Senate Standing Committee on Rules

The Senate rules committee will come to order. Before we begin today, today's agenda, can we please establish quorum?

[Roll Call] Quorum.

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 two d, the appointment of Michael Gunning as a member to the teacher's retirement board. I will entertain a motion.

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

[Roll Call]Three votes. Alright.

That is three that has three votes, but we'll leave that on call for members to add on. The next item for governor's appointments is not required to appear item two e, Eric Hynes to the Gambling Control Commission. Do we have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Senator Laird. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Two to one.

Alright. That is two to one. We'll leave that, open for members to add on. Next item for governor's appointments not required to appear. Item two f, Christian Acevedo JD to the Civil Rights Council.

Can we get a motion, please?

So moved.

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

[Roll Call] Two to one.

Alright. That is two to one. We'll leave that open for members who are absent to add on. Next item for governor's appointments not required to appear, we have item two g, Candace Cho, JD to the civil rights council. Do we have a motion?

So moved.

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

[Roll Call] Two to one.

Alright. That is two to one. We'll leave that open for absent members to add on. Next item for governor's appointments not required to appear. We have item two h, Yvette Pena JD to the civil rights council.

Can we please can I get a motion, please?

So moved.

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

[Roll Call] Two to one.

Alright. That is two to one. The next item for governor's appointments not required to appear is item two Aye. Vishuddha Tayah, JD, to the Civil Rights Council. Can we please get a motion?

I was so moved. Sorry.

Thank you, Senator Laird. Can we please.

I'm waiting for Senator Grove, but she's not worth the program.

With like this, and he wouldn't just is not paying attention now.

Alright. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Two to one.

Alright. That is two to one. We'll leave that open for absent members to add on. Next, item for governor's appointments not required to appear is item two j, Ira Lick, PHC to the commission on teacher credentialing. Can we please have a motion?

So moved.

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

[Roll Call] Two to one.

Alright. That is two to one. We'll leave that open for absent members to add on. Next item for governor's appointments not required to appear is item two k, Mandy Redfern, PhD to the commission on teacher credentialing. Can we please get a motion for that?

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

So moved.

[Roll Call] Two to one.

Alright. That item is two to one. We'll leave that open for absent members to add on. The last item for governor's appointments not required to appear is item two l, Omar pass passes, JD, to the contractor's state license board. Can I thank you?

Vice Chair Grove has made a motion.

Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Three votes.

Alright. That has three votes. And we'll leave that open for absent Members to add on. Next, I'd like to take up item three, reference to bills to committees. I'll entertain a motion.

So moved. Thank you, vice Chair Grove. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Three votes.

Great. We have three votes. Now we will turn to governor's appointees required to appear. We're going to start with item one a and one b. The appointments of Kelly Dermody Dermody.

I hope I said that right. And Andrea Evans, JD, as members of trustees for the California State University. The both of you are welcome to come forward.

And Madam Chair, whether I'm settling down, I have to go and present a bill. I apologize. I will be back bouncing back and forth. Good luck.

Thank you, Senator. Thank you. The both of you will have one to two minutes each, to provide your opening testimony. In that opening testimony, you are welcome to introduce any guests that you may have here with you today. As you approach your two minute mark, we will notify you.

So you're welcome to begin. If you wanna start with, trustee, der

Dermody.

Dermody. Yes. Thank you. Yes.

Thank you, Chair Limon, and thanks to Vice Chair, Grove, who just left. Members of the committee, it's an honor to appear in front of you today. I want to also, thank and and give appreciation to Governor Newsom for the honor of this appointment. It is, a real blessing to have an opportunity to serve the state of California, but particularly the families and students of our state. My name is Kelly Dermody, and I appear in front of you as the fourth child of two educators.

My mom was an elementary school teacher, and my dad was a military veteran and a college professor. And they instilled in me a passion for learning, appreciation for the power of education to transform lives. I also, appear as someone who, went to law school to try to remove barriers to access and to help people and communities who have been historically underserved to eradicate instur institutional obstacles to access and success. And that really brings me to why I am here in front of you today.

It is, my hope that if you approve me to be a trustee, that at CSU, I would make as my priorities, access for students and families across the state, and focus on the the ability of our institutions to prepare our students for the very challenging times that we are in and for the jobs of the future that are coming.

Thank you for having me here today, and I look forward to continuing this dialogue, not just here but in the years to come.

Thank you. Trustee Evans?

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee. Thank you so much for having me here today.

I want to, also acknowledge that it's a busy time, and I really appreciate your role, particularly on the housing bond. I'm thrilled to see that there will be some student housing as as part of that, and I I wanna thank you for your efforts there. I also wanna thank the governor for, nominating me for this position. I'd like to recognize one of my sons, Dominic, who's here, my with me today for some support. My other son can't be here because he's actually doing a teaching fellowship.

He's teaching eighth graders physics right now. So I wanna just share a little bit more about myself that you wouldn't necessarily see in the questionnaire. My parents came here from Trinidad And Tobago, and I was with the goal of providing a better life of opportunity for me and my younger brothers. And education was always the core of that. When they came here, they knew nothing about the American educational system.

They didn't know that PTAs existed. They didn't know how involved parents needed to be in schooling, but they learned quickly. And they did because they really saw education as the pathway to provide the kinds of opportunities they wanted for for us. And it's it my education has been it fitted me tremendously in my personal life and in my professional life. It has made all the difference, and it has unlocked opportunities for me and for the rest of my family.

And so for me, it's a passion, and it's a real honor to think that I might be able to play even a small role in ensuring that the CSU continues to provide access and a really, really high quality education for students around the state. And so I thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to your questions.

We're going to go ahead and start with Senator Laird.

Thank you. So what happened with judiciary for about ten hours, it was always Chair and member yesterday. So first, I may appreciate the fact that we had a chance to meet. I appreciate you taking the time and and starting to get to know each other. You answered so many of my questions and things that were important.

I thought it'd be good to maybe talk about two or three and in essence just do this in public and put on the record what we basically talked about.

