Senate Standing Committee on Rules

You are with us today at the Senate Rules Committee. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. We have a full agenda in front of us. Let's get right into it. If it works, Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll and let's get a quorum.

[Roll Call]

Quorum has been established. Thank you so much, Madam Secretary, ladies and gentlemen who are here in the Committee room and those watching online, what we'd like to be able to do and not trying to belabor. The point is we'd like to be able to take care of some of the housekeeping, some of the routine business. It will take us a few minutes, and then we'll advance those Governor appointee who are here and required to appear.

So hearing that, what we'd like to be able to do is start under Governor appointees not required to appear on the agenda, that is, two e through j. We have a request to be able to split in two motions. And I'd like to advance the items that will be in the first motion. And with respect, would like to advance a second and then see if there's a motion on the first motion under not required to appear.

Is there a motion to approve items eghi and j. I'll repeat one more time. E g h I n j. We have a motion by the Vice Chair. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Laird, I that's a 50 vote. That motion is approved. Ladies and gentlemen of Committee, we'd like to be able to take up item two f separately. Is there a motion? I so move we have a motion by Senator Laird. Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Laird I that is a 3030 vote. The motion is approved. We now would like to be able to move on to Bill referrals. Bill referrals. That's item three on today's agenda. Is there a motion to approve? We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

That motion is approved. Thank you to the Members of the Committee. Last item of housekeeping business. We'd like to be able to advance a motion for floor acknowledgments. Is there a motion to approve?

Sir, we have a motion by the Vice Chair. Thank you so much. That's right. And, Madam Vice Chair, I think you pointed out you're matching today with Senator Laird.

Yes, we're going to the prom later.

Right. I take. See. There we go. All right. So we have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Thank you so much, Madam Vice Chair. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, Committee. And to each and every one of you, thank you for allowing us to take care of that business. What we'd like to advance now are those Governor appointees who are required to appear. We have items one a through C. First, the appointments of division directors. And the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. We'd like to be able to ask. Have each of the directors please come forward. Director Broomfield, if you could please come forward.

Director Johnson and Director Casillas, please. As the three directors are making their way up to the dais. First and foremost, to each of you, thank you for being here today. Know how busy you are. Thank you for your continued service to the people of California. You're going to have an opportunity to be able to provide a minute or two of testimony to this Committee. We're then going to open it up to Committee Members to be able to ask any questions, advance any comments in your opening.

We encourage you to be able to welcome any family Members who are friends, who are with you or watching online. And please don't take as a form of disrespect. As you get close to two minutes, I'll give you a 32nd heads up. And would respectfully request to start wrapping up comments. So without further ado, I'm going to start from my left, work way to the right. And that's going to be with Director Johnson. Director Johnson, it's a pleasure to have you here in Committee. The floor is yours, sir, for your opening statement.

Good afternoon. Thank you. Chair and distinguished Senate Rules Committee Members. I am honored, excited, yet humbled to be here before you today as I seek confirmation as the next Director for the division of adult parole operations. I would like to start off first by thanking my lord and savior Jesus Christ, who has protected me over the years of my life, has grace and mercy over me. And I wouldn't be here today. So, thank you.

I would like to thank Gavin Newsom and Governor Gavin Newsom for appointing me to this prestigious position and his staff for having confidence in me to carry out the duties of those that are required by the Director for the parole division. I would like to thank my current CDCR leadership for believing in me.

I'm so excited to be working for them and understanding that they have confidence in me and my ability to do great things with this great workforce of individuals who are committed to enhancing public safety through reintegration, while equipping these individuals with the tools necessary to live productive and healthy lives. I would like to give a special thanks to my mother, my best friend, number one fan and supporter. She couldn't be here today due to health issues, but I know she's watching online. So, mom, for that, thank you for everything, and I love you. I would like to thank. It's very emotional for me. It's incredibly emotional.

But I would like to thank all my friends and family that are here today in support of me. Some that couldn't make it in a room because the room is overwhelmed with support for myself and my colleagues without them being a pillar in my life and working through everything that I've gone through over the course of my life, coming from the inner cities of south central Los Angeles and Watts, and going through a lot of adversity throughout the course of my life.

And to be sitting here before you, I just have to give God all the grace. Last and not least, I would like to thank all of my colleagues, my supervisors, who all the retirees behind me who either are bored in retirement or really wanted to support me, to come out today and hear me talk as I seek confirmation. But their mentorship over the years have been exceptional. And I really want to just let you all know that I'm very appreciative and grateful for all of you, my internal and external stakeholders.

30 seconds, sir.

Thank you for all the years and the support that we've done with our community. And we are starting to see the fruits of our labor through our success stories, through the help of transforming lives, and due to the unity in the community partnerships approach that we have. Again, thank you, Mister chair and the distinguished Senate Rules Committee Members, for your time and consideration, and I welcome your questions.

Thank you, Mister Johnson. What's your mom's name?

Melinda.

Melinda. My goodness. I bet she's incredibly proud. It's good to have you here, sir. Thank you so much. We now would like to be able to turn the floor over to Director Casias. Madam Director, it's wonderful to have you here. You have two minutes, and I'll give you a 30 second prompt. Thank you so much. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Senator. First, I want to introduce my mom, my biggest fan, Ann, who's here today. She's an amazing woman, and I'm just proud to be your daughter. I feel the presence of my fiance, match Lycor, in whom we lost to cancer last year. I am grateful for the love and support of all my friends and family who are watching today, including my dad and my kids, Michelle and Michael.

I would like to thank Governor Newsom for appointing me to this position, and I would like to thank all of the Senators for your consideration and the time to talk with you today. I started my service with the State of California in 1990 as a student assistant when I was studying accounting at SAC State. Now I have over 30 years of collaborative work, leadership, and administrative operational experience with the State of California.

I believe that this experience prepares me well to lead the division of rehabilitative programs toward a more effective and efficient operation. I am proud to say the rehabilitative programs my division provides both directly and through our partnerships, do work. I know this because there is a reduction in recidivism rates for those who participate in them. Those programs include education from literacy through college, vocational training, cognitive behavioral programs, grants for our community based organizations, community reentry programs, and also reentry services for those on parole.

I understand the responsibility and the possibilities in our mission. I believe in my colleagues, I believe in the team that I lead, and I believe in the ability of people to change. Those people, especially those that are incarcerated on parole, do all the heavy work, but we provide the tools, opportunities, support for them to succeed. My vision is that incarcerated individuals become the best version of themselves and that they ultimately return to their families and to their communities. I believe this makes California safer, and I believe it makes California stronger.

