Senate Standing Committee on Rules

The Senate committee on rules will come to order. Before we begin today's agenda, I'd like to establish quorum. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Quorum.

Alright. Quorum has been established. If there are no objections, I'd like to take up first on today's agenda, governor's appointments not required to appear starting with item 2B, the appointment of Justin Huff as a member of the board of behavioral science.

Moved. Thank you. That motion was made by Senator Reyes. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Three to two.

Alright. That motion is approved. Three to two. The next item for governor's appointments not required to appear as item 2C, Kelly Ron Ronazong?

Ronazinger. JD for the Board of Behavioral Sciences.

Aye, so much.

Thank you, Senator Laird. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Three to two.

Alright. That motion is approved. Three to two. Next, we have item for governor's appointments not required to appear. Item two d, Annette Walker, EdD, for the Board of Behavioral Sciences. I'll entertain a motion.

So moved.

[Roll Call] Three to two.

Thank you, Senator Laird. For that motion, can we please call the roll?

Alright. And the next item we have sorry. And that was approved three to two. The next item we have for governor's appointments not required to appear is item 2E, Allen Guy for the contractor state license board. I'll entertain a motion. Thank you for Vice Chair Grove, whose birthday it is today. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Alright. That item is approved 50. Next item for governor's appointments not required to appear is item two f, Henry Nutt, the third, for the Contractor State License Board. So moved. Thank you. We have a motion by Vice Chair Grove. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Alright. That motion is approved five to zero. Next, we have item for governor's appointments not required to appear. Item two g, Steven Penelli for the contractor state license board. Okay. Thank you. We have a motion by Vice Chair Grove.

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Thank you. That item is approved 50. Next item is for governor's appointments not required to appear. Item two h, Jacob Arkatov, JD for the medical board for the medical board of California. I'll entertain a motion. Thank you. Vice Chair Grove. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Alright. That item is approved. 50. Next item for the governor's appointments not required to appear is item two I. Viling, the Viling Tsai, for the medical board of California.

So moved.

Thank you, to Vice Chair Grove. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Alright. That motion is approved five to zero. Next, I'd like to take up item three, reference of bills to committees. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Thank you, Vice Chair Grove. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Thank you. That item is approved, five to zero. Next on the agenda, we have item four, rule waiver request to suspend SR 55 by Senate president Pro Tempore Limon. To allow guests to be on the Senate floor on Thursday, March 19 during the session.

And the adjourn in memory of former president Pro Tempore, John Burton. I'll entertain a motion. So Thank you. Senate Vice Chair Grove. Can we call the roll, please?

[Roll Call] Five to 0.

Thank you. That item is approved 5, 0. Our final items before we return to governor appointees are items five through nine, floor acknowledgments. I'll entertain a motion. Thank you. We have a motion made by Vice Chair Grove. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Alright. That motion is approved five to zero. Next, we will now return to the governor's appointees required to appear. Do we have the appointment of Dina El-Tawansy, as Director of the Department of Transportation. There you are.

Please feel free to come forward, Director, and, we are going to allow you to provide one to two, minutes of of comments, in your opening testimony, in which you may, welcome any guests that you have here today or that may be watching. And then we will, allow for others to comment, and we will be, noting both for you and for others that are here to comment about your appointment time limit. So just as a heads up, you may begin when you're ready.

Good afternoon, madam, Pro Tem and Senators, and happy birthday, Senator Grove. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today and considering my appointment as the Director of California Department of Transportation.

I'm deeply honored by this nomination and the chance to continue serving. I wanna begin with gratitude to my family, especially my parents, whose sacrifice have shaped my path, to my friends and neighbors who have grounded me and cheered me on.

And to my Caltrans teams, past and present, that have been an integral part of my journey for the past 28 years. Everything I bring to this role is really rooted in all that we've built together. California is the world's fourth largest economy. Transportation is the backbone of it.

The challenges before us are real and complex, from climate stressors, safety, aging infrastructure, mobility needs of that vary across geography and communities.

But with all challenges come opportunities, and there's a great opportunity to build a stronger, fairer, sustainable, and more connected future. To meet this moment, partnership is essential.

Our work depends on collaboration across all levels of government, local, regional, state, federal, and collaboration with industry and contractors, and equally important with the communities that we're here to serve.

For nearly three decades, I've had the opportunity to work across various roles in the department, and I've witnessed firsthand the diverse and evolving needs of California's communities.

Ruler, urban, coastal, and inland regions all face realities, different realities, but they all share the same expectation, transportation system that's safe, reliable, accessible, and centered on people's needs. That makes our priorities even more clear.