And one of them you started to get out when you talked about the housing bond which is basic needs which is a real issue in a lot of the campuses and it's how do you see your roles as trustee dealing with the basic needs of students that are sort of challenged right now economically and I know that we alternated in the meeting, so maybe we'll start with trustee Evans and then alternate on the question.

Sure. Thank you. Thank you for the question. So my professional work revolves around homelessness and and housing issues. So it's an area that I feel very well prepared to, kind of step in day one as a CSU trustee to really help them think through, questions around the bonds.

And it's a lot of money, but it's not it's not sufficient for for the need. Right? So there'll be some hard decisions that have to be made. And so I think that I'll be able to, bring a lens of having worked with so many young people who've experienced homelessness in the state and with some of the leading organizations in the state doing the work to really help inform the kind of, decision making that the CSU board is gonna have to do.

And I think there's lots of other opportunities, not just around housing, but in access to benefits and other things that I wanna make sure that our students are, able to take as take advantage of much of those opportunities as possible.

And so I see a real opportunity there to to provide that kind of expertise to the rest of the committee.

And do you have anything you would like to add?

Yes. Thank you, Senator Laird, and thank you for the conversation earlier, which, I appreciate it very much as well. I I cosign what, trustee Evans has said. I would also just add that it's clear that across the state, we have a huge housing crisis. It it clearly is affecting students too.

But when you when we think about, what an affordable, accessible education looks like for a student now, it's not just about tuition. It's about the cost of housing, the the cost of food, the cost of Wi Fi. And the idea that housing could be two or three times more expensive than tuition over the course of a year, could make it impossible for a student to actually go to school.

Those are problems that I think is critical that we try to solve, but also that we try to meet students where they are, that if they come on campus and they have housing and food insecurity, how are we expecting them to matriculate

in four years? How are we expecting them to graduate without a huge loan debt? How are we expecting them to graduate at all? And those are really, really big important questions, and I I know that, it's something that is on my mind quite a bit, and I will bring, my attention to that issue if I'm on the board.

Thank you. And and of course, we'll wanna hear if you have any ideas or or things as it goes along. And then on another subject we talked about, there are various enrollment issues where there's some colleges that are turning people away and there's some colleges that aren't totally full within the CSU system and there's there's a process to try to to balance that out. And so how are you sort of engaging with the enrollment process?

Yes. Thank you, Senator. So it's early days because, I haven't yet had the privilege of being part of the board. It's an issue I'm aware of. I I think that at this stage, I'm very curious about the reasons for the different experiences of the different institutions.

And, I will say, earlier today, we had the pleasure also of meeting with Senator Gomez Reyes, and, she, brought to our attention, very proudly, I should say, the wonderful recognition and deserved recognition for, the campus in San Bernardino, and wondering how we can and if we can replicate that experience to other campuses across the state. So there's questions both for the campuses that have been struggling, but I think for the ones that have been really succeeding, what can we learn from those?

Alright. Anything to add?

I mean, I will I'm kinda double click on what Kelly said, because I do think that there's a lot that we can learn and that we are learning from various campuses.

And I think, what we're hoping what I would be hoping to do is really kind of taking a holistic view and trying to understand where are, you know, kind of where are the high points, where where are we seeing some struggles, and what can we do to make sure that there is a little bit more of a balance among the CSUs across The States.

And I'm hopeful that some of the initiatives that folks are working on will start to see some increasing enrollment at those campuses that have, you know, for years been under enrolled.

Great. Because that is a a real issue and there is a we didn't talk about it and I wanna ask one last question about something else. But but the program that CSU has had to try to get more students to graduate in four years and not go five and six has really helped with enrollment and and things. The last thing I was gonna ask about is we talked about artificial intelligence and we talked about how ethical uses in higher education are a real issue.

How would you reflect on that from your

Yeah. No. I think it's a really it's such a critical time for AI, not just in education, but kind of everywhere. Right?

And so I think that for me, the kind of guiding posts around making sure that our students and the faculty are able to access AI as a tool, not as a replacement for the kinds of critical thinking and other skills that we know that students need to develop, but really seeing it as a tool, understanding that as the workforce needs change, there may be a a more interest and more need for students to really be able to master, artificial intelligence.

At the same time, you know, always wanting to make sure that it can be used safely, that any privacy issues are being addressed and the like. And so I see a lot of opportunity, and I also feel that there there needs to be a balance and that the trustees are gonna have to be, out front because it's moving so fast and it's accelerating so quickly.

And so we really need to make sure that we're not trying to play catch up on all of these issues as they arise, but that we're kind of thinking ahead, anticipating some of the challenges, and putting in place the resources and the procedures and protocols to address them.

Great. Anything to add there?

Yeah. I I agree with all of that. And and I think also it's it's it's really important to be data driven, I think, in this area and to and to be aware that there's been a lot of reports about, you know, AI is inevitable, AI is the future, and one can try to run and play catch up with that. At the same time, there's been a lot of, you know, fear and worry and anxiety.

And I think both sides, you know, could be served by a lot more data about the impacts on education.

And the thing that I think I'm most concerned about personally, and I see it also as an employer, is ensuring that we are still always giving students the tools to develop critical thinking skills. That we are not, encouraging them to outsource that, but that they are gonna be required to have those skills to compete in the world and to solve the world's problems when they graduate.

So very focused on making sure that we we we do bring that balance, but that we also are driven by actual data and not the vibes of the moment.

Thank you. I appreciate the conversation that we had. Appreciate it here. You bring a lot of good life experience and professional experience to this and I look forward to supporting your confirmation. But more importantly, look forward to working together in the next few years because we're gonna have to do a lot of things together.

Thank you for your willingness to serve.

Thank you, Senator.

Senator Laird. Thank you both for being here. Just wanna ask a couple things. One, your perspective as trustees in terms of intersegmental cooperation. One of the things that has come up quite a bit is actually the bachelor's degree.

And so I'm just speaking, you know, what are your thoughts, your reactions as community colleges looks to explore the CSU has historically been, you know, some of the most outspoken one of the most outspoken, sectors in in terms of, you know, identifying complexities in that. And I'm just curious as trustees, what do you see currently and also the future of this?