Thank you, madam Director, thank you so much for your comments, and it's wonderful to have your mom here, and thank you so much for being here. Nice to meet you. Thank you, Director Broomfield. Thank you for being here, sir. Thank you for your service. You'll have two minutes, and I'll give you a 32nd prompt. The floor is yours. Welcome to Committee.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Mcguire and esteemed Rules Committee Members. My name is Ron Broomfield. I'm the Director of adult institutions for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. I'm honored to be here today, sitting before you. I'd like to thank Gavin Newsom, Governor Newsom, for this appointment. I would also like to thank Secretary Jeff McCumber and Undersecretary Tammy Foss for their incredible leadership and continued support. And I'd like to thank my ... leadership team, many of whom are here today for their incredible dedication.

Day in and day out, they make me successful. I'm here today with my wife Kimberly, who is the wind in my sails when there is no other wind blowing. Her lifelong love and support throughout my career has propelled me to this moment. I'm seeking your confirmation today because I'm excited to be in this role at such a pivotal time in the department's history. Our Department is in the midst of a paradigm shift. From simply providing static security in our institutions.

To providing dynamic security, normalization and peer support, while at the same time becoming a trauma informed organization. I believe this dramatic change will have a positive impact on the lives of those working and living in our institutions. As we develop and implement the California model, we will improve the working conditions, the job satisfaction, and ultimately the health outcomes of the staff who work in our institutions under very stressful and dangerous conditions.

I believe this paradigm shift in California corrections will result in more civil and humane environment. And will foster opportunities for incarcerated citizens to embrace rehabilitation and transformation. As our incarcerated citizens become better equipped to reenter our communities, we will see better outcomes and improve public safety. I believe everyone has the innate potential to grow and change and transform. And I'm excited to create an environment where this is promoted and encouraged. And I welcome your questions today.

Thank you, sir. Director, thank you so much. And it's wonderful to have Kimberly here as well. So thank you. Very grateful for that. To the directors. What we'd like to better do is open it up for questions and comments from the Committee. And we'd like to be able to kick off that conversation with Madam Vice Chair. Vice Chair Grove.

Thank you, Mister Pro Tem. Thank you all for being here today. I appreciate your comments. And I really do think it takes a special person to be in this position. That has a heart for the incarcerated and their abilities to succeed outside. And although I do believe that when people are inside are incarcerated persons. Those individuals have done something that warrants keeping them away from society. But I think that their care in the facility is paramount to their success.

And getting out and being successful Members and productive Members of society. I appreciate the background on all of you. And I do have just questions for one of you. And not that that's anything wrong with that, but it's just on a subject matter that I think Miss Cassias is the person I need to ask or address these questions to, and I look forward to your confirmation. I do have questions. You mentioned in your opening that you went to SAC State and that you majored in accounting.

I did.

Okay. So in your accounting education that you got at SAC State, did they teach you about procurement and budgeting and things like that? Is that something that you learned there?

I learned other budgeting there. However, most of my knowledge from that comes in my over 30 years of serving with the State of California through budgets and procurement, through the state process.

So thank you for that. So 30 years of knowledge with budget and procurement for the State of California. What's the largest budgets that you've oversaw for procurement and contracts awarded?

It would be. My last position was Deputy Director, office of program support within Division of Rehabilitative Programs. Obviously, I'm now at the Director, but DRP is responsible for about $370 million.

Of contracts, $370 million in contracts. Is there a standard operating procedure or a criteria, an objective criteria for contract award? And if so, can you describe it to me?

There is a lot of rules in the state contracting manual. I probably won't be able to explain all of it to you. However, there definitely is a process where we put out a request for information or request for a bid. We receive those bids and it is our office of business services who oversees that. And then the successful bidder will win. Depending on the form used, it could be the lowest bidder or it could be based on a scoring criteria.

Okay, thank you for that. When you talk about are you engaged in any of those conversations for these bids or is it the office of bid business procurement that does it independently, aside from you?

Yeah, I am not involved in those conversations.

Do you have oversight over those at all?

I mean, as the Director of Rehabilitative Programs, I feel like it's my responsibility for anything that happens within DRP.

Okay. So I guess since I guess asking you to list a complete criteria and many facets of being able to procure these contracts, if I went over some criteria, could you tell me yes or no if they're part of the process?

Sure. I will do my best.

Okay. There's an RFP, a request for proposal that goes out and it goes out to individuals, I'm assuming that are on some list that engage in procuring contracts or grants from your Department.

It's usually advertised, advertised so that anybody can, is capable to bid. And a request for proposal is one option for procurement.

Okay. So. And is when you put out these bids, is there a floor or a ceiling on a Low bid process or a beginning bid on a Low bid process.

I think there. I don't know if there's a Low bid. Not necessarily. It shouldn't be all the low bid.

Okay. So if you're engaging, if your Department is engaging in a bid process where they allow for a low bid, you don't have a determined set floor of a contract bid amount, which sets conditions to tie or break a tie in case contractors come in in a tie.

I think I know which one you're talking about. And in that specific solicitation, there is a range of rates in certain parts of the contract, and there are some that aren't set. And in the event of a tie, there is. In this case, it was a coin toss. Per the state contracting manual, a coin toss is actually an appropriate tie breaker or something like a coin toss.

So in the solicitation that went out, it was specifically listed as a coin toss, which is, per the state contracting manual, an appropriate tiebreaker. Okay.

I was just curious about that because I heard that you awarded a bid based on a coin contest or a coin toss, and I thought, what? Probably check that out. So thank you for that. I do have one more follow up question on that. Are there any disqualifications for individuals under investigation for anything like embezzlement of state funds? And if so, what's the criteria to follow to make sure that those individuals don't get contracts?

That's a very good question. There definitely is ways to disqualify people from even submitting bids. I'd like to look specifically at that solicitation and then I can follow up with specifics on that and get back to you.

Because my understanding is the person who got a 50 something $1.0 million contract from that business, office of business, something that you supervise, is, I have the name of the contractor. I won't use it. But I have evidence that they're being investigated for embezzlement and possible sanctions for non performance. And they just got another 50 plus $1.0 million. So that concerns me because we on this dais are responsible for making sure that taxpayer dollars are dealt with appropriately. So just a follow up on that.

Of course, I am unaware of that and I can understand why that would be concerning. It is to me as well.

Yeah, I thank you for answering my questions. Thank you very much. The coin toss thing is what led me down this rabbit hole. I understand, you know, that the contract was worded on a coin toss. And I said, no way. And so it did go there. I did also hear of another reward where the names of the contract participants or applicants for contracts. Their names were written on a piece of paper and dropped in a bag or a backpack, and they pulled names. Out of the backpack. So that's part of a process, too.

That it was a three way tie. So a coin toss could not solve that.

Wow. That's pretty interesting. But thank you. I'm glad you're writing for this contract to protect the State of California. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you so much. Madam Vice Chair, we'd like to be able to see if there's any additional questions, comments for the directors at this time. Yeah, please. Senator Laird.

Thank you, and I appreciate your service and your willingness to serve. And I appreciate the fact that you have the support of your family Members. That's not always true with some of us. So congratulations. I thought I'd ask some random questions here. And, Director Broomfield, I thought I'd start with you.

