Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 5 on State Administration

Good afternoon, and welcome back to your favorite subcommittee: Sub Five. Today our hearing will cover and update--we will hear about GovOps on on the statewide GenAI pilots.

We will hear from GO SERV, the California Privacy and Protection Agency, Department of Technology with an update on the Broadband Middle-Mile Project, and finally, the Department of General Service. In addition, we have 12 items that are on the agenda for non-presentation. Staff have suggested the following items do not receive a formal presentation from the Administration in order to focus more time on the most substantial proposals.

Members of the committee are free to ask questions on them or let me and my staff know if you'd like to speak or ask questions on an issue. We will be waiting for our members to come in and out. A few housekeeping notes: this is an in-person hearing with all panelists testifying in person. We will take questions from members of the subcommittee after each issue and public comment will be taken after each issue and will be taken in person.

Today's hearing is an informational hearing. If you are unable to attend this hearing in person, you may submit your comments via email to [email protected], and we are going to go ahead and begin our first item, and we have Government Operations Agency or GovOps.

Our first issue is an update on the GenAI pilot projects, and we have many people listed but I only see one. So are you--okay. All right. All right. So if you would like to introduce yourself and begin?

Thank you for having me. My name is Justyn Howard. I'm the Deputy Secretary for Fiscal Policy and Administration in the California Government Operations Agency. I'm here to present a brief update on the Generative AI Executive Order and where things stand related to the Administration's efforts in this space. First, I want to thank the staff for putting together a very thorough agenda. They really went through and kind of laid out all the efforts. Is that better?

Is that--try it again.

Can you hear me now? Oh, that sounds better. Thank you. So as you know, back in September of 2023, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-12-23 which was for directing the Administration to study the development and use and risk of generative artificial intelligence technology throughout the state and to develop a deliberate and responsible process for evaluating the deployment of GenAI within state government.

This executive order involved multiple state agencies, including GovOps, who kind of served as the coordinating entity for all this effort, and it also involves the Department of Technology, the Department of General Services, the Department of Human Resources, and the Office of Data and Innovation.

And to a lesser extent it also involved the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. To date, I am pleased to announce that we have met nearly all the deliverables that have been outlined in the Governor's executive order. We only have one outstanding deliverable to go.

Most importantly, we've done a tremendous amount of stakeholder engagement as a result of this executive order. We've been holding regular monthly meetings with both legislative staff and other stakeholders as we keep them informed every step along the way. We've met with academic partners as well. We had formal partnerships with UC Berkeley and Stanford.

We also met with federal partners to talk about technology standards, and importantly, we met with our labor partners to make sure that they are actively involved in each step along the way. The executive order mandated several deliverables and those deliverables and reports have all been turned in.

To date, we've turned in the Benefits and Risks of Generative Artificial Intelligence Report. This was published by the Government Operations Agency back in November of 2023. We've also done the State of California GenAI Guidelines for Public Sector Procurement Uses and Training. This was done back in March of 2024.

The State of California Generative AI Toolkit for Procurement Use and Training was also completed. The State of California Guidelines for Evaluating Impacts of Generative AI on Vulnerable and Marginal Communities was recently released as well.

And just recently too, we released our project delivery lifecycle, what was commonly referred to as the E03c Executive Summary about how do we incorporate generative AI procurement into our current project approval process.

The only deliverable that is remaining is a workforce-related effort that will be--that is under final review and will be released very soon. As part of the executive order, we've also had two rounds of what we call proof of concepts. Proof of--basically these are projects that departments are interested in undertaking that involve generative AI where we were able to test many of the processes and procedures that we've put in place. We had Round One POCs and Round Two POCs.

I am pleased to announce that most of the proof of concepts are on pace for being completed in the near future. There's only one project to my knowledge at this time that is probably a little bit behind all the others. Those--I can go over those really quick for you, Madam Chair.

We have a Department of Technology--sorry. CDTFA, the Tax and Fee Administration, they had a Call Center Productivity Gen AI Project. Caltrans has two projects that are currently underway to enhance vulnerable roadway user safety; the other one is a process to interpret diverse data to provide traffic mobility insights.

We also have a project underway at the Department of Public Health related to healthcare facility inspections and then we also have a project underway at HHS, Health and Human Services Agency related to language access. Those are the Round One POCs.

Round Two POCs involve three departments, including the Department of Finance, who is looking at GenAI as it relates to bill analysis, Labor, Workforce Development, and EDD related to data accuracy and forecasting, and then HCD and BCSH related to how--improving housing plan tracking. And with that, I'm happy to answer any specific questions you have about any of the project's status and--or any other components of the EO.

Just to emphasize that our role at GovOps is to facilitate the implementation of the EO. Project-specific stuff from the departments may be a little bit more difficult to answer given that the departments evaluate their own projects.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Any comments from--

Natalie Griswold, Department of Finance. No comments at this time.

Good afternoon, Chair. Brian Metzker with the Legislative Analyst Office. Our office has been closely monitoring the proofs of concept in both Rounds One and Two and will continue to do so as these proofs of concept move into projects that implement generative AI tools, but we're also evaluating the new process that's being used, the project delivery life cycle, for generative AI projects.

The staff comments refer to the important role that the Legislature has in approving project funding, and we echo those comments and know from the Administration's comments that the project delivery life cycle will likely replace our existing process for approving things like IT projects over time.

So it'll be important that the Legislature knows how this new process works as well as understands its role in providing oversight through that process and through the annual budget process.

Thank you. I don't have questions necessarily, but like many of the hearings, when I'm thinking about these topics, I'm thinking about how this information is absorbed to the public, and if they were following us today--as we know, some people do tune in that are not living in this space and speaking this language--can you just give us a synopsis of several reports that have been stated to be on time, which we appreciate--that's not always the case, but we appreciate that. What are these reports saying?

What's the big outcomes of these reports? What have you found out since the governor actually issued his directive? And again, as we know, this didn't take the usual steps of going through the legislative process. So what would be the big things that we can say that have been accomplished?

Thank you for the question. I think a couple of things is, first, one is the one that was just mentioned was, we laid out a new process for project approvals that involves the procurement of generative AI. So that was one deliverable, and the fact that the previous process did not consider all the factors that one would need to take into consideration related to GenAI, whether it involved--whether it had certain impacts to the various communities, right?

So we had to put the kind of--for lack of a better word--the rules of the road in place that people were then to be able to follow to make sure that they did it in a methodical and deliberate way to ensure that whatever project they ultimately were going to do, it wouldn't be used in an incorrect way or that data wouldn't be inappropriately shared so that we could safeguard those things and hopefully come out with a good outcome that delivers better services to California.

A lot of the reports involve doing an inventory of, you know, what's the current use of AI in the state in terms of chatbots and things of that and reporting that to the Legislature and the Administration. Other things involve looking at training and what kind of training would someone need to undertake before they could use generative AI? And those are the things that were very important and were put into place through all these various deliverables.

So, in essence, you set the foundation for how the state is going to be using generative AI?

That is correct, and ultimately, once we're kind of done implementing everything within the EO, then departments, in theory, will be able to go out and, you know, do technology projects that would involve generative AI and they would have to follow the foundational rules that, you know, all of our control agencies have set in place.

And that's really important for us to digest because many of us go back into our districts and are giving town halls or community conversations about what are we doing, what are we doing at the state? And we have to be able to explain. This is important. People are interfacing with new technology all the time, many times.

They're learning as we are learning. AI has moved extremely quickly from just two, three years ago when we weren't even talking about it to almost every aspect. Privacy, of course, is extremely important to individuals with their own information.

So I just like to rephrase conversations because when we're here in Sacramento, we speak a certain language, and even within departments, a lot of you don't realize how many acronyms you use and not everybody knows what those. So I just say that because, remember, as a classroom teacher, we want to speak the same language so that the public can understand, but we appreciate--we don't see any other questions. If we have anybody from the public that would like to weigh in?

