Senate Standing Committee on Rules

All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you all again for your patience. A little bit of housekeeping before we kick off and establish a quorum. It is one of the busiest weeks here in the Legislature of the Year. You are going to see Members that are going to be in and out of Committee today.

Please don't take any disrespect to that. They are either going to have to present their bills and other committees or take votes and committees that they're also sitting on at the same time as Senate rules. So again, want to apologize ahead of time. If you do see a Member stepping out, it is because they don't want to.

They want to be here, but they have to go take a vote and or present one of their bills. This is our deadline week, so we appreciate your patience and understanding. Before we get anything, get into anything else, why don't we establish a quorum? Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Corum has been established. We're going to now welcome Director Rutledge. If you won't mind, come on forward. And what we're going to do, with all respect to the Director, we're going to work through our administrative portion of the agenda.

As the Director heads on up, we're going to work through a few votes and then Madam Director will come straight to you. And we want to welcome you to Committee. It's good to see you. So let's do this. We're going to start with Governor appointees not required to appear. Ladies and gentlemen, the Committee.

We're going to take three separate motions for Governor appointees not required to appear. Is there discussion or debate on Governor appointees as a whole? Hearing none. Is there a motion on items C, E and G under Governor appointees? We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair. Final discussion or debate. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

It's a 5-0 vote. Motion passes for closing the roll. Ladies and gentlemen, the Committee. We're going to do our second request for a motion. Governor appointees not required to appear on item D. Is there a motion to approve? We have. All right. Hey, see, there we go. Madam Vice Chair, I'll let you do the. The tiebreaker.

Would you like to do the motion?

It should be her.

All right. Madam Vice Chair. Madam Vice Chair is we have a motion on item D. Is there any Discussion or debate on item D? Hearing and seeing none. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Motion passes for closing the roll. Ladies and gentlemen, Committee, we're now going to move forward on item F. Item F under Governor, appointees not required to appear. We have a motion by Mr. Laird. Thank you so much, Mr. Laird. Discussion or debate from the Committee hearing seen None. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

Three votes, 3-0 vote. Final vote. We're closing the roll. Thank you so much. That was Governor. Appointees not required to appear. We're now going to be moving on to Bill referrals. Is there any discussion or debate on item three? Bill referrals. We have a motion. Final call for discussion or debate hearing. Seeing none.

Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

5-0 vote. Final vote. We're now going to close the roll. All right. It's everyone's favorite time of the Committee. Rule waiver request. Hot dang. So, ladies and gentlemen, we would like to be able to see if there's any discussion or debate on the rule waiver request item or we'll also welcome a motion.

I would move then.

Yes, you would. All right. Senator Laird moves on the rule waiver request. Final call for discussion or debate. Madam Director is just riveted here as we move our way through the agenda. I apologize, Madam Director. Hearing and seeing none. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

3-1 vote. Final vote. We're now closing the roll. If you wanted more, Madam Director, we're now moving on to floor acknowledgments. All right. Like, what am I doing here? I do appreciate the patience. All right. We're now going to see if there's any discussion. All right. We have a motion by Madam Vice Chair on floor acknowledgments.

Last call for. Last call for discussion or debate. Hearing and seeing none. Madam Secretary, can you please call the rule?

[Roll Call]

Thank you so much. Final vote. We are now closing the role. We're now going to be moving forward on Governor appointees who are required to appear and we are going to welcome the Director of the Department of Rehabilitation to Committee. Madam Director, thank you so much for your patience. It's really good to see you.

Madam Director, I want to start out by saying thank you for your service to the people of California. You have dedicated your life to it and we are incredibly grateful. I'd like to talk a little bit about run a show and how the hearing will work here.

What we're going to do is we're going to turn it over to you, Madam Director, to be able to provide opening testimony. You have three minutes. I'll give you a 30 second prompt. As you get close to that three minutes.

What we're then going to do is turn it back over to Committee for any questions, comments, any concerns that they'll share. After that, we'll open it up for public comment. We'll welcome folks to be able to come forward. We'll start with those who in support, those who may be in opposition. Then we'll go for a final vote.

Again, Madam Director, thank you so much. The floor is yours. You have three minutes.

Thank you so much, Mr. Pro Tem and Members of the Committee for the Opportunity to be here today. I would like to start by thanking Governor Newsom for appointing me to this position. And I'd like to thank Secretary Johnson for her unwavering support and trust in me to take on this role.

I would like to thank my family members, friends and many colleagues joining me in person today. Especially my very patient husband Jeffrey, my father in law and brother in law who traveled here from the Salinas Valley today, and my best friend from college who's here from Berkeley.

I'd also like to acknowledge my family members and friends who are watching online today, especially my mother who along with my late father, instilled in me the belief that I could achieve greatness regardless of my disability. I am honored to join a long legacy of DOR directors with disabilities.

So starting with disability rights pioneer Ed Roberts, who was appointed by Governor Brown in 1976. Thank you to former directors Catherine Campisi and Tony Sauer, who still provide mentorship and guidance. And thank you to former Director Joe Xavier for your support and for leaving a strong legacy for me to build upon.

I want to thank the DOR staff from our passionate and dedicated Executive team, to the counselors and staff who serve Californians with disabilities every day in 80 field offices and throughout the state. And finally, I want to thank the disability community and advocates who constantly push me to do better by our community every day.

Having the privilege of sitting before this Committee today as the Director of the largest vocational rehabilitation and independent living programs in the nation is the culmination of work started by a vocational rehabilitation counselor who was connected to me and my family during my junior year of high school to help me plan for life as an adult with a disability.

Thanks to the vocational rehabilitation program, I was able to move away from home, live independently, and attend college to pursue a degree in journalism. After college, I worked in journalism for a little over 10 years.

While I found success in my field, I also faced workplace barriers due to my disability as well as barriers accessing home and community based services critical to my Independence. My experiences navigating the complex systems serving Californians with disabilities inspired me to pursue a new career in disability policy and advocacy to improve those systems for others.

With the support of the California Department of Rehabilitation, I went back to school to earn a Master of Social Welfare degree, which prepared me to do important work in many programs impacting individuals with disabilities, including in home supportive services and Adult Protective Services. And now vocational rehabilitation and independent living.

It is a distinct honor to lead work that truly gives people with disabilities hope, whether it is helping a young person with a disability have the resources to attend college and pursue the career of their dreams, or connecting a newly disabled individual with the resources they need to live independently in the community.

I am proud of the work the Department of Rehabilitation does every day and I'm excited to continue to have to find new and better ways to ensure that Californians with disabilities have the opportunity to pursue employment, contribute to their communities, and live their best lives.