Safety first and foremost, advancing equity, confronting climate impacts, promoting economic prosperity, and investing in the engine behind it all, which is our workforce. These people first goals are fundamental to fulfilling our mission to improve lives and communities through transportation.

We are aligning our organization to deliver a multimodal transportation network that connects highways, transit, rail, walking, and biking, and can serve every age, ability, and income level.

Our work goes far beyond projects. We projects that we build, operate, or maintain. It's about connecting people to opportunities, connecting communities to one another, connecting businesses to suppliers, and connecting California to a more inclusive and resilient future.

Together with our partners, our communities, and our extraordinary Caltrans workforce, we will continue to build the transportation system worthy of our great state. I'm very grateful for this opportunity to serve and look forward to answering your questions.

Thank you. I, now will move it to, questions. We'll start with Vice Chair Grove.

Thank you, madam Pro Tem. Good to see you today, ma'am. Thank you very much for meeting with me earlier that last week.

Obviously, one of the questions I have is the state with the state court temporarily requiring DMV to maintain licenses of thousands of immigrant truck drivers. While federal rules still, limit eligibility.

And with a $160 million of highway funds, on the line, what's Caltrans planning to do and ensure ongoing delivery of critical, infrastructure projects. Now, we had a conversation in my office.

I don't support individuals who can't read and write and follow the rules of the road, but I have met with hundreds of immigrants that have EADs or Employment Authorization Documents. Out to 2035 that work in this industry.

Who have worked at this industry for a decade or longer. And even though they're authorized by the Federal Government to work, we are limiting their ability to work because of what's happening between the state and the Federal Government. But what's your wonderful solution?

I just wanna say that, this amount of money, even though it it is small and relevant to our our shop funding in general, every dollar counts. And we when we look at our project portfolio, you know, we can certainly invest this money to the fullest.

One thing that we're really good at as a department is is using other states' money as well. So I'm hoping that we can offset some of this, impacts at at the August redistribution on other opportunities. But from our prioritizing perspective, we continue to do that and we pivot as needed.

Our priorities goes to certain types of projects that are in response to emergencies, in response to safety, the projects. And and then we prioritize the rest of the shop based on other mandates and performance measures that we have to meet.

You know, on on the you know, this would affect a big number of truckers across the state. I think when I did a little bit of research on on that, it was, like, looking at maybe 17,000. And with the shortage that according to the American Truck Association, there's a shortage of about 80,000 nationally.

When you look at California's economy being the fourth largest, economy in the world, we really count a lot on our truckers. They're the backbone of that. And, one in five jobs in California depend on international trade. So there's a lot of impacts that's associated with that.

So we we look forward to potential solutions hopefully in the future.

I hope you get one. We actually do goods and services, and representing a district that provides a lot of goods and services that need to be transported and working with our local trucking agencies.

It's also impact on the companies that have these trucks that are no longer operational without a driver, and their payments are $30,000 a month for these trucks. And it's it's it's a huge or maybe month a month. Maybe that's, like, all five of them.

I don't know. But it was a $30,000 number, which is hard for a business to absorb. For the public and for you, I did send a letter to secretary Duffy, asking him to look at this with a scalpel and not, a sledgehammer.

And, anyway, so I hope that that is I didn't say those exact words, but it's in that that, kind of frame of mind. Obviously, the East West Quarter on Highway 58 is, important to my district, not only because it's a vital lane, for the state of California.

58 goes down, and they have to go all the way to the 580 or back down to Los Angeles to get across the state, but because, traveling back and forth, from Bakersfield to any east part of the district or east part of the state is, significantly impacted with the without a truck climbing lane.

And I know that the previous director and, resources were given to a truck climbing lane. And, now the balance of that falls in your lap to make sure that we get that truck climbing lane, not just because of my district and the city of Tachapi.

But because of the significance of the East West Corridor for transportation and delivery of goods and services. With the VMT issues and the freight mobility issues and the safety concerns and the needs that we have, Do you want to comment on that project?

Absolutely. Is Mike on? I don't know if I'm It's on. Okay. Yes. Okay. So I keep on turning it off. Sorry about that. It's definitely a very important and vital interregional corridor, and we recognize that the truck volumes on there exceed 17,000, daily truck, volumes. So that's quite significant.

We are committed to continue working on on that project as you mentioned in your remarks that we have committed all the engineering funds, to get that project to, to be RTLed or ready to list.