So I think it's, it's obviously early days for us to get up to speed on what is a long history here. But I I think, for me, the most important thing is what serves our students. And so figuring out, what that means because it's, it's still within the ecosystem of a budget that has to happen across different campuses and support that has to happen across different campuses.

Students in some communities have have more opportunities to choose than in others, and and just figuring out how to solve those problems in a way that accommodates, the needs of the different institutions, but with a student first focus.

So I'm very interested in, learning more about we can do and and hopefully coming up with some solutions to, address some of the unmet need that I think we all have identified in the state, while still recognizing the, the important location and and placement of these institutions, in the state of California as they exist as freestanding institutions serving different purposes.

Yeah. And and just to add to that, I'm coming in with a very open mind on the issue. I don't have a, you know, sense that the CSU, that is the only place where we should be awarding these these bachelor degrees. At the same time, what we've learned a little bit so far is that there's been a there's a lot of legislation that, kind of takes one little piece here and one little piece here.

And so I think what as a trustee, our role is to maybe try to promote more partnership and collaboration with the other higher education institutions that are part of the ecosystem to see are there things that we can do, to provide, you know, bachelor, programs or provide access for students maybe who are in community colleges who want that.

So I think there's a there's conversations to be had there, and I would be really interested to see what can we do. I also know that the CSU is making a big push around increasing the transfers so that folks can get into the CSUs and be able to pursue bachelor's, and I think that's, you know, early work going on there.

But I think that there are lots of different levers that we can pull, and what I would love to see is a more kind of holistic conversation looking at the entire ecosystem of higher education, assessing what those needs are across the state, understanding really where where those deficits are, and then thinking about, okay, from the students' perspective, how are we best gonna meet those needs and their demands? Because we don't want students leaving the state and going somewhere else because they can't get something here.

So I'm really kind of would bring that, lens to the conversation.

Thank you. And I would echo, I think, that lens, certainly, I think in the absence of opportunity, people look for opportunity elsewhere. And, that is something we've seen. I know both Senator Laird and I represent different areas. Some, you know, where there are more opportunities because they just are there's more urban, there's more access, and some that are more rural, where it turns out that the closest CSU is very impacted or very competitive.

And so the community colleges there don't really have those options. And what I will say and what I think has been true of the legislature is in the absence of the systems being able to solve these problems themselves is why you see the number of bills. And if the problem is not solved, I believe that the legislature and legislators will continue to try to address address this issue via policy and via legislation.

And that's something I've only seen an increase in my nine plus years here in the legislature of bills trying to address, in particular, the community college and CSU bachelor, deserts that we have all across the state. So I I would hope that there's also innovative thinking and how we solve that.

We don't wanna be in the situation just as much as you don't wanna be in the situation. And certainly from our our perspective, we know how important enrollment is. Senator Laird talked about enrollment, and numbers do matter to each system. But we wanna make sure that, we're also solving for a long standing problem, that we have seen in the district.

I know that I've talked at length just about, you know, representing Santa Maria, in South Sent South almost a Visco County and our access to either CSU Channel Islands or to Cal Poly slow.

And really what happens in the areas like m Alan Hancock that tend to serve a lot of underrepresented students, a lot of students in rural areas, you know, sons, daughters, or farm workers, and what is that access look like. So that's something that I think about.

And and again, as I watch legislators continue to run bills in this space, what that signals to me is that the problem solving is not happening at the system level and legislators are feeling the need to intervene in this particular space. So I appreciate that and hope that we'll all be at it and continue to work together on this. I think we all want the same thing for students.

We want them to have access to quality public education, which is I think what you're trying to do, and what, you know, other segments are trying to do as well. As, you know, we talk about enrollment, one of the pieces that's related to enrollment also has to do with just, the cost of operations. And in particular, there's been a lot of talk around tuition increases, and what they feel like and what they look like.

And, I just wonder if, you can speak a little bit to, you know, recognizing that you are on the newer end, but just, what you see coming through, between 2028, '29 in terms of the tuition the tuition increases that may be happening. But the metrics that from your perspective will be important to use to evaluate the proposals as they come forward.

Thank you for that question. I do think, and I understand that the tuition increase was set for several years out now. So think there is a benefit to having that level of predictability for families. At the same time, it's it was a pretty big jump. So, I know that feel you know, families are are feeling some financial pressures there as well.

For me, it'll be important to understand how the increase in tuition is impacting student success, faculty retention, really diving into the budget to understand kind of where that increased revenue went. I don't I don't have that information in front of me now, but those are the kinds of things I'd really wanna be looking at, kind of what was the return on the investment, and are we seeing that, that level of tuition increase actually resulted in better outcomes for our students.

Those would be the kinds of things I would be wanting to to take a look at, but I don't have that information, yet.

Yeah. I agree with everything that's been said. I would add that some of this is dynamic in, in the general affordability of being a student in terms of housing and food, the things we talked about earlier. So if we start to address some of the housing issues and the high cost of housing and the housing insecurity, maybe it allows us to have a 6% tuition increase and it not to be so hard, for the student to to manage that.

But I think those are, again, dynamic questions, without just one data point.

Great. Thank you. There are no other members here to ask questions. So, this is the moment where we will invite any members of the public who are here to speak in support of either of the trustees. This is your moment to please come forward and just state your name, your position, and affiliation.

Alright. Seeing none. If there is anyone here in opposition of the trustees, please step forward. Alright. So, we can make a motion.

We don't have enough people for the motion to pass, but we will make the motion if there is a motion for this.

I'm gonna move them both together and that we send them to the full Senate floor for confirmation.

And one second. I actually think I do need to take one at a time.

So let me start with the process. So I'm gonna go ahead and start. I'll entertain a motion for Kelly. Dermody. Dermody.

Then I will do.

I'm struggling. Thank you. That's okay. As a member of trustees for the California State University, and Senator Laird has made that motion. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Two votes.

Thank you, trustee Dermody. We are going to hold that open for absent members to add on. Next, we'll entertain a motion for Andrea Evans, JD, as a member trustee to the California State University.

So moved.

Thank you, Senator Laird, for making the motion. Please call the roll.