Again, I thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today and I welcome the Committee's questions.

Thank you so much, Madam Director. Very grateful. What we're going to do is we're going to open it up, see if there's any questions. Comments, please, Senator Laird, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much and thanks for the great meeting. And I appreciate the fact that you have family members that drove from the Salinas Valley, because I do that drive every week and that's clearly a commitment on their part. That's all I can say.

And just maybe talk about a couple of things we talked about in our meeting. And I did note your career path, which is fascinating. All the different things you've done that probably help you in different ways in doing this job.

One of the things we talked about was the implementation of Senate Bill 639, which has to do with salaries, and I was wondering if you could give the Committee an update on where that stands.

Yes, I'd be happy to, Senator, and really enjoyed the conversation that we had earlier this week as well. So, as you know, SB639 ended Senate subminimum wage for people with developmental disabilities in California effective January 1, 2025.

And I am happy to say that the Department of Rehabilitation has been working very closely with the Department of Developmental Services and to a lesser degree, also with the Department of Education to phase this out and get all individuals in California with intellectual and developmental disabilities in into competitive integrated employment.

And when we talk about competitive integrated employment, specifically, we're talking about real work for real pay in a community setting.

And that is the ultimate goal for many, many years nationwide and still in many states, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the best and only work opportunities for them were in sheltered workshops where they received below minimum wage and only worked with individuals that had the similar disabilities to them.

So we're really happy that the Legislature and the Governor decided to take the move to phase out the subminimum wage program in California and move individuals into that competitive integrated employment. As I mentioned, this is a partnership work to get these individuals into jobs with these competitive, integrated settings.

And so several things that the Department is doing to support that include our career counseling and information referral program. Since that program began in 2016, we have been able to move 1,973 individuals into Department of Rehabilitation Services to be able to help them get those competitive integrated jobs.

And 818 of those individuals previously in sheltered workshops are now achieving competitive integrated employment. In fiscal year 23-24, which was really when we were ramping up to end subminimum wage, 761 individuals received a total of 2,217 separate career counseling and information referrals.

Additionally, as we continue to move forward, we're also looking at other things, including our College to Career career program, which started at eight community colleges with the UCLA Tarjan center and the California Community College Chancellor's Office, this program integrates individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism into higher education, providing vocational training that leads to competitive integrated employment.

So we have several different programs right now that are really working toward getting those individuals. I know there was a real fear about those individuals ending up on the camp couch and not in a job.

And so this is challenging, but I think that our community partnerships, as well as our partnerships with other departments are moving these folks closer to those competitive integrated jobs.

And I know when that Bill was being debated, there was this real concern that there was a fixed amount of money. And if you Raised the salaries, it meant it was less amount of money that was available, that somehow the individuals that benefited from the program were going to be disadvantaged.

Is that the experience or what's the experience now that it's been implemented and we have a chance to see what the results are?

I think really the opportunity here, Senator, is that with the end of subminimum wage, we're not just relying on the funds through our state system to be able to get give people jobs. We can put people with developmental and intellectual disabilities in all types of jobs, including jobs in the private sector.

So I don't think that those are really concerns that we're worried about at this juncture.

Great. Then the other question I was going to ask is that there are various clients and some independent living centers that were really affected by the fires in which Los Angeles.

And I wondered if you could sort of speak to what has happened and how you've served and then maybe lessons you've learned what we might experience when fires hit other parts of the state.

Absolutely, absolutely. The fires in Los Angeles were such a tragedy and also really highlighted the various ways that we can serve people with disabilities a little bit better.

I want to share an anecdote about actually a member of our Executive leadership team at the Department who lives in Los Angeles and works out of one of our offices there.

She's also an individual with a disability who had to evacuate from her home due to one of the fires and the challenges that she faced as a wheelchair user just being able to find transportation because the Ubers and Lyfts, the ones that actually are accessible, were very impacted.

The paratransit vehicles were largely redirected to evacuate nursing homes and other types of facilities. And so transportation was a big issue. The independent living centers had to very quickly work together to find alternative transportation, very grassroots, to be able to help people get evacuated and infected shelters.

We had volunteers from the Department and our staff that work in our various Southern California offices, worked very closely with the shelters during the evacuation period to make sure that individuals had everything that they needed, whether that is equipment, like medical equipment, if you need a charger for a wheelchair or an oxygen machine or something like that, oftentimes people had to evacuate without the very important things they needed.

So our independent living centers and also even our employment counselors in Southern California, we're helping folks connect with all of the types of medical equipment and those types of things they may need.

People go to shelters and often need personal care assistance and some of those types of services so that's another area where the Independent Living centers were really able to help out as well. As far as employment goes, I mean, employment is such a big part of what DOR does.

And our staff in our employment offices also helped collect clothing and work supplies and things for people who may have lost that as a part of the fires. But I think that overall, we're really working closely with our partners. We have partnerships with Cal oes, with the entire Independent Living Network, the. The Aging and Disability Resource Connections.

We're all having lots of conversations and really looking at the lessons learned from the Los Angeles fires and how we can do better moving forward to be able to serve this population.

I really appreciate it, and I know what a challenge it is. And I think having in my prior job been involved in some of the major fires where there was a big question about how people were evacuated and whether there were resources in advance, much less the things you said about evacuating without equipment. I think there's.

There's really lessons to be learned that we can. When the earthquake happened, and I was on the.

I say the earthquake, it's 35 years ago, but I was on the City Council destroyed our downtown, and we learned so many things from other places and how they responded and what they did that I think it's really important to do it throughout the network of Independent Living centers and others so people can be as ready as possible.

Thank you. That was a very comprehensive answer. Appreciate it, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Senator. Thank you so much. Senator Laird, please. Madam Majority Leader, floor is yours.

Thank you. And again, as Mr. Pro Tem had mentioned, Director Rutledge, thank you so much for your service thus far to the Department of Rehabilitation. I have a question. Obviously, the DOR relies heavily on federal funding. We know what's happening now.

I think every two minutes my inbox is getting filled with constituents just wondering what is going to happen with these cuts through the US Department, Department of Education and Rehabilitation Services Administration, Medicaid. It's a real impact for our community.

So how are you and how is the Department preparing for potential federal cuts to its programs, especially with the proposed closure of the Department of Education?

Thank you for the question, Senator, and I agree with you. I'm checking my phone every 45 seconds for the latest news alert that may impact my Department. So, yes, as you mentioned, the Rehabilitation Services Administration sits within the United States Department of Education, and we are very closely monitoring the proposal to close the Department of Education.

