Senate Standing Committee on Rules

Thank you all for being here today. We are tremendously grateful that you take time of your busy schedules to be able to be here, to be able to be here, to be able to support the potential appointees as well.

Before we call the roll, just would like to be able to take care of some administrative work here today. As everyone knows, we are in the last two weeks before we are looking at our summer work period, which means we are in our deadline weeks, our crunch weeks. And I want to first apologize.

Due to some ongoing conversations and some issues that are in front of the legislature, I'll be stepping out and coming back. And so I just want to give a heads up on that. I want to take a moment also to acknowledge our Vice Chair, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you. Who will be stepping in.

And then when Madam Vice Chair is going to go present in a committee, then we're going to have Mister vice Vice Chair be taking over. And that is Senator Laird. So you see, there we go. Check out the title. So again, want to apologize, but also give everyone a heads up.

And we are so appreciative of your patience here today as there's a musical chairs due to the looming deadline. With that, I just want to clarify that you're leaving Laird and myself unsupervised for a period of time. Your lord locked the doors. Everybody so hazy there is. Exactly. Watch out. I like it. All right, why don't we establish a quorum and call the rule.

[Roll Call]

Quorum has been established. Thank you so much. So what we'd like to be able to do is get through with the administrative portion of today's hearing. There are going to be several items that we're going to bring forward. It's going to take us about five minutes.

Once we have completed that, we're going to be bringing our sheriffs up and we're going to welcome them, who are here on the commission on Peace officer Standards and Training. We're so grateful that both of you are here. So let's get going. Let's first take a look at governors appointees not required to appear.

We have quite a docket in front of us today. This is items 2-E through L. Two E through L. If there are no objections, we'd like to be able to see if there's a motion. Sir, we have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

That is a 4-0 vote. 4-0 vote. We're going to put that item on call for Senator Eggman. Ladies and gentlemen, committee, we're now going to be moving on to the issue of bill referrals. This is item number three. Is there a motion for approval? We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

On call, 4-0 vote. 4-0 vote. That item is on call. We're now going to be advancing to the issue of floor acknowledgments. Floor acknowledgments is items four through nine. Items four through nine. Is there a motion for approval? We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

That is a 4-0 vote. 4-0 vote. We're going to leave that on call for Senator Eggman. Look at that. We are rolling. We're now going to welcome our two sheriffs so they could please come forward.

We are going to be taking up both Sheriff Braun and Sheriff Moon and under their additional title of member, board member of the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.

What we would like to be able to do, Madam Sheriffs, is that you have an opportunity to be able to take two minutes to be able to provide the committee with your opening testimony. We're then going to open it up for committee members to be able to ask any questions in advance comments.

We welcome you to advance any introductions that you have of guests that are here in the chambers and or watching online. And I'll give you a 32nd prompt as we get close to that two minutes. So why don't we start with Sheriff Braun? I want to say good afternoon, then we're going to move to Sheriff Moon. You have two minutes. And thank you so much for taking the time and driving in. It's good to see you.

Thank you, chair McGuire, Vice Chair Grove, members, let me start with explaining why I talk funny. I had a traumatic mountain bike accident about two and a half weeks ago and had surgery in my mouth, so the healing process is not quite there yet. So I have a temporary, hopefully, speech impediment.

So I speak funny, and I can't say words like funny or bunny or honey. Hey, there we go. But I try. You're all good.

You're all good.

Thank you. I am joined here online by my husband, Michael Ron. He's retired law enforcement. He's at home in Mammoth Lakes. My father is watching from La Crescenta, California, and my sister, Erica Bachmann has joined me. She came over from Oakland, and I am just pleased to be here and joined by my peer and my good friend, Sheriff Moon.

Thank you so much. We're very grateful, Erica, thanks for being here today. And it's great that Michael is watching online as well. We're now going to turn it over to Sheriff Moon. Sheriff Moon, why don't you advance your opening testimony.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be present today for your consideration for your staff's time. Also leading up to this hearing, we've had some great conversations.

With me today is a few people that I want to recognize that have made a difference not only in my life and guidance through support of being the sheriff of my hometown but also leads me today to being potentially appointed as Governor Newsom's appointee to the Post Commission.

Here today with me is my wife, Amy Moon, one of my amazing daughters, Mallory Borrego, and two of my great friends, Jeremy Wilson, who is a senior program manager for mental health services authority, and my good friend, Lisa Swarthout, who is a district three supervisor in my county. At home, my parents.

My dad is a 29-year retired veteran peace officer. My mom, Eileen Moon, my brother and sister, Clara, Jimmy, and Coral, and my two other amazing daughters that couldn't be here today, Katie and Abby Borrego, and all the staff back at the sheriff's office that are watching, cheering me on, that I get to represent. I look forward to your questions and going along in the process.

Thank you so much, sheriff. Very grateful. And it's wonderful to have Amy, Mallory and of course, Jeremy and the supervisor here today. Thank you so much. Why don't we open it up for conversation, questions and comments from the committee, please. Senator Laird.