And we're looking right now at options and how we're gonna fund the capital part of it. But it it basically would deliver, rehabilitation of about 45, lane miles of pavement and also two miles of, truck climbing lane, which would be really significant in improving the safety on the corridor as well.

Okay. And then with, the new federal DBE rules or the DBVE rules, taking out sex and race, in the real world. I am a DBE because I am a veteran and a woman, and so I have the WMB process. I have all those things.

And so how are you gonna maintain that for individuals that have and I know the former Senate pro tem, her spouse is is also part of that process. And so and, like, legally, we filled out the application.

It was way before I got elected. We've had it for, like1516 years. So I just how are you gonna make sure that that's continued so that our women owned business and our disadvantaged business and our veteran owned businesses have access to contracts that are available through the state?

Yes. And that's a great question. And it's a question that's really at the forefront of our thinking because there's a lot of firms that would be affected by that. The interim ruling that happened in October will affect, as you mentioned, the race and gender as basis for qualification for DPEs.

What we've done since then is we've put together a process on how we can reevaluate the DPEs based on the guidance that we received from the feds.

We were able to to work in tandem with all the c p CUCPs, in California. There's eight of them besides Caltrans. We are the biggest one. There's roughly about 6,400 DPEs that are registered within the state. Half of those are registered with Caltrans. The second, large agency is also LA Metro.

So we were able to put together guidance on how the reevaluation process would would go, and we just, put out that guidance about two weeks ago. Last week, we had a call to action where we reached out to our DBEs across the state to let them know that we are available as a

resource for them and that we will be helping them through the reevaluation process. We also put out a call to action to our industry partners, contractors in particular, to see what they can do to help us with this effort as well.

The goal is to, to do as much of those reevaluations as we can within the next 45 days and then, take that to the feds and and hopefully get their approval so that we can move on and reactivate the program again.

It's something that we're very keen on on providing the resources for. So we've done a number of webinar a couple of webinars, and we have one more that's also scheduled.

But our staff have launched the website, and we've made ourselves available to answer one on one questions and and, you know, answer any questions that may be associated with that process.

Thank you. And the last question I have is clean harbors in my district takes the waste that you that Caltrans produces when they redo the highways and the asphalt. Mostly, it's mostly asphalt.

So they you know, when they take the the contractor goes out and grinds up the asphalt, it goes to my district. There is a pretty good chance that with the regulatory compliance issues that we have in the state that we don't, be able to keep that facility.

So where do you go from here? I mean, the last time I checked, the closest place was Oklahoma, and what's the cost increase to taxpayers to haul our waste to Oklahoma?

That's a very good question. And and unfortunately, I don't know the details about this particular facility. But in generally speaking, with asphalt in particular, we do a lot of recycling Yes. As we repave.

So the hope is to continue with that recycling effort and continue to reinvest on those recycled pavements so that there isn't a whole lot that would be hold away. That's just drawing from my experience in construction, but I don't have all the details on where we go from.

That's okay. You can follow with me. Thank you. Thank you. And I look forward to your information.

Thank you. Next, we have Senator Laird, then Senator Jones, and Senator Reyes.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And thank you for the meeting yesterday, and thanks for putting up with my lengthy comments about my accident prone district. And I know we talked about Big Sur and the Old Hatton Canyon Freeway and just lots of different issues.

And I wanted to ask about two things and one is as a follow-up on that a little bit and we talked about it, which is that we are just witnessing all these things that are happening to the road system because of the changing climate along the coast. And it was sort of ground zero for the atmospheric rivers in in 2023.

And I know Caltrans has started to think about this because if you did any project to to sort of some of the bridges need to be raised or arched or different things because of the flooding that goes on.

And yet, if you have a project for that, it competes against everything else that's in started to sort of move off on its own on climate. Could you speak to what's happening and sort of what your commitment is in in working on this?

Yeah. Certainly. Thank you for the question, senator. This is this is a real problem that we are dealing with. The all the environmental stressors across the state has been really putting a lot of pressures on on on a lot of our projects and trying to make sure that we are addressing those.

From our perspective, this is this needs to be a multifaceted approach. One is we need to look at what we can do to fortify our system as is today. There are opportunities to do that. You know, we look at, for example, you know, areas that are susceptible to flooding.

Are we putting in the right measures in place so that when the flooding occurs, we're we're not reactive to it? I happen to come from prior to this appointment, I was a Bay Area director, and definitely sea level rise is a big issue in the Bay Area as well.

But also looking, you know, in in one of the things that we've noticed with wildfires, evacuation routes become very important. They are a matter of life and death sometimes. So we've been working very closely with CAL FIRE to look at areas that are prone to fires.

