Senate Standing Committee on Rules

Well, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We welcome you to Senate Rules Committee, our June 5 edition. I don't know what happened to the year, but we're grateful that each of you would be here with all of us today. Go through a bit of a cadence here for today. But before we do, let's get a quorum established.

Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll call].

Quorum has been established. So what we'd like to be able to do is take care of some of our more administrative items. First, with respect to the appointees who are here today, we are grateful. These are some of the more mundane housekeeping items.

We'll take care of those take five to seven minutes, and then we'll come back and start the presentations for today. So, ladies and gentlemen, Committee, what we'd like to be able to do is start on item number two. Item number two on our agenda. That's governor's appointees, not required to appear.

We'd like to be able to take each of these items up as one motion. Is there a motion to approve items 2d through j? 2d through j. We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll call].

That is a 5-0 vote. That motion passes. We're now going to be moving on to item number three within our agenda. This is focused on Bill referrals. Is there a motion to be able to advance item number three, reference of bills to committees? We have a motion by. Madam Vice Chair.

Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll call].

That's a 5-0 vote. That motion passes. It is. Leader Jones favorite rule. Senate rule 20. 06:00 a.m. I. Right. I think some preference. Yeah. Followed by 27.

Exactly, yes, 20, white tie for his favorite rule.

Hey, there we go. This is in regards to Senate Rule 26 to change the authorship of bills by now, Congressman Vince Fong. That will then be taken on by a similar Member. Lackey items four through six. We have clearance on both House leaderships to be able to put these onto the agenda.

Is there a motion to be able to approve Senate Rule 26? Yes. I'm so sorry. It is not just Assembly Member Lackey. There are other authors. Thank you so much. Yeah. No, you're good. Thank you for the correction, please.

So moved.

All right, we have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Is there a. Please, Madam Secretary, if you could please call the roll?

[Roll call].

Five to zero, that's a 50 vote. That motion passes. Thank you so much. We're now going to be moving on to floor acknowledgments. We'd like to be able to take this up altogether. Is there a motion to be able to approve items seven through 10? Items seven through 10? We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair.

Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll call].

That is a 5-0 vote. That motion passes. All right. Look at that. We got our housekeeping out of the way. The administrative duty is done. We're now going to be moving on to the Governor. Appointees required to appear portion of today's agenda. We're going to start with Miss Lipa. If you could please come forward.

We'll give you 30 seconds to be able to come forward, and we'll be right back with the Committee. Miss Lipa is here going for the state public defender under the office. The state public defender's office. We welcome you and excited that you're here today. Thank you so much for your time.

What we're going to do is we're going to provide one to two minutes of opening testimony. At that time, we have you welcome any family Members or friends that are here watching in the hearing room and or watching at home.

After you're done with your opening statement, we're going to open up for questions, conversations, discussion and debate from the Committee. Then we'll open it up for public comment. We are so grateful for your time, your effort and energy on behalf of the people of California. The floor is yours. You have two minutes.

Thank you so much. And thank you for considering my nomination today. I also want to thank your staff for the thought and time they put into this process, and the Governor and his staff as well. I want to thank my parents, Tali and Jacob, who are here today, and my daughter, who is here.

I think she should be thanking me because it's a school day. And my son. Son, who is at home, I'm sure, pouting. I also. I want to take a moment, this moment, to thank the people who work at the office of the state public defender.

The public defenders at OSPD stand by people and represent them under some of the most trying circumstances and in the most complex cases, and they do so with really tremendous empathy, zealousness and legal skill.

And in doing that work, you know, not only provide excellent representation for our clients, but also ensure that all of our legal rights remain strong. And to our professional staff, really, their commitment to their, to their colleagues, to our mission and their work is unmatched.

I'm incredibly, incredibly honored to have the opportunity to work alongside all of them in doing our important and essential work at the office of the state public Defender. And I look forward to answering any questions that you may have.

Thank you so much. We want to welcome your parents. Paula Jacob, welcome. It is so nice to see you as well. And you're going to rub it in with your brother when you get home. So I like it. Thank you so much for attending. Let's open it up with Senator Laird, please.

Thank you, Mister chair. I just have to mention that I have a simultaneous Committee hearing going on and I'm going to have to leave the vote sometime. And it's not personal.

So that's why I thought I would start in case I get the, I'm sorry we didn't have a chance to meet, but in reading the information, there's this fascinating history of your office, of when it started.

And basically, at first there were all these certain kind of cases, and then in the 1990s it moved to heavily death penalty cases, and then it's changed a little and sort of how that's moved ahead.

Talk about just sort of the history of what the focus has been of your office and where it puts you right now and sort of what your chief focus is.

Sure. Well, in some ways, you laid out the history. OSPD started, obviously, well before my time as an office that was providing appellate representation that is required for the state to provide in a variety of different high level cases.

It did move into providing death penalty representation on direct appeal when the number of those cases sort of exceeded the ability for the office to take on those cases and other cases.

In recent years, we have expanded, the Legislature has expanded our mandate, and we now, while we still prioritize representing clients on direct appeal in death penalty cases, that is the biggest priority of our office.

We also take on the work of ensuring that the General public defense system in California is being provided with training and resources across the state. We spend a particular focus on smaller and rural counties who benefit from professional support.

And so it's become in some ways a somewhat more holistic office, although I will say that our direct representation maintains focus on death penalty appeals.

And when Proposition 66 passed, it was supposed to streamline, in some ways, the death penalty cases. How do you believe that's worked out? Have you seen that in the work of your office?

So I cannot speak to the sort of longstanding history. I have been with the office for three years and in this role for four months, five months now.

But I will say, say that there has been a reduction in the backlog of cases that are awaiting direct appeal counsel, but there remain delays within the death penalty system that remain today.

Okay. And then maybe a last question. What are your goals for the office? What do you think coming in, and how do you want to take it to whatever the next level is?

So my goal, first and foremost, is to provide excellent representation to our clients. I believe that is our first and foremost priority, and that California can be a real leader in demonstrating what that looks like in a public defender office.

Beside that, I have the goal of ensuring a healthy and diverse workplace and in providing resources and information to all Californians about how the public defender systems work in California and how the legal process works in California and ensuring that, you know, we do it as well as we can.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Senator, please.

Thank you, Mister chair. Thank you. And I apologize that I didn't get a chance to meet with you either. We've got multiple committees, and that's no excuse. And then a nonprofit of the year, so I do apologize. I read all your documents. You are very highly qualified, I will tell you that.

But I do have a couple of questions regarding your position on the death penalty. I know that your office earlier this year filed a writ of petition with the California Supreme Court arguing that the state's capital punishment system is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has deemed it constitutional. They said it wasn't unconstitutional, and they do have a.

When they did this statement on the 8th Amendment. The Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment, but it does not categorize or categorically prohibit the death penalty.

I realize that this was all done before you are being appointed to this position, but I, however, understand, based on what I read that, and correct me if I'm wrong, will you continue to support that effort? Even so, in 2016, Californians rejected repealing the death penalty case.

So against the will of the people, as the position you're being appointed to, do you still hold firm that the decision that you have made to join that Supreme Court decision?

Yes. So in terms of what the original writ alleged, it is that the death penalty as applied as currently applied in California is a violation of the state equal protection clause.