There's an issue that sort of is going forth because out of so much incarceration that happened in the past, we have a lot of aging people, and how are we dealing with having so many people that are aging and incarcerated, both in terms of services to them? And I know it's probably more of a policy for us about what to do in case there needs to be a compassionate release or something, but how are you dealing with the aging prison population?

That's a great question, and I think it's going to be an ever increasingly important question as we move forward over the next couple of years. We basically treat our aging population according to their security needs, their medical needs, and their mental health needs, and we assess their, for example, their medical needs through CCHCS partners. We do things like ensure that they have all the Ada appliances that they may need to, to successfully navigate incarceration.

We provide them with their mental health services that they may need as they age. We provide them with their housing requirements. And just to speak a little bit more on housing requirements, we did a bed utilization report that was submitted some time ago, and the aging population is a huge factor in how we assign beds. The population, you know, when you get old, it's harder to walk up a bunch of stairs and it's harder to climb on an upper bunk.

And so that population requires ground floor housing, lower bunk housing. And so while we may have a cell that's double celled, we can't always utilize that for two people because we might need that for somebody with mobility issues. And so we just work with the population as an individual. If they have any needs that are not being met, they can submit a request to be reviewed, and we'll review them in what we call the wrap.

And it's basically a multidisciplinary treatment team that looks at the person's situation and makes sure that they have everything that they need to be successful.

I appreciate that. And a quick follow up question, because obviously, with realignment and other things to prison population has been dropping. But if you have somebody with mobility issues, that, in essence, is taking two beds instead of one to be able to accommodate their mobility issues, does that bump up against available facilities for the number of prisoners by doing that?

Well, I would say right now we have the right number of facilities to accommodate our population, but I would caution people, as people, I know it would be a political victory to close prisons in California, but there's unintended consequences about that. And when you close an institution, you have to move that population, and then you have to, frankly, overcrowd the population or the prison that they're moving to.

Elderly folks are caught up in that, and it becomes a challenge to find the appropriate bed for people who. Who need ground for housing and lower tier housing.

And related to that in some way. I was going to ask about, and we asked the secretary about this when he was here, is, and I don't know whether this is you or versant to Director Johnson's territory, but the fact that we have more extreme weather and we have things, it's. When we had the secretary here, it was right after the flooding near Corcoran, and it was the possible evacuation.

Corcoran and I asked a question about how long it would take from the time you evacuated the first prisoner to the last. And it was something that never, I never anticipated. It was, I think it was two weeks. And one of the reasons is there were such distinct, different populations of people that might be disabled, have mobility issues, have mental health issues, and it's not like you just moved them to one place. You had to do it.

So I think, and we were all lucky, Tulare Lake stopped filling up before it got to the point that it was going to overtop that levee and get to that prison. But I suspect, because I know some of them are in high fire areas, and the question is, are we ready? Have we thought about these things? Do we sort of have to wait until Tulare Lake fills up and think, holy crap, we have to figure out this evacuation plan and how we're going to run this off, right?

No, we don't have to wait. We do make contingency plans. As Tulare Lake was filling up, everybody was making plans for those prisons, so we had plans in place. The reality is, it does take time to move the population. Recently, we had an institution that ran into a sewage problem, a sewer problem, and we, over the course of two days, came to the conclusion that if we didn't get this problem fixed, we would be moving the population.

And I can confidently tell you that we made the decision. And we had buses rolling to that emergency within half a day. And it was very impressive. And thankfully, they were able to make the repair and avert the disaster or the emergency. But we do have contingency plans in place. We tabletop them whenever we're getting close to some sort of issue. I grew up at Corcoran State prison.

I was there for the first evacuation drill of Corcoran state prison, and I actually had the opportunity to fly in a helicopter and see the extent of the flooding to prepare for that. And so I remember back when I was working there, we had extensive drills. And so I do think we will be ready in the event of an emergency. We can't predict everything, but we do try to be prepared.

Okay. Does this veer into your assignment as well?

Thank you for the question, Senator. It would if it requires anything with the released population. So, obviously, with the new directors, we will work in conjunction together with that as it relates to any of our programs in the community.

Thank you. And then let me just ask each of you the last question, and it came up in a couple of your opening comments. But obviously, there's a desire for culture change, culture change in how we administer culture change in the lowered population, culture change in trying to prepare people for leaving. And I have to tell you, when I was elected to the Assembly, I became budget share in short order.

And it was when we had a rough budget year, and the budget was cut for the system, and it wasn't even entered into the books before January of the fiscal year. This cut was supposed to be absorbed, and it wasn't even entered into the book. So it was running a deficit from the minute the budget was approved, because it just. And it was really alarming the level of the lack of administrative accountability.

I think it has dramatically changed in that period of time, and it has changed in how many people are housed and how long we think they should stay. And so how do you think it's your direction or your mission to implement that model? And maybe we'd start with Director Casias.

The new culture model.

Yes.

Yeah, I think you can hear from all of us that we really believe in this new culture model. I think division of rehabilitative programs obviously leads the way in some of that, but it takes all of us, and I think it starts with all of us, each one of us here in front of you today and our leadership and our belief that the culture change is important because we need to show our teams the way. Right. We need to take care of our teams.

And I think you see before you a group of leaders who do that. And then also we believe in the ability of the populations to change, and that's what we're doing. So I think we continue to talk to our stakeholders, as well as those who are incarcerated on parole to make sure that we're doing what is needed. But it starts with us and our leadership.

And Director Johnson, what's your take on that?

Thank you for the question. So if I can sum it up, I would just use one word. It's called care. And what I mean by that is as a leader, I need to care for my organization and what we do and what we stand for. Then I also need to make sure that our leadership team cares about our staff and our staff cares about themselves when we talk about self care, and then that translates to our staff caring for the population that's under our supervision.

And by that we'll be caring for the community as it relates to enhancing public safety. So for me, care is a big word. When we talk about organizational culture change. I understand when we make these type of shifts, not everyone's on board. So you're going to get opposition, you're going to get individuals who are reluctant to change.

But I have to stay persistent and we have to keep messaging that this is where we're going as it relates to our organizational change and our culture and just elevate our professionalism. And like Director Casilla stated earlier, I think this team here, we've had many, many meetings together.

And you can tell when we have our meetings, you can tell the heartfelt passion that we have, the fire that's burning inside of us to do right and give the taxpayers what they expect out of us when it comes to working with our populations and the dollars that are spent towards CDCR. So when I look at this, for me, it's all about just taking care of in house, working with our population and making sure that we're setting and being.

For myself, being a Director of the division of adult parole operations, what I want us to be is I need not want, but I need us to be the leaders in community supervision, not just in the State of California, but in the nation. And I'm working with my Executive team to ensure that that's what we're doing. We're working around the clock. This is probably one of the most active leadership teams that I've seen in my 17 years, being within the division of adult parole operations.

