, into a nine year plan.

President Jackson is plowing hard at this and in constant contact with President Jackson up at Humboldt, but just checking in, making sure that you have a lot going on, but also focusing on Humboldt. And I think the biggest concern that we have in Humboldt is, one, just making sure that we keep on time, and then two, the issue of housing. Right. And student housing. And that has been biggest issue, by the way. It's an issue system wide and just want to get your thoughts on that as well. We'd love to have you up, by the way.

Well, I'll start off, I mean, as you, I think you know your hometown, my family's from know we were able to know Cal State humble in its heyday. And then as the challenges occurred, this is actually a rebirth. And it's really been a game changer for Humboldt county and for the region higher north coast.

And we appreciate that immensely. I think the issue of, and we've talked about this on the board, we're at a place now where Cal Poly Humboldt is launched and it's incumbent upon us to keep it going. Right. Making it a success. And that has to come in the context of all of the priorities that we need to address. But when you have a new sort of University like that, it takes extra resources and extra focus.

Housing is probably one of the biggest thing we have across the camp, across the system wide. But in that rural part of the state, it's particularly important. So I could just tell you, Senator that it is a topic that we have discussed and continue to discuss on the board and how we can continue to do what we can to make that a successful endeavor.

Thank you again, echo the comments of trustee Ghilarducci. We're really excited about Cal Poly Humboldt. I think that's a wonderful, wonderful. And I know you've been really instrumental in pushing for that. So thank you so much. This is absolutely wonderful when you do have legislators that are passionate about the CSU and their areas. And we know that this is going to be just a game changer, and it's going to continue as time goes on to be a game changer. So we're very cognizant of that.

And that's what we want. That's what we want to do as the CSU, as trustees, is to bring things that are going to make the communities thrive and our students'success. And I think Cal Poly Humboldt is going to be a case study going forward for a lot of folks and how successful it's going to be for that community economically and for our students. So we're thrilled with it. We think it's a wonderful project.

Yeah. And again, I won't lord over this, but I cannot stress this enough that the 458,000,000, it is probably one of the largest investments that we've seen in a rural area besides building a prison. And you're going to be able to see over this next decade the generational change that will be brought to the community again, just privately held jobs with healthcare insurance. It's going to be skyrocketing.

We will see the type of jobs that will now be offered and getting away from that resource based economy, it is a game changer. And we need to ensure that we do it right. And what I appreciate is that President Jackson at Cal Poly Humboldt, President flamer at College of Redwoods, they're working closer than ever.

We have a healthcare education hub, a job hub that now will be opened up, 30,000 square foot warehouse that we're transitioning with some additional dollars that we got in earmark from the state. And that's another piece is I'm a firm believer that an unbiased Sonoma state alum and the CSU system is the workhorse of our post secondary system in having that focus on healthcare jobs. It's an issue that Madam Vice Chair has in her district, especially when it comes to healthcare.

Mr. Laird has in his district. Ms. Eggman has. And I'm not trying to single out Mr. Jones, but I think for a rural area. I really hope that this can become a model, and just hoping that continued focus on that is going to be key for you and the rest of the trustees. With that, I want to see if there's any additional questions. Comments from the Committee today. Trustee Brar, thank you for appearing today. We're really grateful.

It's wonderful, by the way, to have your daughter here. Thank you so much. And I just want to say thank you to. I'm going to get emotional and talk about Director Ghilarducci for everything he's done for our community. And I always cry when I see him because we have been through so damn much with fire after fire after fire, cleaning up literally tens of thousands of homes over the last eight years. It's been devastating. And you've been there every step of the way.

So thank you, and I'm glad you're there. And before I get too blubbery, I'm going to move on to public comment. You can come up and get blubbery with us if you'd like. And we're going to be looking for those who are in support, those who are in support of the two trustees, if you could please advance at this time to the podium. Last call for those who are in support. We're now going to ask those who may be in opposition, if you could please advance.

If there is someone in opposition, the firecracker may be throwing a brick at you. But anything else? Anyone in opposition, if you could please advance at this time. All right, we're going to bring it back to see if we have any additional comments. Questions, please. Madam Vice Chair, if you'd like to be able to advance a motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I echo the comments of the chair about getting blubbery when you talk about it. That's why I didn't want to ask you questions. I know you're both qualified. You have been incredible on every disaster that we have, and you have been incredible, uplifting my community, and I can't tell you. Thank you both very much for willing to take on the CSU system. And so I would be honored to move both of the conference to the floor for full confirmation.

Thank you so much. Very grateful. Madam Vice Chair, we have a motion on the floor. Madam Secretary, can you please call the role?

[Roll Call]

That's currently a 40 vote. That's going to be rain on call. Madam Trustee. Thank you so much for being here. Mr. Trustee. Always good to see you. My goodness. Thank you so much.

A point of personal privilege. And ask Imani to come up and take a picture with her mom at this incredible moment.

Why don't we do that? Come on up. Thank you so much. We'll take a two minute. Let's take a two minute recess. Two minute recess, please.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to come back into Committee. We are going to welcome up Ms. Erickson. If you could please come forward. Chief Deputy Director of Department of Human Resources. We are really grateful within the Department of Human Resources, I should say I've, Madam Chief Deputy Director, thank you so much for being here today. It's really good to see you. You will have a minute or two to be able to provide opening comments and we welcome those.

We're then going to open it up for Members for any questions, comments that they may have in your opening. Please feel free to welcome any guests that you may have that are either watching or here in the room today. And we'll be keeping close eye on the timing of your opening. And I'm not trying to be rude, I'll give you a 32nd heads up. It's wonderful to see you. Thank you so much. And the floor is yours.