So not the death penalty writ large as a punishment, but in terms of how it is laid out in California and how it plays out in California in the moment, that is an important distinction precisely for the reason you raise, which is both the federal court and the Proposition.

I will note that the California Constitution obviously carries its own weight and force and is interpreted separately by the California Supreme Court, and that is their responsibility to assess it in terms of our constitution. So I do continue to support that case.

We have an obligation to our clients to bring forward all potential avenues to resolve their claims.

Thank you. The second question I have is same subject line. If that is supported and it does overturn the death penalty per se. I know it's on a, I believe an Executive order now, but if it does, what happens to those people that are on death row?

Like, do they stay in prison or do they have eligibility for release or what happens to those individuals?

So that would not be, of course, our decision to make. So again, if it. That is sort of, I think in a world where many different things could happen, it would be an, again, it's an as applied challenge.

So it was possible that the state could come and sort of correct the aspects of it that were found to be flawed if that was the case. And then there would have to be sort of judicial determinations about what comes next. But it's not a situation where folks.

Are just released and are taxpayer dollars used for this writ and for the resources to support this, or is that done individually by individuals? My staff is paid through tax dollars. Through taxpayer tax dollars joined onto this as taxpayer expense. Even though the taxpayer is rejected the repeal.

We represent folks who are sentenced to death, and so that is our taxpayer funded rule. I just.

Yeah, just wanted to make that the other question. I have totally separate subject matter. I represent a lot of rural communities, as does the pro tem. And you've made a statement that sometimes there's not even a dedicated public defender in some of those rural communities. What resources or ideas of you taking this role do you have?

Because some of our rural communities in the state, they deserve a public defender as well. So just what's your thought process on making sure, at least in every county, there are public defenders that would be available to help protect those that are in the situation that they find themselves in.

Thank you for this question. It is such an important issue. It is true that in California, each county can design its own system, and many small and rural counties do not have public defender systems. We have taken a look at what some other states do that also have a variety of small and rural counties.

I will note that, for example, in Texas, many small and rural counties join together to have a multi jurisdictional county. Small and rural counties in California do that already and for a number of other matters, often for juvenile hall, sometimes for various other responsibilities that they have. So that is certainly one opportunity.

We also recognize that some counties simply don't have enough lawyers. There's simply a dearth of lawyers. So thinking about pipeline into bringing attorneys and making it realistic for them to live in small and rural counties.

Thank you. Thank you very much for answering my questions. Thank you.

Thank you. And my apologies also, we didn't get a chance to meet. And thank you for braving the heat on your way out with your whole family. Stay hydrated. My questions are kind of on a different line.

I've done a lot of work in the mental health space, and one of the areas of programs I was part of helping develop was the care court, the care system. And we've heard from some cities that they're having a lot of trouble working with the public defender's office.

So I guess I wonder if you could talk a little bit about what representation looks like, because you said everyone is entitled to representation.

But I think some of the concerns, and I want to find a way to work on it, that getting somebody into treatment, right to me, is good representation, that they can begin to get help so they don't end up in the criminal system. And since it's a civil system, it's different.

So does your office have any authorization or oversight of public defense as it relates in civil courts, like, you know, in community courts to try to get people help versus trying to keep them from getting help and then oftentimes reoffend.

So to answer the second question, we don't have any authority over these local offices. It is a complicated issue. As you note, services provided through the legal system are always complicated in that way. And the role of a public defender is to represent their client. So this is an ongoing issue.

I will note that care court, as you know, is very, very new. It was just rolled out in the pilot counties. We are aware of it. We've done a number of trainings on it.

But it's going to have to sort of grow, and people are going to have to understand what the possibilities are and how to best meet their clients needs and their community's needs.

Do you have ideas about implementation?

Ideas, yes. But I am not a policymaker for. And I think much of this has to do. And I will also say that every county does it differently. That is primarily the issue issues. That every county does it differently. And to speak in generalities is just not helpful when you know how counties interact.

Who is doing the work in a particular county is very local. But I do think that the more services are provided in a non coercive setting and cooperatively and in a way that meets people's needs and where they are, the better it is for. For everybody.

We all make that same argument.

All we can do is try.

Thank you so much. All right, any other questions or comments at this time from the Committee? All right, hearing c nine. What we'd like to better do is open it up. Public comment for individuals who would like to be able to speak in support of. Madam Public defender, if you could please come forward. Forward.

At this time, we're going to ask folks to be able to come forward to the podium, provide your first and last name. And if you're with an organization, if you could please provide the name of the organization as well. We're going to open it up for those in support. Those in support, please step forward.

Hearing and seeing no one rise, we're now going to seek those who would like to be able to speak in opposition. If you could please come forward to the podium at this time.

I really hope my dad's not standing.

I see. There we go. Exactly. I like it. We're going to do a last call for opposition. All right. We're going to bring it back to Committee debater, see if there's any last minute discussion or debate from the Members hearing. C none. Is there a motion for approval? We have a motion by Senator Eggman.

Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll call].

That is a 4-0 vote. Congratulations. Next stop is the Senate Floor. We're grateful. And again, please, it is so wonderful to have your family here with us today. They must be so incredibly proud.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

We're gonna take a 32nd break, allow Madam public defender and the family to be able to exit the chambers, and then we'll bring it back. In the meantime, we're going to have. Mister Director, please come on up. We're going to be talking with Jared Patton in 30 seconds. Going up for confirmation. Director of the California Conservation Corps.

30 seconds, please.

You're going to have one to two minutes to be able to provide opening testimony. In the one to two minutes, we are going to welcome any remarks and any acknowledgments that you may have of individuals who are here with you today. We're going to be keeping time.

I'll give you a heads up when you get to about 30 seconds in front of two minutes. And we're grateful. Thank you so much for being here. Sir, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Chair Mcguire, Vice Chair, Grove, left. We'll be back. And Members of the Committee, my name is Jared Jp Patton, and I'm honored and grateful to be appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to serve as the Director of the California Conservation Corps.

My parents careers were dedicated to California State Service, and while they're no longer with me, I would like to think they are quite proud of this day at home. My partner Silas is rooting for me online. Thank you, and I love you for your support. And watching from the office is an incredible CCC team.

Team and the leadership of CNRA. I'm humbled by the presence of friends, mentors, and collaborators, including my predecessor, Bruce Saito, senior Deputy Director Larry Notice, the leaders of the CCC foundation, the California Association of Local Conservation Corps, the Sacramento Local Corps, the North Bay Conservation Corps, and Civic Corps of Oakland. Honorable Members.

My career has been dedicated to public service, particularly in the good work of engaging young adults in outdoor education, recreation, conservation, and workforce development. My primary focus is to fill our mandate to provide corps Members with employment pathways through academic and job skills training.

Finally, as represented by this Blue Corps Member hat, I express my appreciation for all corps Members serving California, and I publicly reaffirm my commitment to their success. Today is the first day on the job for corps Member Alex Moreno, who is exchanging his blue CCC hat for his CAL FIRE hat with the Tehema Glenn unit.

His story and the 1600 other corps Members stories inspired me to lead the CCC. Thank you for your kind consideration and for the time you and your staff have made for me in this process, and I look forward to our conversation.

Thank you so much, Mister Director. Very grateful you're here. Let's start out with Senator Laird.

Thank you. Because they're on the fourth Bill in labor. This was a very important confirmation to me. I really appreciate. We have had multiple meetings, even unrelated to this, and your. We talked about so much. It's hard to focus. And the fact that your predecessor is here. He was outstanding.

