SB 51: the California politics thread

All 8 members of the PG&E crew are accounted for.

Former state Sen. Kevin de León is running to replace Jose Huizar on the Los Angeles City Council, ⁦@DavidZahniser⁩ reports: https://t.co/ttop40wUNw

— Laura J. Nelson 🦅 (@laura_nelson) February 11, 2019

icymi, what seems likely to turn into a huge development corruption scandal involving DTLA, overseas developers and several city hall offices (including garcetti's and herb wesson's, although currently only tangentially) began the morning after the november election when the FBI raided all the jose huizar (my guy!) offices, and carried out boxes of papers labelled "FUNDRAISING", and named his extended family in warrants. huizar is term limited and was hoping to install his wife, but what with the warrants and her particular involvement (apparent grifting on his behalf for his old private school?!), there's a vacancy.

de leon used to rep the state seat that included this council district, so it's not total carpet bagging. the CD now includes most of DTLA, so is perhaps the most influential CD, especially with the olympics coming up. there's a bunch of musical chairs going on in LA politics right now after garcetti announced he's not running for president, so this may complicate things.

'carried out boxes of papers labelled "FUNDRAISING"'

^^^ it seems the new LAT guild has a clause in their contract that they have to mention this in every story they do about huizar btw

there's this more-crucial-than-normal school board election coming up as well, with something like ten candidates on the ballot, all lining up to replace a guy who is gone due to a scandal over campaign contributions. seems like the new board member would be a key swing vote in the whole public schools vs charters thing. We very, very casually know one of the folks running, enough to nod in passing, but we're probably throwing our votes to someone else.

when is that election?

March 5. I'm trying to find out more about Goldberg, she might be good?

Hi Speed Rail DOA'd by slick Gavvy:

https://www.apnews.com/783b336c787a42fd9148986786ee73cf

Stupid move

I was passively listening to the state of the state this morning and thought I heard him say something about how "it would be unwise to back out at this point" and I took that as meaning he was still going forward, but I guess he must've been referring to the Bakersfield to Madera segment specifically. bummer, if the funding's not there, it's just not there, and no amount of optimism can change that. I've helped prepare EIRs for railroad realignment and doubletracking projects that were only 2 or 3 miles long, and the cost and schedule for those always reliably bloomed to at least 200% of the original contract estimate within the first few phases of design. so this is no surprise, but still a bummer.

would love for him to wring out some of that grease from his hair and use it to lube up the political mechanism necessary to repeal prop 13!

^^^^^

I've come to the opinion that the California HSR problems have been caused by poor management rather than poor political decisions or poor vision. Sadly, if Jerry didn't have the appetite for the details, Gavin seems unlikely to have risen to the occasion...

fajita seas, I like your username. I think it's entirely possible that some of the poor management was the result of the manager's poor political decisions and poor visions, but I don't suppose that matters much now. Jerry probably wasn't expected to be responsible for the details, but the buck was supposed to stop with him, and inevitably it now did, but with Gavin now instead. So, what can you do?

shakey: https://laist.com/2019/02/12/la_mayor_wants_to_shut_down_three_power_plants_in_favor_of_clean_energy_alternatives.php

This would have been an amazing line had it been delivered in, I dunno... a State of the State address? https://t.co/BJf2h8EIrW

— Alissa Walker (@awalkerinLA) February 14, 2019

I only learned about this when I was doing my mandatory CPE last year:
https://www.ftb.ca.gov/businesses/Substandard_Housing_Program/state_and_local_agencies.shtml

I feel like more could be done here

this is fucking cool

https://edsource.org/2019/newsom-names-new-head-of-state-board-of-education-in-california

misread as State Board of Equalization, and i thought -1- i dunno anyone else on ilx who would be interested in the head of the State Board of Equalization and -2- they reorganized and now it's the Department of Tax and Fee Administration and they are still having issues w/their website redesign

that's it, SB 50 is going to pass

Lol, Gary Wesley, a niche-famous contrarian who weighs on any ballot measure without a supporter or opponent, is already saying SB 50 is going to pass and that he may need a ballot measure to over turn it. https://t.co/Hkj9WBy5WT

— Louis Mirante (@louismirante) February 24, 2019

restrict new job centers to areas with room for additional nearby housing, such as south Santa Clara County.

and the housing in south Santa Clara County is mostly low density single family homes for people commuting to Gary Wesley-land, so that you get more low density single family homes built in San Benito County ... but that really doesn't address how the low density sprawl of the valley has fucked up the rental housing market in Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco

Great news! This one bedroom house in Santa Monica is for sale for $5,000,000 and the owners pay taxes on an assessed value of $100,000!