Thank you. It is my privilege and pleasure to appear before you today. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Governor Newsom, the Administration and Director Arena Ortega for appointing me to this position. I approached this appointment with pride and enthusiasm and I am committed to this work due to my own experiences. When I was seeking employment, hired, trained and mentored. The opportunity to shape and innovate the hiring process would be rewarding as it brings a positive impact and a meaningful difference in people's lives.

The perception that it's difficult to get a state job is a statement that I want to change. To innovate the state hiring process is a goal we can achieve, not just calhr, but departments together as a team. I want to thank the incredible leaders and colleagues who modeled the way for me and mentored me throughout my 34 years of state service. I also want to thank and talking about getting blubbery, my former healthcare access and information staff is here today in the audience.

Unfortunately, my family could not be here today, but they are watching. I'd like to thank my aunt and uncle, Monica Peters Faccianos, my husband Neil Erickson, and my mom, who's watching me from heaven above, for being a strong support system in my life. That concludes my opening remarks and thank you so much.

Chief Deputy Director, thank you so much. It is an absolute pleasure to be able to have you here today. Thank you for your service to the people of California. We'd like to be able to open it up to committees, to be the Committee, to be able to see if we have any questions or comments for the Chief Deputy Director. Now is the time to advance those from Committee, please. Madam Vice Chair, floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, Director. How are you?

I'm good, thank you.

Or good afternoon. I was looking at your responses in the Rules Committee, and you indicated that recruiting and hiring and retaining employees has become challenging. And in the real world, I have a business, and that is one of our most challenging aspects that we have. Right, recruiting them.

I don't want to say COVID ruined a lot of people to work from home, but there are a lot of people that don't want to come to a regular 40 hours a week job because they feel like they can have access to that community from home. But not always can we accommodate that. So what are some of the things that you're doing to recruit people that can still maintain the integrity that we need at CalHR?

I have some wonderful news to share with you on some of the great work that CalHR is doing. So one of the things that I keep hearing and noticing, it's really hard to get through the calcareer system, which is the portal where everybody applies. But I do want to let you know that we are working on changing that website. We're making it easier to search for jobs, so if people want to look for a hybrid type of job, they can find it a lot easier.

We're also designing the website so it's easier for people to access and also be able to just navigate. The other thing is we're exploring a lot of the things that we do with exams and redesigning them. The other very exciting thing that I'm very happy to report is on April 8th we are going to be launching a work for California campaign. Work for California encompasses. It's centralized, so it's going to allow us to advertise for all state departments.

Together under that umbrella, you are going to see work for California on buses, light rail and Highway 50. So in my 34 years of service, I've never seen that before. So I'm really excited that we're innovating and getting that message out. I'll just share with you that I find at times our younger generation, whether it was a COVID thing or not, a lot of them don't even understand state government and that we're here and we need to reach that group of individuals.

So we're hopefully going to start innovating some more so they can see us and be more transparent. The other thing I wanted to share with you is getting them through the portal is one thing. The other piece to all of this is helping them through the whole hiring process, understanding all of the documents, which can be very cumbersome at times.

So what CalHR is doing as well is we're hosting open houses so we can have people open forums, excuse me, so we can have people come to CalHR and we will kind of walk them through the process and handhold them a little bit. I think we need that. All of you have heard it takes a family Member to get through the process. Well, we're going to change that. We want to be sure to have hands on and let them know that we're there.

And then I want to also share with you that we are also doing other very large projects. There's this generalist consolidation that I don't know if you've heard of, but what the consolidation will do is going to take distinct works of body support, technical and analytical positions, and kind of smash them all down so we don't have so many broad classifications out there. The proposal is going to collapse classes into like eight service wide classes and not allow for so much complexity.

When we're applying for jobs, there's like 2600 classifications. That's a lot, and it's a lot to manage. The other thing that we're looking at is apprenticeships, something that I'm really passionate about. Obviously, investing in our current employees through nontraditional apprenticeships is an area that I'm very passionate about. This program is going to provide the opportunity for current state employees to achieve education requirements that will allow them to meet the minimum qualifications, and then they can move on into the career ladder, which is wonderful news.

I can go on and on, so I can continue if you'd like. There's a lot of stuff that I can share with you.

I do have one final question, and it's near and dear to my heart. I know it's hard for people to believe, but I was a pretty rotten kid when I was growing up, and I went to Continuation high school and just having a CSU conference here, I probably wouldn't say this to them, but not everybody has a college education or degree, including me. Barely graduated high school, and I'm one of 40 in the State of California.

And I know that there are a lot of people that are disqualified from CALhR jobs because they don't have that degree, but could be very valuable assets to this state. Second, chancellors, for example, that have a heart and a passion to do service. So can you tell me about the expansion of eliminating that requirement for a degree in order to expand not only employment opportunities for those out there, without a degree that would be very beneficial to the state. Could you expand on that for me, please?

Absolutely. What I am very proud to share with you is we have removed barriers of employment, specifically what you're addressing from 169 job classifications. We are going to continue to do more. It is an ongoing effort that we continue to look at, broaden and expand the minimum qualifications for some of these positions where education is not required. So there's many different ways that we can go about doing this.

But one of the things that Calhr did was we put out a policy to explain to state departments that when they are looking at classifications and they do their job analysis, does it require an education component? If it doesn't, we have a process forward to have them alert us of this. In the meantime, we continue to look at the things departments are telling us and the struggles that they're having with hiring, and we're going to be looking at all of those things. So, absolutely, that's some of the work that we are continuing to do at CalHR that I'm very proud of.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Please, Senator Laird. Thank you so much, madam Vice Chair.