The fact that he came from Southern California for this is a tribute to you. One thing to talk about is, and first, at some point, you'll explain to people the hierarchy of hats and what a blue hat means. But there has been a change with the decentralization of prisons. A lot of the prisoners go to the sheriffs.

They are less available for the prison fire corps, and it has put a bigger responsibility on the Conservation Corps. And I think our conversation said it is up to 30% of the corps Members are related to firefighting. How have you handled that trend? Do you see it? A trend still continuing?

And it's really thrilling that you use the example of somebody that is going into the fire service from the corpse. How is that fitting with the court this time?

It is thrilling, and it's an area of growth for the corps. We've gone through some incredible growth over the last couple of years. You are correct. About 30% of our crews are dedicated to fighting fires. Whether they're not fighting fires, they're doing important fuels work. So we've welcomed this. We prepared for this.

I think there is always a case to be made to continue to grow in this space. But we've hit this great point where we're seeing so many young corps Members get picked up for CAL FIRE positions. I think about 513 or so to date, around 100 this year already.

So I'm very proud of the 30 CAL FIRE crews that we have available at the CCC. I do think with the accelerating climate crisis, that this is vital. I'm proud that some of our crews that are permanent, or, excuse me, were temporary, are now permanent up in Fortuna and Chico. That's a good sign.

To me, that is a strong testament of the direction that we're heading. So do we want to grow and continue? Absolutely. I want far more CCC centers out there.

And yet the governor's proposed budget, while saying, zero, we'll just let the one time funds expire, as if that is significant in the universe, it cuts the core significantly down to what the ongoing baseline is. And so when you're trying to do this, and God help us, we've been lucky the last two years.

We're just falling into the ocean. We haven't gone back to fire, but when we go back to fires. Is this going to be enough resources for you to have corps Members supplement CAL FIRE in that firefighting?

We're going to do the best that we can with the resources that we've got. 30 crews is 450 corps Members were spread out all across the state. So I feel confident and sufficient that the crews that we have will be able to respond and do and do a great job. What will come of the budget season?

We will tell, and we will cross that river when we get to it. But right now, I think we are sufficiently staff and supported.

I would expect you, in the interest of keeping your job, to be supportive, but I think it is worth highlighting.

I appreciate it.

There is that challenge there. Another challenge is that I think the current number is, and I could be wrong, 82% of the corps Members are men. Yes. And how are you moving in a way that there's going to be a little more equity in who's in the core?

I appreciate that question. So one of the things that I intend to do in this world is make sure that we have a core fall, and that looks like making sure that we are at closer parity, gender parity in the core, and so we've got some room to grow in that space. The number is correct.

It's about 80 to 20 at this point. And we've done a couple of great things. Number one, our leadership team recently went to a government summit about women in government, and from that they came back really energized about the training and mentorship programs they want to bring to the core.

We have been talking to our staff, our core Members, cbos, other thought partners about what to do. We've had conversations, everyone here on this, on this panel, and we have some really, really good ideas. They're not fully baked, but we're in their early stages. But it looks like this.

For folks who are providing childcare or kin care or elder care, what could we do as a corps to make sure that those folks are supported with resources for that care? And it looks like partnering with maybe cbos to support that?

Another thing we're thinking of is in our project portfolio, are there other programs that we can be emphasizing relative to interpretation, education, or stem that might be attractive to folks, to our program? And finally, we're also looking at. We've got, my Executive team is comprised of over 50% women, and many of them were core Members.

And so you might hear some things in the future about us shifting our selection, excuse me, the classifications that we use to make sure that the upward mobility is maintained. We also have targeted recruitment.

You can see a lot of our storytelling on all of our channels will be focused on getting the word out to women that the CCC is here and there's a place for women in the CCC. So there's a lot of great work ahead of us.

And thank you too, because I know we had to do some legislation that made the terms applying to the core more gender neutral. One last question, and that is, I remember I was really impressed and we talked about it when we met.

We have this problem that we don't have enough employment opportunities for veterans coming out of the military. At the same time, our veteran pool is 82% men. And so if you give veterans preference, you're jumping a lot of men up in front of women.

And one of the things that has impressed me is you have veterans, different veterans units, where people come out, they serve with you, they land somewhere. When they come out, they are employable. I went out to the back trail crews with some of the veterans crews.

Nice talk about how many you've got and how that's working right now.

Our veterans program. Thank you for that question. So to participate in the California Conservation Corps, you can be 18 to 25, up to 29 if you're a veteran. And there are five locations throughout California at our centers where we have programs dedicated to the support of vets.

I think currently we have about 50 or so vets who have entered into the program since the beginning of the year. That's a considerable and awesome thumb. At our centers in Fortuna, Camarillo, Willits, excuse me, Ukiah, soon to be Willets, Delta, and Los Padres, we have programs. We have a NOAA fisheries vet program as well.

And it does exactly as you mentioned. It is a landing place, a second home, an opportunity for veterans to get new skills, retool, and then get back out there into the workforce when they're ready.

That's great. And mentioning fisheries probably endeared yourself to the chair of the Committee. So thank you for doing that.

Thank you.

I could go on because I'm a real believer in the corpse and what it does. And one of the highlights for me every year when I was secretary was 15 core Members coming in and telling me their life story. It was moving. Thank you. And it really turned people around in really positive ways.

So thank you for being willing to serve, and I look forward to voting for your confirmation.

I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

I say thank you so much to Mister secretary now, Senator as well. That's right. This has been an absolute passion, Senator. Laird. So thank you so much. Please. Senator Eggman.

I thought I was the biggest champion for the California Conservation Corps, apparently. Get in line, right? Get in line by Senator Laird. And he asked most of my questions. I was going to ask. We had a great conversation.

I enjoyed meeting with you, and I'm a huge believer in the core. The gender equity issue is one that is very much of interest to me.

And so I'm intrigued by your idea, because I know we focus on outdoors, but if there's ever thought of providing certificates and training for caregiving and maybe even caregiving out in the environment, we know that's one of the best things for mental health, is the outdoors as another way to potentially bring in women.

Thank you. Yeah. And you reminded me, too, that we've started a great internship program as well. So there's, under the umbrella of conservation. There's a lot you can do out there. Right there. There's lots of roles that people can do. Interns for people who maybe I have an interest in policy or law.

So those are new pathways we're opening up at the CCC, which are really exciting as well. Thank you.

What color do you call that tie? It's beautiful. That's an awesome color. Magenta. Ask my wife.

Ask the wife. I don't know. Yeah. Thank you, though. I appreciate it.

Thank you. I'll be excited to vote for it. Hey, thank you so much. Jones, do you have any items that you'd like to add? Okay. Thank you so much. A couple items. Mister Director. I'd like to be able to focus in on one focusing at home, and then the other is in regards to core pay.

Look, I know that we're in a pretty difficult budget year. I think that we're going to be able to get out of it and then start looking at a turnaround here in the next 2436 months. One of the challenges, and I.

I'll speak for myself, I don't want to put words into your mouth, is the issue of core pay with corps Members, but then the leads within the corps. Can you talk a little bit about that? And again, this is something that I've just noticed having conversations with core Members.

I think it's wanting to be able to get additional folks that look more like the rest of California into the core. And while the work experience is critical, let's just be candid. I think one of the best things that we can do live in a value statement is pay folks what they're worth.