Hi, good afternoon. Excuse me. Good afternoon, Chair Quirk-Silva. Just wanted to comment. This is Daniel Schoorl from SEIU Local 1000, legislative advocate. Just comment that we're still assessing the impossible impacts on the workers we represent and have appreciated that last year GovOps, CalHR, and the departments with existing programs met with our bargaining unit shares to answer questions.

Of course, as we look towards bargaining our master agreement in 2026, we would appreciate further open dialogue, especially given the new projects proposed, and generally we share the concern of the Legislature around data privacy with these projects, but also given the context of the vacancy sweeps, a growing concern from our members on the possibilities of workload increase with some of these programs, and thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Anybody else coming up? All right, that will complete our Issue Number One. We'll be moving to Issue Number Two: establishing the California Education Interagency Council.

All right, thank you, Madam Chair. So the second--well this is our actually our first proposal for you--the other one was the informational item--is a request for $5 million in General Fund in 25-26 and ongoing to establish the California Education Interagency Council.

So as some background, in August of 2023, Governor Newsom launched the development of the California Master Plan for Career Education. This initiative aims to promote equitable access to high-paying jobs by addressing structural barriers and strengthening education and training pathways. The public submitted written comments.

More than 30 interviews were conducted with key interest stakeholders including members of the Legislature and legislative staff and eight design sessions were held in various regions across the state. One of the primary recommendations that came out from this effort that was consistently echoed was the need for state and regional coordination in this space.

More specifically, the need to regularly evaluate the changing nature of work and the economy to define career pathways in which the sector should respond and enhance collaboration and decision-making between education systems, workforce providers, employers, community organizations, and interest holders were some of the most regularly requested outcomes of the Master Plan process.

This proposal is in response to that. As part of this proposal, we are requesting 16 positions to be phased in over multiple years, not all at once, and we will begin ideally, upon approval of the Legislature, this effort on July 1st, if we can get this approved. There is trailer bill associated with this.

I'm going to answer the question about why GovOps because this probably sounds a little awkward; why is GovOps moving in the space of education policy? I would say GovOps isn't necessarily doing education policy, but we are going to serve as a neutral third party kind of host to convene these leaders of this council.

There's eight specific members proposed for this council and we would provide the staffing and support to help them achieve their efforts. At this time, it's fair to say--I am not the education policy expert, but we are an expert at standing up new entities and convening people and cutting through cross-agency issues, and we think that we can serve that role here to an effective way to help achieve all the objectives.

Okay. Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Alexander Bentz, LAO. So we concur that the state's workforce and education activities are spread across many different agencies. The spread is because programs serve many different populations and thus have different goals and different funding streams. However, in a rapidly evolving economy, this may create challenges for implementing a statewide workforce policy, workforce strategy.

Two existing statewide entities: one for workforce, one for higher education do provide venues for statewide coordination and planning. So in particular, the Workforce Development Board oversees statewide workforce policy, and in higher education, the Intersegmental Coordinating Committee serves as a forum for cross-sector education issues.

Additionally, there's various entities at the regional level that provide venues for regional collaboration. However, there's no one body currently that takes on all of the functions in this proposed council. It's difficult to know whether a new statewide venue to do this for collaboration between workforce entities and education entities will lead to better outcomes in this area. In particular, we don't know whether the primary barrier here to collaboration is a lack of an obvious venue or whether it's due to the differences in the goals between these different agencies.

Further, this proposal does not include a way for the Legislature to judge the success of the proposed council, and so we recommend that if the Legislature would like to prioritize this initiative, that they provide limited term funding, three years to this proposal, and this will give the council time to show that the new approach can lead to improved outcomes in California's labor market. Thank you, and I can take any questions.

Natalie Griswold, Department of Finance. I think we would note that the reason this is proposed to be ongoing is because the nature of the educational landscape is kind of always changing, and so this council is supposed to be able to kind of address those concerns. Otherwise, happy to answer any questions. Thanks.

All right. I do have some questions and some thoughts. Given the fact that the proposal overlaps with several existing programs, how does the department expect this proposal to work within the existing structure and will this program duplicate efforts in other departments?

Well, I think I'll just point out that if it does duplicate efforts and we're looking into that, I mean, I think there's a lot of current entities that have been formed in this space. To the extent there is, we should look towards in the future finding a way to consolidate all these efforts into one centralized location. That would be the ideal objective over the long term.

I'm kind of confused here because I come out of education, and for many, many years we've seen these collaboratives, these efforts to streamline or coordinate a lot of the Cs, and yet years later we're still talking about these umbrella organizations. Now this is $5 million. It doesn't seem like a huge amount of money, but it's kind of uplifting yet another--if one of you said--eight members. Eight members. Who are these eight members? How do they get appointed?

Yeah. So it's specified in the trailer bill. Let me bring it up for you. One would be the Secretary for Labor Workforce Development Agency, the head of the UC system, CSU system, Community Colleges, Private Postsecondary Education Bureau. Natalie, you got the rest?

Yeah. So the remaining members are the President of the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. So those eight members.

I don't know. I don't think it's a good use of our money. I'm just going to tell you, last week or a few weeks back, we had somebody here on Career Tech, tech--Career Technical Education. My Republican colleague had some very pointed questions. Here's another ask under the same type of dialogue, and I've been to these types of collaboratives.

Just the people you're mentioning are incredibly hard to get together. So I have no idea how these meetings are going to take place and how you're going to get all these people--are these quarterly meetings, monthly meetings? How's this, this going to work?

Well, I think some of the amount--

Who's idea was this?

Well, this came out of the recommendation from the Master Plan for Career Education and that effort--

But who wants this? Who's asking for it?

The Administration is proposing this proposal.

When you say the Administration, you mean the governor?

The Administration, yes. That would be the governor.

Does the governor want this?

I mean, this is a proposal of the Administration. In our currently proposed trailer bill language, we have it stated that meetings shall be held at least once every six months. We also--because it's kind of intended to be a lot of high level officials--says it must be one of those eight officials we listed or a designee who reports directly to them to make sure that these meetings can happen regularly.

All right. Well, I'm not angry at any particular person, including the governor. I just have seen so many of these types of commissions over the years, over and over and so often they don't--

I will note, if I may, just add to one more point here is like some of those other organizations that were kind of listed by the LAO, not all of them have dedicated staffing towards those efforts. So this is the first proposal that has dedicated staffing in order to hopefully move the needle forward in this space.

All right. Well, my opinion at this point is it's not a high priority, but I appreciate the thoughts behind it. Thank you. Thank you. Let's see if the public wants to weigh in.

Good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee, and thank you for the proposal here today. My name is AJ Johnson with California Competes: Higher Education for A Strong Economy, and we are in support of this item and the establishment of the California Education Interagency Council.

We participated in the Master Plan process along with a number of organizations that support workforce and students and California's low-income workers who want career pathways, want a living wage, and want to support their family and their children. We've also done a lot of research about these types of fragmented and silos approaches as well as investments the Legislature has made over a number of years that are also siloed and spread across five, six, to 12 agencies.

We've done coordination in other parts of the systems that have brought a plan together to streamline, make it simpler, to really focus on our students, and we tried to influence the mission such that students are at the center helping streamline access to basic needs; take social services, healthcare, and the segments together. We need these people to come to the table. They don't have the staffing for it, and this proposal would allow people to work together more effectively and speak each other's language.

Finally, we just think that the council is crucial for coordinating specific efforts that have been passed that are interagency and intersegmental the Legislature's already invested in so that when a segment might disagree with another, there is that neutral convening space to move forward rather than stay students languishing and California employers not having who they need and the jobs filled that we--that help our economy, especially during this time.