Thank you. I'd like to follow up a little bit and maybe ask one of the concerns of Senator Grove a slightly different way, because in our backup, it says that there's a 20% vacancy rate and that's really high. With a 20% vacancy rate, first, maybe I'll have a follow up, but first I'd ask, why? Do you think that's true? Do you think the process takes too long? Do you think the pay isn't high enough? Do you think there aren't qualified people out there for the specific jobs? What are the reasons that you believe there's a 20% vacancy rate?

And actually, I am happy to report the vacancy rate has dropped. We are at 19.7 as of today.

Then let me ask you, why do you think there's a 19.7?

oh. So I will share with you this.

But if it's going to drop more during your testimony, I think it's dropping.

As we speak, sir. It is dropping as we speak.

I apologize, but I think the good Senator should look at the positive things that you send and just honor you for that good work of dropping that rate.

I will get there, and that's the reason. She's a firecracker.

I want to be the firecracker, too. So let's talk a little bit about this. I do want to point out that our state vacancy rate has grown from 14 to 20.7%. Over the past six years. In 2018, we had 220,000 full time equivalent positions. In 2023, we now have 242,000. So the authorized positions have increased tremendously. However, the state vacancy rate doesn't tell you the whole story, but I'm going to tell you the story.

When we look at the numbers of employees in our state workforce, we can see that employment has actually grown over time. In 2018, we had 230,000 employees working. By 2023, we had about 236,000 employees. So are we hiring enough state workers? Is the question that we're going to ask ourselves. Over the past six years, state agencies have hired 19,000 new to service state employees each year. We can see, though, that we did have trouble hiring in 2021. I'm going to associate that probably COVID retirements. Right.

We hired less than 18,000 around that time. But the good news is, by 2023, we hired more than 20,000 new state workers. Each year, thousands of state employees change jobs, which is great. We want them to do that. It's very good for departments. Right. We're increasing their skill set, they're getting their promotions. But of course, then that poses challenges to backfill those positions. Are we keeping up with the hiring?

So the question we ask ourselves is, are we hiring more employees each year than leave the state? And it could be for retirement or for other reasons. What we see is in 2018 through 2020, we hired 3000 more workers each year than left us. But in 2021-22 of course, we barely kept pace. So again, I want to reiterate that there is some good news here. As I'm speaking, we're reducing that vacancy rate. And in 2023, we hired about 4000 more new employees than those that left state service.

I'm trying to put some analysis to the statistics that you're talking about, because it sounds in the early statistics that we were actually keeping up. It's just that the number of jobs was growing, grew.

Yes, state government grew.

So I'm just looking for a clear statement is that one of the major reasons for the 20% vacancy rate is that it might have been 14% if the jobs had, the number of jobs had remained the same, but it grew and then you had to fill them.

Yes, sir, I would say that's.

And then if there's that many vacant and you have to catch up, does the process take an incredibly long time? So the minute you start to have vacancies, it feeds on itself in having enough staff to fill and how long it takes to fill a vacancy.

So there's different positions on this, and I'm just going to tell you how I feel about this. It is a lot of work for a State Department to hire people, especially when one job, you get about 100 applications for that position. These managers get pulled away from their day to day jobs to kind of screen hundreds of people, and then unfortunately, the result is not as many qualified applicants as they hoped. Yes, the process is long. Yes.

Departments have to dedicate resources in order to do this rapidly hiring. Okay. You should be able to hire somebody in 45 days. However, things are taking a lot longer because I think we get such an influx of applicants, and then the manager spends a lot of time looking through those applications to no avail of not getting enough qualified candidates. What I will say to that is departments have to dedicate the resources in order to do that, to hire as quickly as possible.

If you don't, you start losing qualified applicants, which is a problem. Is the state hiring process cumbersome? Yes, it can be a long process. We want to ensure merit based hiring process, so there are steps required to that. Can we do it faster? Absolutely. Can we make it more simple? Yes, we're working towards that. I think there's a lot of things that we can do together. Clearer job postings, so it's very clear what you're looking for. So we just don't get these influx of applications.

Possibly simplifying job duty statements in plain language so people can understand what the job is, and removing a lot of the state government jargon that we have. I mean, some of these duty statements are so old out there, so there's a lot of things we can do to shorten that hiring process.

First, I can't totally speak for other Committee Members, but I would say we would obviously be committed to having a much lower vacancy rate and fill positions as soon as we can. And then the question is, what do you do? And I have two different perspectives on this. I happen to have headed a state agency for eight years that had 19,000 people in it.

And there were times when we had emergencies, we needed people as quickly as we could, and we looked for, I guess the statute of limitations has passed. We looked for every way to manipulate the system to get people in emergency.

No, I don't want to hear that.

Well, no, I mean, we stuck by the rules, but we had to work it, because if a place is burning down and you don't have enough emergency firefighters, you have to have enough emergency firefighters. And so what I'm trying to communicate is that there is some urgency here. And when I was a local government official, not an elected one. I worked in the personnel Department and it took us eight months or 10 months to fill a county position.

And I headed a task force where we looked at every stage of the process and cut the time down and really worked to move it. And so I was just trying to ask analytically, what is the reason for this and how do we address the reason? Because we have to. It wasn't just firefighters. It was like Fish and Wildlife officers. It was just any of a number of things where there was an urgency to the work that was done.

And let's be honest, it's a bad budget year, but if you need more resources and that will absolutely produce less vacancies, that's a fair thing to make sure is stated. If there's a process that needs to be fixed and it somehow can require legislative action rather than an administrative action, then we need to know. But it's trying to get a sense that there's that management overview, there's that analysis with that urgency that is going to move on this in a clear way. And I don't know if you want to comment because we're looking for ways to do that.

