Assembly Standing Committee on Governmental Organization

Here we go. Hello? Good afternoon. We'll call the geo hearing, at 4PM. We will start as a subcommittee.

Thank you, Senator Grove for being here. Please come. We can get you out of here quickly, hopefully. And then, Sergeant, please call the absent members. I know there's committees going on, and yes.

Thank you. Senator Grove.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Proud to present SB 931, a bipartisan measure designating September 25 as Dolly Parton Day in California. First, I wanna start by thanking the Chair for not only having bill today, but also true icon whose impact Dolly Parton is a true icon with impact that goes beyond music. Her philanthropic work was unmatched, and one of her greatest achievements was the Imagination Library, which provides free books to young children.

It helps foster a love for reading in the early ages while improving literacy rates.

I'm honored, I was so honored to partner with my bestie, former Senate Pro Tem Tony Atkins to pass, SB 1183 securing $68,000,000 to bring the Imagination Library statewide to all 58 counties. Through that historic partnership, California became one of the first state in the nation to offer fully bilingual books for English and Spanish.

And just to share a short story, in my district office, a few months after the program had started, a six year old brought her mom and a four year old little brother into the office. And the six year old translated and said, my mom is learning English. And the mom, quoted Llama Llama red pajama in English and in Spanish, and she had a big smile on her face.

So I thought that was pretty cool. Dolly Parton brought people together of all backgrounds together through her unmatched generosity, love, kindness. She brought it to vulnerable children, children's hospitals, underserved communities, families, the LGBTQ community, the old, the young, the right, the left, anyone she came in contact with.

SB 931 officially honors that extraordinary legacy in California on September 25, the date inspired by her famous anthem 9 to 5. Respectfully ask for an aye vote at the appropriate time.

Thank you. Any members and or members of the audience in support?

Keith Dunn here on behalf of State Building and Construction Trades Council. As the member mentioned, this is a woman who came up from nothing, represented not only the people that she came from as working class, but brought in everyone. And on behalf of the State Building Construction Trades Council, which tries to do the same thing and emulate that behavior, we're here to support this measure.

Thank you. Any other members in support? Or, I'm sorry, members of the audience in support?Anyone in opposition?

Better not come up. No. I'm just teasing. Anyone in opposition?

Hearing none. Committee members? Yes. Assembly member Dixon?

I fully support. I'd love to be a co-author. Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there a motion Like a motion?

We don't have a quorum yet.

Okay. I'll call.

Assemblymember Rodriguez.

Yes. I'd like to be added as a coauthor as well if I haven't already.

Yes. We'll take a list of members that want to be added as coauthors.

Yes. Thank you.

It's so good to see you, Senator Grove. And you and I have talked about how special Dolly was to both of us. And one thing that I think since she's passed is you always wonder what people are gonna say about you after you're gone. And I think the fact that so many people have had nothing but wonderful and lovely and happy things to say about Dolly speaks to her legacy. And, we'll never forget that rhinestones and lipstick can fix a lot of problems.

But, I think the the world's gonna miss her, and we need love like Dolly had. So thank you for bringing us forward.

Any other members?

Okay. Well, I'll make a comment. One of her my favorite songs is my quota of of Many Colors. Many Colors.

And I thought it was just a song. And then when I heard the story, I literally was crying. You know, she's amazing. And as a teacher, what she did for the communities bringing the books to people in masses was amazing. And I think the other quote from her is if you see somebody without a smile, give them one.

And I share your sentiment, I think across cultures and partisan all of the things that we usually fight about, we never fight about Dolly Parton. So thank you for being for bringing that up. And just to be clear, she says, I need your help. And I was like, absolutely. Let's do this.

So we're here, and so thank you for authoring it. And, of course, I'll get you a list of all of us that want to be coauthors.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

And just to not to be political and not to but I looked online and the National Communist Party, the DSA, the Democrats, the Democrat Party, the Republican Party, the Independent Party, every one of them came out with glowing statements about this incredible woman.

And somebody might ask what the urgency and why not wait. The urgency is is that 20 other states are already doing this and nobody's picked 9 to 5, 925. And so Senator Laird came up with that, and I'm like, let's do this.

And I just appreciate all of you guys for supporting the bill and respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you. With that, do we have a quorum? We just lost quorum. But it's okay. We'll take it up as soon as one more member comes.

Yes. Assembly member Dixon, you had a comment? Okay. Yeah. As soon as one more member comes, we should have taken quorum, but we're too busy in the conversation.

Thank you, Senator. Well, I can guarantee you it's gonna get out. Thank you. Senator Rubio.

SB 1228. Senator Rubio, you may begin.

Thank you, Mdam Chair. Is this on?