Thank you both for your willingness to serve. And I sorry I didn't get a chance to meet, even though we have met in other occasions. I thought one question and start with Sheriff Moon.

And then if Sheriff Braun wants to add. Both of you are sheriffs of small, rural counties and you're on this board for standards that really deals across the state, because the other thing I want to ask about, use of force maybe is just so totally different in other parts of the state.

What do you think you bring by being a sheriff from where you are to this statewide body? What's sort of unique about coming from a rural area and being able to help focus other people on issues you're familiar with?

Thank you, Senator, for the question. Being from a rural community, I think the difference is everyone knows you and I grew up with a father in law enforcement in a rural community and everyone knew who he was, who I was. And part of that is that reputation that you are bringing forward every single day by who you represent.

And that is something that we truly cherish at that rural environment of people knowing who you are, knowing what you represent, and just really being a part of the community. And being at a statewide level, I've had nothing but great conversations with my peers that are in the larger agencies that also do have that small community event in their jurisdictions.

It's just all in context and I think we all have something to bring and just really appreciate that we have come from different backgrounds and we're all willing and want to serve in the most noblest position in law enforcement in California.

Thank you. And Sheriff Braun, I know you said you can't say bunny and funny and.

But I will try.

Well, I was worried you were going to say we need more money.

I could say money. That word actually works. Thank you for the question. And it is fair to say that rural sheriffing is different than urban policing. Where I live in town with 8000 people, you can't go anywhere without seeing someone you know. And it's quite amazing. Everybody greets me and says, hey sheriff, how's it going?

And greet me like they know me. Sometimes they don't, sometimes they do. But it's comforting to know that you live in a small town and are small. My community, Mono County is 14,000 people, but it's over 3500 sq. Mi. But everybody knows who I am and I love that.

I also have the advantage if I had a 21-year career in Los Angeles Police Department. So I get the urban side of policing as well. And so bringing that to the post-commission, I've been in a big city and now I've been in a rural county.

And so the balance of it, I can see it from both sides and it is very different. And thinking ahead to your use of force question use of force in an urban setting where you have two person cards responding to a call and your backup is a minute away.

In a rural setting, you're by yourself and your nearest backup could be 2 hours away. So you've got to learn how to deal on your own, fight for your life if you have to. So it is very different and so we approach it differently, but we can bring that to the post commission.

So a lot of our laws are written for urban areas and we can bring the rural perspective and say this is how we have to do it here. So I think we bring as rural sheriffs a different perspective that is much needed on the post-commission.

I really appreciate that answer. That's sort of, to be honest, what I was fishing for. And so I'm glad and I know that you serve with one of my favorite sheriffs, Tina Nieto. And it is very funny because she grew up in the Los Angeles, there Department and now she, she has rural areas.

And it's so weird to feel like you have to have a police escort in Big Sur. She navigates that thing with the rural in a strange way. And then let's ask just about where we are, where you think are some of the issues that might be remaining with use of force because that sort of got tossed to you in many ways. And I don't know, Sheriff Moon, if you'd like, I just thought it might be easier if you go first in. Sheriff Braun could go me too if she wants to.

You bet. You bet. Me too. Of course, you know. Yeah. Use of force, you know, we're constantly looking at ways to improve and I think that is the California way. We lead the nation truly in a lot of the standards and the regulations that we do have.

And we have to be nimble to be able to see what's coming next and what our communities want from us and expect from us. And it's not just being a 34-year veteran of doing this job of what I think needs to happen.

We do have to listen to our communities continually to see at what levels we should be in our performance and, you know, the different technologies and the different things that are constantly evolving. And we're really in California at the lead in some of those areas so that we can keep our community safe, our cops safe.

And when all those things are in line, it's a wonderful thing. And those are the things that I think we're going to continually see in California.

Thank you.

And more than me too. I didn't realize I had something else in common with Sheriff Moon. 34 years of law enforcement, definitely me too.

To what Sheriff Moon just said, but also the technology, piece of it, the body-worn cameras, the in-car video, everything our officers, our deputies do is always on camera all the time and they're quite comfortable with it and they're aware of it all the time.

And it, I wouldn't say it moderates their behavior, but it reminds them to always act appropriately and do what they have to do and do it right so everything is always captured and it's a benefit to our communities so that they can go back and see.

I've even had somebody come in, make a complaint, bring them into the office a week after, let her watch the whole video all the way through. And then she said, I didn't see it from that perspective. And then she wasn't even precipitant to it.

She just saw it on the side of the street and said, come in and come look at the video. So it's helpful to have that to show to our communities that we are doing the right things for the right reasons.

Thank you. I look forward to supporting you both.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. I'd like to say, please, Senator Eggman.

Hi. Thank you. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet with you either. I guess my question is, I saw a, as we're all mourning, if you're from Northern California, Willie Mays, who died, and there's a lot of pictures going around.