And we've been doing a lot of vegetation control along these areas. We spend about $86 million annually on that effort. The other thing is really the partnership plans that we've deployed, and one of them is actually in in your district, which is the, the coast management plan.

These partnership plans allow allows us not to react, but rather plan for events like that when they happen and how we're gonna work with the locals to ensure, safety of everyone. The second level of of this whole conversation is what are we doing in terms of sustainability so that we

have more sustainable design, more sustainable material, and more sustainable practices in our construction and, maintenance practices? That is something that we're also working on internally within the department looking for these opportunities.

The other thing that we've done in terms of assessment is vulnerability assessments across the state.

So we're aware of which areas are more vulnerable. And I think this awareness and having the prioritization of these areas into our projects as we are developing them.

Is something that is gonna be important as we we continue to address, this this particular issue. So it needs to be a multifaceted approach and, continuing to, it's definitely a very high cost issue too. And then the final thing that I also wanna mention is partnerships.

In my experience in the Bay Area, we we found out that we're not the only people that are are facing these issues with our infrastructure. A lot of the locals are, a lot of the counties, the cities. So there's a lot of effort that's happening on different levels.

So bringing together all levels of government, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, is really important so that we can be more efficient and, kind of stretch our resources to address this issue.

Well, I appreciate what you just said. That was a great in a great direction. If you you did sort of get to the end, and I'll transition to my other question on the same subject in a moment. But you did mention money and funding, and it's how do you see that we're gonna be able

to accomplish sort of some of the things we have to do in climate while we still move ahead with with construction and repairing our our road system?

Yeah. The funding is in the order of magnitude of billions of dollars that's gonna be needed. I think the key is to continue to address today's issues, but at the same time to continue to move forward with the longer term planning.

And a good example of that is is in my formal district is the Route 37. It's one of the projects that we have to address some of the issues that are happening today with, king tides and the flooding that's happening and shutting down the freeway.

But at the same time, we need to look at the long term solutions. And we need to and and we are doing that concurrently. So we've done some, environmental planning studies as informing a lot of our decision we've done.

We're working towards the longer term solution. At the same time, we're addressing to these issues as well.

And then that, of course, tees up my other question, which is the the funding for the road system has historically been the gas tax. And we're being so successful in getting people to move to electric cars that it's leading to less revenue.

And Caltrans and and all the regional plans, the transportation commissions are meticulous about a five year plan in the whole business. But at some point, the the money for that fund is not gonna meet what we have planned. How do you sort of assess that situation? And do you have any ideas about where we should go?

Yeah. That that's a great question. There's a lot of uncertainty related to the gas tax and and, you know, future funding. And and as you mentioned, a lot of the more efficient efficient vehicles and electrical vehicles are also can also affect that. There is a number of efforts that's happening on that front.

You know, potentially, it could be price some pricing strategies. Potentially, it could be road user charges. We at Caltrans don't have a position on this at the moment, but we were tasked, with I can't I can't remember the name of the bills, the number of the bills, so forgive me for that.

I can't remember the numbers of the bill, so you're good.

But there was a bill that came out in in 2022, basically, you know, asking Caltrans and the CTC and CalSTA actually to do some research in that space on road user charge. So we've conducted a number of pilots.

For the past few years, we're getting ready to put together a report on these pilots, and that information would be really helping to inform what needs to happen in the future. The other thing that we're we're doing is, we're engaging nationally on this conversation as well.

We're not the only, state that's facing this issue. So, I'm taking part of the Road Users Charge America, and we have regular meetings. It's a coalition of 20 states that are pulling funds together to research what we can do in this space.

The other thing is also we're we're working very closely with states that are ahead of us in that space. Utah and Hawaii, for example, have already implemented root user charge. So we're just keeping our eyes and ears open as to what's happening nationally and and how that can inform some future decisions that we may need to make.

Thank you. And I know you're not the one that necessarily makes appropriations decisions, but you would have a lot of knowledge that would be useful to us. So I just hope we have a partnership in how we continue to address that.

I think I really appreciate your responses and, again, the conversation and look forward to supporting your confirmation. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Laird. Senator Jones.

Senator Laird, handled most of of my concerns and questions. I'll put a finer point on it, regarding the road usage charge. The CTC, California Transportation Commission assessment that was recently done through SB 1121 didn't include an analysis. Did not include an analysis,

or offer recommendations for what the per mile rate should be set at to make up for the funding shortfall estimated at a $111 billion. Will your department be providing an analysis of the recommendations to the CTC and giving ideas to the legislature of what the road mileage rate should be set at if it is implemented?