We have a very good working relationship with the Rehabilitation Services Administration now, and it would be a shame to lose the knowledge and expertise that goes with if that Administration were to go away. To our knowledge, at this point, over the last few months, we have been, as I mentioned, monitoring this very closely.

Various states have been asked if the Rehabilitation Services Administration were to be moved to a different federal agency where that would be most logical. The options seem to be right now either moving the RSA to the Health and Human Services Department or to the Department of Labor.

We believe that the Department of Labor would probably be the most equipped to be able to serve the vocational rehabilitation program. There is already an Office of Disability Employment Policy that sits within the Department of Labor. And we anticipate right now that those career staffers and the program itself would most likely go there.

There is apparently a chance that it could go to the Department of Health and Human Services, but that is what we're anticipating right now. We've only seen very minor impacts to any of our programs fiscally.

And our understanding is that there is still a lot of support in Washington for the vocational rehabilitation program, really, because we are not an entitlement program, but a self sufficiency program.

So a program that helps individuals get off of a lot of other benefits, getting people off of Medicaid, off of food benefits and those types of things and into employment. And we are really, you know, we are obviously looking at everything that could potentially impact our Department federally.

But right now we're optimistic that the good work that we do around getting individuals jobs and having people with disabilities be an equal part of the economy and the taxpaying society will continue to keep this program going.

Thank you. And I will remain optimistic with you in that given the need and given how much we care about the Department. One other question, I think you alluded to this in Senator Laird's questioning.

Education and additional training for employers that can utilize that employers can utilize at the DOR to ensure they have a comprehensive understanding about the community. As you mentioned, you work very closely. This is sort of the bread and butter of the Department.

How are you kind of going that extra mile to be able to work with these employers, train them, educate them and really get folks into good paying jobs?

Thank you for the question. We do a lot of work both in the public sector and the private sector with the employer to ensure that employers have the supports that they need in order to help help people to hire people with disabilities and be able to accommodate them.

So on the private sector, we have business specialists in all of our 80 field offices throughout the state who work to do outreach with the business community work with our chambers of commerce and with small businesses, large businesses, around education, around the employment of people with disabilities, also helping those businesses become connected to the talent that comes through our program.

So lots of job placement. I had an opportunity earlier in my career with the Department to work on a small business grant program where the Department was able to give small business grants to about 75 businesses throughout the State of California to actually support them, to be able to hire people with disabilities, do the adaptations they need to do to their businesses in order to accommodate people, training in disability etiquette, reasonable accommodations, all of those types of things.

At the state level, we also do a lot of really great work. We're really proud of the work that we do to help push state government to be a model employer for people with disabilities as well. We have a number of resources.

We have workshops and a whole variety of resources that we share with other departments as well to really encourage that.

I love that. That was going to be my next question. And I know as someone who has employed, when I was on the City Council, wheelchair users, I think it's really important that our local cities as well, counties, and it's just a multi governmental sort of approach that should be looked at that. I know you're.

You're certainly doing so. I appreciate your work. Thank you so very much for answering those questions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Madam Majority Leader. What we'd like to be able to do is see if there's any additional questions or comments from the Committee at this time. All right, why don't we do this? We are going to open it up for public discussion.

We're going to invite anyone who would like to be able to speak in support of Madam Director to please step forward. We're going to ask that you keep your comments to 30 seconds or less. And if you don't mind providing your first and last name in the organization that you're with, we want to welcome you to Committee.

We truly appreciate that each and every one of you are here. Hey, good afternoon.

Hi. Good afternoon, Senator, Mr. Pro Tem and Members. Kathy Sunderling Mcdonald, here for the California Association for Adult Day Services, CADS, is really pleased to support the confirmation of Kim Rutledge today as Director of the Department of Rehabilitation. Our Member agencies serve thousands of Californians. Living with dementia, developmental disabilities and other chronic conditions.

In light of budget shortfalls and difficulty. Maintaining current service levels, we're actively seeking. Ways to diversify our partnerships and find. Ways to maintain and ideally expand our reach. We appreciate that Director Rutledge also seeks. To broaden partnerships and the reach of. Services through the Department of Rehabilitation.

She brings strong knowledge of many other employment, health and human services programs to. The role and a clear commitment to. Inclusion in her leadership. Thank you for your consideration. We urge your aye vote. Always good to have you in Committee, Kathy. Thank you.

Hi. Good afternoon.

Hey. Thank you. Marty Yamoto. I'm a dad of a 33 year old with down syndrome. His name is Alex actually is here. He also has autism. A family Member with a sister with developmental disabilities as well.

I've known Kim for like a decade plus and worked with her as an advocate and also worked with her as an advocate when she was with the Department of Social Services and Later Department of Rehab. She has been amazing in working with stakeholders even on difficult policy issues.

She has listened to and most of all, she's compassionate and she looks at trying to get the job done working with stakeholders. So just want to say that unconditionally we just support her confirmation. Thank you.

Thank you so much. It's good to have you here. Good afternoon and welcome. Nice to see you.

Good afternoon, Committee Members. My name is Bobby Dutta and I'm with Statewide Disability Advisory Council or SDAC. SDAC provides guidance to state departments, disability advisory committees on hiring, retention, promotion of employees with disabilities in state service. The Department of Rehab administers the nation's. Largest vocational rehab program and among many. Programs, it certifies job applicants with disabilities.

For limited exam and appointment program otherwise. Known as leap for state employment. I'm here to strongly support Kim Rutledge's. Confirmation as Director of the California Department of Rehab, SDAC believes her appointment comes at a critical time when the disability community needs strong leadership who will uphold Fair Employment.

And Housing Act, ADA accommodation requirements for employee within door and consumer of door services. We respectfully urge you to confirm Kim Rutledge's appointment. Her nomination presents an important step forward for Californians with disabilities. Thank you.

Appreciate your words. We're grateful you're here. Thank you. Welcome. It's good to see you.

Mr. Chairmember Beverly Yu here in my personal capacity and also authorized to speak on behalf of former Assemblywoman Dionne Ariner. We have both had the opportunity to work with Ms. Rutledge for several years and we are proud in full support of her appointment today. Ms. Rutledge brings deep expertise in the health and human services space.

She has spent years working to protect both home care workers and their clients, especially during times when critical services were facing cuts. Her direct experience navigating the legislative process, combined with her leadership within state departments, allows her to bridge advocacy, Administration, and implement, which makes her especially well suited for this role.

In her previous roles at DSS, she has been a thoughtful and effective partner. Her work has been instrumental ensuring both the community and quality of care for California's most vulnerable residents. Throughout her career, she has consistently championed disability rights and uplifted the voices of underserved communities.