And one of the pictures some of the Senators sent around was he came to the Assembly floor in 2010, and as I was looking at, and all the members are all lined up. And as I was looking at all the members, it was overwhelmingly white and male.

And I look at us now, and I think what a difference a decade has made. That's through a lot of very intentional work to change the makeup of the legislature. Ss women, how have you seen that change over time, and how do you see it playing into your role, if at all?

Thank you for the question, Senator. When I came on LAPD in 1990, there was a celebration because we hit 15% women. And I thought that's it. We're 50% of the population, but we're only 15% of the job. And it still hovers around that area.

And when I came to Mono County, I was the second female ever in 2012, ever. I now have more female deputies. We have native because we have a native population in Mono County. It takes effort. You got to recruit from the community. Your law enforcement should reflect the community it serves. And we're not there yet.

With women, it's a demanding job, and we are still expected to be mothers and wives and all the other things and do this job. And it's hard to do shift work and do that, but we're getting there. And certainly, it has changed.

Just in the 10 years that I've been the sheriff, I've gone from one to four, and that's just on the sworn side. On the correctional side, I am 50% female. So it just takes the work in setting the example.

And I think that's why it helps to have leaders who reflect the community that we serve up here. And representing.

To see yourself somewhere, I think, is a benefit. So the visual of seeing women in charge, especially in a rural community where we might not see a lot of female deputy sheriffs, you know, the difference in. It's not the verb of recruitment. It's changing the culture of your agency so that women want to work in your industry.

It's an amazing industry to be able to help people on the worst days of their lives and ensuring that women understand that we need them. We need their perspective, and we can be a little more flexible with our schedules.

We're paramilitary, so we've done things the way we've done things since the start of time, because it's just the way we do things. And we need to be able to change that perspective so that we can attract more women into the workforce in policing.

And we've already seen the examples of the benefits of being a more diverse, whether it's through gender, through race, it just is a collective of how you police a community should be. The community polices itself with us, not the other way around.

Thank you, Senator Eggman. Please. Madam Vice Chair.

Thank you, Mister chair. Honor. It's just my honor that you're sitting before me and that the governor had the wisdom to appoint you. You too, Sheriff Braun. But I've known Sheriff Moon for a long time. And the utmost respect for you, ma'am.

Just the utmost respect for you and what you do and the leadership that you provide to your people. I do have a question regarding a post, though.

According to the California Department of Justice, 2022 crime report in California showed that crime is increased roughly 17, or, excuse me, 8%, from 178,000, roughly crimes to 193,000 crimes in just a few years. Is there new training or something? Because crime is different now over the last few years than it was before.

I mean, it's different in the last decade, obviously. I think when we were all growing up, we played on the street. When lights came on, we went home. Kids don't do that anymore. It's not allowed. It's not safe.

Is there a different training or something that you guys are going to develop to help law enforcement deal with this type of crime? Especially in the face, in my viewpoint, and not everybody's in the face of the complete disrespect that individuals, some individuals have for law enforcement. I mean, I don't know.

My mom taught me if you got pulled over, you put your hands at 10 and 2 and it's, yes, sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am, no, ma'am. Right now, it's like, freeze, stop, and no. And they just.

So I guess there's got to be training or something developed to deal with the situation that we have in our crime situation that we have now. So are you guys looking at something like that or not?

Thank you, Senator. You know, the reality of ensuring that we have that trust within community so that when crime does occur, that people will call crime in, because one of the difficult issues sometimes is that we can only, the data on crime is only what gets reported and what we visualize.

There's so much crime that does not get reported, not just in California, but everywhere, and ensuring that we have the trust of a community to, one report crime so that we are following up and doing the things that we need to do to solve crime and hold people accountable for criminal acts.

So the training is all-encompassing of making sure that we are part of our community, that we are understanding, that we're listening to our community, and that, you know, as legislators, when we bring in new crime or change crime statutes, making sure that we're all staying up to date on all of those things because it can be very difficult.

It changes sometimes within months, within years of one crime being a crime, and then, and then changing. So just making sure that we have staff that are constant learners that learn and stay in the process. And Post is constantly looking at ways to do better for our communities.

Thank you, Senator. Tagging onto what Sheriff Moon said, Post is always reviewing training and looking at the efficacy of the training. And is this training working, and is it the right training and is it the right platform?

We did have a period during the pandemic where everything was online and all the training was online, and you lose something when you don't have the in-person training.

So a lot of training has gone back to in-person, but for us who live remotely, and if I send somebody to training, it's expensive to send somebody off to training. Then you got to backfill and you got to pay for them to go.

But it's worth it to send them to that training so that they can meet peers from other counties, other agencies, and learn what other cities are doing and other counties are doing and how they're attacking their crime problems. And every crime problem is going to be different for every area.

Like, I don't have a big retail tax problem because I don't have big retail stores, so it's always different for everybody. But post looks at the training constantly and is it working? And they get feedback from the students. What did you like about this course? What wasn't good about this course? What would be better about this course?