Yes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, on the Assembly. Thank you for allowing me to present this bill. SB 1228 is a bill that is narrowly tailored to support economic activity in some of our areas in our community. The goal of SB 1228 is simply and has is simple and has two parts.

First, it allows our small number of existing outdoor advertising displays to continue operating under current law rather than abruptly shut down due to statutory sunsets. The second is recent amendments that we included.

They're technical and they're clarifying language that ensures that one outdoor billboard sign located in in Los Angeles, outside the convention center is included in existing, in the existing bill. It enables the City of Los Angeles to generate an additional 5,000,000 in revenue.

Senator, may I stop you for a second? We have quorum. So that way we can establish quorum. I know everybody's running around.

So madam secretary, can you call the roll, please?

On the quorum.

[roll call]

Thank you. We have established the quorum. You may continue.

You know, just thank you. This, bill will help Los Angeles in a much needed time for to generate revenues. But with me, I have a guest Kristy Weiss, who will just shortly present on behalf of this bill.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Kristy Weiss with Capital Advocacy here on behalf of AEG in support. The Senator explained it very well. She's been, gracious enough to take some amendments that clarify the signage around the Los Angeles Convention Center. These are technical and clarifying, and we very much appreciate the Senators' willingness to partner with us and the work of the committee to get these drafted and drafted correctly.

And we ask your aye vote.

Move the bill.

Second.

Motion by Assembly member Davies. And I heard it over there. Wallis.

Can madam secretary, can you call them?

We gotta get that.

Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Alright. Yes.

And anybody in the audience for support?

Thank you, madam Chair. Keith Dunn on behalf of the State Building Construction Trades Council asking for your support. Thank you.

Madam Chair, Yvonne Fernandez on behalf of the California Federation of Labor Unions in support.

Thank you. Anyone in opposition may come up to the dais or to the table? No? Any members of of any members of the audience in opposition?

Okay. Seeing none, Assemblymember McKinnor.

Hello, Madam Chair and Senator. I just want most respectfully, I oppose SB 1228 by Senator Rubio and Senator Smallwood Cuevas, which is hard. So you guys know this is a hard opposition for me. While I have a great respect for the authors and support the efforts to provide additional revenue for the Los Angeles Convention Center, SB 1228 was recently amended to double join the measure with AB 2717.

The proposal is not limited to the LA Convention Center or the Dodger Stadium.

This proposal reopens the window for the proliferation of billboards in my district in Inglewood. You know, this can this this has a great great harm for us. Such a dramatic increase in billboards will cause blight and have a severe harmful impact on the City of Inglewood's finances that rely upon its existing billboard contract to pay for public safety and other essential services. And so with this, I respect the authors. I respect people wanting to do something for their district.

I try, I do it, and I ask you guys to vote on it every year since I've been here, but this one will affect will really affect my district, in a negative way. If this does pass on the floor, I am going to come back next year, and I'm I'm gonna ask for you guys' help to help me fix this for the City of Inglewood.

Because if you look around at most of these convention centers, new stadiums, when you look in those communities, downtown is doing pretty good, but we've been through blight. We've been up and down on Downtown LA. But a lot of these areas are are are filled with blight because these big arenas move in but they're not necessarily doing the things that they should do for the community.

And with that, you know, we Inglewood has been fighting with about these billboards, and they got the right from the courts to have them. And so now we wanna, we don't want legislation to go around those decisions and undo what already has been done. And so with that, I'll have to oppose the bill. Thank you.

Any other comments? Assemblymember Dixon.

Thank you. I know there's no opposition speaking on this. Well, then I have a question because the California State Outdoor Advertising Association is opposed. And their concern? Thank you.

Well first of all, thank you. And I wanna just acknowledge the comments of my good colleague here, Assemblymember McKinnor. And you know, I understand this issues very, very well and and I don't disagree with your comments. I just wanna clarify that you know, this bill started very specifically because we have some billboards that have been in existing since redevelopment.

In particular, when I was a councilwoman, we had some billboards in, then we put a sunset and all of a sudden these billboards that generate positive income for our communities would have to disappear.

So this was very narrowly tailored to two that were in existing since you know, many decades ago. And then the Los Angeles had the need and I had to work with my colleague, Lola Smallwood Cuevas, who had the need to include the one in Los Angeles. And we were very specific about very tight language because I did not want what the good Assembly member just stated for it to just become an you know, a free for all.

And I was very clear that I needed the the language to be very, very tight. And so I'm gonna turn it over to to Kristy to kinda talk about the bills that you just stated and how they work together.

Yep. Thank you, Senator. The language that you're referring to Assemblymember McKinnor, is the is the chaptering language. It's not the language related to the Convention Center.