And for these reasons, we are very excited for her appointment and confirmation today and respectfully urge your support. Thank you.

It's good to see you. Thank you so much. Give our best to the Assembly.Nice to see you.

Low enough? Okay. Yeah Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Dan Okenfuss. I'm the Public Policy manager with the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers, here to speak on behalf of Kim Rutledge's appointment.

We've been huge fans of Kim and her days in independent living, starting out with her early experience at the Westside Center for Independent Living in Los Angeles, her journalism career, and critically, her work on ihss, beginning at UDW as Assistant Ledge Director in the early days of the IHSS Public Authority, and then with Department of Social Services.

She's truly from the independent living movement and follows in the great footsteps of and great leadership of Ed Roberts. And we just to make it a little clearer here, we are also strong supporters of Senate Bill 639. I see Senator Laird's left, which phased out the sub minimum wage.

And we were very happy to see how that's being played out now. And also going on right now is the Youth Leadership Forum, which is a wonderful DOR program and that is bringing a lot of youth with disabilities here to Sacramento to learn the importance of self advocacy and how to become better leaders themselves.

And finally, we really applaud Kim's leadership in working with our statewide Systems Change Hub grant, which allows people with disabilities to network and become system change advocates across the state. So on behalf of CFLC, we urge your support for her nomination.

And thank you so much. We're grateful for your words today. It's good to see you. Hi, good afternoon and welcome.

Aaron Carruthers with the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. We are an independent state entity that works to disrupt systems to make sure they're working better for people with developmental disabilities. When asking adults with developmental disabilities, what's your top priority? What do you want most? The answer is employment. We want jobs.

Throughout Kim's career in this role and every other she has been a committed, passionate, effective, both advocate and administrator for whoever she's serving. And in this role and her prior ones within Department of Rehabilitation, we've been thankful for the partnership, thankful for the progress not only to in 7min wage in California, but employment throughout.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much Aaron. Hey, Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Mr. Chair and Member Greg Hayes here on behalf of Brownstein, on behalf of Special Olympics of Northern and Southern California. First of all, we want to thank the Legislature for their support of Special Olympics. And we are in strong support of the confirmation of Ms. Rutledge at DOR. Thank you.

Greg Hayes, good to see you. Hi. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. I'm Karol Swartzlander, Executive Director of the California Commission on Aging. And I'll align myself with all the wonderful comments already made and offer my strong support.

Thank you so much. Appreciate your words today. It's good to see you. Hi. Good afternoon.

Hi there. Emily Shabard with California Disability Services Association and speaking on behalf of myself. As we enter these trying times, it is more important than ever to have leaders in California that embody our values. And I can't think of a better leader than Ms. Rutledge for the Department of Rehabilitation and strong support.

Appreciate you being here today. Thank you. Hi, how you doing? Hi there.

Doing well. And yourself? Tiffany Whiten with SEIU California. I've had the honor and the privilege of knowing Ms. Director Rutledge both personally and professionally. And I can attest to her character. She has been an amazing person. She is very dedicated. She is thoughtfulness. Her thoughtfulness definitely shines and she is. The perfect person for this position.

So on behalf of SEIU and personally, we would ask for your support in this confirmation. Thank you.

Nice job. Good to see you. Thank you so much. Hi, good afternoon.

Good afternoon. We're very, very excited with the opportunity to be here in support of Director Rutledge, Theresa Anderson, on behalf of the California Policy Center for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. I've known Director Rutledge for quite some time now, and she's a tireless advocate leader. And I'm looking forward to working with her at DOR and her leadership. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Hi, good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Chair and Member Tony Anderson from the Association of Regional Center Agencies. And I'm very excited to be here today recommending the support of this confirmation. I've known Kim for over a dozen years, probably longer, probably won't admit that, but we've worked together in the community as advocates early on and then in many different other settings.

I have known Kim to be sharp, policy minded, policy wonk, politically astute. But really the big thing about Kim, in my view, is that she has always known what's happening in the community. She keeps her finger to the pulse. She knows from the community what's happening and brings everything back to what matters to people with disabilities.

Throughout my career, I work with many of the directors of the Department of Rehabilitation, from Brenda Perrimo to Catherine Campisi to Tony Sowers and then of course, Joe Xavier for many years. This appointment here is right in line with the lineage of fine leaders that we've seen at the Department. So I urge your support. Thank you.

Appreciate you. Thank you so much. Hi, good afternoon. Welcome.

Good afternoon. Oh, there it is. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to provide support for Director of Religious Confirmation Joe Xavier, recent retiree, former Director of the Department of Rehabilitation.

Kim's personal and professional journey uniquely positions her to lead this Department into the next iteration, to evolve the programs and services that it provides to continue to meet the needs of Californians with disabilities, not only for employment, but for the ability to live in their community of choice with purpose and dignity.

I could not be more proud of Kim and the work that she has done and look forward to supporting her and the Department as they continue to move forward. Particularly in the times that we're facing today. Employment is so important to the independence of individuals.

The ability to live in their community of choice with purpose and dignity is beyond just words. It's what we as individuals with disabilities aspire to every single day. So, Kim, thank you for willing to do this work and I encourage your confirmation. Thank you very much.

Appreciate you. Thank you so much for your words. Very, very grateful. All right, we're going to do a last call for those who are in support. If you could please come forward to the microphone at this time. Seeing no one rise, we're now going to head to those who may be opposed.

If you could please come to the microphone at this time. Looking for opposition. Last call. We're going to bring it back to Committee for any last minute questions, comments, concerns. We'll also welcome a motion. We have a motion by Madam Majority Leader. Last call for comments. Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll?

[Roll Call]

4-0 vote. We're going to keep that on call to allow the Vice Chair to add on. Madam Director, congratulations. Next stop will be the Senate Floor. We will take a final vote here today. But I think it's looking good. So good. Again, congratulations. Please give a round of applause to Madison.

We're going to take a two minute break. We're going to take just a few minute break and then we're going to welcome Mr. Director up. We're going to take just a few minute break and we're going to welcome Mr. Director in that time to please come forward.

All right, we're going to get started in two minutes. Two minute warning, two minutes. All right.

Welcome back. We appreciate everyone's patience. We are now going to be moving on to our next appointee. And this is Director Cervinka. Mr. Director, I want to first say we went through, along with Director Bargmann, all the trials and tribulations of Sonoma Developmental Center.

And that is a small sliver of what you do each and every day, the impact that you have on people's lives. And candidly, some of the most vulnerable in the state just want to say thank you.