What was great about this course and looking at the training and seeing what works and what doesn't work and always adjusting it and making sure that the best training is getting out there. To the law enforcement officers.

Thank you. Thank you both. Do you have any other questions from the dias? So this is at the time when we go to support individuals that want to come up and speak in support of these nominees, please come forward.

And we presume the family members are in support?

We're presuming. Presuming Amy's in support, yes. Okay.

We're kind of a tweener, no? Madam Chair, members, Cory Salzillo, on behalf of the California State Sheriff's Association, proud to support both these phenomenal sheriffs who sit before you today, who are just fantastic representatives of their counties. And I feel a little responsible because I suggested maybe that Sheriff Moon want to do this.

And she never forgets to remind me that I was the one who maybe kind of put her name in the mix. So maybe someday she'll forgive me. But I think they're doing an excellent job and they are assets to the commission and to the state.

So the association is very pleased to support them and we ask your favorable consideration for their nominations. Thank you.

Anyone else seeing no witnesses in support? Is there witnesses in opposition? Last call for opposition.

I'm not going to oppose. I'm going to make a motion. When you're almost done with this.

He hit his button. I thought he wanted to have a comment.

When you're ready.

Okay. So seeing none in opposition, we'll bring it back to this dais.

Thank you, madam Vice Chair. Sheriffs, thank you very much for joining us. Sheriff Braun, did you say your accident was a mountain biking accident?

Yes, sir. If you live in the mountains, you must mountain bike.

Well, I live in the hills of San Diego, and I broke my collarbone a couple of years ago, actually, in Riverside. So I had surgery to repair myself from a mountain bike accident as well. So I'll look forward, hopefully when you're better, that maybe I can come up there and go mountain biking together.

That would be lovely.

That would be great. I have mountain biked here in Auburn and up here in the great area. I just wanted to share on a personal note that this is very personal to me as well.

My son in law is a police officer in San Diego, county, and so I know that our officers in California are the best trained in the country, and that when we see in the press and in the media challenges with law enforcement departments and other parts of the country that California has taken the steps to, for lack of a better term, inoculate ourselves from those challenges.

And so I also serve on the board of a nonprofit that supports police officers that are catastrophically injured in the line of duty, or if in the horrific case, they commit suicide, we stand by to support the families that are left behind in those situations.

Recognizing that suicide is becoming a huge challenge in our law enforcement and first responder communities.

I know that California has taken steps forward to address that, and I just want to state that if there's anything I can do to be helpful in that avenue, I stand ready to be helpful and support you in the training and everything that you need to do on those issues. So glad to support.

You know that you have an advocate for police officers here with myself, and, you know, the legislature supports police officers here in California, and I just want to share that personal note with you.

Thank you, Senator. Thank you, sir.

Madam Chair.

Yes, sir.

I would move that we confirm both Sheriff's Moon and Sheriff Braun for these positions.

Can we move them to the floor for the full confirmation first, or you want to do this by yourself?

That was clearly the inference of the motion.

So moved by Senator Laird. Madam Secretary, you want to call the role?

[Roll Call]

And for everybody in the audience, they left us unsupervised, and that was probably not a good thing.

Yes.

Congratulations. You guys are both going to the Senate Floor, and we wish you both the best of luck. We will hold the roll open. I apologize, because we do have two Members that want to come back and make sure that their vote is counted on your nomination as well. Thank you so much.

We take a 1 minute recess. Yes. Yes, we're going to take a 1 minute recess while the other. While we change places and.

Going to take up the appointment. Sorry, go ahead. We're back from recess and we're going to take up item 1C, the appointment of Alexander C. Sheriffs Junior, an MD, as the member of the San Joaquin Valley United Unified Air Pollution Control District Board. So welcome, Mister Sheriffs.

We'll give you a couple of minutes to introduce yourself, give us a little information, and then we'll start a rigorous question and answer process.

I'm looking forward to it. Thank you for your consideration of my reappointment of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District Board. I am a family physician born in California with maternal and paternal grandparents who farmed in California. I have lived in the Great Valley for five decades.

I completed medical school at UC Davis, being drawn to that school's emphasis on primary care and service to underserved communities. My spouse and I trained at the UCSF-Affiliated Family Medicine Residency program in Fresno County Hospital. We subsequently volunteered for two years with the US Public Health Service in exotic Michigan.

We returned to the valley with some trepidation. The air quality was notorious, as we knew from our residency years, one daughter born here developed asthma. But we came back to the valley with a desire and expectation of engaging its shortcomings as well as enjoying its bounties and opportunities.

I was first appointed to the Air Pollution Control District board in 2011 under the then new reorganization of the board, to include not only electeds but also with two governor's appointee positions to specifically represent health. Health-related air quality is also more than the respiratory, cardiac, cancer, and cognitive ill effects.