We submitted written comment that includes our feedback to the trailer bill language that we think will strengthen the proposal specifically for low-income Californians and students, and we hope for your support with this initiative. Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Jessie Hernandez-Reyes, on behalf of the Campaign for College Opportunity. Thank you for this productive discussion on the establishment of the California Education Interagency Council. Higher education coordination is an essential state function that is needed for the benefit of today's students, communities, and the prosperity of our state as a whole.

As you all know well, we're facing increasing budget uncertainty this fiscal year and are projected to see budget deficits in upcoming years. This, combined with an ever-evolving federal landscape will directly impact our systems of higher ed in California. Therefore, now more than ever, there's a crucial need for an empowered higher education coordinating entity that drives our system to coordinate in an accountable and strategic way.

This coordinating body is essential to respond to the ever-evolving state and federal landscape to ensure that all three systems of higher education, the UC, the CSU, and the California Community Colleges are guided by the state's best interests and needs while centering student needs and outcomes, especially for our most minoritized students.

We urge your support for the creation of this long overdue entity to ensure that our state maximizes the value of higher education for our students, communities, economy, and democracy. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other final comments on Issue Two? Seeing none, we will move to Issue Number Three: California College Core Program.

Welcome. And before you make your comments, just note that I'm going to be asking and wanting to hear what does college volunteers go serve do? Tell me what they do, and very neighborly conversation. What do they do? If you're telling your neighbors about this program, tell me what they do. Welcome.

Thank you, fantastic. Very much look forward to this opportunity. So thank you, Madam Chair, for this. My name is Josh Friday. I'm the Director of the Governor's Office of Service and Community Engagement, also known as Go-Serve. And I'm also joined by the Chief Deputy of the office, Anthony Chavez.

And our office was established by the Legislature this last year in 2024, really to elevate paid service and volunteerism in the state and to promote youth and community engagement as well as advance public awareness and outreach campaigns, that help our whole state tackle the most pressing challenges we face.

Go-Serve consists of the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, California Volunteers, and the Youth Empowerment Commission. And so before you today are two budget proposals. The first, College Court which you just asked about is, there are proposals that create economic opportunity, career pathways, and develop future leaders while fostering social connection.

So the first item, the first item you asked about proposes 83.6 million ongoing general fund beginning in 2026 and 2027 to continue and expand the College Core program which is only currently funded through 2026. And these resources will expand service opportunities to more than 4,000 undergraduate students annually in partnership with over 50 universities.

And these include our CSU system, our UC system, our community colleges and some private universities. College Corps is a unique program and it was started here in California that has already impacted 30 thousands of students, hundreds of community based organizations and communities throughout the state.

And this successful model has now spread to other states including New York and Minnesota. And with College Corps we are simply helping making college more affordable.

We are creating debt free pathways for Low income students who now, and this is what makes College Corps unique, who now have the opportunities that are often afforded to wealthier students, which is a chance to help their community, the chance to gain real job skills and the chance to build social networks and social capital, all while being able to stay focused on finishing school on time.

And so far what we've seen is that College Corps is really what we think of and what we've seen as a win, win, win. It's a win for the over 10,000 students who have already participated and received up to $10,000 for having this experience.

It's a win for our communities where College Corps Members have already served over two and a half million hours, our classrooms. And to answer your question, what are they doing? They are tutoring and mentoring our Low income students in classes throughout the state. They are working in our food banks to serve families who are most in need.

And they're in our parks and they're in our communities supporting community based organizations to take climate action and protect our environment.

And as we've also seen the real impact of our College Corps Members as recently as the LA fires, where many of them deployed and are continue to be deployed to stand up disaster resource centers, supply distribution centers and our food banks.

College Corps is also a win for the State of California because it prepares and recruits the future workforce which include our teachers, our nurses, our green workforce and our community leaders.

And the success of the program, in addition to the impacts I just mentioned, are also demonstrated by the demand that we see last year for the 3,500 positions in College Corps. We received applications from nearly 11,000 students and requests from several other public universities wanting to participate in the program.

So this funding proposal will allow College Corps to continue to make an impact throughout our state as well as meet the high demand of this unique program. And I'm happy to answer and look forward to answering any questions you may have.

Thank you. We have several people up here, so let's go with the Department of Finance if you have any comments or addition.

Good afternoon. Henry Ng, Department of Finance So the funding for College Corps is really a continuation of existing program. As my colleague at GoService just outlined, these resources will really extend the partnerships across over 50 universities and provide these service opportunities to over 4,000 students.

And of course these opportunities means a chance to develop working experience and to network while also helping to address the cost of higher education. Thank you.

Thank you. And to our LAO, please introduce yourself.

Hi, Good afternoon. Thank you. Madam Chair Natalie Gonzalez with the Legislative Analyst Office. I just wanted to first talk about the two different proposals that are proposed for College Corps. So the Governor's Budget includes a $50 million one time General Fund augmentation for the College Corps program in 25-26.

California Volunteers indicates that this $5 million is intended to help expand the program, increasing the number of campuses from 45 to 55 of the $5 million. California volunteers would use $1.8 million for staffing to run a competitive grant process to select these 10 additional campuses to participate in the program.

After these new campuses are selected, California Volunteers would then use the remaining $3.2 million to issue grants to these campuses to help with startup activities. In order to run the College Corps program on their campuses.

The Governor's Budget also includes, as mentioned, $84 million in ongoing General Fund support and 48 positions for College Corps in 2627 to launch this expanded program on an ongoing basis.

This expanded program, in addition to the 10 new campuses, would also include more slots for fellows or students, which would bring the total of number of slots from about 3,000 to 4,000. College Corps has three main objectives. To help students graduate college with less debt, to provide service opportunities for students, and also to support students career development.

California Volunteers has shared some information with us indicating that the program is generally meeting these objectives. However, we do have some concerns with the proposal. First, campuses already provide community service and career development opportunities for students. Also, campus financial aid offices package multiple types of financial aid awards for students.

The state even has another financial aid program with a service component to it. Given College Corps operates outside this existing infrastructure, it requires additional staffing and funding in order to run the program. This leads to our second concern regarding the program's high administrative costs.

Of the 84 million ongoing proposed for the program, about 45 million would be used for administrative costs. This means slightly less than half of this funding would go directly to student financial aid. California Volunteers would also receive 48 permanent positions to administer the program.

To put this in some perspective, that's about one third the number of positions that the California Student Aid Commission has. But College Corps equates to only about 3% of the financial aid funding that the Student Aid Commission administers. We understand the value that College Corps brings to students and communities.

But given the state's projected budget deficit, the high administrative cost to run the program, and the proposed reductions in higher education in 25-26, both at the University of California System, the California State University System, and a reduction to the state's middle class Scholarship program, we recommend the Legislature reject the Governor's College Corps proposals without the new funding.

I want to note that the program would still have $63 million in one time funding to support a new cohort of College Corps participants in the upcoming academic year. Thank you and happy to take any questions. Thank you.

Can I get either of you to speak to those costs? As far as the Administration kind of. It's seeming like quite a lot in this program.

I think. Yeah, Chief Deputy Chavez can answer some of the specific questions. I think what I'll point out is that this is not a financial aid program. It's very much a service and workforce development program. And what we know and what we've seen.

And what's been successful is that to create an experience for a student that actually helps them in their career and helps them launch a career and have this unique experience requires programming costs and requires support.

And I often like to think of my experience in the military where we have service Members who serve and then we have, we have a Pentagon that supports the ability for the service Members to do the work that they need to do around the world.

And College Corps is similar in that we make sure that the students have an incredible experience, we make sure that they're learning, we make sure that they're supervised and that they're trained and that they're gaining skills that are going to help them for the rest of their career.