You've been dedicated to state service your entire career and it is impressive to be able to see the resume that you have. We'd like to go through the run of show here for today. What we're going to do is provide you three minutes for opening testimony.

Then we're going to turn it over to the Committee for any questions or comments. We'll then open it up for folks to be able to say their piece. We'll start with those who are in support. Then we'll go to those who may be opposed.

Then we'll open it up once again for the Committee to ask any final questions. I'll give you a 30 second prompt as we get close to three minutes. But again, it is wonderful to be able to see you in front of us today.

And again, just personally really appreciate your work, sir, and something I will never forget and how the Department constantly goes above and beyond the. And goes the extra mile. The floor is yours.

Mr. Chair Members. Thank you. And others here, thanks for the opportunity to be here today. Like Director Rutledge before me, I'm honored by the governor's appointment to be Director of the Department and for the support of Secretary Johnson in the role.

I'd like to thank both of my parents who are not here today, but they nevertheless, of course are responsible for my existence and whatever personality traits they take credit for. I'd also like to thank my wife Lynn and daughter Zoe here today in person in the front row, and my son Ryan, who's watching the livestream.

All three of them have been and continue to be huge supporters with much patience and sacrifice over many years. I, of course, cannot overstate. Let me fix my own language here. I cannot overstate my appreciation for each of them over a long public service career.

There are, of course, hundreds of people that I'm grateful to. Many of them have educated me, put up with dumb questions, guided me, provided learning opportunities and new challenges. They've assisted in the work. They've offered feedback and support and advice, and they've provided camaraderie. Without their generosity and patience, I would not be before you today.

Some of them today adjusted their lives and traveled far. Others expended time and effort to offer support and encouragement. And I just want to take a moment and thank each and every one of them for that. I'm humbled to recognize that they did not have to do any of it.

Our critical work is not done by any particular individual. The Department and I are grateful for the partnerships we have with Regional Centers, service providers, Members of the workforce, the Legislature, advocates and associations, and other state government entities, and leader like leaders like Director Rutledge.

Without those partnerships, we could not successfully support the half million individuals and families that we support day in and day out. But more importantly, across their lifespan, as you acknowledged, the challenges ahead are many. My intention, should you provide me the opportunity to continue to serve, is simply to leave things better than when I arrived.

That's what people need and want from their developmental disability services system. And I'm therefore honored, very honored to be offered a leadership role for the team at the Department in the furtherance work that the public expects of us. Thank you very much again for the invitation to be here today and the kind words you offered.

Thank you so much, Mr. Cervinka. It's wonderful to have your family here as well. So we are very, very grateful. Let's open it up to see with questions, comments. Senator Laird, please, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much. And thank you as well for meeting. And I got a kick out of the fact that in the middle of the meeting I said, you work for the Department of Finance. And you immediately said, don't hold it against me.

The comment stands here as well.

Nice. I hope there's not finance people that. Are going to walk out right now.

They're very, very fine people, but it seems to come up a lot.

Very good. You are officially on the record. We had a chance to talk at a high level about just sort of the State of services to developmentally disabled with the closure of most of the five developmental institutions and shifting to Regional Centers.

How would you, just, now that we're in public, characterize that of how you're doing and what's still to be done and whether or not that shift has come with some needs that still need to be met.

Yeah. I'm pleased to share publicly that on June 30, the Department stepped away from another developmental center in Sonoma. We've been on site caretaking that property for several years at this point post the time that the final residents moved out.

I think the important thing to note about the developmental centers is that, although they were home and a good home for many people for many years, it really didn't represent the best that we can offer them in terms of life integrated in the community.

And so the closure of developmental centers and it took a very long time to close them and relocate people out I think was a major success in California's compliance with the Olmstead Supreme Court decision. And I think it was done thoughtfully and carefully with a lot of engagement with families. Change is always hard.

I think there are plenty of lessons learned, but we also learned a lot about what it takes to support people in the community. And it's led to new facility types, new programs and new supports and services for them.

I think we can be proud of the success we've had and we continue to play a role each and every day. We have direct care responsibility for a couple hundred folks in state operated facilities, either at our Porterville Developmental center or the Canyon Springs facility or the regional STAR homes that we have around California.

So we continue to do that good work, but always with the intention of reintegrating people back into the communities where their friends, families, jobs and lives are.

Thank you. And then the other thing I was going to ask about was the self determination plans and the Ombudsman we talked about it. Could you just talk about where that stands these days with both.

Yeah, absolutely. Before my current role, I spent many years working in the in Home Supportive Services program. So I'm well familiar with the idea that people wake up and choose who works with them and directs their work. And that's the same Independence the rest of us would expect.

The self determination program in many respects is the Developmental Services equivalent of that program. Self determination I think is really important and valuable option for people who want to both accept that freedom and the responsibilities and obligations that come with it. We have just over 8,000 folks in that program today.

That's up from about 2,500 just a couple of years ago. And it's still only though about 2% of the total population supported by the Department and Regional Centers. So important and growing. I think there are things that we can do to protect the program. Its federal waiver, for example, is up for renewal in June of 26.

So we'll be engaging heavily with the community over the next year in preparation for the submission of the waiver renewal on that. In terms of the Ombuds program, the self determination Program Ombudsperson was created in 2021 and that office is open and established.

It's been phenomenal resource for the individuals and families seeking support and information and helping them navigate the program. Its call volume, despite what I just said a moment ago about it being 2% of the people we serve, is roughly the identical call volume of our overall Ombudsperson office line.

So it's a testimony both to the work ahead in front of us to mitigate the need for those kinds of phone calls, but also a testimony to how important it is and how many people want want to get to that stage.

Thank you. I really appreciate that update and I know we had it in private, but I'm glad you put it on the record for everybody else.

Thanks for the opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you so much Mr. Laird. I'm going to turn it over to the Vice Chair in just a moment and I will be out Mr. Director for 10 minutes. Not at all trying to be rude. Going to a quick meeting and I'll be right back.

I'll turn over to the Vice Chair. One item if it's all right with the Vice Chair on to some personal privilege on this. Senator Laird brings up a really good point in regards to the closures of developmental centers that started under Governor Brown and has now continued in this era.

Families are it's what so many families and candidly residents have known for their entire life and what when you take a look at the transition with the Sonoma Developmental center of hundreds of residents who were there towards the end and the integration into the community, I think what worked really well and I would hope is going to be replicated is one highly public process.

Families in the community are deeply engaged in the transition to legislation that was advanced with some funding by the state to track outcomes because transfer trauma is real, especially for residents who all they know is the developmental Center for home and then ensuring that there's funding for community based homes in the communities in which those families reside.