As a Doctor, I have always been involved in training the next generation of providers, teaching medical students, nurse practitioners, encouraging high school students to pursue health careers.

It is especially painful when professionals I have helped train choose to pursue careers outside of the valley because they do not want to live or raise a family in an area with such unhealthy air quality. I hope you will endorse my continuing to build on past successes with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District board. Thank you.

Dais. Are there any questions or comments? We'll bring it back to the dais. Are there any questions or comments?

Yes. Thank you for your willingness to serve so long, for your willingness to re-up it again. There have been some issues just about stakeholder participation in the valley because there's, as you touched on, various groups that are affected by just what the air quality is.

And there's been certain legislation as well to try to wrap groups in in your job. How do you make sure that you sort of value different stakeholders or reach out to them and sort of getting to some of the decisions you have to make.

Personally, I'm available to anyone who wants to contact me before a meeting and have conversations before every meeting with people from the community, from all kinds of stakeholders, whether we're talking businesses or we're talking advocates or citizens. I would comment.

I think the air district has very much improved in terms of its sense of what a stakeholder is over the last 5-10 years, because previous to that, stakeholders meant businesses, and obviously those are critical stakeholders to the economy, to people having access to healthcare, to the vibrancy of the valley.

But stakeholder has come to mean anybody who breathes the valley air. And I think that really has been a transformation in the culture of the district that I've seen while I've been a member of the board. So that stakeholder takes broad meaning, as it should anybody who's affected by the air quality in the valley.

I appreciate that. And it's. I was in the Assembly 15 or 17 years ago when one of the biggest legislative fights was expanding the board by seat or two. That ends up being one of the seats you're in. And it was to. Thank you for that. Yeah, exactly. Making sure that different voices were represented on the board.

And then the other question, and you're really experienced at this, I would just like to hear what you have to say, because you've been on the board for 13 years, you're a medical practitioner, and so you see in different ways what impacts are of bad air quality.

How do you take what you might just learn in medical practice or see on the ground and try to reflect it for laypeople that make decisions that might impact that, how do you take that experience and bring it into your role as a board member?

You know, I think my role on the board is to represent health, and I think there are two major aspects of that. One is helping other board members better understand the health science. Another aspect of that is to, because indeed, the district, it's a public health agency, and to be certain that we are elevating health as we think about each of the problems that we confront and are trying to solve.

So helping people understand the science better, where the science is coming from, where there's uncertainty in the science and what that uncertainty means, and certainly being a physician and taking care of patients and seeing the health consequences of bad air allows me to have stories to share with other board members that I think can help them appreciate, help everyone appreciate better what the implications of the work that we're doing.

And partly that's very difficult decisions that are sometimes made. But when people can understand the impact this has on individuals as well as communities, people can feel better about those difficult decisions.

Thank you. I really appreciate that response, and thank you again for your service.

Any other questions or comments? This is a time when we'll open it up to public comment. If there's anyone in the audience that would like to come up and support Doctor sheriffs, please come forward.

Good afternoon. Sylvia Solis Shaw here on behalf of the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District. Doctor Sheriffs has proven to be a very thoughtful, knowledgeable and pragmatic member of the board, and we strongly support his reappointment appointment. Thank you very much.

Vice Chair Members. I'm Tom Knox of Valley Clean Air Now, I'm here to speak in support of Doctor sheriffs, who we've been working with for well over a decade now. His qualifications are excellent as a Doctor and a farmer. He understands the complexities of air quality in San Joaquin Valley. Personally, though, his enthusiasm.

I always know when I run into him, I'm going to get a few thoughtful questions. He's really interested in the work we do, and then we're going to get some encouragement. And both sides of that just help me keep doing more, better work.

I really, really appreciate the role that Doctor sheriffs has played now for over a decade with the Valley Air District. He's someone that really cares and just exudes that enthusiasm for our work. So thank you, Doctor Sheriffs, and thank you all for listening.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Any others in support? We'll invite witnesses up for opposition. Anyone in opposition? Seeing none in opposition, I'll bring it back to the dais.

I would move that we forward this nomination to the Senate Floor with the approval of the Rules Committee.

You missed it, Senator from Stockton. You missed it earlier.

Yeah. They're just hallmarks of the Grove Administration.

Madam Secretary, call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, Doctor sheriffs, congratulations. You're going to the full Senate Floor. Before we take on our next appointee. I apologize. Just give us 1 second. Senator Eggman was busy at another committee. I want to open up governor's appointees required to appear, and we. You want to take him up individually or we can take them up altogether.

Altogether. Is it okay if we take him up altogether? So, item 1 A, B, C and D. Correct. No, no, no. A and B. Okay, so item a and b, that would be Sheriff Braun and Sheriff Moon, appointed to the Peace Officer. Standard Training. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

And then we'd like to take up item. She just voted on that one. I apologize. And then on governor's appointees not required to appear, we took up one motion. On item two, E, F, G, H, I, J, K and L. Are you okay if we keep those together, Senator? I am. Okay, so we'll just open the roll for all of those.