I actually do because one of the things I wanted to start doing, which my team is working on right now, is what I don't understand is if you have an it classification, we'll just go with it. Something simple. Well, the lower classification, they have to.

Talk in a common language.

Yes. Why is it that each state Department is doing individualized hiring? Why is it that we can't all get together as a group and have multiple departments get together and say, I've got three vacancies here, Dor, you've got so many vacancies here, CDCR, you've got vacancies here, same classification, and we all get together and do some kind of a rapid hiring event. It's possible to do that.

We can help each other out with interviews, screening, having one job, posting 30 jobs available and figuring that process out. We can do that together. And I'm going to be piloting that. My team is going to be assisting me. We're going to be trying that out to see if it works. CalPERS has done rapid hiring events where they hired, they got 600 people and they were able to fill all their positions. Even CalHR did that as well.

So it is possible we have to get together and talk about things and stop making things so complex when they don't have to be. Again, to your point, Senator, sticking to the parameters and looking at innovation on how we can do this.

And the one problem with having a career that's decades long is, you know, that every proposal like that has unintended consequences. And so if I'm able to move really quickly for three vacancies in one agency, and now I sort of have to wait for a process that does 20 agencies and is 30, and you have to fight with the list for other people and get people off. I don't know that that would work for me. I can feel the stare of the chair.

So I'm not going to continue much longer. But you pick up that we want this to work and we want to attack this vacancy level and we want to know if anything is needed from us to be partners in doing that.

Thank you.

And that's the important thing. And you see, sometimes, because you talked about 20,000 positions being added, I suspect there's some people around this dais that have participated in the reason you have extra positions. We need to know that. We need to be able to ask, can this be accomplished quickly if we really are going to start marching down that path? So it is really something we're going to want to talk about.

Perfect.

And I'm going to stop there. I could go on about other stuff, but I'm going to stop.

Okay. Thank you.

Appreciate your willingness to respond.

Really good. Senator Laird, thank you for that. I think you were talking for all of us in what we're thinking, so really appreciate that. Thank you so much. Senator Laird, let's go over to Leader Jones, please.

Thank you. Just a couple of comments in response to Senator Laird and Senator Grove on the 20% vacancy rate. Maybe one of the things that we look at is, and maybe this is already done and I don't know, do we need all of those vacancies? And in a time of budget deficits, is it possible in some of these departments to temporarily or permanently eliminate some of those positions because we don't need them? I don't know if that analysis has been done on any of these departments, would you be able to know that today?

I would not, sir. And that probably would be something. Department of Finance, I would think, would have to kind of take a look at. Okay.

And that's kind of what I thought. And then on Senator Grove's comments, as somebody who barely graduated from college, but I do have a business degree in human resource management. Never worked in that part of the management, but I do have a degree. I agree that removing the degree requirement from many of these positions is a good way to go. We're watching nationwide. Major employers coast to coast remove those requirements, and college isn't for everybody.

Like I said, I barely got through it, but I know lots of people that are a lot smarter than me that didn't go to college and are very capable. So I just wanted to say that I agree with that movement in that direction.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Leader. Anything else, Senator Laird? Sure.

You had to ask him twice.

It used to be with regard to Senator Jones question, I didn't know what the current rule is, but if there's a vacancy for a certain period of time that's unfilled, the position gets swept. Is that still in?

That is not the process anymore.

Good, because if you're hauling all these vacancies, things are going to get swept just because you can't fill the position. The other question then, since it was suggested, is how do you deal with pay inequities and what is your process?

Because, for example, the scientists at different times, we had a problem when I was secretary where the people that were supervising some people were getting paid less than them because they were different units and there was inequity and there was an attempt to fix it over time, and it was taking forever. The great Recession postponed it because there wasn't money, but it kept this inequity going on. How do you regularly look to make sure inequities like that are not going to exist and you're going to take a shot at fixing it?

Thank you very much for that question. We do have an employee compensation process, so departments are going to have to bring this to our attention. When they bring it to our attention, we take a look at. Okay, is there an inequity issue going on? Is there somebody making more than the other? I don't want to get too technical on this, but the class plan at CalHR ties all of these classifications together.

So, for example, if you have certain classifications that report up to a supervisor and then you have other positions that kind of do the same work, there's this big giant chart that shows all these classification relationships. I'll call them. So we take a look at that every time we go through a bargaining process and we make sure that certain individuals that are in that same horizontal tie, I'll call it, gets pay raises. Okay. So when we have a pay raise, that happens.

However, if there is an inequity identified, there is a process that we'll go through where our employee compensation unit will do an analysis and see if it is an accurate statement. They'll look at a variety of things, maybe comparing to the current labor market, are we not paying them appropriately to what's out there in the public sector? And we're losing people for that. And then if that person gets a pay increase, we look at everybody else.

We also have, what CalHR is working on also is dashboards, dashboards for many different things that could include composition of the workforce and also looking at pay equity issues as well.

Two comments, and one is that we had a historic pay inequity with regard to employees of the water project. And we played lower than Metropolitan Water District, all these comparable water districts. And as a result, we were hiring an entry level, training them, and they were all getting higher pay and moving on. And that was addressed. It made the newspapers because people thought it was an inequity to address it out of sync, but it addressed that issue.

I just wonder, because the scientists seems to have gone on for a long amount of time. And so if you've got this chart and you look and you go through multiple negotiations, how could it not be addressed that people in one unit would be getting paid less than the people they're supervising in another unit? How could that not be addressed over time?

So I would say if we're talking about the scientists, well, negotiations are very complex as we're going through, and I.

Know if you're in the middle of them, you can't talk about.