That's right.

So can you talk a little bit about that, because that is a concern that I have going forward.

Thank you. Yeah. Since my role as a regional Deputy Director, we made great strides in improving the stipend that core Members get. I think it now sits around 20814 a month is where it's at. That is not at fast food prices, which is dollar 20 an hour.

But I think there's incredible value that the CCC presents, and I think that people are paying attention to that and that we see that in our long wait list. So beyond the pay, there's also the medical insurance that is provided. There are the scholarship opportunities. And so I agree with you. I would love to get more.

More money and more funding for folks into people's pockets, because they certainly deserve it and more. And we'll continue to work on that and improve that when we can.

Yeah, I think. And then there's a compaction issue, I think, that you also have just working with our own budget staff, taking a look at what you have core Members making versus the leads as well. Right. And again, this is something that I know our budget team has been looking at.

Obviously, again, it's a tough budget year, but $2,800 a month doesn't cut it. Right. I mean, the average minimum wage worker in the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, has to work three full time jobs. On the north coast, it's two full time jobs. Right.

So again, I know what the motto is, but just being super honest about it, just the cost of rent alone, it's tough. I think longer term. Again, I'm not trying to put words in your mouth or pressure you to say something you don't want to say. But I do think it's an issue, right.

That we're going to need to be able to address as a state.

The thing I want to say is thank you. Thanks for raising that.

You're being very safe. I totally get it.

No, but no, honestly, it needs to be said. It's the thing in the room. You know, the residential program is pretty incredible. And that is because we have such a wait list for a residential program, which, you know, $500 gets you your room, your board, because there's such a list for that. I think it's important and vital.

You struck a nerve.

I hear you. I'm gonna switch subjects. I think it's really exciting in regards to taking over the old Eureka armory. Right. And it's also in this really central area where you have the Sequoia park zoo. You got to school, you got Sequoia park.

Well, it's underutilized know that there's a deal for the next few years to be able to have some equipment on the grounds and a shared space, if you will, with the guard. But long term. Right. I think that is a really unique opportunity. Absolutely. To be able to expand the footprint.

That's right. Absolutely. We're really looking forward to it. So the Fortuna center has expanded. The fire crew over there is permanent. We put on some new assets at that property. And so the back country trails program and the watershed Stewards program has been looking for a new home.

We found a particular property, but we have entered into an agreement with the military Department. And this is an awesome opportunity for our group.

And if you just want to go into ramp up time realistically, what do you think in regards to transition?

Really, really quick. As soon as it's signed on, we're ready to go. Ready to move.

Got it. That's great news. Thank you. Again, a really critical piece of the puzzle in that whole section of town. And it's been, no, not trying to throw stones into the military apartment, but just you cutting the weeds has been a game changer. Thank you. They were as tall as redwoods. So we're excited to move in. Yeah.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. We'd like to be able to see if there's any additional questions. Comments, please.

Thank you. Mister chair, I apologize. I'm doing double duty on Committee, so I. Forgive me. It was not rude to leave. I just had another obligation. I thank you first for my award you gave me. The CCC gave me an award last a couple weeks ago. It was really honored to receive it.

I work really well with David in Kern, county, and I think he's incredible.

I want to focus a little bit on the second chancellor issue and the reason why, obviously, and I know my colleagues get tired of me saying this, but the oil industry used to provide jobs to 55% of the people in the oil industry were second chancers making quite a bit of money.

And now those jobs are leaving the state. So I appreciate your ability to still offer second chancers an opportunity to be able to. And when I say second chancers, I mean formally incarcerated, which is the correct word. I like them to have second chancers.

What are your thoughts about the program, and can you expand it so that these individuals have an opportunity to stay out, provide for their families? I mean, I know you're not paying them the pro tem. Just address the issue. $100,000 a year, $80,000 like we're paying them. We're paying them in the oil industry.

But how do you address that so that they have an opportunity to know that there's something else better out there than going back to prison.

Thank you for that. So the middle name of the CCC is a second chance. And that's what we're all about, which is the growth and development of a young person. And a person makes mistakes and challenges, and you need that second chance.

And so what folks might be interested to know is that we've had a longstanding relationship and support of folks who are on probation, parole, and formerly incarcerated. And those folks come to our program, and they do very, very well in our program.

So for us, we will continue to support them, uplift them, and it is a launch pad into their next right step, whatever that is going to be. And there are tons of opportunities within the CCC. There is energy, there is fire, there is culinary, there is backcountry, there is water. And this is available to all of them.

Again, the thing to be able to serve in the CCC is just a motivation for hard work, self improvement, and development and service, and that's it.

And soft skills. I think if you can teach somebody soft skills and they can adopt those, then, I mean, you can be the best welder in the world. But if I can't get you to show up for work or be on time, it's kind of irrelevant how good your skills are.

So I really appreciate the soft skill training that you guys do as well. I follow that.

Thank you.

So last week, I think, or the week before in rolls, we had the fire marshal here, and he talked about the partnerships with CAL FIRE. And can you talk about the advantages and if there are disadvantages? I would think it would pretty well be positive.

But can you talk about the advantages and disadvantages in the partnership that CCC has with CAL FIRE?

I love our partnership with CAL FIRE. It is the blueprint. It is something that we are using for our relationship with our other state agencies as well. Chief Berlant referenced last week that they are soaking up a lot of our firefighters, which is a rhythm that we've got accustomed to, which is completely great.

So what might seem like, on its face, hard or challenge for us, to me, that means our program is exactly running as it should. I'm very proud that we have 100 corps Members going to join the fire services and counting. And when our crews, when our folks leave us, we replenish them with more folks.

So there's a big interest out there for folks joining the fire services. And so it's a good problem to have and it's a great relationship.

Thank you. And nothing. I mean, I admirably support firefighters. I think they're incredible and they do their job and nothing against them whatsoever shape or form.

But I can tell you that a few years ago, our ranch got caught on fire and it was a CCC crews that went out at night to put out all the hot spots, and they were carrying backpacks and tools and equipment and working all night long to those flare ups that could possibly start the ranch on fire again.

And they were hard and again, firefighters, hard working, dedicated. But that CCC crew that was there and they didn't know who I was, they didn't know whose property it was. They were out there. And, I mean, I'm talking 12 hours all night long making sure that the ranch was safe.

And I'm sure they do that to every property that they take care of. So complimentary to your leadership and making sure that they do a really good job. So thank you.

I appreciate that. I bring that back.

Thank you so much, madam Vice Chair. We'd like to be able to see if there's any additional comments or questions, please. Leader Jones.

Thank you. Thank you, Director, thanks for coming this morning. I didn't have any really specific questions regarding you or the job that you're being appointed to, but I do have. I've got some budget notes and I just. Something just jumped out at me as I was looking through this.

So the governor's proposed 2425 budget is a total of about 155 million. $100 million is General Fund. The CCC gets reimbursements of 44 million, cap and trade 12 million. So here's what jumped out at me. The budget proposes 502 administrator and support positions in addition to the 1634 corps Members in 2425.

The number that jumped out is 502 administrators. That seems like a lot of Administration for 1600 folks are actually feet and hands on the ground doing the work and obviously I'm missing something, so. And are you able to speak to that today or can you get back to us on it? Or.