So that's the framing for why this program, program is structured that way, why it's been so successful in meeting our goals that we've outlined to the state. And it's why we're suggesting that as we expand, we continue to move down this path. Anthony, is there anything else?

Yes. So in terms of the administrative costs, a lot of the administrative costs noted by the LAO are associated with program delivery costs. Where these funds are actually in support. Of actual program design, such as program training for the College Corps Members, evaluation of the actual program itself, education, outreach that the program does.

So there are several categories that are categorized as administrative costs, but they're actually program delivery costs. And as such, additionally, over the last. This is the BCP itself represents less administrative costs than in previous BCPs that the Legislature has approved.

So going back to the student, what is their experience? Is this for a year? What are the grants like? They, I think you said $10,000. For how long do they get this? How long do they participate in the program and so forth?

Sure. So the way the program is structured is students commit to serve 450 hours while they're in school during the academic year. And for those 450 hours they receive $10,000 up to $10,000. And, and the majority of that is throughout the academic year. They get paid.

And then when they finish the, when they finish the 450 hours, they receive a small scholarship to complete the $10,000. And that $10,000 is a meaningful amount. It wasn't arbitrary.

We received that direction from the UC system and higher education leaders because that's the amount that a Pell Grant student in California at a UC, for instance, has to come up with in addition to their financial aid package by either taking out loans, which is why we have a student debt crisis in this country or by working.

And so many of our students are forced to work at. Not forced, but end up working at cafes or fast food restaurants or wherever they can to supplement their financial aid package.

Now with college Corps, they have the chance to get to have the experience that so many others wealthier students have, which is to get real job experience, which is to do meaningful and purposeful work in the community and to start their careers.

So the way the structure, the program is structured is to really make college affordable to those students who need it the most, while also giving them brand new experiences that are going to help them for the rest of their lives.

All right, well, we don't have other Members here, so but again, this is a little bit tempered from the first right before this. And I certainly have seen the value of this classroom teacher had many. And at that time it was called service learning.

There wasn't a, if you want to say scholarship or stipend that was attached to it. And yet I know that those experience are vital to our students. It does come off the heels of us looking at making some pretty severe cuts to our UC CSUs and Student Aid Commission in other areas.

So this is obviously what we do in the budget, which is grapple with priorities. But I certainly know that giving students pathways to experiences that can either push them forward in the career that they're choosing or have them with that experience choose that it's not the right place for them.

I know that whether it's somebody who thinks they want to be in criminal justice and they actually go out on a ride along or do some type of experience that way, sometimes it's a match and other times it's not. I've seen that many times in teaching.

Somebody thinks they want to be in an elementary classroom and they were there for a certain amount of times and it's not a match. That's a better opportunity for them versus going through getting a teaching credential, being there and then leaving after two or three years.

So these type of, whatever we want to call them, serve projects, service learning, internships really are important. And it is getting harder for students to find not only the pathway, but a willing partner. The cost is a lot in this budget, so that I'll leave it there, but I certainly see the value. So with that, we'll open up for the public. If we have anybody who'd like to speak on this.

Dear Assembly woman Sharon Quirk Silva and good afternoon Committee Members. Good afternoon, Sharon. My name is Rene Menchaca and I come before you today to advocate for College Corps based on my own lived experience as a 2020 high school graduate navigating the challenges of a post pandemic world.

Joining College Corps in August 2023 was one of the best decisions of my life. I'm a first generation college graduate from California State University, Dominguez Hills where I've obtained my Bachelor's of Arts in Political Science last spring. I chose the Food Insecurity Track due to my family's history of utilizing these lifeline resources from my mom and I.

Food banks were often how we managed to endure and I wanted to give back to all those families who rely on them. I know for a fact many fellows share similar lived experiences and motivations.

As I said before, as a Class of 2020 high school grad, I've witnessed firsthand how the pandemic has created barriers between people of my age and beyond either through stunted growth, over reliance on technology and less community involvement.

College Corps is what ultimately got me out of my shell and through its abundance of employer partners, community partners and other College Corps Members, I began to be more proactive in my personal development. I began to see the limitless possibilities I could not before.

During my time as a Food Insecurity Fellow, I helped establish the first chicken farm at Dominguez Hills where all the eggs are currently being donated to the food pantry to.

I was also placed at Mudtown Farms in Watts, California which is a historical food desert where I helped cultivate food and educated community Members on the importance of fresh food and the little things that they could do to save money such as planting mint herbs and spices and small garden pots at home.

Before College Court, I worked at Walmart full time whilst also being a full time student and while I was always grateful for having a relatively good job for my age, you know I had pto, what more could I want? I knew it was not helping my career long term.

Thanks to the professional development aspect of College Corps, I was able to attend career fairs where I connected with other programs, specifically introduced me to post pandemic networking events. It refined my interviewing skills using the STAR method and helped me polish my resume.

With guidance from the Quarter Career team, I gained the tools and confidence to pursue opportunities I might not have considered otherwise. Since graduating last May, I have participated in four career pathways.

Thanks to the guidance I received from the Core to Career program at Unitedly Step in the Tech program, I earned Cisco certifications and explored cybersecurity basics at Co. Op, I gained hands on experience with tools like Tableau and SQL and at Empower, I earned my CompTIA ITF plus certification while working currently towards my Microsoft Azure certification.

Most recently I've had the privilege of joining the City of Los Angeles Mayor's Office where I was able to lead a program called the Next Gen Success Program. This was a tutoring program administered by local Youth source centers in cooperation with the City of Los Angeles Mayor's Office of Department of Economic Development.

This internship was also extended due to the fires and I was able to be relocated to assess Los Angeles fire victims with disaster supplies and relief. Thanks to all my experiences, I was recently selected to intern with the Los Angeles Personnel Department. I doubt any of these accomplishments would have been possible without College Corps.

I am profoundly grateful to College Corps and the Quarter Career for all the impactful and services oriented experiences which have laid the foundation for my professional growth and success.

Thanks to College Corps, I know wherever my career takes me, I will be a leader and I have a wide array of allies who I can call on for support. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Hello Assemblywoman Quirk Silva. My name is Jasmine Lopez and I'm happy to share my testimony on college on being a College Corps alumni.

So I am currently a graduate student specializing in Public Interest Law at UCLA and more importantly I am a proud alumna of College Corps which I am deeply grateful for the opportunity and support this program has provided and today I want to uplift the critical investment College Corps represents not only for Californians future but but for the well being of our communities today.

As someone who is both a first generation and locomotive and Low income household student, I know firsthand how transformative programs like College Corps are. Navigating higher education without a financial safety net and without the guidance of family Members who have walked this path is daunting to say the least.

Many first gen students balance work, school and personal responsibilities, often feeling like we must choose between making ends meet and gaining professional experience. The College Corps Corps eliminates that impossible choice. It ensures that students like me are not only able to stay in school but are also given the opportunity to serve our communities while doing so.

During my time with College Corps I focused on educational equity, specifically serving justice impacted students. Students who have been impacted by the justice system and who, like me, work against systemic barriers to pursue higher education.

Throughout my fellowship I mentored students who had been told that college was out of reach for them or just simply not aware that of the possibility of to applying to a UC. Many times I sat with students who had internalized the belief that college was not for them.

And yet, through guidance, resources and support, I saw these students transform. I witnessed them gain confidence, enroll in transfer level courses and begin to reimagine their futures. That experience was life changing, not just for them, but for me as well. This is what College Corps does.

It bridges the gap between education and service, between classroom learning and real world impact. It doesn't just prepare students for the workforce, it prepares them to lead, to serve, and to create change in their communities. However, for every student who has had the opportunity to participate, there are thousands more who have been turned turned away.

Last year over 10,000 students applied, but only 3,000 were accepted due to funding limitations. Expanding the College Core means expanding access not just for students, but for the communities they serve. It means ensuring that more first gen Low income students have a pathway to financial stability and career readiness.