Yeah. So our research includes some of that, those factors. So when the right time comes, we're happy to provide all our research and the data that we have. Okay.

Do you have kind of a I'm glad that you guys are kind of forward thinking on this and ahead of the of us asking the questions. That's encouraging. What's the do you have a time frame on the when that research is gonna be completed and when recommendations can be made and.

Maybe what would you anticipate the legislature's involvement with you being on that?

We are planning to finalize the report for the pilots that were done this year.

So that would make the data available. And, you know, when the legislators would like to take a look at it and engage in the conversation, we'd be ready to do that.

Okay.

So we and and I apologize for legislators. This year means two different things. One is August 31 and one is December 31. So when you say this year, do you mean which one of those do you mean?

I believe it's December, but the draft report will be out before that. I think it's July.

Oh, July this year in a couple of months?

Yes.

So do you think it would be appropriate for the legislature to do some informal information hearings, during the interim, during the fall to kinda start processing that information?

I wouldn't be really at liberty to comment on that, but whenever you think is the right time, we will provide the information.

Okay. That's a very appropriate answer. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Jones. Senator Reyes?

Thank you. Director, El-Tawansy, thank you so much for meeting with me also. I sincerely appreciate that. I will tell you that I had checked in with my, with the San Bernardino County Transit Authority to ask about their experience with you and their response.

I received very positive feedback from them, from my local about your responsiveness to their concerns. So I do wanna thank you for that before I begin with my questions. So thank you so much.

Now one of the questions that was asked by Senator Grove or by Vice Chair Grove was about women and veteran owned businesses. Would the answer be the same regarding minority owned businesses and to those with disabilities?

Yeah. So for we we do have a small business enterprise program in general in the department, and it's a pretty big program that we put a lot of emphasis on. So our this event I mean, excuse me, the small business enterprise that we have within the department.

We have a statewide goal, for example, for 25% of SBEs on on our contracts. But I'm happy to say that we have consistently exceeded that. We're roughly around 38 usually annually on that.

So this is something that is very important for us to continue to grow our small business pool, and disadvantaged business pool. With the new reevaluation process, we don't know how many firms will really be qualified again for DBEs.

But our goal as a department is to really continue to grow the small business enterprise, and we're doing a lot of efforts in that space. So I if you wanna hear a little bit more about it, I'm happy to share. But we've got Cal Cal Mentor and Mentor Prettier programs.

And these two programs are really geared on taking our small businesses and pairing them up with primes so that they can help them grow into the process. The the Cal mentor in particular is geared towards engineering and architectural contracts.

The mentor protege is is more on the construction side. These are two programs that are very successful in growing some of the small businesses into potentially some prime contractors as well. We're also we also recognize that small businesses have a challenge when they're trying to navigate our system.

I mean, we can be pretty big and and challenging for them to navigate. So one of the things that Caltrans has done is a one stop shop. Where we have, like, the contracting portal, which shows all the contracts that are going on. It draws from couple of locations.

One from Eprocure, and the other one is from our own own contracting corner within the department. The idea here is to provide the contractors with what's coming down the pipeline, what specialties are we looking for, and what to expect.

Also, a number of our districts, do outreach on a regular basis. Our headquarters do outreach with contractors and small contractors on a regular basis to just give them heads up on what's coming. The district outreach goes into details of all the contract to expect in the next quarter or so.

So there's a lot of effort in that. And the other thing that, we're also trying to do on on, you know, small businesses also is just trying to grow, opportunities for disadvantaged communities in particular.

We just started putting together a pilot for local hires, And the pilot will really look at areas that we call ZIP codes that we call, areas of persistent poverty. And whether the contractors are able to recruit from this those ZIP codes and the department would be able to compensate

them for the payment to those individuals. We're also on the third year launching our heavy equipment operators academy, a 180 people. As a matter of fact, we just graduated our cohort just this last this month actually in Fresno area.

But these are a 180 individuals that would have good paying jobs and would definitely be a support for the economy statewide. Another thing that we're doing is a driver license commercial driver license training program that, you know, we're trying to get that also going.

We're launching it this year as well. So the goal is to continue growing small business opportunities and to continue grow the especially in communities that are disadvantaged. But one other thing that I also wanna mention is we do a lot of concentrated efforts in hiring in local communities.

Especially me coming from the Bay Area, one of the challenges that we had is the high cost of living. And we wanted to make sure that we outreach, especially in our disadvantaged communities in the Bay Area, by having hiring fairs that are geared towards these communities.