[Roll Call]

And then again, yes, it carries 5-0. Sorry. Yes, sir. Thank you. I knew we could do this together.

And then item three was bill referrals. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

That motion carries. Item four was or. Excuse me. And then we had. Floor acknowledgments. Item four was floor acknowledgments. Secretary, please call the roll.

Items four through nine.

Excuse me. Four through nine.

[Roll Call]

Now we will go back to our next appointee, a governor's appointee. We have Doctor Chima here. Did I do that correctly or not? Okay, great. And I apologize. Just like my other colleagues that have been having to go through this, in this session, I have to step out and present a bill. But I will be back.

And I almost want to say, I regret to inform you that I have to pass the gavel to my colleague. But he's wonderful and he will chair the rest of this.

Thank you very much. That was the end of the bereave Grove Administration, so welcome. And we want to give you an opportunity to briefly make an opening statement and introduce anybody that you might have with you today. Welcome to the committee.

Thank you, sir. Senators, it's my pleasure and honor to appear before you this afternoon. I'm also honored and grateful to Governor Newsom for appointing me as the Director of the California State Lottery. I want to take a moment and introduce my family who's here supporting me today. My husband Casey, my daughter Regan, and my son Kaden.

Without their love, understanding and support, I don't think that I would have reached this milestone in my career. I also want to thank my family and friends who are watching online, in particular, my sisters, Belgender, Belgit, Pami and Tay. They're my absolute biggest cheerleaders.

And a big special shout out to my parents, Balraj and Ajit, who sacrificed their entire lives for my sisters and I. Education has always been a very important part of my life.

As one of five daughters of immigrants, it was always impressed upon me that education is the key to success and experiencing firsthand the value of a good education. I am so proud to work with the California Lottery to enhance educational opportunities for California's public school students because of the supplemental dollars that we raise.

As Lottery Director, I'm committed to responsibly growing lottery sales to maximize public school funding, and I'm thrilled to share that for fiscal year 23-24 the lottery is once again on pace to provide over $2 billion in supplemental funding to public education.

Equally important is continuing to build a stronger organization by focusing on enhancing efficiencies and strengthening workforce engagement. I'm dedicated to creating and nurturing a positive work environment where every team member feels valued and inspired, and I think that continuity of leadership is really critical for that endeavor.

Consistent leadership ensures that we can maintain our strategic focus and build on our successes as we navigate challenges effectively. It provides the stability that's necessary for long term planning and achieving sustained growth. So I'm committed to leading the lottery with integrity and vision, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you very much. We'll move to the committee. Are there questions from committee members? Senator Eggman.

Thank you for being willing to serve in this role. Can you talk a little bit about the lottery's role in being able to do information about problematic gambling?

Absolutely. Work with the CDPH problem gambling committee, and we actually help fund their hotline. In addition to that, we provide problem gambling training to all of our retailers.

Once they're brought on board as retailers, in addition to all of our staff, we let them know what resources are available, how to talk to potential players about problem gambling, and what they can do to assist those people.

And what kind of differences do you see around the state with. With different sites? I mean, different places that sell lottery tickets. Oftentimes are very different demographic areas around the state. So do you do things in different languages and in different ways to meet people?

Sure, we absolutely do have different information in different languages and things. And I think what you might be referring to is there's a misconception that the lottery preys on the poor, and we're really trying to address that and kind of get information out there.

At least in California, we found that the majority of our players have an income of $50,000 or more, and we are constantly providing education as I said to our retailers and our employees to help kind of see the signs of problem gambling and help address those issues.

Okay. And I would just be remiss. We received a letter from my district relating to not taking LGBTQ issues seriously when there were complaints made. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Absolutely, I can. I can assure you that we take every single complaint very seriously at the lottery, and we investigate every single complaint that is sent into us, and we see that complaint through to fruition. So wherever the facts take us, that is what we do.

And I think what's important to remember is that managers and supervisors have the same do process rights as all of our rank-and-file employees. And so we. When there's something that needs to be addressed, we address it, but we can't make it public. Obviously, it's personnel matters.

And when there isn't a substantiated finding, unfortunately, there's no action that we can take. But we do take every complaint very seriously. And just on a personal note, I can assure you that I take every type of complaint very seriously, particularly race-based or LGBTQ-related, anything related to EEO. I take those particularly seriously.

Okay. And then, conversely, can you just talk about, like, how. Tell me again, how big is the lottery, like, how many employees, approximately? And then how do you maintain a positive culture?

Certainly. So, as of right now, we have 1115 employees at the lottery. It's up about 300 from when I first started when I was Chief Deputy Director appointed in 2019. And I'm going to tell you, it's been a challenge to maintain that.

But what we've done to try to understand where the concerns are with our employees is we initiated an employee engagement survey. We did one in 1920, and we took the lessons learned from that. Some of the areas that they wanted us to address, which were primarily communication. Amongst you, probably meant 2020. I'm sorry, what did I say?