It means connecting more nonprofits, schools, organizations with the passionate and dedicated service of College Core Fellows. Today, this Committee has the power to ensure that students like me and students with even greater socioeconomic hardships are given the opportunity to thrive.

Supporting this much Supporting this budget request is an investment in California's future leaders, educators, advocates and public stewards. I stand before you today as proof of the of the program's impact. The College Corps didn't just help me stay in school, it helped shape my purpose.

Because of this program, I am now pursuing a career in public interest law, committed to serving the very communities that shape me. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Good afternoon Madam Chair and Members of Subcommitee. My name is Karen Perez. I'm a recent College Corps alum and I'm here to share the profound impact that California College Corps has had in my life. As a first generation college graduate, navigating higher education was not easy.

As a Low income student, academics and financial stress felt overwhelming. But when I joined College Corps, all of that changed.

As a senior at California State Long beach, not only did I feel financially supported to continue my academics, but through my service at CSULB Science Learning Center, I found purpose helping K12 students see themselves in STEM the way I once struggled to. What I didn't realize then was that this opportunity would shape my future.

Beyond completing my Bachelor's of Science in Biology through Corpse 2 career, I was connected to Unite L A's my pathway to Health Career Internship, a paid opportunity where they sponsored my EMT training at USCLA and helped me obtain my EMT license. Today, I'm gaining hands on patient care experience with COPI Health Scholars at Adventist Health Glendale Hospital.

Taking a critical step toward my goal of becoming a physician assistant. But my story isn't unique. College Corps opens doors for students who want to serve but lack the resources to do so. It eases financial burdens, builds professional pathways, and empowers students, many from under underrepresented backgrounds, to create meaningful change in their communities.

Without College Corps, I wouldn't be where I am today. I hope this program continues to support more students like me who, when given an opportunity, can serve, grow and succeed. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Chairwoman Quirk-Silva and Committee Members. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Janet Parga. I am an undergraduate student at Cal State Dominguez Hills and an alumni of the second cohort of the College Core Program for the academic year of 20232024.

For some little background, I'm a second generation Mexican. Growing up higher education was a privilege that no one else in my family was given an opportunity for. The most important thing to anyone in my household and related Members was to work and somehow manage to fit school if it allowed. With a full time work schedule.

I worked various jobs and felt a sense of incompleteness. So I decided to stop working and return to school School to complete my undergraduate degree.

I was looking for part time work to help me pay for my tuition while I finished school, but an esteemed Professor and advisor of mine informed me about the College Core Program and suggested that I apply. I was one out of 400 candidates and 100 students elected into the program.

I was placed at Alticea at the Port of Los Angeles and after doing some research on the organization, I didn't feel like I was going to quite belong because I was going to be working among scientists and engineers and I didn't feel like I was really qualified for it.

But my time serving at my host site taught me that no matter what background or skill set, everyone can make a difference.

Today marks one year since I was actually hired at Alticea and I am the Ocean Pathways Coordinator there because I know firsthand how valuable the College Corps program is in supporting students gain work experience experience, build their soft skills and provide financial support. I accepted to host the third cohort of College Corps Fellows from Dominguez Hills.

In my cohort, we only had three fellows at the site. This year we're hosting seven. Last Friday, my Department of Economic and Workforce Development hosted a showcase where our fellows presented their projects over the last six months.

They expressed their gratitude for being given the opportunity to be part of a program that introduced them to fields that they never knew existed or that they felt were out of reach. This program provided resources for resume and CV building and networking opportunities.

This program financially supported me and I will be graduating with under $5,000 in student loans as opposed to close to 14. This program introduced me to an organization doing incredible work to combat climate change. I love sharing my story and hope that it inspires other students to become service Members.

When you graduate school having served as a College Corps Member, you leave with a sense of accomplishment. Not only did you earn your degree, but you helped tackle one of California's most pressing matters. I love being a Californian. This program is the reason I stand before you today. I'm proud to call myself an alumni of the College Corps and now a partner of the program. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Well done. Students definitely gave me a background of what they're doing. So the 450 hours did you say?

That's correct.

And what is that? Is that a semester or a whole year? It depends.

That's for the whole year. And that was with working in consultation with the leaders at the higher education systems to make sure that students don't work more than about 15 hours a week during the school year.

I don't see anybody else coming to the mic. Appreciate the testimony and like I said, I definitely think that this is valuable. We just have to weigh all of the priorities, but certainly can see the impact it's making. Thank you. All right, we're going to go to our next issue, issue number four, the Belonging Campaign.

And we welcome you. And this is for a 5 million General Fund request to support the Belonging Campaign.

Yes, thank you. And I may call up throughout the presentation if there's questions. Yumi Sarah, who's the Executive Director of the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications. Madam Chair, this budget item proposes 5 million of one time General Fund for the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications to launch a belonging initiative.

And this initiative will work to build social connection and engagement in neighborhoods and communities throughout California. Research and the experience of many of us shows us and tells us that our society has in many ways become disconnected and isolated and divided.

And the immediate past Surgeon General of the United States declared recently a public health crisis an epidemic of loneliness. According to the Surgeon General, quote, the harmful consequences of a society that lacks social connection can be felt in our schools, workplaces and civic organizations where performance, productivity and engagement are diminished.

Additionally, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published a recent report describing and warning the risks of social disconnection to public health. We also know from research that in a major disaster situation, you are significantly more likely to be helped, aided or rescued by a neighbor first than anyone from government.

So with this initiative and proposal, we seek to create social connections, improve mental, physical and public health and build more resilient communities. To accomplish this, we will raise awareness around ways people can connect in their communities and support community based organizations to engage neighborhoods and to improve people's access to resources and to networks.

This belonging initiative will include data driven research to better understand how to reach communities and identify and prioritize higher needs areas, outreach and education to raise public awareness around resources, programs and opportunities that will strengthen social connection and grants to support local engagement efforts.

With this initiative, we have a unique opportunity to support the social, the emotional and the physical health of Californians while better connecting the community to services and resources as well as to each other. And we hope that this will start to create a less isolated, lonely and disconnected society for all of us. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you. Department of Finance Henry Ng, Department of.

Finance this is a mission priority. These one time resources will allow for the office to initiate research projects and to lead a campaign in order to help communities better identify pathways to social connectedness and engagement. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Rachel Ehlers with the Legislative Analyst's Office. Given the General Fund condition, we recommend the Legislature use quite a high bar when it is considering expanding or creating new programs funded by the General Fund. As in a deficit situation, that essentially means eliminating other existing commitments to make room for new commitments.

And we in our assessment don't think that this proposal meets that high bar. We think it lacks clarity around how to define and measure a sense of belonging and therefore for how to identify what specific activities would achieve that goal.

Lack of clarity around the specific activities being proposed, for example, which programs would be part of this outreach campaign or whether additional outreach around those programs is needed, how the funds would be used and how success would be evaluated.

So again, in the overall context of the budget, our assessment of this proposal is that it doesn't meet that high bar.

Like to respond to that?

Well, we, we believe that given the severity of what I described of the public health crisis that we're facing, the isolation, the loneliness, what we're seeing with our mental health crisis with our youth, that we have a responsibility to try to address this and to figure it out.

And what we've proposed is what we think is a very prudent and responsible approach to both figure out how to best connect people, to support local initiatives, to support Local neighborhoods through grants, and also to increase awareness with Californians about resources that they can access to try to better connect with each other.

So we feel strongly that we have an approach that can work and will work and that given the severity of this situation, this is necessary at this time.

I don't disagree with you that we have a loneliness problem severe. Who are you focusing here? Are you focusing on adults, senior teens? All of the above.

It really will be all of the above. But what we have identified is most acute needs with both our senior population and our youth population. That's where we see the highest. We see a mental health crisis, as I mentioned, with young people across our state.