So we can hire within the community and then we have a better chance of in having folks stay with us longer and grow their careers with us.

Wonderful. On the heavy equipment operator training program, I hope you bring it to the Inland Empire too.

Yes.

Another question I have and we spoke briefly about this is the fast track or these toll roads. Up to now you have had Caltrans has had leases with the transit authorities, the local transit authorities and now there's a move to move to permits. Could you tell us a little bit about that?

I know we spoke of it but I'd like for you to to share with us here. Yeah. And when this this change came about or or why it came about?

Yeah. Thank you for the question. So this is this is an question that we're actively engaging on with a lot of our local partners. The state in the past has done a lot of toll. Excuse me. The state has supported a lot of our local partners in managed lanes and toll.

But we have not had consistency statewide in terms of how we applied that. One of the things that we came across was, you know, some of the older agreements may have provisions and terms that are not really enforceable.

And, you know, we are trying to kind of steer in a direction where we have some consistency statewide, but we do recognize that a lot of our toll operators have challenges that they have to meet as well. So they got that service that they need to pay back.

They need to give the assurance for finance purposes on you know, that they do have possession of of the toll lane and that they can, for for the purpose of getting the finance, they need to be able to demonstrate that. And this is something that we recognize.

We're very cognizant of that. So in some of my conversations with Riverside County, for example, our CTC, we are trying to find the language that will work for both of us. And at the same time give them the access and the whatever they need to be able to get their funding and their financing.

But at the same time, provides us an opportunity to gear the state in a more consistent agreement statewide, so that, we we can have more consistency regardless of whether it's toll operators in Northern California or Southern California or other parts.

Thank you. And my final question has to do with homelessness, encamped encampments on, on Caltrans owned properties. You have these MOUs and these delegated maintenance agreements. As I mentioned to you, we're aware that Riverside County has an MOU with Caltrans.

And as I understand from you, there are 21 MOUs across the state.

San Bernardino County is in the process of of working on an MOU with Caltrans regarding these areas and the the maintenance agreements that may be. MOUs and maintenance agreements that may be, entered into. Could you give us an update on that, please?

Yeah. So the delegated maintenance agreements that we're entering in is part of our statewide effort to, compact the issue of litter and the encampments. We've, it is actually widespread and we are trying to find ways to better manage our right of way.

The delegated maintenance agreement that you referenced would help the locals to come in and do some work on our behalf and reimburse them for that. We've signed today 21 agreements, and there's three that are still in the works.

And we continue to look for those opportunities. And I think litter is a is a big problem that's costing the state quite a bit of money. Just to give you an order of magnitude, just since 2022, we've collected close to 3.8, million cubic yards of litter.

And to just give you the visual of that, that's like, full size Olympic pool every day. So it's quite a bit of litter, that we, you know, we we are, trying to collect across the state. The other thing is with some of the homeless encampments.

We've been putting a lot of efforts on how we can partner on these encampments with local services. Providing services, being able to work through the counties and the cities to provide services and beds for people that are infected.

We've been a part of the governor's task force, and we've had a number of locations that we've addressed some of the homeless needs there. The key is bringing right the right partnership so that we're offering those individuals opportunities to get the services that they need and the beds that they need.

Also, on the statewide effort, there's a couple of things that Caltrans did very recently. One is we we have an appointed position that came into the department as a special adviser to me.

And her job is is basically the outreach to all our local counties and cities to help facilitate that conversation where the cities can come and help us provide those services. The other position that we just, also, initiated is a position for encampment, program manager statewide.

And his job is to look at our policies and look at our opportunities for Adapta Highway, but also look for policies that will minimize will minimize the exposure of our staff on on the highways for cleanups.

There's a lot of concerns related to the people experiencing homelessness on the highways. It's safety is a big concern for us. Safety for the individuals as well as safety of our staff that are out there doing that job.

The other thing is like a lot of communities impact and, you know, the businesses that get impacted by that. So we're really trying to find long term solution and this person's job would be to help look throughout the whole department policies and procedures and how we can

institutionalize those long term solutions so that we're looking at design solutions, we're looking at maintenance kind of solutions, and we're looking at adopt a highway, partnerships for community beautifications and all the the likes.

So just as a follow-up, so the MOU with the city of San Bernardino is under review. It's going to be signed. It's signed. Where are we?