[Roll Call] Two votes.

Great. We have two votes. We will leave that open for absent members to add on. Thank you both for your time and your service to our California State University system and the students in California.

Thank you, Senator Matt.

For our final item, we will now turn to governor's appointees required to appear item one c, the appointment of Cedric Jamie Rutland MD as a member to the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board.

There you go. This is your moment now. There you go. You are welcome, doctor Rutland, to come forward.

Thank you so much. You'll have one to two minutes for your introduction. You're welcome to introduce anyone who you have here with you today.

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. Appreciate that.

And just make sure it's on. Is there

Now it's right. Now we're good.

Thank you so much. Alright.

Thank you so much for the confidence, in that from governor Newsom. Thank you so much for having me, senators, this afternoon. Obviously, my family is behind me. Somehow they found their way in the room. So again, my name is Doctor.

Senator Jamie Rettlin. I'm a board certified physician in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, and critical care. For about two decades, I've cared for patients with asthma, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, lung cancer, occupational lung disease, and many other respiratory conditions. I spent much of my career both in the intensive care unit caring for critically ill patients and in the outpatient setting, helping patients manage chronic lung disease.

I also serve as a volunteer national spokesperson for the American Lung Association, where I help educate the public on lung health and respiratory disease.

In addition, I have become a medical communicator whose mission is to translate complex medical science into language that patients, families, and communities can understand and use. And I've had the privilege of speaking nationally and internationally to physicians and healthcare professionals on advances in pulmonary medicine. And those experiences have reinforced me that science has its greatest impact when it is communicated clearly, thoughtfully, and with integrity. I accepted this appointment because I believe physicians have an important perspective to contribute to environmental policy.

Every day I see how air quality affects real people.

Not as statistics, but as air as children struggling to breathe, older adults living with chronic lung disease, workers exposed to harmful pollutants, and families whose quality of life depends on clean air. As As a pulmonologist, I tell my patients that every breath matters. And serving on this board is an opportunity to help protect 18,000,000 Southern Californians, and help them breathe every single day. And that's a responsibility that I take very, very seriously.

If confirmed, I'm gonna continue to approach this responsibility with humility, scientific integrity, and a commitment to collaboration.

I recognize that AQMD serves diverse communities with equally diverse needs. Protecting public health and improving air quality must go hand in hand with thoughtful governance, transparency, technological innovation, and the understanding of the economic realities facing our region. I look forward to learning from my fellow Board Members, and you all working collaboratively with stakeholders in helping advance practical science based solutions that improve the health of my state of California. Thanks again for your time and consideration, and I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today.

I welcome any questions.

Thank you, doctor Rutland. Senator Laird.

Thank you very much, madam Chair. And I'm sorry just in the chaos of the last week before we go on break, we didn't have a chance to meet. But I'm glad we had a brief chance to talk. I appreciate the fact you said your family was behind you and I hope they're not just sitting behind you. I hope they're actually behind you.

They seem to be up to this point. Okay. Right. Okay.

Well, we we'll see if we can take care of that right now. You got close to answering my first question with your opening statements but you're in a slot that is a physician with an understanding of the effects of air pollution. So and obviously, if you're a pulmonologist, obviously, you've been doing what you've been doing for two decades. You see impacts on the ground day to day. How are you gonna reflect that in your board service?

How where do you think that puts you in sort of raising those issues, talking about them to your colleagues?

I appreciate the question. I think it's a wonderful question. I think that the public in general, it doesn't have an understanding for how much responsibility the lung has. Every single breath you take, you're snatching the environment that surrounds you. And you're introducing it to the inside of your body through your lung, which is a bunch of pipes and balloons all stacked on top of one another.

You have this cellular layer that is in constant fight with these environmental antigens that can activate the inflammatory response. I keep saying inflammatory response because when you look at disease in general, disease is actually your immune system's response to the environment. So as you inhale different antigens and you activate this inflammatory response, these molecules spill over into your system.

And so they don't only increase the risk of pulmonary disease when you have air pollution around, but you also increase the risk of myocardial infarction, heart attacks, and strokes, and neurological consequences. And we keep finding out more and more.

I think it is my duty as a physician to add that perspective as I've taken care of patients who have suffered from acute pollution. Right? And not just acute pollution in the sense of, oh, they were breathing in air pollution. I'm talking acute pollution in the sense is when you have a wildfire and you increase the risk of fungal disease. Physicians need to understand that, oh, I need to be thinking about fungal disease because I've seen it.

And so you have to create that public awareness. And I do feel that part of my responsibility besides lowering emissions, which is the number one responsibility. Part of my responsibility is to create that public awareness for my colleagues, so that they can understand the impact of air pollution medically, not just in terms of PM 2.5 and the volatile organic compounds, but also in terms of the increased risk of other diseases associated with the presence of certain natural disasters?

I appreciate that response and I know I'm budget Chair and if I just say 250,000,000,000, everybody glazes over. But when you try to talk about what's in it and how it works and and put it on the ground for people, that's part of my job. And I think that is your job in this particular slot. There's a couple of issues that are unique to the SoCal Air Board. One of them is goods movement.

And I know there's there's been a lot of moves since I first came in the legislature almost a quarter century ago about the Port Of LA and Long Beach and the trains that connect, and we had testimony of layers of dust and and things that are near those routes. How do you see your role in in sort of goods movement and and driving home what the impact is?

Yeah. Yeah. That's another interesting question. I think when you look at the geography of Southern California, what you have is you have winds that move from west to east and you have all of these ships coming into the Port Of Long Beach, supports of the Los Angeles area. And as a result of the winds, all of the pollution moves east and gets trapped because of the mountains that are protecting the pollution from escaping.

And so not only do you have the winds pushing pollution east, but then when you add on that diesel trucks are also delivering product from west to east, you are just stacking on the air pollution issue. And I do think that it's important for us to remember that in those communities that are surrounded by the increased amount of air pollution, we have the in we have an increased amount of diseases that are associated with pollution. So you do see the increase in, heart attacks.

You do see the increase in strokes, increase in asthma. I think that it is my duty to be able to contribute to a policy that will lead to a reduction in the emissions of those vehicles.