And we also see high, high levels of isolation that not only lead to loneliness, but as we saw during the pandemic, leave often leave our seniors disconnected from their neighbors who can help provide them with resources like groceries and drugs and different things that they need in times of need.

So our hope here really is to both strengthen and figure out through data research, which is a big part of this proposal, what is the best way to connect with these populations and make sure that they have the resources and the ability to connect with others.

So with the 5 million you are expecting to hire individuals to do this outreach or how do you expect to make these connections?

It's so. So in part, it's. It's to provide the ability to research and understand what is the best way to reach people and what and how.

So there is a research element of this campaign and then there's also a public awareness element of this effort, which is to actually reach people, to act through outreach and education to make sure that people were able to find them and research them and then connect them to initiatives that are already happening on the ground and also connect them to neighborhood efforts where, where we can learn and understand what is the best way for a senior to stay connected and be connected in their neighborhood.

So it's a multi pronged approach for us to figure this out, which is why it's one time, because we do expect to learn a lot and we expect to test a lot. And then we hope that with what we learn and what we expect, that we can hopefully scale from there.

Well, again, I appreciate the idea, the compassion. This is very outreaching to people we know who are underserved. Really, if I could hear these items in isolation, then I would be, yes, let's do this all the way.

But when we look at the menu where we're zeroing out housing dollars, homeless dollars, it does make it hard to say, let's try another initiative. And although only 5 million, it does feel like another effort. But I appreciate where you're going with this.

I certainly, I mean, from the pandemic, we've seen lots of our seniors not really recovering from that experience. They were very much removed from their network bases, and some of them really haven't returned. We also see the same with our teens and even college students and mental health. So it's definitely a worthy endeavor.

But as you know, working for the governor's office, the, the competing measures. But we will definitely do our cheering for it as we go through these processes. Do we have anybody from the public wishing to speak on this? Seeing none. Any final comments? zero, we do have somebody coming up. Hang on.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Committee staff.

I'm Noette Baramo, I'm with California Rural Legal Assistance foundation and while we appreciate the discussion on the proposed belonging campaign, I'm here on behalf of the 75 Member trusted messenger coalition and we request the continued investment of $25 million in the 2526 budget for the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications, OCPSC to provide grant funding to community based organizations statewide so that they may continue working with California's most marginalized communities that are hard to reach to help them receive resources through targeted outreach and education campaigns.

Since 2023, OCPSC has partnered with CBOs in regions statewide to facilitate the work within their communities as trusted messengers on priority issues with the goal of improving social, the health and economic conditions of these communities.

The current funding will conclude in May 2025 and extended funding will avoid unnecessary retrenchment that limits the capacity of the CBOs to wrap up effective campaigns.

To date, CBOs have successfully conducted outreach and education campaigns on extreme HEAT, Water Conservation, COVID 19, Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, and Youth Behavioral health, which is proving to be a lifeline for stressed communities fearful from drastic federal policies that will harm children and families at a time when resources are urgently needed.

CBO successfully demonstrated that they are the trusted messengers critical to working with thousands of residents statewide. According to data from May 2024 to January 2025142 community based organizations conducted 1.35 million interactive engagements with people in 55 languages. Awesome. Yes.

Wrap it up a little bit. Thank you.

We asked the Committee My final sum up. We asked the Committee to consider continuing the investment of 25 million to the CBOs and look forward with working with the Committee, the Legislature and the Governor. Thank you very much.

Thank you. All right, that ends our issue number four. We're going to go now to issue number five. Thank you for presenting and we are going to start talking about the California Department of Technology. Issue number five, update on Middle Mile Broadband Initiative.

This has been an ongoing project now going on a good handful of years since the beginning. And make sure you introduce yourself as we go. And just a reminder to the public, I know I allowed the students and the last presenter, when we do public comments, we're doing under 30 seconds.

So again, when we do public comments, we're doing under 30 seconds. I did give a little leeway there on the students in the last commenter, but let's go ahead and begin.

Good afternoon. My name is Jared Johnson and I am the Deputy State Chief Information Officer and Chief Deputy Director of the California Department of Technology. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about the Middle Mile Broadband Initiative, which represents California's commitment to closing the digital divide.

In July of 2021, SB156 created an open access Middle Mile Network to bring equitable high speed broadband services to all Californians. We have heard loud and clear that this is a priority for our state, from urban centers to rural communities in every corner of California.

Through the leadership of Governor Newsom, the Legislature and the Middle Mile Advisory Committee, CDT is working to ensure that Californians have access to high speed, affordable broadband services.

To take full advantage of our digital world, we leveraged a modern request for innovative ideas or RFI squared procurement process and are under contract with more than a dozen partners to construct, lease and purchase more than 7,300 miles and are in the construction phase for over 3,000 miles of the approximate 8,000 mile network.

These include tribal entities, local governments and private partners. CDT and its partners remain committed to completing the Middle Mile Broadband network by the December 2026 deadline. With me today is Mark Monroe, the Deputy Director of the Middle Mile Broadband Initiative, who is here to provide a brief update and answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you. Welcome.

Thank you. Mark Monroe, Deputy Director for the Middle Mile Broadband Initiative here at CDT. I'll just note that, you know, this is as I think has been noted, this we're developing an 8,000 mile network that is the largest in the country as far as we're aware. We currently have over 3,400 miles in construction.

And when we're and that's towards 8,000 miles, which will, among other, reach a number of unserved and underserved communities throughout the state. But really it's going to reach it'll also reach the 105 FFA grant applicants that will that will be connecting to the network. So I'm happy to provide any updates and yeah, thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Go to the dof.

Ryan Bender, Department of Finance. We have nothing to add right now. Nothing to add right now. Sorry.

Okay, thank you.

Brian Metzger, LAO. Nothing specific to add. Just would note that in last year's budget act there was a requirement to submit a detailed business plan for the Middle mile network by January 31st. This plan would include estimated revenues and expenditures for the network, as well as some information about potential need for alternate funding for additional miles.

And we have not seen that report be submitted to the Legislature quite yet.

All right, so let's start with that question, but then I have A few others. But what's going on with the report? The big question is that if this project isn't finished by 2026, what is the cost going to be to the state?

Okay, I'll start with the reports. The Middle Mile Broadband Initiative business plan as well as our annual report are in the final stages of review and will be submitted to the Legislature soon.

Yeah, I can expand upon the what will happen if it doesn't finish right now? Just to clarify, it is still fully the administration's plan to finish MMBI by the 2026 deadline. I also do want to note that the 2026 deadline is the deadline for encumbrance. It is.

And then 2028 will be a deadline for liquidation of these funds. Since these funds are all now General funds.

We just have to make sure that there are agreements that we've entered into and that we've encumbered the funds and we have an additional two years to to fully make sure those funds are spent and our contractors are paid and whatnot.

So you're not nervous.

At this moment? This is fully our plan to be finishing by 2026.

All right, well, we are cheering for you. We want this done. As you know, or some of you know, I was on the Middle Mile Committee. So it is good to hear about the progress. I have heard that there are still some partnerships with Caltrans that have not been finalized. Can you speak to that?

Yes. So as we have moved from the planning stage into full construction here, there is, when you look at how we're developing the 8,000 mile network, over 7,300 miles is going to be through partnerships with, with other companies. And those companies will need to secure encroachment permits on Caltrans right of way.

And so that I believe, is what we're talking about. I think there's approximately 4,000 miles of those partnerships that will actually be on Caltrans right away. So we're at that that part of the project where as we move to construction, those partners will need those mile. Need the encroachment permit for those segments.

So what are we doing about that? Because I know when I was on Middle Mile we were talking about that even back then. So how can we move that along or streamline it to make sure we don't get in a situation where we're held up?