You said 1920. I'm sorry. Yes, I did. Thank you. Senator Laird is here for. Well, 1920 meaning 2019. 2020. Sorry. Thank you for clarifying. And so we took some of the things that we learned from that, and we addressed it.

And primarily, it was things like communication across divisions, not really understanding what the mission of the lottery was and how. What the work that they're doing, how it contributes to that. I'm pleased to say even in 2020, we had a participation rate of more than 75%.

We just completed our latest employee engagement survey, and the results are not yet public. But I can share with you here today that we had over approximately 80% engagement this year, and we've gone up in every category. We've had the highest culture rating since 2010. And so we are making strides, but we also see where there's areas to continue to improve.

What's one of those areas, would you say?

I think it's still the communication across the divisions. That's what we're hearing. And so we've done a number of things to try to address that. We have monthly spotlight series where different areas present and say, this is the work that we do and this is how it contributes to education. We've started a monthly newsletter called clued in.

It gives updates on every single division within the department and things that are affecting the lottery. Talks about not only our sales division and the big winners, but what every other division is doing to assist.

Thank you, Senator Jones.

Thank you, Director. And thank you for meeting with me yesterday. I appreciate that. We worked through some important things, I think. Thank you for your response to my questions as well. The thing that just kind of, I keyed in this afternoon is where is the headquarters for the lottery?

It's on 10th street here in Toronto.

So on your employees, the 1100 or so, are they back into the working in the office, or is there still a significant amount of work from home? What's the balance on that since the.

Ending of COVID So let me first start by saying we also have nine district offices. And so our sales force has been working five days a week since, I think we took off for about two months when Covid first happened. And so they've been back out working five days a week.

Our employees are all back two days per week per the governor's directive and are working in headquarters and also all of our nine district offices. Our district offices, because they're public-facing, they have been in the office five days away week.

And thank you for meeting yesterday. I really appreciate it. I enjoyed our conversation and a couple of questions. First, we talked about the inevitable issue that when the campaign was run 40 years ago, it was going to pay entirely for education.

And I go, every year I have two or three people walk up to me out of a crowd and say, now, why isn't the lottery paying 100%? Because that's what they heard in that campaign. You also have a campaign within the lottery to change the narrative.

So talk a little about that, about how you deal with changing the narrative of what the lottery is or how people should relate to it. And some of the lingering things, such as from the campaign thank you.

I'll just share that. When I started in 2019, one of the, one of the things that became very clear to me is that not very many people knew that education was being supported by lottery dollars.

Although you mentioned that people come up to you and say, I thought they were supposed to fund education entirely, I had people coming up to me and saying, what do you do with all that money? Where does it go? They really did not know.

And so we wanted to change the narrative and educate people not only about where the money goes, but also to clarify that what we provide, although it is quite a significant sum, it's merely a drop in the bucket for what is necessary for public education.

And so in all of our press releases and big winner press conferences, we really try to hit on the fact that it is supplemental funding for public education. And so in trying to get that word out, we've just launched in 2024 a paid media campaign to that effect.

And rather than going out and getting paid actors to do this, we reached out to the education community across the State of California and said, please send us information on how you spend your lottery dollars. And I have to tell you, the response has been absolutely overwhelming.

We are hearing from school districts large and small across the state about how they're spending those lottery dollars. And so what we've done with that is we've created commercials that feature real students and real educators talking about how their programs would not exist if it was not for lottery dollars.

And prior to launching this campaign, we did a focus group to kind of get an understanding of where people's knowledge level was. And we did a first wave in February and March, and we again did our focus group.

And we are happy to say that the knowledge increased, and we are now doing a second wave, that's in May and June, focusing on additional schools.

Okay, thank you very much. And then the other question, I was very amazed to find out when we met and in the documents that of the 39 years of the lottery, there have been 23 different directors.

And the one who just left after four and a half years was the longest serving and provided a measure of stability that hadn't necessarily existed. And I asked if you intended to top that. And I thought it might be good if you just talked about what stability means and what you would like to bring in hoping to be one of those longer term directors.

Absolutely. I don't think it's any secret that the lottery has, during its time, faced its fair share of criticism. And I do believe that one of the reasons is the constant changing of the director position. We've been told by staff and executive staff as well that it's almost like whiplash.

A director comes in, they set their goals and policies in place, and then they're gone. And then someone else comes in and says, well, that's great, but I don't want to do that. This is what we want to do.

I think what's been really good about the prior director and myself, I was his Chief Deputy Director, and we, before I was even appointed, we met and we were aligned in our goals for this department.

And one of the primary goals was we wanted to make this department strong enough that it did not matter who sat in that director chair, that we had enough policies, procedures, expectations, and rules in place, that no matter who was in that chair, the lottery would continue on the path that we wanted it to go on, which is to have sustainable growth responsibly, obviously making sure that people understand, although we sell a product, we are a State Department at the end of the day.