Thank you very much. So what I can say is we acknowledge that the labor negotiations can be contentious as we're going through this process, and the Director of CalHR and the Chief of Labor continue to work on this issue that you're referring to in particular. I will just leave it at that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Note that the concern is there on this side.

Noted. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, I know you're regretting having asked.

No, not at, at all. Very grateful. Thank you so much, Senator Laird. All right. What we'd like to be able to do is now open up public comment for Madam Chief Deputy Director. We'd like to be able to start to see if there is anyone in support of Madam Chief Deputy Director, if you could please come to the podium at this time. We're looking for those in support. If you could please come forward this time. This will be last call for support. Good afternoon. If you could please state your first and last name in the organization you're with. We welcome you. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you. Hello. Good afternoon. My name is Mayra Vega. I'm Deputy Director, Strategic Communications and Planning at the Department of Health Care Access and Information. I had the pleasure of working alongside Ms. Erickson when I was appointed to my role, and I'm here to speak about my personal experience of working with her as a leader of the organization and also about my experience coming into this magnificent job that I have the privilege to serve the good people of California and seeing a Latina in a leadership position.

Ms. Vega, we're going to keep that to about 30 seconds. Please continue.

So no doubt, I'm very confident in Ms. Erickson's process, ability to innovate our process. It is a very cumbersome process. But what I'm most excited about her leadership is her proven ability to develop and implement strategies that will prioritize strategic sourcing, to increase the candidate pool that is ultimately going to result in diversifying the state workforce. So it's reflective of the diverse in the state. So I'm excited about that. I think it's a goal that we should all be working hard to do. That'll be all.

Thank you so much, Ms. Vega, we're grateful you're here today. Thank you. We'd like to welcome anyone else who would like to be able to comment today. If you could please come forward. Those who are in support. We're looking for those who are currently in support. All right, thank you again, Ms. Vega. We're going to look for those who may be in opposition. If you could please come forward at this time. We're looking for those who are in opposition.

We're going to do a last call for opposition. Thank you so much. We're going to bring it back to Committee. Grateful that you are here. Thank you so much for taking the time and for your work. And let's just be really honest about it. One of the most challenging jobs in state service. And grateful for your focus and your tenacity and really excited to be able to see that campaign going out, to be able to bring folks into state service to help build a stronger California. We're grateful you're here. We're going to be now asking a Committee for a motion, please.

You're going to ask the entire Committee for a Motion.

There we go.

Yes, I would move the confirmation of Ms. Erickson.

Thank you so much. We have a motion on the floor by Senator Laird. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

We're going to keep that on call. That is a 20 vote. Thank you so much for being here today and for taking the time.

Thank you.

We'll add those folks on as they come back in the.

Perfect. Thank you.

Senator Laird. I look forward to talking to you about a 10% vacancy.

Thank you so much.

Hey, there we go. We're going to check in. I think we may need a two minute break. All right. Yes. We're going to take a five minute recess. Five minute recess. We'll be coming back here. Hang tight. Five minute recess. All.

You all right? Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for your patience. We're really grateful that you have stuck with us. We're now going to be moving on to item 1D. This is the potential appointment of Deputy Secretary Treskunoff. Madam Deputy Secretary, if you want to come on up, we welcome you to the Rules Committee. Thank you so much for your patience today and hanging with us as we look at the other appointees.

Madam deputy secretary, you'll have about a minute or two to be able to provide your testimony to the Committee. We're then going to open it up to Committee Members for any questions or comments that they may have. Of course, we would love it if you would welcome any and all guests, family, friends, coworkers who are with you today. Looks like you have a group and the band is ready to go. My goodness. It's wonderful that they are here today, and it means a lot to us.

We'll be keeping time of your opening. When you hit about 30 seconds towards that two minutes, we'll give you a heads up. And again, not at all trying to be rude. Deputy secretary, the floor is yours. And we're really grateful that you're here.

Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm very grateful to be here also, so thank you. And good afternoon, pro Tim Mcguire and esteemed Members of the Senate Rules Committee. I appreciate your time today. I would like to thank Governor Newsom for trusting me with this important role. I'd like to express my gratitude to Labor Secretary Knox, Undersecretary Roberts and my team from the labor agency for their support here today.

My friends, mentors, and Members of my kitchen cabinet from California Professional Firefighters, as well as to my friends and family watching from home. I couldn't be more grateful for their presence here today. I'd like to acknowledge my daughter Johanna, a high school senior. And she's my bright light. I'm embarrassing her. My son Daris is here. He's a recent college graduate, and we are so proud of him. And my mama, Sharon, is here. She's my Shiro.

She went to law school as a single mom of a five year old. My mom's determination and her commitment to social justice have inspired me deeply. In 1968, she was one of the few women leaders in the San Francisco State College strike, the movement that birthed the first departments of black and ethnic studies in the nation. Her lifelong dedication to equity has shaped my path.

Now, as the deputy secretary for strategic planning and equity, I'm focused on embedding equity throughout agencies, operations, working in a labor union taught me the power of organizing to be able to align people and shift power using organizing concepts. I'm working to create a crossagency equity workgroup to strategically coordinate efforts and lead change in internal and external practices. We've created an internal culture Committee to reinforce team unity, ultimately creating a synergy that directly influences our work.

We're reimagining the way that we communicate on social media platforms, on our web page, and when we address the public. This is an effort to deepen our connection and trust with the communities that we serve. I'm leading the work on developing our strategic plan, ensuring equity centered alignment. Throughout the process, I'm proud to lead with principles that prioritize equity and empowerment and are rooted in the pursuit of social justice. I hope that I earn your support and I look forward to answering any questions you may have.