In addition to educating the public, especially the AB 617 communities on the pollution effects within their health. So that they can understand what symptoms that they are having and what they can do about those symptoms and who they should go seek out. So I think that I wanna add that clinician perspective to create a public awareness that allows them to access individuals that can acutely help them while also contributing to policy that can chronically help them by lowering those emissions.

Well, over the last and I really appreciate that. And I was gonna ask about AB 617 and you sort of went there. But in the last ten or twelve years, this board at different times has been really polarized. And it has been polarized around what you were just talking about because there was a view that it's really hard on a lot of interests or businesses or people to make the reductions that are gonna have the deal with the health impacts you just described.

How do you see that balance?

How do you make sure that the actions the Air Board takes actually affect these outcomes rather than there's so much balancing that there's not a good effect?

Yeah. It's another good question. I think, you know, the the most interesting thing and what you have to look at is you have to look at the data from the hospitals that are in those communities that are most affected by air pollution.

And then once you understand that those individuals that are going to the hospital, being admitted to the hospital with these acute effects, creating that public awareness around understanding the impact of air pollution, then we can go back and understand that mobile sources contribute about 80 of nitric oxide, which leads to ozone production, and start to create policy that allows us to control the things that we can control. Not only that, but also understand, hey, listen.

If we're gonna put a new warehouse here, how many trucks are going to start coming here, and how is that going to impact this environment? The other thing I was just thinking about out as I was walking in, are the trucks full? I mean, can we be efficient? Can we make sure that they have everything that they possibly can have, material the truck actually has in it. I mean, sometimes you look in the back of that UPS truck and there's one box.

You know, like, oh, that's just one box. You you wanna get everything all together? Does it make it more efficient? So these are the things that I'm that I'm thinking about practically speaking from an air pollution standpoint.

Okay. Well, thank you. I really appreciate your responses and I appreciate your willingness to serve and I look forward to supporting your confirmation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Senator Reyes. Thank you, Madam PT. It's a pleasure to see you again.

Good to see you.

And thank you for taking the time to to meet with me. That was very important and I, we had an opportunity to talk about specifically the Inland Empire. My colleagues know that oftentimes we talk about the state and then I bring it right back to the Inland Empire because so much happens in the Inland Empire. I appreciate the comments about all that goods movement from from the ports to the Inland Empire. It's that that that's where the warehouses are.

And as you mentioned, it's that truck traffic that's causing all that problem, all all those health problems for the community. I sincerely appreciate what you bring in as a medical doctor, as a pulmonologist. You have studied. You've been. You've you've spoken about it.

You have treated. You have directed when it comes to those who are who are whose health has been impacted. And that is something that that that is needed. That is something that that brings, something extra to AQMD, our South Coast AQ to to the AQMD. And so having that input is extremely important.

I will tell you that, there was a report that came out that says and we're talking about the warehouses, as you mentioned earlier. It said, and I quote, the pattern is clear. We are prioritizing housing more goods than people while ignoring the harm that this causes. Has that been your experiences as as you have looked at the Inland Empire? I know you were in Riverside for a Period of Time and were at those hospitals as well.

Yeah. In the first six years of my medical practice, I operated in Riverside. I went to six different medical hospitals in Riverside. And I if you ask my wife behind me, I lived in Riverside. And one of the things that I saw was just a lack of awareness of what was contributing to the problem that brought him into the hospital in the first place.

One of my favorite patients of all time had an autoimmune lung disease. And she did have a systemic autoimmune disease that was contributing to her lung disease, but she also lived in a heavily polluted neighborhood. And I couldn't turn away the fact that because of the presence of those pollutants contributing to the inflammation that was already present in her lung led to her need of a lung transplant, which she received.

And she is alive and well and sees me once a year and texts me all the time. But for me, that awareness is my responsibility.

And when you ask the question and you say it's ignored, I kind of agree with you because it is the awareness, especially in the Inland Empire. It's not there. Even in Orange County, it's not there. And the patients and the people out there are, for me, the best people on the planet because they're so grateful and so thankful just to have somebody there looking after them and thinking about them. I remember this vividly because those patients really appreciate you and say thank you.

I'm not bagging on the Orange County patients, but there is a significant difference. And so it is important to spend time creating that awareness and making sure that the patients understand, and it's my better the environment that they're inhaling with every breath.

Thank you. I it as I think I shared with you a report that was done in 2023, just three years ago. The Inland Empire already had a billion square feet of warehouses. With every one of those warehouses, we know there are trucks coming in and out. And we have at least a 125,000,000 square feet of of warehouses in the works right now.

We're growing in warehouses in a way that nobody else is. Latino residents make up 42% of the county population, yet they account for 61% of those living within 300 feet of these warehouses. Now AQMD had the indirect source role, and we applaud them for for their leadership in that. Are there other things that and I know you're just starting, we hope you'll have a long history there.

But are there things that you can think of that have to do with that AQMD is able to do regarding these warehouses that are coming into the community to to give some relief to the communities?

I mean, I think creating an infrastructure that allows clean air vehicles to operate at those warehouses, increasing the amount of EV charging, increasing funds for being able to, build and create and and let companies have these electric vehicles on the road to do, the transport, I think is important. In regards to warehouses, I would pay particular attention to where is the warehouse being built. Is there a community that's already there? Or is there plans for a community to be built after the warehouse is built?

I think all of those things need to be taken into account.

And I am aware of the AQMD, allowing funding and giving funding to the infrastructure to allow EVs to operate more efficiently, within that corridor.

Thank you. And and you mentioned the AB 617 communities, and I know my colleague talked about them as well. I have two in in my community and I know there are total of six in South Coast AQMD. What what is your plan regarding? We talked about this a little

About meeting with those AB 617 communities, specifically. And what is your plan about meeting with EJ communities in in South Coast AQMD?

We had.

So I think the first order of business, and my staff understands this, and that's what they're doing, is to collect those six leaders of those steering committees, and sit down and talk with them, and listen to them, and hear what their issues are. Then it would be to visit those individual communities, and actually see for myself what the issue is.