And so we are subject to certain state rules. I understand that we're a unicorn amongst state departments, and we do have some flexibility, but where we can follow those rules, we absolutely should.

And so when the prior director told me that he was leaving after I picked my job off the floor, I thought to myself, do I want this job? And the thing that made me really want to apply for this job was the continuity factor.

I did not want someone else coming in and changing four and a half years of hard work. And I'm very pleased to say that I feel like. Well, and our survey shows this is the best employee engagement that we've had, and the morale has been so great. And so I hope to continue that. And, yes, Senator Laird, I hope I far surpass the prior director's four and a half years.

Good. Well, thank you. That was a comprehensive answer, and I think it sort of addressed some of the other questions we might have. So I appreciate it very much. Do any other members have any questions before we go to support?

I was just going to add, maybe she's the one responsible for the previous continuity, and it's good that we might be continuing that today.

In a while, I might take that as a motion. So thank you. This would be the opportunity for anyone that wishes to speak in support of this nomination to come to the microphone and please do it. Welcome to the committee.

Good afternoon, Senators. My name is Joanne Jorgallas, and I've known Harjinder, Harj, for 20 years. It began back 20 years ago when we were attorneys with the California Department of Transportation Legal Division, and as assistant chief counsel, I was hired to supervise her for 10 years.

I've followed her career path and her endeavors in other departments, and she's excelled everywhere she's been. I'm very honored to provide supporting comments for her confirmation today. Harj possesses characteristics of an exemplary leader. Based on her extensive litigation and contract skills, she's able to thoroughly and effectively analyze and resolve very difficult and sensitive legal issues.

And that's the primary reason why I often assigned her the most difficult eminent domain and contract cases to review and to handle. She resolved every case with dignity and respect, and she respected opposing counsel and parties. She treated them fairly in a very trustworthy manner.

She is trustworthy, loyal, and honest in her dealings with colleagues, opponents, staff at every single level, and most importantly, the public. She seeks input and thoroughly analyzes each situation before making any decision or resolving any problem. She's dedicated to public service and is passionate about serving the public. Her positive attitude shines in anything she works on.

In any endeavor, she undertakes. You should have no reservations whatsoever confirming her to head the lottery system, and I urge you to do so unanimously. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Okay, follow that.

I should just say a plus one. Plus one, whatever she said. So, Mister vice Vice Chair and members, my name is Tiffany Alvidrez, and I appear before you today in my capacity as a California State Lottery Commissioner.

I felt it important to be here today to offer my strong support for the confirmation of Miss Harjinder Shergill-Chima as the Director of the California State Lottery, particularly because I've had the pleasure of observing her management style over the last year.

You've seen Miss Shergill-Chima's resume and heard her opening remarks, so you already know that she has dedicated her professional career to the State of California as one of its most committed public servants. She is well qualified, well suited, and more than prepared to assume the role as Director of the California State Lottery.

She locked arms with her predecessor, former Director Alva Johnson, in the monumental task of reaffirming the lottery's commitment to maximizing its contributions to public education, as well as providing a clear framework for the Department to operate with transparency, inclusion, and excellence. He did a phenomenal job of charting that course with his mission, vision, and values.

I believe Miss Chima is the right person to continue that momentum and expand on that vision. She is widely respected and has a leadership style that is clear and direct. Miss Chima has approached this opportunity with humility. A humility and a resolve that are reflective of a servant leader's heart.

I have every confidence in Miss Chima's ability to lead the lottery. In a way that will make the State of California proud. For those reasons and many more do I offer my strong support for the confirmation of Harjinder Shergill-Chima as the Director of the California State Lottery. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comments. We appreciate it. Anyone else to speak in support? Seeing no one, this would be the opportunity for anyone to speak in opposition. Seeing no one, then we will bring the matter back before the committee for any comments or action.

I would move that we advance this candidate to the full Senate Floor.

Perfect. We have a motion. Seeing no discussion, I will ask for a call of the roll.

[Roll Call]

And let me comment that both Senator Grove and Senator Mcguire. Indicated they're generally supportive. They do not need to return for putting this on call. So I will declare that motion past three to zero. Three to zero. Congratulations. Your nomination will be advanced to the floor. And then in a moment, we'll go to closed session.

But we have three that are on call. One A, B and C. That are all 4-0. And the chair has indicated he is fine and will not be returning. So I don't know how we need to do it. But let's close the roll on all three of those. What do you need to do to do that?

Just declare that the roll is closed. Yeah.

Four to zero.

Then I will declare the roll is closed on 1 A, B, C. With each, the vote stands at four to zero. And the nominations will be advanced to the floor. With that, let me thank everybody for our unusually shorter-than-usual meeting. Congratulations to the people whose nominations have been moved on.

And we have one executive session item. We will give everybody a chance. Thats not the immediate staff. To leave the room and move to executive session. So the public portion of this meeting will stand adjourned. Thank you, all.