POLITICO California Playbook PM: Editing a police misconduct law

Jun 13, 2023

By Jeremy B. White and Camille von Kaenel

POST-OP: Gov. Gavin Newsom hailed a new police misconduct law as a tool to “root out racial injustice and fight systemic racism” less than two years ago.

Now, his administration is quietly proposing a change that weakens one of its key provisions.

Its proposal, which it has discussed with police-reform advocates, would strip a requirement that the state’s police certification commission release documents to the public about decertification of abusive or corrupt officers in California — an element of Senate Bill 2, a hard-won accountability measure.

“This is hollowing out a key part of SB 2, which was delicately negotiated,” ACLU California Action Executive Director Carlos Marquez told POLITICO. “This feels like a huge step backwards.”

Newsom’s administration referred questions to the Peace Officer Standards and Training commission — whose spokesperson portrayed the action as a cost-savings measure and said the records will be made available through local police and sheriff’s departments.

But those local agencies often slow-walk the release of public documents — or refuse to provide them at all — as people in Antioch, for example, know only too well.

The city is reeling from revelations that police officers sent racist text messages and boasted about fabricating evidence and beating suspects. Residents who already distrust law enforcement see the budget move as “just another way to protect people in law enforcement from being held accountable,” Mayor Pro Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker said in an interview.

“There’s still an extreme lack of transparency when it comes to data and records,” Torres-Walker said. “So how do you pass a bill at the state level with absolute transparency in it and say, ‘Go to your local law enforcement agencies,’ who haven’t been transparent in the past? It makes no sense to me.”

Even some police don’t like this proposal.

Peace Officers Research Association of California President Brian R. Marvel says it will just create more work.

“Local law enforcement departments and agencies are already struggling to maintain an adequate number of officers and to recruit new officers,” Marvel said in a statement. “If California is going to mandate that locals take on this additional work, that needs to come with funding to support it.”

HAPPY TUESDAY AFTERNOON! Welcome to California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check of California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to cvonkaenel@politico.com or send a shout on Twitter. DMs are open!

PLAYBOOK TRIVIA NIGHT! Think you know a lot about politics? PROVE IT! Compete in California Playbook’s inaugural Trivia Night. Grab a drink, kick back, and put your knowledge on display! Join top political power players on Wednesday, June 21st at Fox & Goose Public House for a night of fun and competition that you won’t want to miss. REGISTER HERE.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

PROGRESS REPORT: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is reporting progress in getting people off the streets — the issue that’s No. 1 on her agenda and dominated the campaign in which she defeated businessman Rick Caruso in November. Just over six months into her term, the city has moved about 10,000 people into interim housing. That’s nearly 30 percent more than received temporary housing in Los Angeles during the same period a year earlier. The effort has included about 1,300 people who moved from tents on the streets to hotel rooms as part of an aggressive outreach effort known as Inside Safe. Bass said today she fears that some progress might be lost with the expiration of a pandemic ban on evictions. “One concern that I have had, and will continue to have, is that with the protections from Covid going away, there will be an increase in people losing their housing,” Bass said. — Alexander Nieves

On The Beats

BUYING TIME: Three natural gas power plants are getting a new lease on life. The plants — two in Orange County and one in Ventura County — were scheduled to close by the end of this year, part of the broader effort to make the state’s power grid carbon-neutral by 2045. State officials were worried then that closing the plants would increase the risk of blackouts as California sweltered during a heat wave. That risk hasn’t gone away, even though there’s less of a risk of blackouts this year. The Department of Water Resources has signed contracts to buy power for three years from the plants at a cost of up to $1.2 billion. The possibility of extending the plants riled up environmental advocates and some lawmakers last year, when Newsom insisted the state set aside billions of dollars for DWR to use in energy emergencies. The extensions of the plants, which, combined, can power about 2 million homes, have already drawn concerns again when they appear before the California Energy Commission and the State Water Resources Control Board for needed approvals. — Wes Venteicher

SMOKY DEBATE: Usually, California lawmakers burdened with some of the country’s worst smog will urge the federal government to strengthen air pollution standards, not weaken them. But that’s exactly what a group of them asked the U.S. EPA in a letter today. The group of federal lawmakers led by Rep. Jared Huffman and Sen. Alex Padilla wrote that they wanted the federal agency to allow forest managers to continue to occasionally burn vegetation in a controlled manner, even if it causes smoke in violation of federal rules, because the practice can help prevent catastrophic wildfires that emit far more toxic and dense smoke.

The new EPA rules would restrict fine particulate pollution, or PM 2.5, which is present in smoke and can harm lungs. The American Lung Association has said that prescribed fire and cultural burning can be useful to prevent severe wildfires, but that people should still limit their exposure to the smoke. California has a goal of using prescribed fire on 1 million acres per year by 2025, but remains far short.

White-crowed pigeon. Photo credit: Ltshears/Wikimedia Commons

A white-crowned pigeon. | Ltshears/Wikimedia Commons

WHEN DOVES CRY: A small group of pigeon rights advocates flocked to the Capitol on Tuesday to celebrate Pigeon Appreciate Day and preach the good word of palomacy — pigeon diplomacy.

Advocates, flanked by rescue pigeons, spoke out against what they say is the inhumane treatment of working birds. Ornamental pigeons and doves are often released at weddings and funerals, but can perish if they're unable to find their way back home — or worse, at the talons of a predator. Visiting the Capitol grounds were two rescue pigeons that had been blinded after being dyed as part of a gender reveal party.

There's no law banning the practice in California, but pigeon advocates are pecking the state Legislature to make it illegal under the state's law regarding willful abandonment of animals. — Lara Korte

GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE.

AROUND CALIFORNIA

— “L.A. City Councilmember Curren Price charged with embezzlement, perjury,” by the Los Angeles Times’ James Queally, Julia Wick and Dakota Smith: Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price was charged with 10 counts of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest on Tuesday, becoming the latest in a years-long parade of elected city officials to face public corruption allegations from state or federal prosecutors.

Price — a 10-year veteran of the City Council — was charged with five counts of grand theft by embezzlement, three counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest, according to a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office.

— “Is housing a human right? California voters could decide,” by CalMatters’ Marisa Kendall: California lawmakers are trying to enshrine the right to housing in the state’s constitution. But what exactly does that mean in a state that lacks the resources to give everyone a roof over their heads? Supporters say the constitutional amendment would hold state and local officials more accountable for solving California’s homelessness crisis.

— “Rural towns lure California’s remote workers with cash, child care and other relocation perks,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Don Lee: Across the Hoosier state, dozens of counties and cities are practically stepping over each other in what has become the new competition across the land: attracting the pandemic-enlarged horde of people with remote jobs who no longer feel the need to live in more expensive urban centers like Los Angeles or New York. Some 30 states have gotten into the action.

MIXTAPE

— “Schools in poorer neighborhoods struggle to keep teachers. How offering them more money and power might help,” by CalMatters’ Joe Hong.

— “Secession talks emerge in one Northern California county. Is a new state a possibility?” by The Sacramento Bee’s Mike McGough.

— “Shasta County scrapped its voting machines and didn’t replace them. A new bill would bar that,” by The Sacramento Bee’s Jenavieve Hatch.

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