Storm brews at disaster agency

Your afternoon must-read briefing on politics and government in the Golden State

Jan 16, 2024 View in browser   By Christopher Cadelago HR DISASTER: Alarm bells are ringing today inside the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services — the state’s top disaster responders. First, a former employee of the department, Steven Larson, sued Cal OES in late 2020, claiming Deputy Director Ryan Buras sexually harassed at least four women. Today, another former employee of Cal OES, Kendra Bowyer, filed a lawsuit against the department alleging she was sexually harassed by Buras for more than one year. Bowyer claims Buras’ behavior was ignored and condoned by agency brass. And when she ultimately refused Buras’ advancements, she was retaliated against and forced to resign her position. Brian Ferguson, a Cal OES spokesperson, said the department does not comment on personnel matters and active litigation. “Sexual harassment in the workplace is an affront to our values as an organization. It has no place in Cal OES and it will not be tolerated in any form,” he said. Taken together, the lawsuits are a troubling development for the department that itself is in charge of mitigating disasters. And it seems to mirror the troubles Americans saw playing out inside the state department’s federal sibling, FEMA, where sexual harassment claims proliferated. Bowyer, who worked on recovery efforts, says Buras went to great lengths to pursue her — at one point climbing into her bed — and calling her at all hours of the night to vent about his personal life. Bowyer says she met Buras, an appointee of Gov. Gavin Newsom, in January 2020 during a disaster response that winter. Buras was married to the state’s former Labor Secretary Natalie Palugyai, had two children, and Bowyer claims he was overly friendly with her, including asking her to dine alone with him. He made a comment to her about a coworker, identified in the lawsuit as Tom, believing that the two were “sleeping together.” After Buras asked her to go on a surprise Christmas holiday with him, and said she would need her passport, Bowyer cut it off permanently. That’s when Buras made her job impossible, Bowyer alleged. She says Buras icing her out slowed Cal OES’ ability to deliver relief and put Californians in danger. Asked why she didn’t sever ties with Buras sooner, Bowyer said he has issued a warning of sorts in earlier conversations. She said Buras made it “very clear” that he had what he referred to as a “DTM list” — a directory of names he said stood for work subordinates and colleagues who were “dead to me.” Bowyer said she knew two colleagues who were on Buras’ DTM list. “I saw how he had completely cut them off from everything. Both of those individuals had to end up leaving because of the repercussions of being on that list,” she said. IT’S TUESDAY AFTERNOON. This is 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 sgtaylor@politico.com or send a shout on X. DMs are open. WE WANT YOUR HELP — POLITICO is co-hosting the first debate for California's Senate race on Monday, Jan. 22. All four major candidates have accepted our invite to appear onstage: Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee and Republican and former Dodgers player Steve Garvey. President Joe Biden participates in a briefing on wildfires at the California Governor's Office Of Emergency Services on September 13, 2021, in Mather, California. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY THE BIG REVEAL: California Forever, the billionaire-backed plan to build a new city from scratch in Solano County, was shrouded in secrecy until the public learned of it last summer and the company’s specific plans have been vague ever since. That’s about to change. California Forever plans a news conference in Rio Vista to announce details of the plan they hope to put to voters in a ballot initiative in November. Flannery Associates LLC, the parent company of California Forever, bought about 60,000 acres about 50 miles northeast of San Francisco. Much of the land is windswept farmland, dotted with soaring windmills. Building there would violate the county’s long-standing, voter-approved Orderly Growth Initiative and General Plan — hence the need for a ballot initiative for the project to go forward. That will be a tough sell considering the reception at a series of recent town halls. CEO Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader, has tried to persuade people that the project will be a “walkable” city that will provide jobs and badly needed housing without interfering with nearby Travis Air Force Base. Nevertheless, the public response at the town halls has generally ranged from skeptical to hostile. Still, California Forever has incredibly deep pockets. The company has the backing of prominent Silicon Valley investors, including Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, and Laurene Powell Jobs, founder of the Emerson Collective and widow of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs. They’ve already spent about $900 million and have the resources for a robust ballot campaign. — Ben Fox  In this aerial photo is farmland in rural Solano County, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. | Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP ON THE BEATS STRIKING DATA: Everyone expected severe economic consequences from last year’s strikes by Hollywood writers and actors. Now we know just how bad. A report today from the city and county film office says production activity plunged in the industry’s most turbulent year in decades. FilmLA reports that regional production fell 32 percent from a year earlier and 36 percent in just the fourth quarter — the months most affected by the overlapping Writer’s Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes. There hasn’t been a drop of this magnitude since record-keeping began, so it’s impossible to know if it’s the worst. “History offers no point of comparison to the present,” FilmLA President Paul Audley said. TV dramas were hit the hardest, dropping 91 percent from October through December. Comedy was just below that, with production falling off by nearly 86 percent. Even reality TV, which made up over three-quarters of all on-location television production last year, finished down 29 percent. “We have months to go before we can describe what the new normal looks like for filming in LA,” Audley said. — Ariel Gans  DEFENSIVE LINE: Assembly Republicans are lining up to block legislation that would ban kids 12 and younger from playing tackle football to protect them from head injuries. Assembly Bill 734 from Democratic Assemblymember Kevin McCarty cleared its first committee, 5-2, last week. It now seems to be emerging as a full-blown culture war item ahead of the looming floor vote. Republican Assemblymembers Laurie Davies and Tom Lackey plan a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday alongside some youth football coaches and parents. They argue that other sports have a higher risk of injury and it’s unfair to pick on football despite accumulating research on the long-term effects of head trauma. A feisty floor vote is expected, perhaps as early as Thursday. — Blake Jones  WHAT WE'RE READING TODAY TOUGH TIMING: In an election year for San Francisco Mayor London Breed, and with the city facing an $800 million deficit, contracts for nearly three dozen public employee unions are scheduled to expire this summer and the negotiations are expected to be tense. (The San Francisco Standard) SOCIAL MEDIA FAME: A recently fired employee of San Francisco-based Cloudfare who went viral by posting a video of her dismissal says she has no regrets. 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