I'll get back to you on that, because I'm not quite sure what that. What that number is emanating from. That sounds like the number of our staff that we currently. We have, but it's not a new ask, but we'll certainly follow up on that.

Well, yeah, I'm not. It's not showing here that it's a new ask. I think it's traditional. But if. Yeah, I'd like to see some justification for 500 to administrating and support people for that number of. We'll look into that for you. Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you.

Please.

Approximately how many core people?

About 1600.

Okay, so those numbers are correct.

Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Any additional comments or questions from the Committee? Please.

I'm sorry. When would you anticipate being able to get that back to us? Within the week or so. Perfect. Thank you.

All right, so why don't we do this? We're going to go to each of you to be able to see if there's anyone who would like to be able to speak in support of the Director.

Mister Director, what we'd like to be able to say is, let's just say by the end of next week, by next Friday, if you could just get the Committee through Lisa Chin, and then she'll distribute to each of the offices the answer by Mister Jones for you.

So that would be a date of the 14th that we're going to need to be able to get that back in writing. Appreciate that. Thank you so much. Leader Jones, is that appropriate for you? Thank you so much. And then miss Chen, you'll also follow up with the director's office on that. Thank you so much.

All right, why don't we do this? Let's open it up for public comment. We're going to look to those individuals who would like to be able to speak in support of this confirmation. If you could please come forward. We're going to ask you to please state your first and last name along with your potential organization.

We're going to ask you to please keep your comments to 30 seconds or less. Welcome, sir.

Hi, my name is Adam Summers. I'm the Executive Director of the CCC Foundation. I worked with David Miracki years ago. I worked throughout Bruce Saito's tenure at the CCC, and I've worked with Jared Patton when he was a regional Deputy Director, and since November of this year. And I support this appointment fully. Without exception.

I think that Jared is intelligent, compassionate, a visionary in this area, and a great face for the CCC going forward. For the next 50 years. They have an anniversary in two, so for the next 50, he would be a good face for this organization. Thank you. Thank you so much.

We thought we were going to keep him there for 50.

He set the stage.

All right, there we go. Thank you so much. Welcome. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Hi, my name is Angel Miner and I'm the CEO of Conservation Corps North Bay. And so we are a local Conservation Corps. We do a lot of work around zero waste for our community, but we also do a lot of work around fuels reduction.

We are doing trails clearing, a lot of similar things that are happening at the CCC.

And then the last couple years, we also launched Fire Foundry, which is something that helps underserved young adults, women get into the fire service where they wouldn't have an opportunity, includes housing, includes a lot of the wrap around support, that kind of models what the CCC does.

And when I think about those things and I think about the things that he's already done. Right. And you think about the extra firefighters that have, have been brought on board, you talk about the training that's already been put in place for the leaders and for the senior corps Members, and he's offering those to our folks, too.

Right? So things that we wouldn't have an opportunity to be able to do. So it's bringing that kind of community together for all of us. And I think these are really important things that we partner together. We serve a lot of the same constituents. We do it sometimes in different ways.

We are as nonprofits, but there are a lot of places where we can partner, share resources. We're working on education, education opportunities together. And so I think that partnership and looking at that going forward.

And the other thing I want to say is, you know, we did a gov day maybe a couple months ago, and I remember he came around, he said hello, and I thought, zero, he's going to do the drive by and say hi to everybody. And he probably has a lot more important things to do.

And he was there all day, and he talked to every one of our core Members, and he wanted to know what they were doing and what their background was and what they wanted to get out of this. And that's not something you can find easily. And so I certainly fully support on this appointment.

Thank you so much. It's good to see you, Miss Miner. Appreciate you being here as well. Thank you so much. Good afternoon. Welcome.

Good afternoon. My name is Paula Birdsong, and I'm the Executive Director for the Sacramento Regional Conservation Corps. Good to see all of your faces. I'm here to ask you to support JP Patton.

As the Director of the California Conservation Corps, we are supremely proud of the work he has done in his short tenure, and his vision aligns with our local corps.

We're one of 14 corps throughout the State of California, and we're happy that the work that we can do in partnership is definitely in line with supporting and enriching the lives of 18 to 26 year old and sometimes older for the CCC Members.

Over his tenure, Mister Patton has relaunched the global core and expanded the operations in a number of countries. I happened to be in Honduras and I can attest just a month ago of the work that the corps is doing there.

I complimented a young man for the work he was doing on the roads and he said he was with the corps. And I went, stop. You could not be. That's what I do. And we had a great conversation not knowing, and I said, that's Jarrett's doing. I know it is.

Mister Patton has also enhanced contracting opportunities with the California Natural Resource Agency. And we're very grateful that that bond is growing and growing for all of our young people in our corps. Additionally, Mister Patton has facilitated the hiring of 87 new firefighters, significantly boosting the fire response capabilities.

These are just some of the examples of why we think, and we are so proud of the work that has happened, that we believe will continue to happen under his leadership. So we wholeheartedly and enthusiastically and sincerely support the confirmation of Jp Patton. Thank you so much.

We're grateful. Thank you so much for your words today.

Welcome, sir. Good afternoon. How are you doing? Good afternoon and thank you. My name is Stephen Addison and I represent Civicorps. We're a local Conservation Corps based out of West Oakland. We're here in support of Jp Patton for Director of this California Conservation Corps.

As Director, Mister Patton has focused on increasing career pathways for our corps Members, championing diversity, equity and inclusion, and expanding the corps global reach. Over his tenure, his accomplishments have been many. The ones that focus on strengthening local cores have an important impact on the many urban and rural Conservation Corps. The many rural and. Sorry.

The lives of many urban and rural corps Members not directly touched by the CCC. Mister Pattine has helped to enhance our contracting with the California natural resource agencies, which has afforded us opportunity to work with many different land managers throughout the East Bay and throughout the state.

Mister Patton has also helped to expand the training for CCC can offer local Conservation Corps, which helps us ready our corps Members and staff to better serve the people and lands of California. I started my journey in conservation work 30 years ago when I joined the CCC.

It was one of the most consequential decisions I've made in my life. I believe Mister Patton will continue the legacy and the tradition of the CCC, vetting the lives of the young adults and the Californians that we serve. Thank you. And because of this, we support your nomination and thank you for all the work you've done.

Thank you so much. Grateful for your words.

From one Director to another. Welcome.

Good afternoon, Committee chair and Committee Members. Bruce Saito, retired civil servant. And I'm here in total support of the appointment of Jared Patton. Jp, I'm wearing two hard hats today. One is a hard hat as a board Member of something called the Corps Network. Corps Network is a national membership organization representing 140 Conservation Corps.

And the core network initially supported Jp's appointment and now is supporting his commitment to the CCC and commitment to the state because he brings a vast knowledge, not just of experience in core programs in California, but not just locally, but also nationwide, where he serves on the core council or the core network board as a core Council Member.

And the second hat I'm wearing is on a very personal level. As a former Director of the California Conservation Corps, I've had the privilege of witnessing firsthand the commitment, the dedication and the true sincerity of the work of Jp.

And as Angel said, it's not just that he has a great knowledge and ability to direct and manage 503 administrative 1600 corps Members, but that he also does that with a real sense of sincerity, honesty and integrity. And I think because of all those reasons and then some, Jp will make a fantastic California Conservation Corps Director.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Mister Director. It's good to see you. Appreciate your comments.