And I know I'm probably getting some smiles in the back of me from some of my Executive team because they know how hard we're working, and they understand that we have to set the tone. We've been going out to our parole offices and meeting with our staff. I don't want our staff to just think that leadership is coming out because something's wrong.

I want them to know that leadership is coming out to see their working conditions, see how they're taking care of the population, and making sure that they have the equipment and the necessary tools to carry out the duties to accomplish our mission. So when we talk about the culture change, it starts definitely with myself, and I'm committed to making sure that we carry out that mission.

Thank you. And I'm sure your team is smiling and is here. And when we confirmed the number two, I visited the men's colony, which is in my district, the next week, and found out they'd all been watching the confirmation hearing on TV. So I can tell there's a level of teamwork and involvement and, Director Broomfield, anything you would like to add?

I would just add that I think, you know, the conditions of our. Of our prison and parole system is reflecting the values of California as a whole. It reflects our society's values. And I think when, you know, if you roll back 20 years ago during the tough on crime initiatives, that was the value of society. Tough on crime. And we locked up, you know, upwards of 176,000 people, I think, when we were at our peak. And that does provide public safety. Right.

Incapacitating somebody from society provides public safety, but it's absolutely temporary. 90% of the population is getting out. And so when you look back on history, you look back on our mass incarceration, what did we learn? We learned that it was terrible for the incarcerated population. We did not improve their lives. We did not focus on their reasons for criminality. And it was terrible for our staff. Our staff were overworked. They were stressed. They were put in dangerous positions day in and day out.

And so here we are 20 years later from that. And we've got, what I would a declining population, and we have the facilities in the room to do things different. And I think we have an opportunity to really invest in rehabilitative opportunities for the population. And as we do that and we invest in our staff and we train our staff to partner and to participate in that rehabilitation, we're improving their health outcomes as well.

Their day at work becomes much better than the day at work 20 years ago. And so I think we just have such a huge opportunity right now to reimagine how we do incarceration in California and what our values are and what we focus on. And I think as we push into this California model, our staff are going to find out that it's a better model, that it's based on success, international success, best practices. And we want to be the best in California. Right? We want to represent California as the best Department that we can. So thank you.

I appreciate the answer of all three of you. That was very helpful. Thank you, Mister President.

Thank you so much. Mister Laird, very grateful. Senator Eggman, floor is yours, please.

Thank you. Nice to see you all again. I'm very interested too, in how you transition staff to the California model, but I think you all have answered that. So I'd like to just talk a little bit about behavioral health. And as we've also moved from an incarceration to a rehabilitation, we've also tried to really focus more on mental health issues and parity with mental and behavioral health, or physical health and behavioral health.

So just from each of your perspectives, can you talk about how you see that continuum working as the three of you as a leadership team, that people are assessed, evaluated, treated in and through programs, and then supported on their way to reintegration? You could each talk about each point of that. Thank you.

Thank you. I guess I'll start my answer. So we have a very robust mental health treatment program in all of our institutions, and we've got levels of mental health treatment from what, I would say, very Low level, common mental health issues all the way to serious crisis bed style issues. And so we rely on our partners at CCHCs to deliver that mental health care.

But what we've learned through trial and error and best practices is that we as correctional staff, can participate in the success of mental health treatment, whether it's ensuring that our. That our population has access when they need access, that our mental health, or that our. That our custody partners are very responsive to mental health needs.

When somebody says, hey, I'm in crisis, and then all the way to some of our test programs that we're running with the California model, where we create contact or resource teams that are actually working in our crisis units and really digging into the individual. And I say digging in, really participating with the individual to establish professional relationships and rapport with that individual so that they can assist in lowering somebody's anxiety, which in turn assists in their mental health treatment.

So I think we partner together with our healthcare partners, and I think the real challenge now is to train and help all of our correctional staff understand that mental health treatment is not just for our medical partners. Right. And that's part about becoming a trauma informed organization, understanding how people respond to trauma and behave through trauma. And I think we're well on our way to gearing up that training.

Thank you, Doctor Casias.

Yes, thank you. As Doctor Broomfield said, we do work with our medical partners. However, the division of rehabilitative programs does provide a lot of different community based organizations. They come in and they provide trauma assistance, victim impact groups. We also have arts and corrections, a lot of art that really helps people. We also have coaches within our education who help people with their physical health as well, which we know also helps with mental health. And then as well also our community reentry programs that we have. We really make sure that that's open to everybody of all mental health designations. And then I'll let Director Johnson talk about.

Thank you, Director Johnson.

Thank you for the question, Senator. So from my side, I'll start off by saying my Deputy Director, she's a forensic psychologist and she's overseen my behavioral health reintegration staff and they're housed at various parole offices throughout the state. We also have some that are assigned to the male community reentry programs because we understand how important mental health is with our population. You know, from family experience, I last stated yesterday during our meeting, you know, have relatives who suffer from mental health. So for me, it's paramount.

And my years of research from working as a probation officer from San Bernardino, county, working in mental health court, drug court, Prop 36, it exposed me to the need of how important mental health is. So my Deputy Director came online in January and we're working some really robust concepts on how we're going to be able to maximize and make our behavioral health reintegration staff really optimal with our operations to address those supportive needs that our population so need and desire.

Thank you all.

Thank you so much, Senator Eggman, Senator Jones, please,

I just want to say thank you all for taking on these positions. I know they're not the easiest jobs in the state bureaucracy. So I did want. Just real quick, Miss Casillas, I do share some of the concerns that Senator Grove raised. So if you just want to. If you're able to provide any follow up information on those questions that would be helpful, you're welcome to respond on the bidding process.

Yes. Correct. Is that what you're concerned about? Yeah, I don't, I do know. I don't want to say too much because I know there is a protest going on in that issue.

I'm not asking for. Yeah, I know this was kind of came out of the blue in the last couple of days, so. No, please take whatever time and whatever you can provide us would be great.

Yeah, I definitely will. I just want to let you know, though, I am committed to make sure that the process goes smooth, that all the controls are around it. As you know, my 30 years of experience are on the administrative functions, accounting, 30 years of clean audit. So I'm very well aware of the internal control processes and the procurement processes. And it's very important to me to make sure that we are following all those rules.

So we'll definitely look into it and make sure it's taken care of.

Great. Thank you. But to all three of you, thank you again very much for your service to our state. Not a lot of people know this, but I had a brother in law that was incarcerated in the state system for quite a period of time, and so I'm not as intimately knowledgeable of it as I probably should be, but have some family knowledge. And I know that the jobs that you are doing and asking to do are very difficult. There's pressures from every different angle on what you do.

So thank you very much for your professionalism here today. Thank you for. I'm really impressed by your enthusiasm to take on these positions, and I think that says a lot about what you're looking forward to doing in these positions. And I just want to say thank you for signing up for that.

Thank you so much, Senator Jones, Director Casias. What we're going to do is Lisa Chin from Rules Committee team will be reaching out directly, and then if we can get information in writing, we'll follow up with that, and then we'll distribute that to each of the offices of the Committee Members. Thank you.