Deputy Secretary, thank you so much. It is so special to have your mom here. Sharon, my goodness. Thank you so much. Johanna and Daris, welcome. We're really happy that you're here. My goodness. We're going to open it up to the Committee for any questions, comments, or conversations. But why don't we start with Madam Vice Chair. Madam Vice Chair, the floor is yours, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was thinking my colleague wanted to go first. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am, for being here today. Really appreciate it. I appreciate your work you've done in the past. I do have a couple of questions. It's strategically just for my district. I know the Governor has announced his $26 million grants to prepare for displaced workers in the oil and gas industry sectors. Many of that 70% of the state's oil comes from my district. So it's a very important subject matter for them. For me and them. They promised to do retraining for renewable technology jobs. We produced 53%. Do you want to answer that question?

oh, dear Lord.

53% of the state's renewable energy also comes from my district. And there's a promise to retain our oil industry individuals in nanotechnology and other areas. These are individuals who make roughly $100,000 a year. They're second chancers. They're people at 55%, people of color, 46% people. Second chancers.

Because we can teach somebody a skill in the trade in the oil industry, as long as we can have them have the soft skills to show up. This is a vital industry for recidivism reduction. It's a vital industry for domestic security. And so my question, I guess, is we're going to spend about $25 billion for countries to import the oil we use every single day. We are going to bring oil in from Ecuador, Saudi Arabia. Women can't drive, they can't vote. Ecuador.

We bulldoze down the world's lung in the rainforest and we have our own 2045 scoping plan for a 2% reduction which is not under your purview, but we're not even sticking to that. But you are with the strategic planning on equity. And equity we have 12% women, 46% 2nd chancers and 55% people of color in the oil industry. And that is a big deal. And with all due respect, I don't need another $15 an hour Amazon facility in my district. I want real jobs.

If you're going to take away the oil industry and rely on foreign nations to provide us the energy we need every single day to survive in this state, what are you going to do with my people that are losing their jobs every single day? Because we are not even following our 2045 scoping plan that was developed by this body and this Governor.

Thank you, Senator. I know that was love too. No, I get it. I get it. Fight for your people. Okay. No, I totally get it. And let me just say. So thank you for that question. I completely understand your concerns. I want to tell you that we are committed to, like you mentioned, retraining the folks that may lose these high paying positions into positions. Like positions or like pay positions. We're committed to training them.

As you mentioned, there's been a significant investment in that know in a region like Kern, county, we are working with. Our assistant deputy of climate economy is working with GoBiz to support local partners in identifying new and emerging sectors so we can replace these good quality, high paying jobs. So specific to Kern County, the Governor and you all the Legislature have also invested in programs, as you mentioned, to support displaced gas and oil workers.

And we are going to continue working in partnership with all stakeholders involved. There's another thing I want to mention and that's the California Jobs first initiative. While this isn't necessarily specific to Kern, it more broadly reaches Californians in similar situations. It is a focus that we have and the regional investment initiative where there's funding provided again in partnership with the Legislature to more broad Californians in similar situations. So I guess I just want to leave with you that this is a focus. We hear you. We get it. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you very much for answering that. Know, as a Deputy Secretary, one of the duties is that you engage in the community and you engage with stakeholders to really understand the issues that's going on. Have you ever been to Kern county in the oil industry?

I have not been to Kern. I would love to visit Kern County. I've been to Kern County, not the oil industry.

I've been invite you to meet some of the constituents that are really worried about losing their job tomorrow. Like I said, I could introduce you to people like Jerry Flores or others that his story is that Pelican Bay spent a dime up there in a nickel someplace else. And he now has a house in the back of his house where his mom. His mom used to get ready, get the family together for bail money. And now he has an ADU in the back of his house.

So his mom has a place to live with the grandkids. And he is very fearful about losing his job. There are several people like that. That, again, not in your purview, but if we would just stick to the 2045 plan that was put together by this legislative body and this Governor, the CEC and the CPUC, we wouldn't have this discussion and problems because we would declining our domestic production by 2% instead of 10%. Again, not under your purview.

But just because I know that we're on television and I can say this is, I think, when we all realize that we're going to need this, the infrastructure is going to be gone and it's going to be impossible to rebuild with refineries leaving the state. So I would really like your attention focused on this. I appreciate that you are focusing on this. And like I said, I want equity across the board. I want equality across the board. If they're making $100,000, I don't want them going to Amazon for 15 because they can't raise their kids on that 100%. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator.

Thank you, madam Vice Chair. We're going to go to Senator Eggman.

Thank you very much and thank you. And welcome. It's great to have your entire family here. Three generations. That's very nice. And just my colleague from Kern County who makes fun of me because I drive an electric car, because I don't want that Ecuadorian gas. I just don't. So I just want to know. So you are working on developing mini plans as part of your purview. Tell me, then, what kind of metrics do you use for success?

How do we know we're getting to where we want to be? A lot of these things can just feel like they're kind of informic. They're out there. How do we know we are making progress on any of them and that that progress is the place we want to go. Right?

Sure. I think at this point I would like to say that I'd have to answer that question specific to a project. So, for instance, in the strategic plan, we are going to be developed within the strategic plan, we're creating an equity action plan, and we're going to develop a matrix specifically for that. Right.

And that's compared to the equity work across agency, equity workgroup, where we will be meeting with all the equity folks from across the agency and talking about policies, procedures, the way that we communicate with the public in creating policy, we'll be able to see how many people are engaging, how many people feel comfortable. We're engaging stakeholders to ask them, what is it you need centering the people who are most affected.