Mikhail Trans has reported that with regards to the MMBI partners, the RFI Squared partners that they have, they're working with them. They have, they report having a number of one on one meetings with them to help them understand how to get encroachment permits and kind of what that process is.

And so we are meeting with Caltrans regularly and with our RFI Squared partners to track how that progress looks relative to anticipated construction start dates.

Any other comments? All right. From the public, but you would like to speak on this.

The California alliance for Digital Equity. We certainly appreciate the work that CDT has done today, but there are a. Couple items that we would like to. Work with the Committee to have answered. And we will be sending a formal. Letter to the Committee later today outlining those questions. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Seeing no one else, any final comments? Let's get moving fast. Faster than you can believe. Like Superman. Fast.

Thank you.

All right. Welcome. We are now moving to California Privacy Protection Agency, CPPA Data Broker Deletion Request Opt Out Platform.

Good afternoon, chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Vaughn Chitembera. I'm the Deputy Director of Administration. Joining me is Maureen Mahoney, who is our Deputy Director of Policy. And also available today is our interim Executive Director, Tiffany Garcia.

The Delete act adopted in 2023 transferred the responsibility of Data Broker Registry from Department of Justice to the agency and further required the agency to establish an accessible deletion mechanism to allow consumers to request the deletion of personal information maintained by registered data brokers beginning January 12026 pursuant to the Delete Act.

The agency is developing this accessible deletion mechanism known as the Delete Request and opt out platform or drop. I'll just refer it to drop from now on. The agency is partnering with cdt, the California Department of Technology, to build the system.

This project was delegated by CDT back to the agency and the agency is contracting with CDT's Office of Digital Services to provide direct technology development through an inter agency agreement.

Now moving on to our budget request, the agency requests an increase in expenditure authority of 2.4 million from the Data Broker Registry Fund in 202526 and 2.3 million in 2627 and two positions phased in over a period of two years to meet the agency's responsibility under the Delete Act. Thank you and I welcome any questions.

Department of Finance Taylor McGraw, Department of Finance. We have no comments at this time, Brian.

Brian Metzger, LAO would just like to note for the Subcommitee that this is a fairly unique platform and the arrangement with CDT to develop the platform is fairly unique as well. The agenda does a good job in noting some of the oversight considerations that that raises.

We would just Note that there is an interagency agreement between CDT and cppa. At the time of our analysis, it was not yet available. And so the Subcommitee may wish to request that agreement to inform its considerations of this proposal.

Yes. Following up on that oversight, how will oversight work? Since CDT is the vendor program manager and program oversight on this project, and I don't think that's quite usual, so if you can explain that.

Absolutely. CDT is not providing direct oversight on the project. So the drop project was delegated back to the agency through the project approval life cycle, typically known as PAL, and this was done in January 2025. As a delegated project. The agency is responsible for overseeing the governance, risk management and execution of the project.

Delegated projects are typically required to report periodically to cdt, which we'll continue to do. So there's additional oversight, but they're not providing direct oversight. As cdt, the agency is responsible for overseeing this.

The Office of Digital Services is providing the technology development, and the IAA provides some guidelines which also help with segregation of duties, and that also addresses the oversight component. We also have a memorandum of understanding with the Project Management office. And this arrangement was necessary because the agency is small with limited resources.

So by leveraging CDT's resources, we're able to meet the timeline.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Any other comments from here? Going to the public? Any comments?

Thank you so much. Madam Chair, as a small business owner, you know, I am the owner of Servicea Xteca local microbrewery in San Diego. You know, we've embraced innovation in our company at every level. As a small business, especially in these times, it's critical that we're efficient. So we've embraced AI at every level.

From looking at forecasting our product, we're able to look deeper into what our costs are and, and how we're spending our money to our transportation. Daily, we're looking at our maps, not only from a traditional map, but using AI so that we can save gas and time and wear and tear in our vehicles.

The area that we really utilize it is as a small company is on the marketing side. We've been using AI to help us not only transform how we're doing our marketing, but to really be more efficient and to be able to get our word out. Especially in, like I said, these times of economy where there's uncertainty.

We're thankful for these advancements of AI helping a small company. As President and CEO, I don't see it as a way to eliminate our staff, but to increase their efficiency. So a lot of times we could use AI to look at our warehouse instead of a staff Member being in their two hours.

The AI helps is they're in their half hour looking at inventory and they could focus on other things. And that's really helping our bottom line. So what we're asking today is, you know, we acknowledge that the growth of AI is tremendous, but it's here.

And we also understand, you know, that it's important that it be balanced and fair for small businesses as it's regulated. That as you regulate this space, that it takes into consideration that we do not have the bandwidth for heavy cumbersome compliance because that's not what we do.

So you know, at the end of the day we ask that, you know, you could keep open to CPPA budget to understand the cost compliance that it's going to cost us small business owners that how is it going to impact us?

Because you know, during these times we need every advantage to thrive, but it does no good to have one advantage and at the same time get hindered with regulation that we don't have the capacity to adhere to. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Appreciate that.

Good afternoon Madam Chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Ahmad Holmes and I'm the President and CEO of the California African American Chamber of Commerce which we are the largest statewide chamber who help African American small businesses continue to have wealth creation here up and down the State of California.

We recently just sent a joint letter to the Committee asking that the CPPA budget remain open. We're concerned about the proposed regulations that will cause great hardships on the African American community. We agree with the bipartisan letter that was submitted by legislation in February.

And we also feel that budget should process should be an oversight should be looked into the ADMT regulations with impact of small businesses such as the pandemic had our businesses in the African American community changed.

We continue to now move from a broken mortar or open offices to doing a lot of business online which online and having AI help us with that helps us process things a lot quicker, a lot faster compared to the way of doing business. We continue to be efficient.

We continue to grow our businesses as well as our our customer base. And we feel that having the AI will help continue to grow the economy not just in our backyard but across the global empire. We thank you for your time and appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you.

Good afternoon Chair Quirk-Silva and Members of the Committee. Julian Canetti, President CEO of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce. The chamber has 130 Latino and diverse chambers representing the interests of California's over 1.8 million diverse owned businesses.

Recently we sent a letter to the Subcommitee requesting that CPPA's budget remain open due to its proposed regulations which will severely harm and impact small businesses and their customers here in California. Furthermore, we agree with the concerns raised by the Legislature in your bipartisan letter that was sent to CPPA February 192025.

The CPPA should be required to be responsive to the following issues as part of the 2025 budget oversight process. They should redraft the regulations to minimize adverse economic impacts to California and California's small businesses on a bigger fiscal issue.

CPPA voted to move these regulations forward with the knowledge that they will cost California's 3.5 million in the first year of implementation.

With ongoing costs of 1 of 1 billion annually for the next 10 years and with a potential job loss of 98,000 jobs, CPPA's proposed regulations are unlikely to help California's precarious economic condition as it would add billions in implementation costs on businesses and drive thousands of jobs out of California.

In redrafting the CPPA regulations, they should consider other alternatives to minimize the economic impact. In closing, we respectfully request that the CPPA's budget remain open until these issues are discussed above are resolved with additional oversight hearings on the cppa. Thank you.

I don't usually do this but but do you have any response to those? They were all from chambers that you could address and because these are definitely very serious potential impacts on our small small businesses.

Chair, thank you for the question. We are in the midst of required rulemakings on automated decision making technologies.

Technology with respect to opt out and access to meaningful information about the logic involved in those decisions as well as with respect to risk assessments for businesses engaging in risky data processing to submit risk assessments to the agency on a regular basis. We very much appreciate all of the feedback that has been received.

We just finished a comment period where we received many many pages of comments from approximately 200 different stakeholders. We've held two rulemaking hearings where we accepted oral comments from the public and we want to get this right. So getting this feedback from the public is very important.