Then you have a discussion with the environmental justice companies, and you ask what they think the issues are, and how they're contributing to policy that can help address these issues. And then it's my responsibility after I gain all of that information to bring it back to the board and discuss what we can do to ensure that these communities can breathe healthier, cleaner air.

Thank you. And I as we mentioned, during our our meeting, how important the EJ community is in if we're talking about, quality of error knowing we have areas where the quality of error is so poor. The EJ communities have been in the neighborhoods, in the communities. Most of them as volunteers and all of them started as volunteers because this is a labor of love for them. This is where they live.

This is where their family lives or neighbors, and they want something better. And I applaud you for for looking to meet with those leaders in the EJ community as well as AB 617 community to see what their needs are. See what work they've done because they tell me as I mentioned to you, don't study us anymore. We've already studied it. We already know we're suffering.

We already know we have asthma. Our kids are taking time off from school. We're taking time off from work. Here's the plan that AQMD helped us put together with carb. Help us implement this.

But I, as I mentioned, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of the fact that you want to serve on on this, on the AQMD, to serve the community, especially using your skill and the education that you have gained, the titles that you've received to be able to work within the community to help them get better because that's what they need. They wanna get better. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Grove.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Pro Tem. It's great to see you.

Good to see you, Edna.

Thank you for spending time with me on Zoom. I have to confess that when I was reading your bio and who you were and the pulmonary specialist and all the things that you were doing, I thought this guy is not gonna be fair and balanced on the AQMD. And after I had the opportunity to talk to you, I can see that you would approach things from a health perspective, which we need in your background.

But also on a common sense perspective when you look at, you know, the industrial part of California, the jobs that are created, the impacts on society by losing I get my colleagues comments on all the warehouses and I get the health impacts there.

But if you lost all those warehouses, you know, because of I get it that we have to have cleaner and we have to mitigate those standards, but we can't just shut down our warehouses and we can't just shut down oil and we can't just shut down, you know, industries that we desperately need in order to not make us a third world country.

We did have a conversation. You obviously know and he's gonna make some comment after I say this. So just be prepared for that.

Should I wait for his comment?

Sure. That'd be okay. That, you know, I represent the top oil producing county in the entire country if we were allowed to get permits. We are getting some now. I guess, it's a 126,000,000 metric tons to bring a ship from Saudi Arabia or, you know, Iraq or some place else where we purchase that oil.

Because Californians are still consuming about, about, 1,600,000 barrels of oil every single day. Do you think and and I'm just asking your opinion with California compliant oil and all the regulatory processes and the 88 mitigation measures in order to, produce clean air and to pay to even get a permit to drill with all the stuff that we require oil companies to do. Is it better to produce California compliant oil here or import it from foreign foreign countries that don't labor protections, the same environmental protections.

And then again, it's a 120 it's measured. So a 126,000,000 metric tons of carbon on a ship ocean born to bring that oil to us.

When we can put it in a pipeline and sit in North well, can't sit in North no more but South.

I would love to answer that question, but I think I need to gain a lot of knowledge to be able to formulate an intelligent opinion of which I'm used to doing when it comes to questions like that. So I would like to answer it quickly, but I think it's in the best interest of public policy and of the board and of myself really to be able to obtain enough information to answer it like you want.

I'm happy to respond to that question that I will via text message or email. But I do think that I need to gain a little bit more knowledge before I attack that.

Understood. The next one may be the same thing we talked about a little bit. There's a refineries fence line monitoring program that was put in piece of legislation that was passed. And it was to target refineries that do, fuel production. But there are different kinds of refineries.

There are ink oil refineries that produce the ink that are in these pens. One of them is in my district. One of the only asphalt refineries to make sure that we have enough product for roads and infrastructure is in my district. And they're, they are regulated and required to monitor for 26 constituents underneath this piece of policy that was passed out of legislature. But nothing they produce will ever produce one of those constituents.

But it still cost them roughly $400,000 a year to monitor monitor four constituents they will never use. We've tried unsuccessfully for two years to get something to fix that. So it doesn't, have a financial burden. Again, it would be like asking you to pay, you know, $400,000 for a pair of glasses that you don't need or will never wear. It's a simple version.

I'm not educated. Went to continuation high school, so you're way above me on that. But just going back to the fence line monitoring, do you think it's fair that, you know, companies have to pay all these dollars every year when there's no way in any way, shape, or form they would produce the constituents that are required to be monitored?

I love this question because this question is really more about uniqueness and truly understanding what a business is actually doing. I think there's a couple of things you have to evaluate. You have to evaluate and again, I think the refiners you're referring to are not in my jurisdiction. But let's pretend that they were for a minute. I think you have to evaluate how much truck traffic is going into the refinery and what's that contributing to in term to emissions.

We have to understand that. And then I think we just have to understand, okay, what are our definitions of refineries and who are we actually trying to monitor and who are we actually asking to measure the amount that they're emitting. And so I think that that is something where you have to have an open mind and be able to have a discussion. And I got no problem with that or introducing that and having that open mind.

Because when we talked about this, I said, well, I kinda you have me on your side.

I don't know enough about that specific situation. But if what you're saying is true, then that should be a discussion. Then I don't see any reason why you can't have discussion.

Thank you. It's pipeline in and pipeline out. So pipeline in a mile and a half away from one field to the refinery, and then pipeline out on the other side. So, but, yeah. So there's very little escape in emissions, but thank you for that.

And, when evaluating the air quality rule achievable in practice, what benchmarks would you guide on the board decisions such as, cost, infrastructure, availability, technology, readiness, all these things that have to come into play. And I get it. I mean, I would love for everybody to say 100% clean air. But and I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but that is just not achievable in the near future, especially by 2045, especially with all the cars we still have on the road.

We don't have EV infrastructure, and we're increasing costs for all Californians to even try to achieve that.

So how do you balance it? And and again, when I first looked at your resume, I thought, oh, this guy's gonna be way over here. But after I talked to you, you're a very well balanced and thoughtful and considerate person on both sides of the both sides of the issue. And I'd like to know your thoughts on that. Like, how do you balance it?