It's it's getting very close to signature. I know that the city is okay with it and it's it's in our court right now. So

Wonderful. And through the Chair, I just final question. Why do you want this job? You've had it for a year. You've had it for a year. Share a little bit about where you came from and why transit is so important to you, if you would. Thank you. For the benefit of the rest of of of us who are here.

I always joke around and I say nobody warned me. But in all honest That's right. In all honesty, it it it's not something that I set out to have or it's not something else. But when the opportunity did come, I found it a very exciting opportunity on many levels.

I've been with the department for 28 years, and I felt like I bring in an experience from Northern California, from Southern California, and I came through the trenches. So I'm very solution oriented.

And I think I shared with you that transit is is and multimodal is really important to me as well, and having this opportunity to really make that impact for the multimodal shift in the department is very important.

On a personal note, I can't think of a better time to serve, and that is because there's so much of the department's priorities that are personal values to me. When we talk about safety, when we talk about economic prosperity or opportunities for other. I'm an immigrant myself.

My family was granted an immigration visa in '88, and we moved here 1990. So access to opportunities.

From Egypt. Access to opportunities is very important. And for me to be able to have the opportunity to make an impact that will help our communities across the state is extremely exciting. So I I'm hoping I get that opportunities continue serving.

From where?

Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Reyes. Oh, I lost the power. I lost the power already. Sorry. Wow.

She still had the mallet. She who has the mallet has the power.

That's what I thought.

I have a follow-up question. So my

Sorry. Yes. Go ahead.

Thank you. I apologize. I had a a couple of quick, more detailed points on the road usage charge, that I neglected to ask in the first round. The, there's been a couple of pilot programs, so far in the state. You know, Caltrans didn't operate those programs.

But, you know, one of the things that my constituents are concerned about on this road usage charge, if it becomes a thing, is the technology that the state's gonna use to track those miles. And so in the two previous pilots so I guess there's two questions here.

In the two previous pilots, did Caltrans have any say in the technology that was used then? And are you able to based on the research that you're doing now, and recognizing that this the report's not ready yet, are you able to share with us what's kind of being proposed as the technology to track the miles?

Yeah. I don't know all the details of the actual pilots, but I do know that, one of the pilots that we were looking at telematics or pictures of odometer readings as as the basis for some of the work that was being done. I'm happy to provide a little bit more details on that afterwards, but I don't really know what technology that was used.

Okay. And I'm sure you can discern that some of us in the legislature are gonna be very, very concerned about the road usage charge for lots of reasons. But more you know, one of the most significant ones is how is the state gonna attract people's personal travels.

Which a lot of us will have a really big challenge with. So just I'm sure you already know that. Alright. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you. And I appreciate the information you've given, some great questions. I wanna ask you just a little bit, about, you know, how Caltrans is, working to help maintain some of our, corridors. In particular, as you know, some of our corridors.

They're slightly different in all different places. And sometimes there are environmental impacts in particular on the coast.

As we see sea level rise and erosion, there have been parts of the coast that have struggled with how to maintain those long terms. And so there's been some short term efforts to to try to maintain those in in particular, the low sand.

And so I'm rendering if you can just speak to what, Caltrans is doing to be able to, you know, support the low sand and thinking through what transportation looks like in places where there is, sea level rise and erosion.

Yeah. Great question. And and, Luzheng is one of our, five corridors that are actually, designated as, capital, improvement program federally, eligible for federal funding. So we are trying to as I mentioned in response to Senator Laird's question.

We have done vulnerability assessment across the entire state, and that's helping inform us at least what locations we need to pay closer attention to. Low sand and and all rail needs is something that we're also trying to pay very close attention to.

Inner city rails can be really important as part of the general state trail plan. We are looking at we do have on those end in particular, we're conducting a long term corridor study that will help inform also some of the solutions or alternatives that we would need to explore in the future.

Just generally speaking, we are looking at how we can integrate rail and transit on a more wider way within the state. We just put out and I know this is not related to Los Angeles, but just on on the transit side, we just put out a director's policy on transit.

Trying to look at the gaps across the state and how this the department can lean in more to help, bridge some of those gaps. We are, we we just, started, putting an ad out for a direct deputy director for rail and transit.

And this person would be looking, and through the, you know, the department for these opportunities on how we can advance, the state, a rail plan, as well as transit. One of the one of the challenges that we see on the transit side in particular, is it's very fragmented.

Like, there is a lot of transit operators across the state. And there are there are some opportunities that the department can lean in to help bridge some of those gaps and bring everybody to the table so that we can be more efficient with our resources and look for things that will move the needle statewide.