Appreciate that. Thank you. All right, ladies and gentlemen, Committee, what we'd like to be able to do now is open up today's hearing for public comment. We will take two sets of public comment, those who are in support and those who may be opposed. We respectfully request individuals who approach the podium. Please keep their remarks to 30 seconds. Or less. Provide your first and last name and we'll give you a prompt if you hit time again. We're looking for those who are in support. If you could please advance to the podium now. Good afternoon sir. Floor is yours.

Good afternoon Mister Chair and Members of the kid immediate. My name is Doug Bond. I'm the President and CEO of Amity Foundation. I am in strong support of Director Ron Broomfield, Director Amy Cassias and Director Jason Johnson. I think you have one of the most dynamic rehabilitative and reentry teams, frankly, that I've ever seen and experienced.

We're one of the largest Amity foundation, one of the largest reentry providers in the State of California, and strongly believe in all of their leadership and everything they're doing to help support our community. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. Okay, what's going on? Sir?

Good afternoon Matt Cate, retired Secretary of Corrections here representing a coalition of reentry providers including Amity, Westcare and health. Right. 360. Also speaking for myself personally, strong support of these three nominees. Thank you.

Good to see you Mister Cate. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon Mister chair and Committee Members. My name is Matt Easley, representing the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. And I just wanted to be here today to express our support for directors Johnson and Broomfield. They work directly with our Association and while we don't always agree, and we do have a number of issues from time to time, both of these gentlemen have shown a true concern for our membership and held an open door policy and willingness to collaborate with us and work on some positive solutions. And we like to thank them for that and hopefully to move that relationship forward.

Thank you Mister Easley. Thank you so much. Appreciate you being here.

Good afternoon, sir. I am Kenneth Hartman, Advocacy Director for transformative programming works and formerly incarcerated lifer. I'd like to say that I strongly support all three of these candidates, who I know personally and who I know are going to do a great job.

Thank you Mister Hartman, for your comments. Good afternoon ma'am.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Kim Gross Moore and I'm the Executive Director of the Grip Training Institute. The flagship program guiding rage into power is a rehabilitative, community based program that works in many of the state prisons. We've had the pleasure of working closely with Director Broomfield and Amy Casillas. We're in support of all three. Look forward to getting to know you, Director Johnson and support all three. Confirmation. Thank you.

Thank you. Good afternoon ma'am. Welcome.

Good afternoon. My name is Liz Reid, I'm the CEO of Emmanuel House in Riverside County. And I'm here to support all three candidates, in particular, Jason Johnson, who has worked very closely with Emmanuel over the years to expand our programs and to teach us really more about the reentry population. We have substance abuse treatment facilities and we are piloting a mental health residential program.

Miss Reed, thank you so much for making the travel here to Sacramento. Good afternoon, sir.

Good afternoon. My name is Ricardo London. I'm a staff Member at the Anti-Recidivism coalition and I'm in strong support of all three candidates. Pleasure to have you here.

Thank you, Ricardo. Good afternoon. Welcome.

I'm John Jarvey, a life coach with. The Anti recidivism Coalition, and I strongly Support all three appointees. Thank you.

Thank you, Mister Jarvey. Good afternoon, sir. Welcome.

Hello. My name is Jacob Brevard and I am the Director of inside programs for the anti recidivism Coalition, also known as ARC. And I'm in strong support of all three directors here. I also just got off the phone with our Executive Director, Sam Lewis, and he's wanted me to first apologize for not being here. He had a prior engagement in New York, but he also wanted to send his strong support for all three nominees here. Thank you guys for what you do and thank the panel too.

Thank you so much. Grateful for your words today.

Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon. Hi, my name is Tyson Nguyen. I'm with the anti recidivism coalition and I'm in strong support of all three.

My name is Christian Ramirez. I'm a life coach with the Anti Recidivism Coalition. I'm a former lifer as well, and. I'm in strong support of all three appointees.

Thank you, Mr Ramirez. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, ma'am.

Good afternoon. My name is Antoinette Kennedy. I am also part of ARC and I am in support of all three candidates. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Miss Kennedy. Glad you're here. Hey, good afternoon, sir.

Good afternoon. My name is Wajuba Mcduffie. I'm a manager for the anti recidivism coalition. I'm also a former lifer. I'm in full support of all three candidates.

Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Good afternoon. It's nice to see you. Welcome.

How are you guys doing today? My name is Jack Castrolo, formerly incarcerated anti recidivism coalition, and I'm in strong support of all three candidates. Thank you guys very much.

My name is Isaiah Battle. I'm a life coach at the ARC, and I'm in strong support of all three candidates.

Isaiah, thank you so much. Appreciate your testimony. Hey, how you doing? Good afternoon.

Great afternoon. Chris Larson, policy and community organizing manager at the anti recidivism coalition. Strong support of all three. Keep up the great work.

Thank you so much, Chris.

All right, we're going to do a last call for those who would like to be able to speak in support. Last call for those who'd like to speak in support. If you could please advance to the podium at this time. Hey, good afternoon. Nice to see you.

Good afternoon. My name is Eric Goddard. I work for the Cal State San Bernardino reentry initiative in San Bernardino. county. And I am here to strongly support Miss Casillas and Mister Johnson. I've known Jason for almost 15 years and he's done so much in our community of San Bernardino, working to bring not only support from the state to the community, but also to empower the community to support their own. So thank you all for this.

Thank you. I appreciate your testimony. Thank you so much. All right, we're going to be closing down those comments and support. We'll do one more last call. Really appreciate everybody who has obviously traveled far and wide to be able to be here today. We are now going to open up the podium to those who may be opposed. If those who are in opposition could please advance at this time. We're looking for those who may be in opposition to advance at this time.

We're going to do a last call for opposition. If you could please advance at this time. Last call for opposition hearing. Seeing no one rise, we're not going to bring it back to Committee. We'd like to be able to see if Committee has any comments. Please. Madam Vice Chair, floor is yours.

Thank you, Mister chair. I noticed that when you. When I was out, I had to step out to another Committee. But you were going to request some information in writing. Yes, I would like to be included on that if possible. Or is it coming to the Committee?

It's going to come to the entire Committee. Yeah. What we had requested is that Director Casillas provide that to Lisa Chin. Lisa Chin would then distribute it to each of the Committee offices.

Thank you. I just heard that in the speech. Thank you. It's my privilege to make a motion to move all of you for confirmation of the floor. And I thank you for your answers today.

Thank you so much. Grateful for that. We have a motion, Members, from Madam Vice Chair. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

Mcguire? Aye. Mcguire I Grove. Grove I Eggman Jones? Aye. Jones I Laird.

4-0 vote. We're going to keep that on call. Congratulations to each of the directors. Next up will be the floor of the Senate. Thank you so much for being here today. We're truly grateful. Thank you. Nice job today. We're going to take a two minute recess. We have the fan club, who is going to be. And the fan club is rolling deep today. My goodness, look at this.