Otherwise I'll just give my own editorial and you can comment on this. Mr. Director. I'm not sure it works. And so you know, public process, a lot of engagement and again, which I'm very grateful for the Department that put in the time and effort and energy into.

the tracking I think what we committed to is 36 months from time of transition into the community and then the funding for those community based homes which when you talk to families who were deeply afraid of what was going to happen to their loved one to then what we actually saw.

It was night and day, and in many cases what we heard. And please, Mr. Director, you can correct me if you think I'm wrong. The level of service and care was even higher in this community based home with a much smaller population of 6 to 8 to 10 individuals. But Mr. Director, your comment on that please.

I would agree with everything that you had to say. I was pleased in the role before I accepted the acting Director role here to sign the final evaluation report of the closure of the developmental centers.

But I want to be clear with all of you, that was not an experience in my resume in the actual closure of the facilities. So I don't want to pretend to take credit for the great work done by others. But again, echo the comments that you made. That's exactly what we experienced.

You can force people to move or you can convince them that it's a good thing and educate and share information, provide assurances, demonstrate success and build on that. But it takes a partnership with the community and a lot of time and effort.

But it's genuine engagement and it matters at the end of the day for the lives of the people that we support.

I think it's the state putting the money where the mouth is too right. Our budget needs to be our value statement, especially when we're talking about people's lives. And I appreciate the department's work. Former Director Bargmann was deeply involved, spending many weekends working through that. And know that that is a legacy that you're going to continue on.

And I appreciate men and we shared the opportunity to be able to say that because that was five years of really working through the process and ensuring that was going to be successful. So thank you so much, Mr. Director. I'll be back in just a bit and I'm going to turn the gavel over to Madam Vice Chair.

Appreciate the comment. Thank you.

Thank you. And just to follow up on that before I call another Senator. I agree 100%, but I do really strongly believe that the money should follow that we're in the developmental centers to the community, which has failed to happen and not at any fault of yours. It's this body.

But I do appreciate the Senate pushing back this year from the Governor trying to cut some of those services. So thank you for that and we should all continue to fight to make sure that those resources continue to follow our community based programs, thank you. Senator Gonzalez.

Thank you Madam Vice Chair. And thank you Director Cervinka, for your work. I see your resume very Impressive. Just like Director Rutledge's as well. Okay. The master plan for Developmental Services, which is the DDS, has worked actively with Health and Human Services Agency. How do you plan and do you.

Well, first let me ask you, do you think that there was significant engagement with community and sufficient engagement. And if not, what are sort of the learning lessons and how do you go from here.

Yeah, I do think that there were significant engagement with the community around that master plan. In addition to the Committee meetings, which were open to the public and held monthly, there were also work groups that met as well monthly. There were over 100 people involved in those.

And on the side of the, and I should mention, and public comment involved many hundreds of people more. And on the side of that master plan development, you know, I want to make a shout out to Mr. Victor Duron from Department of Rehabilitation Agent.

The agency asked him to step in and be the lead person on the master plan. And he and several Others also did 45 community sessions around the state, meeting directly with groups to get their input and engagement.

The master plan has 167 recommendations in it, which, and it runs the gamut well beyond just the services offered by our Department. But I would sum it up by saying there's no point in walking down the road if you don't know where the road is supposed to take you.

And the master plan is the voice of people telling us what it is that they want for the future of services for people with developmental disabilities in California. Lessons learned. There are always some. One, there's never enough time. Two, people get tired of meetings.

But we also learned a lot about the level of effort that it takes to get people with a diversity of needs fair input into a process. And we take that very seriously in terms of meaningful engagement into our work going forward as well.

Thank you very much. I know sometimes it seems like never enough, but it's always just really good to put that out publicly and how much you and your team have worked so very hard on the master plan. So congratulations there.

And as we know that you know, there's population growth trends as well, including serving, of course, younger children. You've got an early start program, but how do you plan for the future given this population growth, including serving people at all stages of their life.

So we see many dynamics in our caseload. I could drop stats for you for a while on this. I would say in the last eight years, our population served has doubled. Our early start cases have gone in the last few years from about 45,000 to over 70,000.

We had a big drop in that caseload during the COVID period as people stayed home and avoided other risks to their families. We've now over recovered that trend. The budget that you all enacted and the Governor signed into law anticipates serving another 39,000 people by the end of the budget year.

And that takes our total to 491,000 folks on the average monthly caseload in the course of a year. Though we touch the lives of almost 700,000 people as they come and go from our program or explore their eligibility for our program, so the reach is much more significant. Last calendar year we passed a milestone.

People with a diagnosis of autism are now over half of our caseload. Which is new. Other types of intellectual disabilities are on the decline as a percentage of the total, but all groups are rising with the exception of people with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, which has been relatively flat for the last 20 years.

And planning for the future is, I think part of what I'm really all about. There are three fundamental things that I want to accomplish as Director. One is modernize the IT. Nobody here would use a 45 year old computer computer to do their work.

And that's exactly what we expect case managers and people to interact with in our system. So we have an active IT project going. It's known as Life Outcomes Improvement System. It's going to be a combined case management and fiscal system.

And it should be used by all Regional Centers across California instead of six separate case management systems we have today and separate systems for different segments of the fiscal situation.

So the infrastructure to authorize and track services for people to know what they're entitled to and should be getting and making arrangements with service providers is all part of that necessary underlying infrastructure. You can't support people if you don't talk to them. We need Regional Centers to have adequate staffing.

So the budget you all again passed includes additional almost 150 million for Regional Centers to ramp up staffing of service coordinators and continue to make post Covid progress on their service coordinator caseload ratios, which is really important.

And there's a number of those 1 to 40 for young children and then as high as 1 to 65 as well. So a robust Regional Center system where people can go and be heard and have their individual, individual program plans or individual family support plans done and managed is critically important.

And then, you know, multi year investment by the Legislature and the Administration in rate reform in California became fully effective January 1st this year. And we continue to work through issues with rate models and review and update them. But there's no point in providing funding if we don't have service providers to actually deliver services.

And those service providers in turn, need to have a workforce that works for them to do that. And so investments in all of those have been sustained in the budget. I don't want to brag, but I'm going to brag.

Our budget year over year went up 3 billion, despite the times that we find ourselves in and driven primarily by the caseload that I described earlier, our budget year over year went up $3 billion and we had cuts of about 120 million that moderated that growth.

But it's a recognizing in a bipartisan way the vital nature, as you all have expressed, of the services that we offer and the deep meaning and value that it has for the people we serve.