Great. Thank you. So now I'm going to open up for any members of the public. If you are here to speak in support of the appointment, please come forward. We are gonna ask only that the first couple people, you're welcome to say a sentence or two. After that, it's only name and affiliation and position.

I'll start us off right. Delaney Hunter with Seaside Advocacy on behalf of the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, the Ventura County Transportation Commission, and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.

Where director El-Tawansy spent a whole lot of time hanging out with us in Santa Clara. We can speak to her collaboration on the local level, and we really look forward to her confirmation today and on the Senate floor to continue that work. Thank you.

My name is Sam Hasoon. I'm with GLA, Global Leadership Alliance, and I'm here to offer my support to the appointment of director El-Tawansy because of her unwavering commitment to safety, worker safety, as well as the traveling public.

As well as partnership with the construction industry at large. She is an advocate for that in addition to small businesses and growing that. Last but not least is workforce development. We have a summer tsunami.

We have more people leaving our industry that are coming in. Director of Tawansy will serve as a role model for youth, young people to come into our industry. The average age is 48 right now in our industry.

We need more young people to look at our industry as the place of entry, and doc and director El- Tawansy will serve as that role model. Thank you very much.

Great. Thank you. And just from here on out, it's only name and position and affiliation. Thank you.

Amira Manufi, President of Delagata.

Great. Thank you.

Mario Orsol from Sandak supporting the nomination.

Thank you.

Derek Barnes, Director of Operating Engineers in support.

Thank you.

Crystal Moreno on behalf of the California Conference of Operating Engineers in strong support. Thank you.

Andrew Antwih here today on behalf of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, otherwise known as MetroLink, and the Port Of Los Angeles in support.

Thank you.

Nick Romo on behalf of the Southern California Association of Governments in strong support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, madam Pro Tem, members of the committee. Kate Bell on behalf of Google Cloud here in strong support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Afternoon. Mark Neuberger on behalf of the California State Association of Counties in support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Moira Topp on behalf of the Orange County Transportation Authority in support.

Damon Conklin, the lead of California Cities in strong support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Michael Pimentel with the California Transit Association in support. Thank you.

Matt Robinson with Shalyard or Antwo Schmelzer and Lang. I have a few to read, but first, happy birthday, Senator Grove. On behalf of the Solano Transportation Authority, the San Mateo County Association of Governments, the San Mateo County Transit District, CalTrain, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the Fresno County Transportation Authority, the Monterey Salinas Transit District, and the County Connection in the Bay Area, all in support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Allison Rose with Autodesk in strong support.

Good afternoon. Kiana Valentine on behalf of Transportation California, the Nevada County Transportation Commission, the Tulare County Association of Governments, and the Merced County Association of Governments, and the Sonoma County Transportation and Climate Authority's in support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Gus Khouri. On behalf of the Transportation Authority Marin, Central Coast, which is Santa Cruz down to Santa Barbara, and the San Joaquin Valley, which is San Joaquin down to Kern, all in support. Congratulations and happy birthday.

Thank you.

Eric Turner on behalf of the California Construction and Industrial Materials Association in support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Scott Govenar on behalf of Cisco in support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Gus Flores on behalf of United Contractors in strong support.

Thank you.

Hi. Mark Watts representing Riverside County Transportation Committee in support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Pro Tem members, Ted Toppin for the Professional Engineers in California Government in full support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Gabby Cervantes here on behalf of the American Council of Engineering Companies here in support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Chris Smith on behalf of the Associated General Contractors of California in here in strong support.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Melanie Perrin here on behalf of the Associated General Contractors of San Diego, the Transportation Corridor Agencies of Southern Orange County, and Gen and C Wyoming Short Line Railroad Holding Company in strong support.

Thank you. Thank you. Oh, Oh, we have one more.

If I may. Thank you, Madam Chair. Forgive me, I just ran down the stairs. Okay. Todd Bloomstine on behalf of the Southern California Contractors Association in support. Our members, our contractor members tell me that Caltrans is the preferable customer. So we're very, very thankful. Thank you.

Thank you. Alright. Kudos for that run. Anybody here in opposition of the nominee? Alright. Seeing no one, any final comments or questions from the members? Seeing none, we'll take a motion.

I'd be honored to move the conferee to the full Senate floor for a vote.

Thank you. We have a motion made by Vice Chair Groves. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

The appointee has been approved to move to the full Senate floor for confirmation. Congratulations. Thank you. This concludes today's agenda. I wanna thank everybody who has been here and provided public testimony, and, we appreciate your patience. With that, We will adjourn and wish Senator Grove a very happy birthday.