So, I'm a the trend is your friend guy. So if things are coming down, the rate at which they're coming down, yeah, that's important. But if we're headed in the right direction, I'm happy. And I said this to, Senator Reyes this this morning. You know, I have a 13 year old daughter who played the national championship soccer game three days ago, and they lost in penalty kicks.

Right? Devastated. And they lost. And my friends were asking, did they lose? Did they lose?

Did they lose? And everybody kept asking me about the loss, but it wasn't about the loss. It's about, did she develop? Is she getting better? So in other words, is California getting better about emissions?

And we are. So I think if we start from a positive standpoint in terms of that, that's where I think the conversation needs to start from. What is going to be the most efficient thing to do next? Do we need to put more money in infrastructure? Because we have so many EV trucks that aren't able to get the charge, or the company's going back to their diesel truck to get the goods there faster.

Okay. Well, then we better put money there. But that requires people on the ground like myself being able to evaluate the environment and the corridor in the situation to be able to contribute and save these kinds of things. So it requires a little bit of touch and a little bit of detail, but I think it can be done collectively, collaboratively, and together.

Thank you. I look forward to your confirmation. Thank you for meeting with me, and thank you for answering my questions.

No problem.

Thank you. Any additional questions? Senator Ochoa Bogh?

Thank you, madam pro tem. So thank you so much for the opportunity to meet with me yesterday and have the conversations. I'm grateful for the fact that you are familiar with the area that we represent, Riverside County and so forth. Just for the record, I wanted just have you explain what your understanding is of the geographical area and the impact that that has on the, air levels of pollution in that in that region.

Sure. So when you look at the state of California and you specifically look at Southern California, one of the most exciting things about our state is we have ocean, so we can go to the beach. And then an hour and ten minutes east, we are in the mountain. Now when you think about that, sounds beautiful. You can go skiing.

You can go surfing. You can lay out on the beach. You can go throw snowballs at your family. All of that is wonderful. But when you think about it from a pollution standpoint, you've got all these ships that are floating in, delivering goods, and emitting air pollution.

The wind blows from west to east. That's why when you fly to New York, it only takes you four hours. But when you fly home, it takes you six. We all know this. So that wind is blowing from West to East, and then you have these big mountains that are just not allowing the pollution to sort of dissipate.

And so you've got a few problems. You've got pollution, which is, again, mostly coming from the West and blowing east. And then you have trucks that are carrying goods from the West, traveling east, stacking on top of that pollution. So geographically, when you look at the Inland Empire and why they're number one in air pollution, that's contributing significantly to that.

Thank you very much. And I want that for the record, just because many people don't understand that that is the very, very case. The number one source of pollution for our area really are the ports coming in in there. With the with regards to there's another also and I'm trying to just say for the record your your your knowledge and understanding of the area just because that will have an impact on your decision making moving forward.

The other thing I wanted to to have you highlight a little bit is, the understanding on the manufacturing of our trucks or semi trucks in the area, and so forth.

Are you I'm sure you're very well versed, but if you could say for the record just your understanding of the how the manufacturing and and the engineering of the trucks, the semi trucks have evolved in in California.

I can't say I have that knowledge of how the manufacturing of trucks, is involved in the state of California. I honestly do not know.

Okay. So I just wanted to to note that we started with diesel trucks. Right? And then the state has come in and said, okay, you have to have, either electrify or do, hydrogen. That's another area, that we're doing.

So and also just the engineering on the current Semis in our state have also become a little more high-tech. So they're not as pollution emitting engines as they used to be, you know, ten, fifteen years ago. So they've done a quite a bit of work on those engineers. I wanna make sure that we have that also knowledge, and I would welcome you to visit some of the manufacturing companies that do the truck engineering just to understand.

The reason I'm sharing that with you is it's hard when we change goals for many of these companies every two to three years, and I and that goes for any manufacturing company in California.

You folks have great, relevance in that in that space, and I would just wanna make sure that and highly encourage that with your knowledge along with being informed on not just on one area, but just with all stakeholders that you visit the industries that the the rules that you're going to be making and making decisions on know or you're aware of how they're being impacted on it because it does make a huge difference.

Yeah. I'm I'm very aware with moving the goalposts as my daughters always tell me. I move the goalpost every single day on certain things. So I will do my best to remember that as we are evaluating policy that pertains to our district.

I appreciate that. The openness and the willingness to meet with the industries are incredibly important. So I appreciate that. That's all I wanted to, have on on record. And, as my colleague, from Bakersfield mentioned, I really do appreciate, speaking with you and seeing that you are willing to be balanced and willing to, meet with, stakeholders.

So thank you very much for your time, and, look forward to your confirmation today.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Members. And, I appreciate the conversation. I also think, there you know, we all come at this from different lens. And certainly, it's not lost on me that as, we finished up wrapping up just what our budget looks like, that there's a reason that the Senate prioritized, AB 617, as a source of funding, because we're living in a moment in time where, there really continue to be deep concerns.

And from my perspective, there are also historical challenges, that we've seen. You, you know, you look for I think you you mentioned you were looking at the overall growth and progress and the trend. I also personally look for patterns. And I see that there are these patterns, that have been within our state of where we're seeing some of the areas.

And the second that we are able to predict where we will see less air quality based on metrics that have nothing to do with the facts that are in front of us, But, when our assumptions become reality repeatedly over and over and over, we have problems.

And and so on that note, you're also coming to an appointment. And while your area is is slightly different, you're coming to to an appointment in a time where the last few weeks, actually, in the last four weeks, we've seen what happened in Orange County and what is happening as we speak in Boyle Heights.

How do you respond to those thinkings even though you may be to what those incidents, you know, as you are a member of this board who still has to oversee final decisions made collectively by a board, that oversees a lot of these areas where turns out that someone could have guessed if there was something that was gonna happen in this area might have been there.

And you look at the working class, you look at other metrics that continue to repeat themselves in some of the truths that we see as well.

It's a big question. Thank you. I think when it comes to those events, as a public face and a public physician, I always comment on the events from an objective perspective in terms of what's being emitted, what chemicals are being emitted, and what they're exactly going to do to your cells and how your immune system responds. I comment on that a lot. In terms of what our response is to those acute events, I make a phone call just like everybody else.