It's be because both this bill and the bill you're referring to by Assembly member Caloza, amend the same code section of the BNP code, Ledge Council drafted chaptering language, and the Senator staff is checking with legislative counsel to confirm that, in fact, it is drafted correctly, that it does not put both bills together but that it is just straight chaptering language, signing order language.

So we're working on getting clarification on that. The Senator's Chief of Staff is checking as we

He's checking. And like I said, I was everything you said, I echo that because I was very clear that it needed to be very tight language around, you know, everything that you said. So I won't be labored since I know we have to go back and vote. But, you know, anything that I can do to make sure that you're comfortable with it, I will definitely come back in. And right now, we're out of time, so I'll just defer to you.

But I will work with you to make sure that we take your your comments into consideration. Thank you. With that, I asked for an aye vote.

Oh, Wait.

Thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Well, my question was following that is why it is a Outdoor Advertising Association opposed and they cite something about the loss of federal dollars. So what what is all of that about?

Yeah.

I'm just gonna say, I believe they were opposed to the bill previous to this amendment and are just opposed to the bill.

So we so the language they're referring to is the RDA provision. We passed that bill on 06/24 Yep. June 24, and the vote out of here was 20 to 0. So they're opposed to that language, and that's why the clarification of the conjoining has to happen. We work closely with the Senator to restrict that to one particular billboard, and it all got connected.

And that's why we're clarifying that, you know, that it's not connected. So we're working with the Senator's Office to clarify if we have to come back in January to to redo that but the bill that they're opposed to was passed on June 24, not this out of this committee.

Then a follow-up question. I just read quickly. It's all happening very fast here that this bill would permit for every if I understand it correctly, please correct me if I misunderstand this. For every certain arena sports facility could have two additional billboards. Is this true for all over the state?

Yes. Both local and

Yes. But it has to go through the same exact process that we're going through right now. And the local and the the legislative process, we don't

So even though it's in the law that they could apply for it, is that what you're saying to be authorized?

It's not a guarantee. It has to go still through the same regulatory process and through the same local approval process.

But they're still with issue of withholding federal highway funds.

Well, that's always under threat. Right? I mean, that's

Do they do that? That happen?

It's always no. There has not been any you know, those funds directly. That's always under fear of threat anytime you do a billboard exemption.

Okay. Just gives me concern about I know the unsightly billboards in Los Angeles. And are they neon and digital and all that? My electronic signage is kinda problematic for a lot of people. But, anyway, I appreciate your clarity.

No. No. No. Thank you for the questions. We're not trying to you know, this was last minute opposition but, again, it's regarding the bill on on June 24.

But when we were working with the Senator and Senator's Office, we were trying to clarify that it was one specific billboard, but it got convoluted because of the other bill.

Right.

And so that's what we're working on right now to make sure that the concerns that Assembly member McKinnor just stated are not part of this. So in January, they're clarifying right now. If the clarification is it's fine, then it's gonna be fine without connecting those bills.

To be fixed.

Right. It needs to if there is a fix, then we will potentially do that. And to the we've done billboard fights forever. But every time we want to expand the billboards, the Federal Government threatens that if we don't do it correctly, then they're gonna withhold funds. So that's why we have to go through the regulatory process and we also have to go through CalTrans to make sure that that doesn't happen.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Make sure that we keep everybody posted on this. Again, when we started this process, we didn't know that this was gonna happen. And so that's why we've asked the Senator's Office to make sure that it that's clarified, one, and if it needs fixing, we're gonna do that immediately.

Okay. Very good. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments? K. I have a motion. Nope.

I need a motion.

Sorry. Motion by Assembly member Solache, second by Assembly member Rodriguez. Oh, okay. Okay.

And everybody else. Madam secretary? Yes. And you may close.

Thank you. And thank you for expressing your concern. So yes, I'm in agreement. I am in agreement, and my goal is to get it really narrowly tied to address your concerns.

Thank you. And with that, I ask for an aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam secretary, can you call the roll?

SB 1228, Senator Rubio, the motion is do passed.

[roll call]

Well, we just voted on on the sign bid. We didn't do Dolly Parton. The

That bill has 18 votes. Thank you. And then if we open the roll for the Dolly Parton bill. We already have a motion. I have a second.

We have a motion and a second.

[Roll Call]

Before you go, if you would like to be added as a co-author, please let us know, and we'll add you.

[Roll Call]

Okay co-authors. Okay. Co-authors.

I'll ask everybody. Okay. Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.

Oh, I'm sorry. Open sorry. Open the role for for reveal this bill.

[Roll Call]

Did you check secret co-authors on that?

Oh yeah. She wants to this one.

[Chatter]

Okay. Alright. You're free to adjourn. K. We are adjourning the meeting at 04:25pm.

Thank you.