We're going to just take a two minute recess, allow you to take any photos that you may want to at this time. Two minute recess. And we'll be bringing in that time. We'll have General Beavers please approach the podium. Thank you so much, Madam Secretary. Before we go to General Beavers, and if it's appropriate for the Committee, we'd like to be able to open the rollback for the directors for the Department of Corrections and rehabilitation. Currently on a 4-0 vote. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

5-0 vote. That motion now passes. We're going to close the roll. We are now going to be moving on to our next appointment and grateful that we have General Beavers, who is here today. General, you are going to have one to two minutes to be able to provide opening testimony to the Committee. Then we are going to open it up for Committee Members to be able to ask any questions, provide any comments, and just have a dialogue.

And we appreciate your time here today in your opening. We welcome any introduction of guests that you may want to advance, whether here in the hearing room or online. And of course, we're going to be keeping time. And I'll give you a 30 second prompt as you get close to that two minutes. General, the floor is yours. And welcome to Committee.

Thanks, Mister chair. And Members, appreciate the opportunity to be here today. Before I get started on my very brief opening pitch, I do want to recognize my wife, Bonnie, who's behind me. She is extraordinary in every respect, and the work that she does on behalf of first generation students at Sacramento State University is extraordinary. I do need to say that she has a previous commitment, so if she walks out, it's just because she's got, like, important work to do, too. So. Yeah.

And I don't want to get in trouble. Yeah. So we're good on that. I also want to recognize Governor Newsom's leadership and his confidence in my ability to run the military Department for the last 20 months. You cannot do that work without the support of your leadership. So I appreciate that.

I also want to recognize today the sacrifices of the tens of thousands of California National Guard soldiers and airmen that have fought for the last two plus decades on foreign lands against the enemies of the United States, and also for the great work that they do here in California every day on the myriad of challenges that our state faces. And I appreciate their work.

I also want to recognize the 800 soldiers and airmen that in the last two weeks have returned from the Middle East back here to California. And I think they are extraordinary and they deserve all the recognition. I do want to thank the chair for the opportunity to address some of the allegations that were made against me back in 2022. I want to be clear that I believe that any allegation of discrimination should be thoroughly investigated and to ensure that everybody in my organization is protected.

Every Member of my extraordinarily diverse organization, perpetrators of discriminatory actions, including hate speech, must be held accountable. That said, the investigation, the allegations against me were all found to be unsubstantiated, but it really reinforced that process is important, critical importance, and we take every allegation seriously to ensure a thorough investigation and all the facts are brought out. And I'd like to just to quickly give a brief comment on a message, on a memo that I sent out to my team.

The onset of Hamas violent attack on Israel last fall. I'll quote it. During times of war and instability, it is easy to lose sight of our shared values and humanity. It is vital to recognize that the strength of our organization lies in the bonds that we forge and the trust that we build and mutual respect. Hate speech has devastating effects on morale, good order and discipline. It undermines our organization and impacts the public trust.

Hate crimes, violent acts, only weaken our resolve to demonstrate the strength of our diversity, and it will not be tolerated. There is no room for anti Semitism or Islamophobia, and it won't be tolerated. Our success relies on total commitment to the ideals of freedom, fairness, and human dignity. End quote. And I look forward to your questions.

Thank you so much, General beavers. Appreciate that. I'm going to turn it over to Senator Laird for opening comments or questions.

Thank you very much, Mister chair. Actually, General, you went right to where I was going to go, because I think it's important to respond to those allegations, to not sweep them aside. I appreciate the clear statement you made. Appreciate it was unsubstantiated. But let me ask sort of a follow up question, which is, how do you actually do that? How do you ensure that the ethic that you just spoke is reflected in every level of your operation? And how do you know when it's not? Basically, it's like, how do you put the words you just said to action?

Yeah, I think first and foremost, you have to say the words, you have to write them down, you have to repeat them. Then I think you have to be able to go out into the organization that you lead and say those words. And I think also so much of it revolves around setting an example.

And that goes to a lot of what we do relative to diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility in the military Department, and not just relative to anti Semitism, but to Islamophobia and other hate speech. What we do in the Department to make sure that folks recognize that these are the values of the Department, is that we literally have about once a month, we sit down and have a cultural event.

And I would invite each and every one of you to come to my military Department on the 1 May, where we are going to do a Jewish American cultural day, and then again on the 6 May, when we will recognize the Holocaust remembrance, and we'll have an extraordinary slate of speakers. And they get to talk to the soldiers and airmen and leaders of my organization, and they get to articulate their points of view, which I think is extraordinarily instructive.

And I think it gives an opportunity for folks to understand the different cultural values that people share. And with that, I think it makes it a better. We're a more culturally astute organization when we do that.

I mean, I just had this strange experience a week ago where, in my own district, a son of a Professor in a school that is not far from my house was bullied for being Trans for a couple of years and was going to switch schools and didn't feel like the school responded. And this is a kid that's, I think, in the 7th or 8th grade. And for me, being out there everywhere, I feel I'm open and people will tell me, and I can take action.

I can call a Superintendent. How do you do that? You sort of hinted at it, but how do you do that so that you feel, if it's going on in a place where you're around, that people are going to be comfortable enough to tell you so that you can take some action?

Yeah, I think it's that they have to be comfortable enough. Also, we have an extraordinary military Department Inspector General system where folks are, if they see something that they believe is inappropriate, that they are duty bound to call it out. We have both a federal military Department Inspector General and state one, which is unusual. I think we might be the only state in the 54 states, territories and district that has two of those.

And you have to give space for people to be able to bring those things forward. And I think when we. When we do that, when we use the Inspector General system, and then folks that fail to live up to those standards are essentially punished for that. I think it sets an example that that type of behavior is not tolerated. And I think that's fundamentally how we do it in the military Department.

Then let me ask you a more administrative question, and we talked about it. Thank you for the opportunity to meet. You have a complete armory system, and I know one of them in my hometown is being used to house unsheltered people. There's another one in the far reach of another part of the district that is empty and the local city wants to occupy for municipal uses. There's other places where they're actually used as armories, and they tend to be old and in need of work.

So how do you administer the state system of armories where they have other uses, where they need repairs or some of the adjoining governments want them? How do you go through this in how you administer these armories?

Okay. Yeah. Two part question. So, you know, how do we engage with local communities relative to the use of our facilities? And as a rule, we're absolutely open to doing that. As you mentioned, the Santa Cruz armory is currently being used for unhoused folks. Our armory in Porterville is being used as well and across the state. And our La federal armory is currently being remodeled and will be an unhoused facility along with National Guard armory. So we're very open to that.