Thank you very much. I appreciate you laying that out. And now I see Senator Laird's Department of Finance saying skills coming out here. So it's very, very helpful in the way you've laid that out and the growth for the Department. So thank you very much on behalf of the families from the Harbor Regional Center in Los Angeles.

I just want to thank you for all of your work. Appreciate it.

Thank you for the questions.

Thank you, Senator Gonzalez. Senator Jones, did you have questions. You're good. Thank you. I just want to thank you for all your work. And I know it takes great leadership to.

I know you weren't directly involved or not taking credit for the transition, but once our individuals with IDD's got out in developmental disabilities, got out into the community, you had to make sure that their services were provided for, their families felt secure and that they got the treatment that they deserve.

And so thank you for all that you do. Any other comments from the dais. No. Are we on support. Yes, we already did that.

Only done the Members. So now I want to go to support from the audience. I apologize. I had to present a Bill in Assembly education. So I apologize for not being here and tracking this. It's right here. Should have looked at it. Those in support, please come to the microphone and state your name and position.

My name is Marty Emoto. I am the father of Alex, who is a 33 year old and he publicly discloses his disability as down syndrome and autism. You can get off here. And is a great fan of the Superman movie. That's a product placement plug. And I'm also a family Member.

My older sister had developmental disabilities and behavioral health needs and physical disabilities. Actually Were from originally Monterey County in Monterey. And so Mr. Laird and many others were our representative. I'm also here on behalf of a couple of other people. Shella Dumong, who's a parent and runs a nonprofit housing agency in Santa Barbara.

Beth Burt, who is a parent and runs as Executive Director Autism Society InLand Empire. And Terry Debell, I think you might know her, Ms. Grove, Shannon's fine. Yeah, I'm sorry. She's a parent, actually a sibling and lives in LA. And Lastly, Marsha Eagleberger, who is also a parent and lives in Santa Barbara.

I just want to express such strong support for Pete. Actually I think I met you when you were first coming out of Department of Finance and yeah, that scared me. Nothing against Department of Finance because they're good people.

But Pete over the years and I've worked with him at Department of Social Services and later on Department of Developmental Services. He has always been kind, he listens and he engages with people. And given all that has happened and all that, our community is so afraid right now for many reasons.

You know, we're afraid of what's going on with immigration, we're afraid of potential budget cuts that come down at the federal level or even the state in the future years. And Pete has able to transform that fear into something where we can look towards the future with some confidence.

And he's trying to transform the services that has provided. So I just want to thank you for that but also strongly support Pete confirmation and I just want. Alex wanted to say just a word really quick and identify yourself. Don't look at me, look at. Let me find your words first. Just go ahead, say your name.

Right there. Shannon Grove.

Hi honey, how are you?

My name is Alexander Emoto. And what are you here for? I want here for the ways and support people.

Thank you. And by the way, Alex is living with me. His mom had died, he had no family. She was one of my closest friends. She begged me to take him from when she was. They were living in Fresno. I took him. I could not. Alex's life in my life could not have been possible.

And he's been living with me since 2018. If it wasn't for the Department, if it wasn't for the people in the community service system and the people who provide services through the Regional Centers. So God bless you all for that because it's made a difference in our life. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Alex. Yes, sir.

Hi. Doug Paskover with Imagine Supported Living Services in Aptos, California. I want to thank Senator Laird for showing up for the day on the beach Saturday, as you do so many events that foster inclusion. I've been working mostly from a distance, but with Pete for many years.

Really appreciate his thoughtfulness, his confidence, but most especially the respectful way you treat everyone in the community, including the ones who don't wear suits to hearings. So, following the theme of the day. I drove up from the Salinas Valley today in support of Pete's confirmation. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am.

Hello. Karol Swartzlander, Executive Director of the California Commission on Aging. I just calculated Pete has been a friend and colleague for 18 years, so I've known him for quite a long time, and I'm proud to offer him my strongest support.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Good afternoon, Madam Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Barry Giardini from the California Disability Services Association here in strong support for. It's an absolute honor to be able to stand here today and ask for the support of Pete and his confirmation.

I have not had the benefit of knowing Pete for that long, but in the time that I have known him, he's an incredible leader. He's the right person at a very challenging time in Developmental Services. And he's got all the qualities you'd look for in a leader. He's passionate, he's collaborative, he's community driven.

He cares about the mission that we're all about. He's data informed, he's patient. And lastly, I'll say he's very humble as well. I mean, I think he's got every quality you would look for in leader of this Department, in any leader in any Department, quite frankly. And it is with our strongest endorsement that we support Pete's nomination.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. Madam Vice Chair and Members. Cathy Senderling-McDonald for the California Association for Adult Day Services. CADS is pleased to support the confirmation of Pete Cervinka today as the Director of Developmental Services. As I mentioned in my previous comments. Our Members serve a lot of individuals. With developmental disabilities, and so our relationship with DDS is important.

We were so pleased when he got the appointment because of the experience he brings from DSS, from agency. As we've discussed today, from the Department of Finance. We all need to pull together, and having that partnership and our ability to strengthen this relationship between our Members and DSS under Pete's leadership will be tremendous.

We urge your support. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Members. Andrea Ball on behalf of the California Speech Language Hearing Association, representing speech language pathologists, assistants and audiologists. And we're pleased to support Mr. Cervinka confirmation. A significant number of our Members interact with the Department and Regional Centers through. The Early Stages Start program that Senator Gonzales mentioned earlier.

providing audiology, speech language services to infants and toddlers. Our Members are committed to serving and increasing consumer and patient access. And our comments and our participation in the master plan development and the rate reform have reflected this. We've really appreciated Mr. Cervinka responsiveness even as he's been serving in the interim.

Our acting Director position. Trying to get more information out to the field on these issues. And we know and have confidence that it's going to get better under his confirmed leadership. So urgent aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Yes, sir.

Hi, good afternoon. Dan Okenfuss with the California foundation for Independent Living Centers here in support. And just wanted to offer a personal note. My son is on the spectrum and is getting services from the local Regional Center in our community and really valuable what TDS has provided. So very helpful for continuation of those services for him.

And also at CFILC, our Executive Director, Brett Eisenberg was a Member of the Master Plan for Developmental Services and was really proud of his work there. So he couldn't be here today. So I just wanted to relay that. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am.

Madam Vice Chair, Tiffany Whiten with SEIU California. We've had the pleasure of working with Director Cervinka fom his time at DSS and now his time at DDS. And he has been able to grow and expand. His dedication to the IDD community has been unwavering. His talents are invaluable and we definitely appreciate his thoughtfulness.