Hey, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, chair and Members. I'm Nicholas Mazzotti. On behalf of the California Association of Local Conservation Corps, which is made up of 14 local community cores throughout the state, certified by the CCC. I know there's been a lot of wonderful comments made about Jp Patton already, so I'll keep it brief.

But Jp, since his appointment as acting Director since November 2023, he's put a lot of work towards building up the Corps Movement. And at the core of that has been a wonderful relationship with the local Conservation Corps. We have a long history working with the CCC, and he's had a strong commitment to helping us from day one.

And for these reasons, we are excited to continue working with him and encourage you all to vote to confirm him.

Thank you so much. Grateful for your words today. All right, we're going to do a last call. Thank you all for those beautiful words. We'd like to see if there's anyone else in support. All right, we're now going to look to any individual who would like to be able to come forward who may be in opposition.

If you could please step forward to the podium. We're going to do a last call for opposition here in scene nine. We're going to bring it back to Committee to be able to see if there's any last minute discussion or debate. We're also welcome. A motion, please.

I would move. We confirm Jp Patton as Director of the California Conservation Corps.

We have a motion by Senator Laird. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll call].

That's 4-0 vote on call. 4-0 vote on call. Mister Director, we'll get out of I share onto the vote roll. I will say in early. Knock on Wood. Congratulations. Thanks so much. I'm sure Silas is also really proud of you as well, so. Yeah, thank you so much. All right, more to come. Thank you.

We're going to take a two minute break, allow for a little bit of a break for our amazing court reporter, if that works. And then as we take this break, we're going to welcome Mister Broad. Come on forward. That will be our next potential appointment. Two minutes, please.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to come back together. We're going to welcome Mr. Broad to Committee, moving forward with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Mr. Broad, it's really good to see you. My goodness.

Pleasure to be here. Chairman McGuire, Members of the Committee, it's a great honor to be on the ALRB. I feel very grateful that the Governor was confident enough in my abilities to reappoint me. I want to thank your staff, meeting with them.

I have to confess, it's more of a reunion than a grilling, but, or at least that's how I felt, or I've been grilled enough that it doesn't much matter. But anyway.

And also I want to thank the Governor's staff, who've been very, very, very helpful to me, and the labor agency staff who have helped guide me along the way. I want to thank the court reporter. I represented court reporters for many years.

I know how hard you work, I know what you do, and probably you don't get thanked too often by witnesses, but I just want to thank you. I want to say something very brief about, and then answer your questions. But I want to say something brief but important.

50 years ago, almost 50 years ago, when the ALRA was enacted, labor relations in California, agriculture was contentious, highly contentious, and it was often violent. And I think we forget that because it's still contentious, but it's not violent.

And the ALRB's role really, when you kind of go to the 50,000 foot level, its role is to help ensure that disputes in agriculture, however contentious they may be, between workers and employers, between unions and employers, that their differences are resolved peacefully and that there's peace in rural California.

Now, it's been long enough that I don't think we remember so easily what that was like. I remember because it was in my sort of teens and young adult life, in college. I mean, I saw that and remember it all, but it's been a long time.

And a lot of our cases, I mean, people ask me, what are most of your cases like? Well, most of our cases actually don't involve unions fighting with employers. They actually involve workers who on their own, the majority of them have an issue. They raise that issue with the employer. There's not enough drinking water.

A lot of them are health and safety issues that they raise. The employer may react like, go back to work or I don't want to listen to it, or you don't have a problem, and somebody gets retaliated against or alleges that they're retaliated against, or the workers walk off the job and say, that's it.

You know, we can't take it. And we're there to resolve that dispute, to figure out who's right, who's wrong, put people back to work if they need to be put back to work. And we're there to wear those blinders, that blindfold of justice, which is we're not there to take one side or another.

We're there to uphold the law, follow the law, and apply the law fairly without bias. And that's what I hope I'm doing. I'm very lucky to be on this board. We happen to have five board members who I'm sure you all know this one toxic personality can ruin any kind of a Committee.

But our board happens to have five extraordinarily dedicated people, and we have a very collegial board and deal with our issues. And it's a pleasure to work there. We have an amazing staff. So I just wanted to say that. And I want to thank you, and I'm prepared to answer your questions.

Thank you so much, Mr. Broad. Very grateful. What we'd like to be able to do is open it up for questions, comments, discussion, and debate from Committee. We'd like to be able to see if there's any individual who would like to be able to advance a comment or question. Sure. Madam Vice Chair, floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for meeting with me. I know after watching those others, you're like, oh, dang, she came back.

No, I had a good time.

Thank you. Thank you for spending all that time with me. I really do appreciate it. So, obviously, I want to talk about AB 2183 and AB 113 specifically. You know, almost a year after the Governor signed 2183 he signed AB 113.

And I realize that you are just the implementation part of the policy, but you gave a very good explanation in my office about the card check bill specifically, what we reference as card check.

And I'd like you to go through that process for the benefit of the public, again, talking about the process of how you used to be able to solve the, or agree on something before you actually have the vote, and go through that process of what the card actually means. Now, it's not just a card.

Yes. So the bill that was passed by the Legislature and signed, AB 113, is a new process, really. It's kind of unique in labor relations. It's not unprecedented. Millions of workers have been certified to be represented by a union through card check processes. But they're a little different the way they work under the National Labor Relations Act. We have something similar at perb.

And the way this system works, just so you understand it, is that rather than a traditional secret ballot election, where the board agents show up at the employer's place of business on a specific day with a table and chairs and a ballot box and a sign, vote here and conduct an election in which each person comes up, they're checked off a list, but all issues related to objections that somebody might have, like, wait a minute.

You are a supervisor and you're not eligible to vote. Or in the case of agriculture, you have to work in the peak weeks of work of the employer. Well, wait a minute. You weren't in the peak period or whatever.

All that is resolved before the votes are counted and the union is certified or not certified as the winner. In this system, you get an authorization card, and I know you're used to this as legislators, but sometimes we speak in euphemisms, laws speak in euphemisms.

And the thing is sort of a little bit different than it may be described. Authorization card is traditionally what occurs in labor relations. But in the traditional secret ballot election, you turn a sufficient number of those into the governmental agency, and that triggers the election. You have to have a 30% showing of interest.

The authorization cards now are the ballot, and we're drafting regulations right now. They're still in the discussion stage where it's going back and forth between the public comment and revisions. We're getting very close to the end, and we intend, at least where our proposal is now, that it's very made very clear.

This card is your ballot on that card, so that workers understand they're not just authorizing the union to represent them, they are voting for the union to represent them. Those cards, when they are turned in under this process, they are counted. There is an investigation that our staff does within five days, and then they tally those cards.

And if the union has a majority of the eligible voters, they're certified as the representative, and if they don't, they're not certified. Only then are objections heard by us. So it's certified. First object, and then the objections, if they're sustained, can undo the certification.

So that's a, that's a significantly different process than it exists elsewhere, and we're just dealing with it. We've had the first three cases. We haven't yet finalized our regulations, so it is emerging, but we're trying as hard as we can to faithfully follow the direction of the Legislature in the statute. We don't write statutes.

We do what you tell us to do, and that's what we're trying to do. Thank you.

Thank you. I just. I appreciate that explanation very much. So, because I have a lot of colleagues in this bill passes that it was part of the same process, and it's not the same process. It's actually an election process. Instead of an interest and then a vote, it's an automatic election process with this card check.