It's really just a matter of communication. Locals, counties make the request, and we do everything that we can to ensure that they can use our facilities. There are some times when that's not possible. Generally, if the armory is very small or if there's just too many National Guard folks in it. A lot of those facilities have weapons, other stuff like that. We want to make sure that those things are protected and taken care of.

But we've used armories for the last 20 years to house unhoused folks during the winter months, starting usually in October and concluding generally right about now, that's waned as the state is picking up a lot more of that responsibility for us.

And just a final follow up that occurred to me. It's a very layperson's question. Do you actually have control over the armories? Do you have to work with the General Services Department? What happens when you have to decide to dispose or other use?

Yeah, it depends. We have sole discretionary authority over the use of the armories relative to divestment. That would depend on if it was a state or a federal armory, and those are two completely different systems.

Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate.

Thank you so much, Senator. We're now gonna turn it over to Senator Eggman.

Thank you. Nice to see you, General.

Good to see you.

So, tell me, and we talked yesterday about your people first, and how do you actualize that?

So what we did is we first established the infrastructure within the Department. I didn't want to talk about people first and then not be able to meet the demands, so to speak. So we established a directorate within the military Department. And what we did is we brought together all of the soldier and airman support services that we have.

So from integrated primary prevention to the military Department Support Fund, to our family programs, employer support of the Garden Reserve work for warriors, which is our boutique, I would offer headhunter firm that we have in the Department. We brought all those under one roof, and we believe that if it was led by a single individual and all these support services were brought together, that it just made sense for us. Once we did that, then we literally took it on a road show.

And that roadshow is ongoing now. The leader of that organization goes out generally with our senior enlisted leaders across the formation, and we just go talk to soldiers and airmen, tell them everything that's available to them. That's number one. Number two, more about people first is really making sure that folks are well trained. And what we've done is we've taken. I've taken a step back, and today we're just gonna focus on the fundamentals.

And I think our soldiers, primarily our soldiers, to a lesser extent, airmen, they recognize the value of being successful at a specific warrior skill or task. We've done that, and I think that's helped, definitely helped morale. You know, I think in the past, we may have bit off more than we could chew, participated in exercises that were likely beyond our ability to do, likely beyond anybody's ability to do when you're only training in a 40 or 50 days a year.

So for that, and I failed to mention, too, and you brought it up earlier, talking about behavioral health. That's a huge component of it as well. And we do have a world class behavioral health program.

And then just finally, one of the things people don't know a lot about is the challenge academies. Can you talk a little bit? That's how we got to know each other about the challenge academies and the success and the promise that you see for those.

Absolutely. Yeah. So that is one of the shining examples of what the military Department does. Right. So we have challenge academies scattered across the state, down in LA, San Luis Obispo, in your district, ma'am, in Lathrop. We're trying to establish another one in, in Riverside. And those programs, what they do is PMI. We have what we call an XMI program. So Oakland Military Institute, Porterville Military Institute, other programs where the California Cadet Corps is involved. But back to the challenge academies.

What we're doing is bringing kids that were not capable of being successful in a mainstream academic environment for whatever reason. And we put them in a very military centric, rigorous program. We segregate them by sex. We make them do physical training every day and we provide them extraordinary amount of academic assistance. And we have about a 98 or so percent graduation rate. And I would encourage each of you to participate in a challenge academy graduation. And I would challenge you not to cry.

I've been to several and I cry at every one. But, yeah, you bet. And we're just. I'm sorry. We're standing up ribbon cutting for our Starbase program, which is a STEM program for fifth and 6th graders primarily. We're standing that up on Friday at the Porterville Military Institute. It's the latest one.

Thank you so much, Senator Eggman. Let's go to Senator Jones.

Are one of those academies called Sunburst? Sunburst, is that one of yours?

It's sunburst, yeah, absolutely.

I had a nephew that went through that. And so thank you very much for it. Made a difference. Made the difference that you're looking. That we're all looking forward to making the difference in those academies. We've known each other quite a while. I think we originally met in 2011 to 12, probably, and we had a tour out there and it's probably time to do that again.

I would recommend that once we get through this process, maybe we get some more legislators back out there to see the upgrades. Since then, my dad served in the Colorado National Guard. My grandfather's retired air force. I was looking through your citations and if you wouldn't mind sharing, if it's not too personal, would you mind sharing the citation from your bronze star?

Yeah, certainly. So it's not a bronze star for valor. That would have a v on it. It is a bronze star for my service in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2004, where I served as the Director of strategic communications for Combined Forces Command, Afghanistan, which was the three star Army, United States army headquarters that managed the south and east of Afghanistan at that time, separate headquarters from the NATO headquarters in Kabul. Great.

Thank you.

You bet.

Thank you so much, Senator Jones. One of the items I neglected to do is acknowledge Senator Eggman in her service and I apologize about that as I should have said that from the very beginning. So, thank you so much, Senator Eggman. Thank you. We'll look to Senator Grove if you have. Yeah.

What about Senator Grove?

I was just going to go right over to Senator Grove. I'm literally going straight over. There we go.

Pause. Too long of a pause.

Okay. Hey, there we go. My goodness. Good times, everybody. I'm going to now turn it over to fellow veteran and want to say, thank you so much, Senator Grove, please. The floor is yours. And thank you for your service to this country.

Thank you, sir. Don't let people do that to you.

I know.

I damn my colleague.

Yeah. What percent?

You just said people as if it was like this amorphous thing.

There you go.

I heard you. Snicker. I heard you. I heard you, sir. Like Senator Jones said, I've known you for a really long time. And I think that those of us who put our right hand in the air to defend this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic, understand those.

Those stars on your shoulder, and we understand those medals that reflect who you are as a person and the admiration that you have, not only from the leadership above you, but your team that you lead on a daily basis. And so, working with you in the capacity of a state Assembly Member and a state Senator, you have always been available to my community. You have provided extraordinary leadership to our local national guard.

And you are someone who is a no nonsense person that gets shit done, sir. And so I'm just telling you that. So I look forward to your confirmation, and I have no questions for you. And I think you are one extraordinary individual in California is grateful and thankful to have you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you so much, madam Vice Chair. Thank you. There we go. What's that I see? There we go. Exactly. zero, yes. I got you. General, I'd like to just go over just a few items, if that works. And first and foremost, thanks for taking the time. Thank you for being here as well. It's wonderful to see you. First and foremost, I think that you acknowledge the tremendous commitment to the women and men who call California home, but yet serve this nation.

And I think the commitment that you've advanced, especially in these, since 2015, the increased role that the guard has had, whether it's issues of wildfires or natural disasters, work on the border guard is really the go to agency in the state, the military Department, to be able to assist when times are toughest. And these are my words, not yours. You've had to make some tough decisions taking on this role. And this is be candid.

There have been some challenges within the military Department over the past several years, and I know that has upset you deeply coming up through the Guardian and coming up through the military Department. And if you could talk about your focus, I think you've had to make some tough decisions on. I'm just, these are my words, not yours. Professionalizing the organization, dealing with some serious challenge of public trust.