So the next steps are that our board is going to be in a position to consider whether any changes are appropriate at our next board meeting in early April.

Any other comments? I would urge you to take serious the input. As we know we are in a very precarious time economically when we weigh in what's happening with the Federal Government with tariffs. We need to have some type of certainty in California.

We need to listen to our business owners because these compounded impacts are going to in fact drive people out of the state unless we can do whatever we need to do to protect them and retain them here in California. We appreciate all your hard work and thank you for being here.

Thank you.

All right, next we are going to the Department of General Services and we have issue number seven. Implementation of the K through 12 schools and local Community College Public Education Facilities Modernization, Repair and Safety Bond act of 2024. We'll just start with we already know the severe impacts because of the fire.

So if you could address that as you make some of your comments as well. Welcome. Nice to see you. And just to be candid, I'm a newly appointed board Member of the State Allocation Board and had our first. My first meeting last month. Has it already been a month? Yes. So I recognize some of the faces here.

Welcome. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Rebecca Kirk, the Executive officer for the Office of Public School Construction, which is within the Department of General Services. And we also serve as staff to the State allocation board.

Proposition 2 was approved by California voters in November 2024 to authorize $10 billion in bonds for school and community college facilities in California. Of this amount, $8.5 billion is authorized for public school facilities with grades transitional kindergarten through 12th grade.

The budget change proposal before the Subcommitee today requests authority to Reserve a portion of Proposition 2 bond funds for implementation and Administration of Proposition 2 and the school facility program over a multi year period.

So specifically, the budget change proposal requests for the Department of General Services 16 positions, $59.5 million over a five year period which begins with approximately $12.2 million in 202526 and $356,000 ongoing from various funds.

I would note that the requested expenditure authority does not only facilitate our ability to implement the extensive changes in new programs in Proposition 2, but also to continue. Excuse me.

Our Administration of the School Facility program as the Office of Public School Construction does not otherwise have an adequate source of administrative funding in 202526 and beyond. I'd be happy to answer any questions. I know you mentioned the wildfires as well. Well, at the appropriate time. Department of Finance.

Alex with the Department of Finance. No additional comments, but happy to answer any questions.

Edgar Cabral with the LAO. We don't have any concerns with the budget change proposal. Our understanding is that the additional staffing would allow OPSC to continue to process applications for funding in the same rate. That existed prior to Prop . 2.

And my question would be is once the funds are expended, what would then happen with the 16 positions, as they're noted here, to be permanent?

Thank you, Madam Chair. We currently at the Office of Public School Construction in the current year have 67 authorized positions. This request would add 414 positions to our authorized positions at the Office of Public School Construction.

The other two positions in the budget change proposal are for two other divisions within the Department of General Services that have a smaller role in implementing Proposition 2 as well. The funding in Proposition 2 that's provided for the school facility program at our current processing rate that Mr.

Cabral, with the LAO referenced about of 1.5 billion annually, we expect that will be about five and a half years worth of workload for our office, assuming we continue at that same processing rate throughout. Historically, our office has been funded through statewide school facilities bonds.

So at that time we would look either to potentially another statewide school facilities bond to be considered by the voters and or Budget act appropriations as we seen in more recent years, for the program.

Thank you. On the fires, I mean, I know it's a little separate, but it is the topic of conversation. Can you speak to that, a little bit of what that looks like as far as the urgency and the moving these projects forward as timely as possible?

Yes, absolutely. Proposition 2, as you know, passed in November. We had started sort of underway and had this budget change proposal included as part of the Governor's Budget, which came out just around the time of the fires, I think days, literally days after.

Our office has been very active in outreach and engagement with school districts and charter schools that had their facilities, facilities either destroyed or significantly damaged, otherwise impacted by the fires. The school Facility program does have some means of providing assistance to those school districts and charter schools.

We've seen also in the past, sadly, some prior decisions and actions coming out of the natural disasters that similarly impacted the Paradise Unified School District as well as the Pioneer Union Elementary School District up in Butte County.

So the program has been able to provide funding assistance in, in those cases, but specifically under Proposition 2, in addition to the mechanisms that have been used in the past, the State Allocation Board has new authority to consider providing disaster assistance in the form of interim school site funding or other assistance to districts that are impacted in exactly this type of scenario.

So we have been informing those schools and charters of those options. And then our board did take action just at last month's meeting to Reserve the remaining General Fund, previously authorized funding that we had for the program as a means of providing potentially expedited cash to assist those school districts that were impacted by the January wildfires.

To the extent they come into our office with a request for that assistance by the end of August 2025, we have informed the districts of that option available to them, as well as the fact that they're not limited to that timeline. They can still come in and potentially receive Proposition 2 bond authority even after August.

But the reservation by the board of remaining General Fund authority would allow them to more expeditiously access funding if subsequently approved by the board.

Thank you. I know you're doing serious work and it's a really stressful time for school districts, for families, students. And the work that you are focused on is at some point we'll bring back some normalcy for them and important work of educating our students.

That being said, any other comments up here asking the public if they'd like to speak? Seeing none. Any final comments? Thank you. Thank you. All right, we are at our last item here. And our last item is Facilities Management Division, building operation and support for the Department of General Services. Facility management. And we can begin.

Madam Chair, thank you. Jason Kenney, Chief Deputy Director for the Department of General Services. We are asking for service revolving Fund in the amount of 5.91.0 million million. 1.0 This is authority, not dollars. And 45 positions. Again, authority not dollars to staff and maintain and operate Building 18.

It's a large green building that's finishing renovation in October with move in in December of 25th, January 26th.

Zero, that was very short. Thank you. Would you like to speak on this?

No comment.

Okay. Well, there is a lot of moving around here and I think we actually need one of those little movable boards to say who's moving from where and so forth.

And then with you overlay that with governor's new proposal with the four day return to office, can you give us a little context of how that could impact the current relocation processes?

Yeah, absolutely. So, and maybe going to your initial implied question, the tenants for this building will be departments within the labor agency. So primarily on Capitol Mall you have the EDD buildings. There's technically three of them. They look like two. Those are where the majority of tenants are coming from.

There's also a number of folks from lease space as well, again within the agency that would be relocating to the building. With respect to impacts, you know, we're trying to quantify those departments what their four day return to office would look like to know how much, you know, potential excess people to seats might, might result.

To the extent that would happen, we would Obviously look at taking people who are coming from lease space and probably keeping them there. We definitely want to be able to vacate those buildings on Capitol Mall, given their age and condition and make sure that we're trying to keep state employees in as updated and appropriate space as possible.

And with all of this, you'll also be looking at parking and all those things that go with moving employees and so forth.

Yeah, the building the employees are coming from are not parked and so should be generally a net one way or the other. But obviously with the return to office, we are looking at parking options downtown and seeing what we can do to expand the availability of parking.

We're also hoping that the increased ridership and bus lines and light rail will be something that our transit partners pick up and increase supply and capacity there as well.

All right. A lot of moving parts.

Yeah. All right. Well with that, any other comments up here? Not seen anybody from the public that would like to speak on this.

You said it.

Good afternoon again, Madam Chair Quirk-Silva, Daniel Shirl with SEIU Local 1000 Legislative Advocate.

Just sharing the extreme frustration that workers we represent have around this four day return to office order and you know, eager to hear from DGS plans and also acknowledging the role of CALHR and the role that our Members have to seek reasonable accommodation reaching out to their managers and departments.

But, you know, just generally wanted to share again the perspective that we're hearing from our Members that Telework has, is associated with higher productivity and is a proven recruitment and retention tool for the state. And so again, thank you for your time.

Thank you. Appreciate those comments on behalf of all of your workers and any last comments. All right, seeing none. We appreciate you being here. Thank you so much. And with that, that is going to be the close of this hearing.

Thank it.