Is there education that is going out? Is there resources or is there information on education to educate the farmworkers? Because under the traditional standard, if they wanted to elect a union, they would go, yes, I want to have a vote. But what they don't understand is they're voting at that very moment.

Is there an education process, or is there curriculum, or...

There is information on our website. I mean, how many people read it? We have outreach staff. We have to be very sensitive about education in the sense that we're neutral. So we have to explain people what their rights are. But we cannot encourage someone to support or not support being represented by a union.

So we have to explain that we also, in these regulations, are considering that... Well, let me step back. In a traditional secret ballot election, there's sort of a notice that goes out that's posted at the farm that says there's going to be an election. And here's where you call for information, and here's what's going to happen.

What we're considering now is a proposal that's come from our staff that would, when those cards are turned in, which is the first official act that happens, they're turned into our board, that our board would then post a notice and go to the farm and explain what the process will be going forward to the workers.

Now, we can't go before that because we don't know that anything has happened necessarily. The cards are being collected by a union, and then when they are submitted to us, there's an official act, therefore, we can respond officially, and that communication session will include sort of a question and answer period.

Thank you.

And it's important, and I just want to say one more thing. It's important because we need to make it clear to everybody that this is about free choice for workers. They have a right to form and join unions.

They have a right to refrain from forming and joining unions, and neither side can exert undue pressure on them to reject or support a union. It's got to be free choice.

Absolutely. I agree. Under this new law, AB 113, the unions, they go out, they set up a table. I have photographs of all this stuff, right? That where you go out and the name of every employee is already filled out. And when the person comes out to the table, they just say, sign this.

And what I'm trying to get at is these farmworkers, where I represent the most large number of farmworkers in the entire state, they're not understanding that they're joining at that moment. So I'm concerned about the education piece, which I would like to follow up with you on.

And then I also want to know that when that table you described goes up and the union's out there and they've got, you know, Shannon Grove, DA DA DA DA DA, works at this thing at the high peak. And I walk up on the job site to pull, you know, I walk up on the job site.

The law says that they're supposed to clearly express to the employee, hey, once you sign this, you are joining a union. Are you guys making sure that that happens, or is that not under your purview?

Well, it would be under our purview to educate people about the process, and we can require the union to communicate what the meaning of the card is. One thing I would correct is this is not happening at the employer's place of employment. The union has to find those workers where they are.

So I just want to make that clear. But the idea that we have is that the authorization card, traditionally, what an authorization card just says is, I authorize the union to represent me in my wages, hours, and working conditions.

But that's not under this.

Now it's going to say, this is a ballot and essentially a vote. If you sign this, you are voting for this union to represent you at this place of employment. So we have to rely also on the fact that the workers have to understand that. And if they don't want to sign it, they don't have to.

Nobody can make them sign that. And employers do have a right to have to educate, they have a right to communicate with their employees, generally speaking, about their position about unionization. They can say, we think it's a good idea. We think it's a bad idea.

They have to be careful that they don't engaged in act of intimidation in which they say things like, you know, if you sign, if you sign that card, I don't think your future employment is going to look very good here. That would be illegal.

But they can, they can run a generalized information campaign, ongoing, however they want to do it, to say, this is our position about unionization, or unionization in general, we don't think you need it. We think we're a great employer and, you know, you don't need that or whatever you want to say. They have to tell the truth.

Everybody's supposed to tell the truth. And in these campaigns, sometimes in the intensity of the moment, people trying to convince people to do things can be a little bit overbearing.

Thank you.

Madam Vice Chair, if it's all right. On this specific issue, Senator Jones, I think you had a clarifying question. Yeah, please, if that's all right. Sure, Vice Chair, please.

On the card specifically, I understand what you're saying. If they sign it, that's a yes vote. But if they don't sign it, is that automatic? Does that card get turned in as a no vote?

No, it doesn't get turned in at all, but their vote, it's not counted towards the 50% majority there. You have to get 50% of the eligible employees. So everybody who doesn't sign a card is a no-vote.

So the vote pool is set at whatever number of employees that is at that point in time. If it's 120 employees or 1200 employees, that number is set and the union has to get a majority of whatever that number is-

Of the bargaining unit. It's not a majority of those, like, present in voting. It's not that kind of a system. It's a majority, outright majority of everybody who's eligible.

On the vote roll at that point in time.

Correct.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We're going to go back to Madam Vice Chair.

Thank you. So, you know, I expressed some of my concerns that I had yesterday with you about farmworkers coming to my office and saying that they were, you know, you don't sign this, you're not going to go to work tomorrow.

And there and over the course of history, especially with the groundwind farmworker movement and, you know, decertifying that election and, well, not, well, decertifying the election, 90/10. I think the farmworkers didn't want it.

And it went through this legislative body and the farmworkers were, I don't want to say attacked by legislation, but they, you know, legislation was adversarial to the farmworkers and all this whole process that goes on.

And the farmworkers clearly spoke after a decision, even after they had the second or third round of ballots counted or not counted, they taken, they locked them up for five years. They had to get a Supreme Court decision to unlock the ballots, so on and so forth.

Is there anything that ALRB is doing to make sure that the union and the employer, but the union is the one that's gathering these cards that are actual votes now, is operating in good faith and making sure that the employee understands that this is not a signature to have an election. This is the election.

And are they clearly expressing that they're the union that's going to represent them? There's three requirements under that law. Is the ALRB have regulatory processes or something in place to make sure that they're complying with what the law says?

Yes, because the first of all, the parties can object and get a hearing after. But that can undo the certification if there's a certification. So it's not like, you know, once you turn in the cards, there's nothing more that can happen.

That's a legal process.

That is a legal process.

So they have to have an attorney and everything else.

Not necessarily, they don't have to, but they often do. And obviously there's the campaign itself. And people can file unfair labor practice charges. And we have three of these cases under this new law pending. Now, I can't talk about them individually, and none of what I'm saying here is about any individual case, but the parties can file unfair labor practice charges.

Employers can file them against unions, and unions can file them against employers, and individual workers can file them against anybody else they want to file them either side.

And those also are a way of dealing with acts of intimidation, misrepresentation, anything like if something happened along what you said that would, if it was true, would, could invalidate the vote. That would be unlawful.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. That's what I needed. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you so much. We're gonna check in with Senator Eggman, please.

Thank you. Nice to see you, Mr. Broad. I wanted to ask just some about your ability to outreach to farmworkers. As it's 100 degrees outside right now, so we know there's no farmers who should be working because of heat issues. And I know your organization has contracted.

So tell me about reaching out to agricultural communities, making sure people know about their rights, especially with, with this heat, child labor laws, and then even the wage theft.

So we're a relatively small agency, like 50, but we have increased, thanks to increased in size in this area. We've hired, expanded our outreach and have specific outreach personnel who go out there. We not only have people who speak Spanish, but who speak the increasingly.

I mean, this is a numerous part of the farmworker population doesn't speak Spanish. They speak indigenous languages. And so we have people who speak indigenous languages, and there are big cultural differences between the two.

And we go out there, and we, obviously, we're not directly the health and safety people, but we don't like to see this as an overly bureaucratic thing. If we see evidence of slavery and human trafficking in the labor market, if we see evidence of health and safety, we will contact law enforcement.