And if you could talk about how that has been a focus of yours, because, let's just be candid, leadership can be lonely, and this has been tough. So if you want to talk about that, then I'd like to come back to guard membership.

Absolutely. Yeah. Leadership is tough and it's lonely, and that's how it should be, in my view. If you take on a role like this, you should not expect friends. I think you can't be an effective leader if you have close personal friends that work for you. It doesn't make sense. I think it goes against good order and discipline. And I appreciate your comments relative to the culture challenges the department's had in the past.

Those cultural challenges have not existed in the last 20 months that I've been the adjutant General. They did exist to a certain extent. Previous to that, we had senior leaders that failed to live up to ethical standards. I would characterize those, all of them, as former senior leaders.

And I think the best thing that I could have done, and I did this when I took over, is, again, I wrote a letter to every senior leader in my organization, and I outlined my expectations for their leadership, and I put them on notice that they had to live up to certain standards of ethical behavior, not when they were just in uniform, but all the time. And we continually meet. And I continue to reinforce the fact that they have to live up to those ethical standards.

And by and large, over the last 20 months, they have, I think, without exception. So we're very fortunate in that. But, yeah, it's hard when you're not in charge to try to maintain a certain ethical balance in an organization where you're not running it.

So there were some challenges there, but I think all the right decisions were made to put the Department in a trajectory where we can once again have the public's trust and not the public's trust is important, but at the end of the day, the trust of the service Members of my organization, if they don't trust me, they won't follow me. They absolutely won't.

And if they can't trust me to make the right decisions and do the best thing that I can do on their behalf, then they're not going to fight. And that is just that simple.

Yeah. And I think obviously there's internal trust and then the public trust. Right. Of what we've seen. And I think that has been a focus of yours, and I know this has been waned on your mind, and it's been incredibly intense. And I'd like to talk about culture.

Sure.

So talk to us about how your focus on culture just isn't talk and how you've put it into action. And then I'd like to be able to get a better understanding on the women and men who are part of the guard in the military Department. What does your retention rate look like compared to the rest of the nation? Do you see that as an uptick? Again, I think sunlight is always the best medicine. Right.

Acknowledge that there have been incredible, some pretty incredible significant challenges at the military Department, and you have been wanting to be able to bring sunlight in and looking at changes within leadership, if that could just be candid, certainly. Plus, you want those who are within the Department and serving in the Guardian look more like the communities of California. And again, there's a lot of talk about that, but it's also being a good leader is putting it into place and putting action moving forward.

I'd like you to highlight that.

I couldn't agree more, and you took some of the words right out of my mouth. I appreciate that, but I won't hesitate to reiterate them. So go to culture and the change that we've made. And how do you measure that? You know, how do you measure a culture change? Because since we've turned the temperature down in the apartment dramatically over the last 20 or so months, so first and foremost, retention soldiers stay because they're well led and they enjoy what they do.

Our retention over the last 20 months is up 16%, and that's significant, but probably more than that is the recruiting. So over the last several months, our recruiting is up 36. Well, it's up 36% year over year. While the regular army bleeds soldiers at an extraordinary rate. We do not. In fact, we are growing our organization, and I think it's got so much to do with that. We've put our people first. We've reinforced the public trust and demanded ethical standards of our leaders.

And I think soldiers see that and airmen see that. And when they do, they invite their friends to come and join our organization because we provide an extraordinary, at least in my view, an extraordinarily product for them. You talked about it before where you come to work in the guard. There's so much more to the guard than what we do to fight and win. I have 379 soldiers that work for CAL FIRE every day. 99 of those soldiers now work for CAL FIRE full time.

I gave him a job, CAL FIRE gave him a career with a pension, healthcare, all these things. And I would never want to do what those kids do because they probably have a heart attack. But it's hard work. The counter narcotics programs that we have, they're extraordinarily well led. We are on the border at the ports of entry doing fentanyl interdiction. I have three attorneys that work in the San Francisco District Attorney's office trying fentanyl cases.

And if you had asked me when I joined the army along time ago if I would be doing that, I would have told you absolutely not. But here we are, and we're doing it. We're delivering value. You see, the press people call for our support at a moment's notice, oftentimes when it's wildly inappropriate. But, yeah, our kids in our organization see the change, and they're hanging in there with us. And I couldn't be more proud of all of them.

The last piece I'd like you to touch on is the issue of being inclusive to all. And again, if you can kind of drill down on membership. And one of the items that we talked about is wanting to be more reflective of the communities that these women men are coming from.

Yeah. So in order, in my view, in order to serve the people from California, we have to look and feel like our population that we serve, and we, by and large do. And we've made extraordinary strides in the last 20 months to really up uplift women. Primarily what we did is we stood up what they call a joint women's initiatives team, and that's to ensure that women equities are protected across the Department. We've taken it a step further.

We've instituted a program called Women Peace and Security that's established by the Biden Administration several years ago. And we hosted an event here just a while back for all the state agencies to participate. We had a lot of support from Cal. Fire Chief Deputy Annalee Berlue was there. And it's really to build a cohort of gender focal points across not only our organization, but across state agencies writ large. We've also exported that to our partner in our partner country, Nigeria.

They've been very, very receptive to that. So we're not only doing that here at home, but also doing that globally. Our work, I think, in the LGBTQI arena is extraordinary in the challenging days. A few years ago, it became very, very challenging, especially to bring in Trans folks into our organization that's been fixed, and we've been able to really go after that. We had a Trans pilot that just completed her rl one progression, so she's now day night capable helicopter pilot.

So if we have a fire and we're flying a bucket hops, there'll be a Trans pilot flying a California Army National Guard helicopter. So. And we're very proud of that. But it's more than that. It takes everybody. I need everybody in California to support my program. We have to look and feel like the people we serve. We simply won't be able to do a good job.

We have to be culturally astute, and then we have to be able to export that across state agencies and across the globe.

Thank you so much, General. I appreciate that. And I also appreciate the deep dive in which you just said, and grateful for that. We'd like to go to see if there's any other comments or questions from the Committee, please, Madam Vice Chair, just.

To move the full confirmation to the floor.

Thank you so much.

Yes, absolutely. I appreciate that. We have a motion on the floor. What we're going to do is we're going to open it up for public comment, and then we do have a motion on the floor by Madam Vice Chair. What we're going to have is, if anyone would like to be able to come speak in support of the confirmation, if you could please come forward at this time. Come forward, those in support.

When appropriate.

We're going to open it up for those who may want to speak in support of General beavers. We're going to do a last call. Let's now open it up for those who may be in opposition. If you could please step forward at this time. Last call. All right, let's bring it back. We do have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Any additional comments from the Committee hearing? Seeing none, Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Five to 500. Congratulations. Next up is the Senate Floor.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to take about a 62nd break. We're going to start our Executive session in just a few moments, but we're going to take a small break, a recess. We'll be back into Executive session.