Awesome that local schools are definitely benefitting from those extremely high property taxes! Teachers are so rich already! pic.twitter.com/JDq6soH4wA

— I Crave Star Damage! (@jelenawoehr) March 8, 2019

fkn prop 13

the fact that this applies to commercial property as well really makes me angry. Also, I think property tax amounts in LA County aren't public? If anyone knows how to view property tax history in LA County, I'm serious. Most counties it's easy to find, but LA County, it looks like you have to have a PIN or something ...

BREAKING: @GavinNewsom to sign moratorium on executions in California --
reprieve for hundreds on Death Row https://t.co/i3lHXjdAgf

— Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) March 13, 2019

NICE (but not sure how this plays out given the electorate has repeatedly and recently affirmed it's support for the death penalty. maybe we find out how far left we've moved in the past couple of years.)

I think it's a good time to do it, near the start of his term. Will be interested in the impact.

the right thing

12:45pm: The death chamber at San Quentin. Closed. pic.twitter.com/0zK4UUItBG

— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) March 13, 2019

SB 50 advanced out of committee with changes this week. Here's how it now works:

California's #SB50, the #MoreHomes Act has changed a bit today after merging with SB4 in the Governance & Finance Committee. Here's a flowchart explaining how different places may or may not be affected. Thanks to @dillonliam's excellent reporting & @anniefryman for details! 1/ pic.twitter.com/piEeXp7BKk

— Alfred Twu (@alfred_twu) April 25, 2019

heh

San Diego now down to just two Republicans on its nine-member city council. One of its GOP state legislators flipped to Democrat earlier this year. And so far no major Republicans running for mayor in 2020 to replace the only GOP mayor in a top-10 city in the country. https://t.co/CktnZAgaQn

— Liam Dillon (@dillonliam) April 29, 2019

Gratifying.

RIP SB 50, but i did see kevin de leon on my flight last week. he is much more handsome IRL.

Guess I could post this in he la thread but I think the only person who cares is Shakey: the fbi is raiding ladwp right now.

Are they there to obtain the individual building meter data?

haha waht

Roffle.

this is fucking crazy

it sounds like this may be more jose huizar stuff

Two men and one woman wearing navy blue jackets waiting outside the Guacamole y Mas taco truck parked on Hope Street said they could not discuss what they were doing inside LADWP headquarters, but confirmed that they were with the FBI. 🌮

— Laura J. Nelson 🦅 (@laura_nelson) July 22, 2019

https://laist.com/2019/07/22/ladwp_overbilling_scandal_the_fbi_just_raided_the_utility_and_the_city_attorneys_office.php

the la sherriff's department is also not in good shape

"I was hired in part to tell you if we ever faced a (Paul) Tanaka-level crisis again. We face it now," says LA County Inspector General Max Huntsman at Board of Supervisors meeting now. Strong words referr to fmr Sheriff Dept undersheriff, now in prison, said to rule w/ iron fist

— Maya Lau 🦅 (@mayalau) July 23, 2019

"Tanaka-level" is not good

Check this: There are now officially 9 more registered Republicans in Orange County, CA (home of the Nixon Presidential Library) than Democrats. NINE.

You can count on Democrats taking the lead in voter reg by tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/lxqhnwqNkB

— Jill Replogle (@jillrep) August 6, 2019

man that's crazy. how times have changed.

What percentage of those NPPs are gonna go GOP every time, though?

not enough. GOP was swept out of OC last cycle iirc.

(at least in terms of congressional reps)

yup. OC is done for a while. the current top of the democratic hit list in SC is the *last* republican on the LA county council.

(and then duncan hunter in SD if he doesn't go to jail first)

that trial is such an entertaining shitshow