The fact that he is very caring for the community and he's really commun. He has the ability to communicate with all advocates and do so in a very respectful way. For these reasons, we would ask for your support and his confirmation. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Good afternoon, Madam Vice Chair and Members. Gregory Hayes, on behalf of Brownstein. First thing I'd like to say is on behalf of Warner Brothers Discovery, our Client, thank you, Alex, for the endorsement of Superman. But we also are here on behalf of Special Olympics of Northern and Southern California in support of the confirmation, Mr. Cervinka. So thank you.

Thank you, sir. Yes, sir.

Aaron Carruthers with the State Council on Developmental Disability. We're an independent state entity that disrupts systems to make sure they serve people with developmental disabilities. And starting off, going back to what the pro tems comments were at the beginning of this, acknowledging that Director Cervinka is somebody who goes above and beyond.

He doesn't Reserve that just for Senators. We get that, too. It's exactly what we've experienced. His thoroughness, thoughtfulness, but also his deep passion behind the state Director administrator Persona. There's maybe a Superman shirt underneath there because he's a fierce advocate for people.

I can think of no better disruption of systems than having a fierce advocate in that place making sure they actually work for people. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am.

Good afternoon. Amy Westling from the Association for Regional Center Agencies. We're proud to support the confirmation of Pete Cervinka for Director of DDS today and really came to this because of several factors that are unique to him. First, his commitment to supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, his commitment to partnership, and his commitment to good governance.

He, as has been alluded to, is working tirelessly to bring important initiatives to life. We have a lot of things that have been approved for improving the lives of people served by Regional Centers, and they're approved on paper. And now Mr. Trevanka is responsible for bringing those to life.

Most recently the rate model implementation, which sounds very bureaucratic, but really means stability. In the lives of people we all serve. And he's also working tirelessly on greater consistency efforts, which we've heard from our community for a long time. They're interested in. In the areas of intake, respite, and data reporting are just a few.

And additionally, he brings a vision for the future, asks us always to think about how we can improve upon what we're doing and how we know what we're doing, whether it's working or not, and if it is, to lean into it and if we're not, to not be afraid to say, what can we do differently.

So with all of that, really appreciate the opportunity to work alongside Pete and to recommend his confirmation today. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Yes, sir.

Good afternoon. I'm Mark Clouse. I'm the Executive Director of San Diego Regional Center here in support of Pete's confirmation. Just want to echo a lot of the comments that were already made. But again, the commitment, the passion is something that I've greatly appreciated. The openness and honesty is second to none.

I've never left a meeting with Pete and walked away thinking, you know what was he thinking. You know what he is thinking. He's very open, very transparent and build solid. And build solid teams, you know. And what I appreciate as well, and I heard you know the word commitment. This is a big job.

It's a big commitment supporting almost a half a million people. And he puts the time in. There's been many a times that we've. Communicated via phone call or email, at text at 5:15, you know. But he's committed to getting the job done and puts the time in to make a difference in people's lives.

So appreciate your support of his nomination. Thank you.

Thank you. And the former Senate Pro Tem appreciates what you do in that district down there. Thank you.

Madam Vice Chair Members. My name is Teresa Anderson. I'm the Executive Director with the California Policy Center for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. We're here today in strong support of confirmation for Director Cervinka and for many reasons. You heard at the opening: One, his humor, he's super funny.

I know you don't want to hear that about your dad, but he's really funny. And honestly, he is so straightforward and like Mr. Kloster said, you don't wonder what Pete's thinking, you know, so he's responsive to the community. We really appreciate that.

And I really appreciate the opportunity to work with you and look forward to being able to work together for many years to come. Thank you very much. And we urge your strong support.

Thank you. Any other witnesses in support. We'll now take witnesses in opposition. I anticipate we will see none. So I'll bring it back to the dias. Yes, sir. Senator Laird.

Thank you again. This is great.

And, and in a minute, I'm going to make a motion, but I was going to take the opportunity because the day on the beach was mentioned and this is something that it was the 31st year and they organize for families and people with disabilities to allow them on the beach where they have no access.

And it's this amazing community event where the Carpenters Union volunteers builds ramps and I watched and helped because they have an outrigger and they take people out for 10 minutes on the bay and strap them in and give the line. And it's access to outdoor recreation that nobody else has, and they didn't wait for a government program.

They did this by mobilizing the community and doing it. And I just hope that. I know on the basis of our conversation you appreciated the fact that a lot of times things aren't top down, that you really work with the community on what's going on there. And Respond. And I think that's a really good example of.

Of how it's happening. And I think it's a good example of what you work with and what motivates you. And one of the reasons that I'm very pleased to move that we approve confirmation and send him to the Senate Floor for full confirmation.

Thank you, Senator Laird. I echo Senator Laird's comments. When I was in the Assembly, a family came to me to get somebody out of Sonoma, and Sonoma was not allowing the discharge. And we went and got that individual. And I was really worried because Sonoma staff was saying, he's not going to make it.

You know, it won't happen. And a couple of weeks later, I called the family and went checked on him. And when I went checked on him, he says wheelchair vacation, but he was licking his arm from elbow to fingers, and he had peanut butter and jelly running down his arm.

And I said, he likes peanut butter and jelly. And they said he never got it in the institution, but that's his favorite meal. And why shouldn't people have a choice, even if it's just peanut butter and jelly.

So thank you for all you do in your heart and passion for the community, and I look forward to seeing you on the floor. And we have a motion. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

McGuire, Grove, aye. Grove, aye. Gonzalez, aye. Gonzales, aye. Jones, aye. Jones, aye. Laird, aye. Laird, aye. Four to zero.

That item sir, is on call. As soon as the pro tem comes back, we'll get his vote, we'll close out the roll, and I'm sure very confident that you'll have a 50 vote. Thank you very much for your service.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Right now, Madam Secretary, we're going to lift the call on item A. Kimberly Rutledge, the Director of Development Department of Rehabilitation. Grove, aye. Grove, I. Five to zero. Thank you. That's the only one we had open, right? Yeah.

So the Rules Committee is going to take a brief break, and we will be coming back shortly from the break. I know we are celebrating the wonderful confirmation of Mr. Director for the position that he's in, but we are back from recess and we are going to open up the roll.

Mr. Director, if you would like to wait to see how the Senate protest Tim votes on your confirmation, you please do so. Madam Secretary, please call the roll. Mcguire, Mcguire. Aye. 5 to 050, sir. You're going to the full Senate Floor. We are going to go into closed section.

So we thank you for being here and your family being here. And thank you, Alex, again. Appreciate you, buddy. Sorry. Thank you. And we're going to go into closed session. Yes, thank you.