If it was something like human trafficking, we will contact Cal OSHA. If it's a health and safety issue, we don't consider it our job to not put blinders on and not deal with the reality as people. As we see it, we're out there all the time.

The board itself, that is, the five board members, we don't really administer that part. That's done through the general counsel. And as you know, in our agency, it's bifurcated. And the general counsel's office is sort of a separate source of independent power. We sort of co-manage the system because they are a litigant before us.

So we have to be, we have a kind of what they call the firewall, which is not just rhetorical. There's actually a wall literally in our office between us, and we don't go barging through there very often.

And so the answer is yes, we have increased that staff, even though we are small staff and we're out there all the time at community events, in media, and trying to sort of get the word out of what people's rights are, where they go to answer their questions, where do they go to answer their questions?

Whether they're questions that belong to us or belong to somebody else.

So. And you would see workplace violence falling under that same purview as.

Absolutely. I mean, if we see. If we see criminal conduct, it's our obligation to talk to essentially call the police, and whether it's the FBI or, you know, the local police, I guess...

I just had to go sit through a workplace violence seminar yesterday, and we know workplace violence is increasing, especially with guns. And that in Half Moon Bay two years ago, there was a mass shooting.

Right.

So those kinds of things. Is there any training or is that through Cal OSHA, or is there any outreach or training provided?

Well, there is through Cal OSHA for sure. Specifically on workplace violence as such cause workplace violence obviously doesn't necessarily come from your coworkers, as happened in Half Moon Bay. It could be just an insane member of the public.

Most often a coworker.

Turns out it is, but it doesn't only happen that way. So you need generalized training, which involves protecting people on the job. And the employers need that training as well. That's not something that's just about workers. Everybody needs to know what to do. But we're not on that. We're sort of a second line discussion.

Sometimes people will come up to us and say, the workers aren't so sophisticated that they know, oh, you guys do the labor relations stuff, but you don't do the other stuff. So they'll say, hey, we have this problem where we're working. What do we do? And we'll try to follow up and get them to the right place.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Please, Senator Laird.

Thank you. I think my colleagues covered a lot of ground. The one thing I thought I'd ask about is in your papers or interviews, you talked about your previous term and all the things that you had done to affect the problems, the backlog, the time, some of the processing.

Talk about what you feel like have been some of the successes out of your term.

I think our board has worked very hard with our general counsels office to try to speed up the process before the cases even get to the board. Obviously, someone files a charge, there's an investigation, and then our general counsel issues a complaint.

That period should be something that happens quickly because these administrative law systems were intended to provide quick justice, not slow justice. That's why it's not the courts. And so we recognize that.

And we want to make sure, because it's only fair to the workers or whoever files the charge, which is mostly workers, but also to the employers because there's this thing hanging over them for a year and a half before they even know whether there's a complaint that's going to be issued or not.

That's just too long to wait. So we've worked on speeding that process up, and we've been successful in speeding that process up. And I think that's important because justice delayed is justice denied. And you don't want to be four years down the line when you get your back pay award. Right? It doesn't make sense.

And then the other thing we've done is we've tried to rationalize and redo our regulations. I know this is boring, but these systems need to work. The government needs to work for people.

It needs to be functional, not just write what the law is, but so that people know how to use it and they can access justice and they can do it without it being so complicated that it's impossible to figure out and so we've worked a lot on that.

I'm looking forward to us issuing this regulatory package on implementation of AB 113 so that we have that process straightened out and streamlined and as efficient as possible. And we've made it as much of a stakeholder-heavy process as we could possibly make it.

I think it's really important to talk to the people that do this kind of work, because there's good ideas, there's bad ideas, and frankly, there's dumb ideas. And, you know, people can like or dislike it, but you don't want it to be dumb, you want it to work. And that's what we try to do.

That's a colloquy that should be repeated in other committees.

I may have in my career.

And you got confirmed anyway, right?

Okay. Thank you. That was really helpful.

Yeah.

Thank you so much Senator Laird. Any additional questions, comments, discussion or debate? All right, hearing and seeing none. What we'd like to be able to do is open it up for those who would like to be able to testify in support. Mr. Broad, if you could please come forward. First last name organization.

And we're going to ask folks to keep it to 30 seconds, please.

I wonder which position this guy's in.

My personal capacity or my professional capacity. Matt Broad here on behalf of the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council. We're proud to support Barry, who's also my father, and we would love to see him confirm. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Broad.

Hey, good afternoon, Mr. Chair and Members. Sarah Flocks, California Labor Federation. I will say I had the great privilege of starting my career working alongside Barry and learning from him. And I think his testimony sums up why he is such a great appointee.

He has a deep understanding and respect for the law and where it comes from, and the fact that people fought for it to address problems, to stop violence in the fields, like he said about the ALRA. And he has a deep respect and understanding of the importance of the law as something that impacts people's lives.

We have to implement it. It has to be implemented effectively, quickly, so that people are able to get justice. And I think he will be a great appointee, even though we miss him very much. And we're fully, fully support his reappointment.

Thank you so much. It's good to see you. Mr. Bryant.

Mr. Pro Tem and Senators, Jason Bryant, on behalf of Western United Dairies, the dairy farming families of California. Pleased to support Barry Broad here today for appointment. We find him to be a thoughtful and trusted member of the board. We're pleased to see him being reappointed today and proud to support him. Thank you.

It's good to see you. Thank you so much. We'd like to do a final call for those who may be in support. If you could please step forward at this time. Hearing and seeing no one rise, we are now going to ask those who may be opposed, if you could please step forward at this time.

Looking for those who may be opposed, first and last name and organization. Seeing no arise. We're now going to bring it back to Committee to be able to see if there's any questions, comments. We'll also look for a motion. Thank you so much. We have a motion on the floor. Senator Jones.

I just wanted to tell a quick personal story and then kind of relay my position on the appointment.

When I first got elected in 2010, Mr. Broad was one of the very first Sacramento professionals to come to my office and talk about his advocacy for his organization without knowing at the time that one or maybe two of my kids were actually members of the Teamsters at that time.

And so we have had a great conversation since then and positive working relationship. Unfortunately, I haven't seen you as much recently, so. But I do enjoy seeing you and I do. And obviously working with Matthew, he's doing a good job as well. Regarding the appointment. Precisely.

There are some concerns regarding the regulations that the board is propagating right now. I know that there's a lawsuit in reaction to some of that, so I'm going to abstain from the appointment vote today, but hope that we can continue on. And I know we will. I don't even need to say that our professional relationship will continue.

And hopefully we all work through some of these issues and get them ironed out. So thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Jones. All right, we do have a motion on the floor by Senator Eggman. Any additional discussion or debate prior to going to a vote? Hearing scene none. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Three to zero.

That is a 30 vote. That motion passes. Congratulations. Thank you. Next stop is Senate Floor. Thank you very much. It's good to see you. Very grateful. Ladies and gentlemen. What we're going to do is we're going to add an item one B, the Vice Chair, onto the vote.

So what we're going to do is we're going to open it up. Item one b, this is for Director Patton from the California Conservation Corps. Madam Secretary, can you please call the absent Members?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

That's 5-0. Bipartisan vote. That motion passes. We're going to close a roll on that. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're now going to be moving into the closed session, the Executive session, part of today's Rules Committee agenda. We're going to respectfully request those who are in the room if you could please vacate.

And then we'll take up our Executive session. We'll start Executive session in 30 seconds.