So I think that that's going to be, when it comes to that place, when it's time to, I guess, weigh the metrics, the voices of the people most affected will be centered and will help to guide us in that. I don't want to give you an answer that sounds good right now because that would be kind of phony to me. So I think that that's it. A lot of our work is definitely just going to center on the people most affected, and I'd love to get back to you.

Okay. Great metric set. Yeah. Even if it's qualitative and quantitative.

Right.

Absolutely. Somehow, like, what is the goal? Right. And how do we know we're making progress to get there? So just some kind of ongoing evaluation, I think, for all of these different task forces is good.

Absolutely. Ongoing evaluation is centered in it. I guess the way I was thinking about it was, what does that evaluation look like? Because it's going to look different. Right. For each program. Yes.

Okay. As long as we keep in forefront of our mind, I think. Right. Our roadmap, like where are we trying to get and how do we know we're making progress and when do we know when we get there?

Exactly. And I just also want to add to that the importance of, while we're watching where our program goes, the importance of being able to pivot if we feel like we're going in the wrong direction. It's important to be agile, so agility will be built into any plan or any program that we run. Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Eggman, Senator Laird, please.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. First, the outpouring of support is impressive, and there's some people I really value that are in your supporters so that speaks volumes, and I appreciate it. A couple of questions. And the first one is, I spent eight years doing what Stuart does because I noticed that there was one subject or question in here about how to engage Executive leadership on these issues to make sure it happens.

And I didn't believe in having Department head meetings because everybody grandstanded, and I preferred to do one on one meetings with the Department. But in the eight years I had 21 was because one Department had fallen down on me, too issues in a way that I wanted everybody to know. This was a priority of the agency, and we were not going to do some pretty weird things that had happened. And this was before the national. Me, too.

So that I could look in everybody's eye and get them know. The second one was on tribal issues because that had been another issue where I wanted everybody to know and everybody to do it and integrate it. How do you see engaging with Executive leadership on these issues?

So that they don't think it's some pro forma thing, that they really understand that they have to engage and that the two of you have a path to do it, that it's not just, hey, do this, and have your arms folded and judge them. It's like, how do you together do this? So they inculcate it and feel like there's a partnership in doing it.

Sure. I guess a little story time.

Well, you picked the right Senator.

Right. I was at California Professional Firefighters for 20 years, and I remember they used to always say, we try to mimic the feeling, the culture of the fire service at CPF in the union. Right. And I was like, zero, that sounds nice. Didn't really know what that meant. However, coming out of CPF, I see what those values were, and that was collaboration. Right.

It's like with everybody at the table and getting every level of buy in from the right down to the receptionist, because everybody has a part, and you need everybody's role in order for whatever it is to work. Right. So I think to your question, Senator Laird, the way that I go about engaging leadership, I think, is starting off with a plan and knowing the vision of my leadership, we're aligned.

So starting off with a plan and talking about it and being able to have real conversations, I'm super big on that. If you don't like it, tell me. Tell me why, and I might come back and still try to convince you. But if not. So I think that that is. It is having conversation about the plan and getting the buy in. The buy in is imperative.

I noticed that your Cabinet Secretary thought it was important enough to sit here during this hearing. And what happens when you hit a stumbling block in terms of engaging him and breaking what that might.

I mean, it wouldn't be the first time. Not with Stuart, I'm sorry, with the Secretary. Not with the Secretary, but with a leader. It wouldn't be the first time that I've maybe been told no. I think it depends on. Actually, it depends on what it is. Sometimes you have to be tenacious and come back and try to examine what the issue is. Why are you getting the.

No, another thing I like to say is, I'll come up with a strategy, and I'm not necessarily committed to how we get there. I'm committed to being at that place. I'm committed to being at that goal. So if you have a problem with the strategy, okay, let's work together to develop another way to get to the goal. Now, if there's an issue with the goal, that's another conversation. And I don't know that I've ever been in a place where I've had a leader tell me that they were against the goal. I was trying to get to.

Okay, well, he does their evaluations, and you can deal with that. That's an issue. I think the other thing is, in your responses to the Rules Committee questions, there was sort of a constant theme about equitable access and quality outcomes for marginalized populations. And we can see it in your previous answers to these questions. To the extent it's possible. Could you give us sort of a specific. Here's something I saw. Here's something. I developed a policy. This is where it went.

So that for those of us that are sitting here talking about this, we understand what that means. I mean, where you identified a problem and how you developed a strategy, and if you have to change the subject to protect the innocent or something, do that. But I think it would be of interest to know just sort of a specific way you've addressed an issue, to know for us to learn that that's how you've done it and an important way to do it.

Sure. So thank you for that question, Senator, giving me the opportunity to talk about it, to talk about an actual policy or maybe program, something that I've created to solve an issue. So there was an organization that I was with, and I realized that, which was a great organization, had a great mission, great people, smart people. However, folks were kind of siloed. Folks were kind of siloed, and they weren't feeling the power of collaboration.

So what I did in that case was kind of talk to folks and learn about the space and learn a lot about what the organization did. And with that, I created kind of a club. Kind of a club for people to join that gave folks opportunities to do things that were maybe out of their normal day to day work.

Kind of let their other stars shine, gave them an opportunity to be leaders in this space, which gave them confidence and gave them a place to engage with each other and build relationships. And I am a firm believer that at the end of the day, if you work with a team and you trust each other and you have relationships, you can do anything together. So that's something that I've done that I can think off of the top of my head. That was a long time ago. I did that.

But you're going to do it again.

It wasn't at CTF or at the labor agency.

Thank you. I appreciate the responses to the question.