And I call Wayne, and I say, what's being done? What are we doing? What kind of information do we need to give to the public? In terms of you sort of went again, the number two risk factor for death in the world is air pollution.

And when you look at ZIP codes, ZIP codes also have a significant effect on your mortality, and we know the areas with the highest air pollution are the zip codes that have the highest mortality which also tend to be the zip codes in which the diesel trucks are driving through the neighborhoods.

And so it's a very large issue that we need to educate on from a public awareness perspective. And I think the people who live in those neighborhoods understand. But I think we need to understand as policymakers what we're doing and how we're contributing to the health consequences of those communities. Again, this is a it's a very large issue that needs to be handled very quickly.

And I don't think anyone could have guessed that Boyle Heights was going to happen or the Garden Grove event was going to happen.

I don't think I guess that becomes a question of regulators and whether or not individuals are there checking the tanks and making sure everything is working appropriately. But it's no surprise that it happened in those neighborhoods because that's where these places are. And what you do about that is a very difficult question because, you know, what you what you wanna do and what sort of like in clinical practice, I always ask the question, can you move? Most people can't move.

And so I think how I operate from there is I educate, and I therapeutically manage.

And I try now that I have the opportunity to contribute to public policy. I try to make known to other Board Members. Hey, listen. This is going to be an issue. We really need to address this.

How do we get this on the agenda? And I think we all have to do that collectively. And I think with the medical perspective, I think it can contribute and help.

Thank you. Anything, specific to to, you know, you place the call, you ask what was being doing, but also how you look at these couple incidents that recently happened in, like, in the future. Are there are there questions that you will be asking in a different way? Are there things that have stuck out to you in these particular things that add to the contributions that you make to the board?

Yes. There are questions that I have asked specifically. I specifically asked to be involved in, public communications since that's what I do on a daily basis. One of the questions I did ask, was about air purifiers in the area and how we're distributing those. How many do we have?

How are they being distributed? Are they only being distributed Monday through Friday? What if something happens on Saturday or Sunday? How are we going to do this? So these are the questions that I ask.

And as we ask those questions, and I'm gaining more and more answers to those questions, I hope to contribute to that process.

Thank you. Alright, folks. Seeing no additional comments or questions, opportunity where we will invite members of the public to come forward, to if you are here in support of the nominee. Alright. Seeing no one here in support of the nominee, is there anyone here in opposition?

Alright. Seeing no one who wishes to come forward, then we will, move to, a vote. So at this moment, I will welcome a motion to this particular nominee or for this particular nominee. Thank you. So we have a motion.

We have Senator Ochoa Bogh. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Four votes.

Alright. That appointment has four votes. It will move forward, to the Senate for full confirmation. Congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. You can clap.

Doctor. Yeah. And there was the support from the family.

Yes. They so at this moment, this concludes our public portion of today's, agenda. We do have add on votes. Sorry. So I'm gonna try to see if we can do some add on votes, but we'll keep those before we move into executive.

So we're gonna go ahead and we're going to start from the top. So we will start with item two d, appointment of Michael Gunning as a member of to the Teachers Retirement Board. Can we please open the roll for that?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Great. Thank you. Next is item two e, Eric Hynes to the Gambling Control Commission.

Can we please open the roll for that?

[Roll Call] Three to two.

Alright. That item is approved, three to two. Next item is item two f, Christian Acevedo to the civil rights council. Can we please open the roll?

[Roll Call] Three to two.

Alright. That item is approved. 3 to two.

Next item is two g, Candace Cho to the civil rights council. Can we please open the roll?

[Roll Call] Three to two.

Alright. That item is approved, three to two. Next, we have item two h, Yvette Pena Day d.

To the civil rights council, can we please, open the roll?

[Roll Call] Three to two.

That item is approved, three to two. The next item is item two i, Vashutta Tayah, to the Civil Rights Council. Can we please open the roll?

[Roll Call] Three to two.

That item is approved, three to two. The next item is item two j, Ira Litt, PhD to the commission on teacher credentialing. Can we please open the roll for that?

[Roll Call] Three to two.

Alright. That item is approved, three to two. The next item for governor's appointments, not required to appear is item two k Mandy Redfern, to the commission on teacher credentialing. Could we please open the roll?

[Roll Call] Three to two.

That item is, approved. Three to two. And the next item is item two l, Omar Passons, to the Contractor State Licensing Board.

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Alright. That item is approved five to zero. Next, we have item three, reference to bills to committees. Can we please open the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Alright. That item is approved five to zero. Next, we have the appointment of Kelly Dermody as a member of the trustee for the California State University. Can we please open the roll?

[Roll Call] Four votes.

Alright. That has four votes, and I can't remember if We'll leave we'll leave it on call.

We'll leave that on call. Okay. Next, we have, Andrea Evans as a member of trustees of the California State University. Can we please, call the roll?

[Roll Call] Four votes.

Alright. That has four votes. We'll leave that, open for absent Members. And the, I think that's where we're at.

And so I think now we all the remaining items are just items, that we have open. At this moment, we will go into closed session. So we will I

So I think we're yes. So we are going to recess, then come back to do the add on votes for this. But we will recess, go into closed session, reopen to do add on votes, and then close out. Thank you. Alright.

We will come back for, from the rules recess. And now, we're just going to do Adam I add on items. And we're going to start with item one a and, one b. So we will start with item one a, the, appointment of Kelly Dermody as member of trustee for the California State University. Can we please call the roll for absent Members?

[Roll Call] Five or four to one.

Alright. That appointment has been removed to move to the full Senate confirmation on a four to one vote. Next, we have, Andrea Evans, JD, as a member for the Board of Trustees, California State University. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Alright. That is approved, five to zero. And next, what are we missing?

C. C. Oh, next we have, Cedric, Rolland, member for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Can we please call the roll?

[Roll Call] Five to zero.

Alright. That item is approved five to zero. With that, all of the votes have been, taken and we will go ahead and adjourn our rules committee.