Thank you so much, Mr. Senator and Mr. Secretary, we'd like to look to Senator ... Have any other items? No, ma'am. All right. What we'd like to be able to do is open it up to anyone and everyone who would like to be able to speak in support of. Madam Deputy Secretary, we're going to welcome you up to the podium, if you please, state your first and last name in your organization you're affiliated with. Hey, good afternoon.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members. Meagan Subers, on behalf of the California Professional Firefighters. And I'm glad we've all been emotional already here today. So it won't make me feel bad for reading my comments so I don't get weepy.

We're going to do about 30 seconds, please. .

So CPF, as you know, represents about 35,000 rank and file firefighters and EMS personnel. And for 20 years, we were so grateful to have Ferris part of our team. And we are pleased to support, strongly support her appointment as deputy secretary at the labor agency. Ms. Treskunoff has a long and accomplished history in organized labor, with over 20 years serving the men and women in the fire service in various leadership positions at CPF.

Throughout her career, she's shown her dedication to advancing the goals and good jobs being made available to all, which is something we know she will continue to do in her new role. Her experience with our apprenticeship program and our pre apprenticeship program and recruiting a more diverse population of firefighters into. You're just making this worse. Into this program has been tremendous and will last for decades. And of course, while we're sad to see her move on and move up.

We're grateful for the time she spent just being a leader and a mentor to me and all of the people out here in the audience, within the organization and outside the organization. And we know she'll be an amazing asset to the labor agency. So we ask for your support and confirmation.

Thank you. Means a lot. Really wonderful job. Thank you so much. All right, we're going to bring Wesley up.

Hi, my name is Shonda Wesley. I'm formerly with the California Professional Firefighters. I've known Pharris for over 25 years. I've worked for her for decades now in and out of the union. And I'm going to keep it brief so I don't make you weepy, but there is very few people as talented as Pharris Treskunoff, and I am very excited about this opportunity for her, but I am more excited about the opportunity for the State of California to have her as an employee.

Thank you. Nice job, Wesley. Very grateful. Thank you so much. We'd like to better see if there's anyone else who would like to be able to advance in support. Madam deputy secretary, anyone else who would like to advance in support? Please, sir, come on forth. Thank you. Welcome and good afternoon. Thank you.

Rashawn Fulcher, on behalf of the State of California Firefighters. Once you know one, you probably know many of all of us and Sean in the room. So I think it's only fitting that I speak behalf of our industry because we are a very amalgamated group of uniquely gifted, talented, sometimes confusing, but very creative individuals. And Ferris has had the auspicious role of constantly keeping this band of brothers and sisters, sometimes like herding cats together and leading us to common goals, sometimes in uncommon times.

And so I think I speak on behalf of all of us when I say you've done an excellent job being a leader of amongst leaders, to quiet the bickering, to move agendas forward, to see problems come up with solutions in which like minded individuals sometimes can get very rooted in one perspective. And so, on behalf of the work you've done for CPF that's benefited all of us, I think I speak on behalf of all five parts, saying, we wholeheartedly support this.

There we go. Thank you so much. Very grateful. Everything here at the state's smooth. All right, let's see if there's anyone else. And we welcome anyone and everyone to be able to come forward, to be able to speak in support of an adept secretary. If you could please advance at this time, we're going to do a last call for those who may be in support. Mr. Secretary, did you want to say a few words?

Sure. Thank you. Sure. Of course, we support our deputy secretary. Pharris has been with us about six months, eight months, somewhere in that range, and has done an amazing job to date. Look forward to working with the Senators moving this forward and appreciate your vote today. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Secretary Knox, good to see you. Thank you so much. We're going to do a last call, last call for those in support. Hearing seeing none. We're now going to look for those who may be in opposition. If you could please advance to the podium at this time. Those in opposition. Hey, there we go. Exactly.

Yeah. We're going to do a last call for opposition. All right. Hearing and seeing no one rise and or shout out, we're going to be coming on back to Committee debate to see if there's any additional questions, comments that the Committee may have heard and seeing none. Would you like to admit, please.

I would be pleased to move the confirmation of the candidate.

All right. Thank you so much. Senator, we have a motion on the four. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

We're going to keep that on call. Madam Deputy secretary, thank you. Wonderful to see you. Thank you. I'll be heading to the floor, so. Yeah, you can all scrap. There we go. It's all good. Thank you. In particular, big thank you to Sharon, Johanna and Daris. Thank you so much for being here. It is an honor that you're here and why don't we do some personal privilege? If you'd like to bring your family up and take a picture, please come on forward. Let's bring mum up.

And we'll also bring Daris and Johanna, if you'd like to be able to take a picture, please. We're going to call a two minute recess. Two minute recess, please. Everybody in there? We have uncalled. Senator Eggman and I need 30 seconds. We'll come back into order in 30 seconds, please. Yeah. Is there another Committee? I don't know. I kept calling her the candidate.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, Committee. What we're going to do is we're going to start from the top, work our way down, then we'll wrap it up here for day. For today, we're going to start with item one A and B. My belief, Madam Secretary, we're going to add Senator Eggman onto one A, one B. Madam Secretary, if you can, please call the absent Member.

[Roll Call]

Those two are out, and we're going to close the roll. Thank you so much. We're now going to move on to one C. Ms. Erickson, believe that we need to be able to capture votes from Senator Eggman, Senator Jones, and Senator Grove. Madam Secretary, can you please call the absent Members?

[Roll Call]

Look at that. 50. That item is out, and we are going to close the roll. We're now going to be moving on to item D. Madam Deputy Secretary, we need to capture the vote of Senator Grove. Madam Vice Chair, Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Look at that, everybody. That item is out, and we're going to close the roll. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's agenda. Thank you all. For each of you who participated and for everyone for their patience, cooperation. We're going to be calling this meeting adjourned.