On this episode we discuss what a special district is and what they do and how much money they take in. We also discuss the recent push to ban plastic bags in California and whether it makes a difference or not. Finally we discuss the Recall effort of Gavin Newsom and how they have collected no signatures but raised $1 million.
Check out our full website at www.californiaunderground.live
Takeaways
Special districts in California provide specialized services and are governed by a board of directors elected or appointed by voters.
The ban on plastic grocery bags has led to an increase in the use of paper bags, which has its own environmental impact.
The hosts emphasize the importance of local elections in determining the individuals who make decisions about special districts and their funding.
The environmental impact of different types of bags, including reusable bags, is a complex issue that requires careful consideration.
The hosts express skepticism about the effectiveness of banning plastic bags and highlight the potential drawbacks of such policies. During COVID, there was a ban on reusable bags due to concerns about the spread of the virus.
Reusable bags were found to be contaminated with bacteria, raising health concerns.
A proposed gender identity measure failed to qualify for the California ballot, sparking controversy.
The recall campaign against Governor Gavin Newsom has raised significant funds but has not collected any signatures, leading to questions about its purpose and effectiveness.
Chapters
00:00 Exploring Special Districts in California
14:46 The Impact of Plastic Bag Bans
41:00 COVID-Era Bans and Contamination
43:30 Gender Identity Measure Controversy
56:43 The Gavin Newsom Recall Campaign
00:00:06
If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a
00:00:09
moderate Democrat, believe in common sense, or just the same
00:00:12
person, this is the political podcast for you.
00:00:15
It's the California Underground podcast.
00:00:27
What's going on, everybody? Thanks for tuning in to another
00:00:29
episode of the California Underground podcast.
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I'm your host, Phil. Along with me, as always, is my
00:00:34
trusty Co host, the best and fastest researcher in the West.
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Camille, How are you doing, Camille?
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I am good, thanks. How are you?
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Not that the weather's important, but it's heating up.
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It's warming up. Feel like we had another.
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Return finally. It's finally feels a little bit
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like summer. The sun finally poked its head
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out for those in San Diego. You know, the the famous May
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Gray, it's been really cloudy and gloomy.
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Like it's kind of really depressing.
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But you know, it's part of what we live with down here.
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Two months, I guess we don't really get sunshine or whatever.
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So I guess we have to deal with it for two months.
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And now it's now it's June gloom and then July and August will
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roll around. That's when all the heat will
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come in. So before you know, it will be
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like clamoring for days that are cloudy and 60°.
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But for now, we're just all happy that the sun came out.
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So it's been a week since Trump got convicted.
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We did our episode last week on Trump.
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Like we said in last week's episode, we did have an episode
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fully planned out and based on popular demand, we asked our
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Instagram followers what they think, should we do single
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subject or single topic shows or multiple topic shows, and the
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response was actually overwhelmingly multiple topics.
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I take that as you guys obviously love our input on the
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news and commentary. Obviously you just want to hear
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us comment on more stories than just one every episode.
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So tonight's episodes, sort of like the first time we're going
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to do it like this, we're going to, we have like a main story
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that we're going to do. We're going to, we have other
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stories that we're going to discuss just as a, you know,
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we're going to try it out. There'll be some episodes where
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where we do it like this. Some episodes you can't really
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jump around too much. Like the one we did on the
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budget a couple weeks ago. That was like, you can't, you
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can't just try and fly through that in like 20 minutes and get
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to other stories. You kind of have to really dive
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into the budget. So we'll do our best to kind of
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shake it up and do multiple topics, let you know when they
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we're we're doing the multiple topics.
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But yeah, tonight we're doing multiple topics.
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The lead story is, what the heck are special districts?
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Now, I will admit, until Camille sent me an article about special
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districts, I didn't really even know these things existed.
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I was like, what are special districts?
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And I started looking at them and I started reading this
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article and going down the rabbit hole and here we are.
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I'm like, wow, this is kind of actually, I think it's
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interesting as to what it means when you you look at these
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entities and these agencies and what they, how much money they
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get and stuff like that, how much autonomy they have.
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So we're going to discuss that. First off, any any thoughts on
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special district 'cause you sent me the article that kind of
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commented this whole? Until I saw the article, it was.
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It was on ocregister.com, which I read daily and I the, the
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headline was, was interesting to me.
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I didn't know what special districts were either.
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And I start reading the article, which the author seemed to like
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they're busy to be into creative writing and took a little bit of
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freedom of creative writing and also some politics.
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So it was a little hard to get through that article, I admit,
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and was long. There was a lot of fluff in it,
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but it did make me start to go down though.
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Well, what, what even is this? I didn't know, I didn't
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understand. I, I'm not coming here today
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saying I do fully understand, but I have a better
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understanding. And so we want to, you know,
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share that with you guys and hopefully you will also have a
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better understanding and can look into your own special
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districts. We'll get into that a little
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bit, but I you can't really see it, but because special
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districts are actually almost the as local as you can possibly
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get I or my local elections. Local elections matter, Yeah,
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See it makes. Go to the store California
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underground dot live. Click on the shop.
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We've got Other. Merch there yeah it's our newest
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shirt gets a lot of gets a lot of good look like good second
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looks people look at because of the design and local elections
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matter because I. I said, I said you came up with
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the design. I always we're always on here
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saying local elections matter And finally a few weeks ago my
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cock and we don't have that on a shirt.
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And then you made fine and so it.
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Was a It was a collaborative effort, just like tonight's
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episode. Yeah.
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And in terms of what local elections, why they matter in
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terms of special districts, usually because the people you
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elect to your local government have a say in who runs the
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special districts. So they go hand in hand.
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And if you don't like how things are run, they usually kind of
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all coalesce together. They are all, you know, they put
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people on there. I right before we hopped on, I
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was trying to get examples of down here in San Diego, I mean a
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lot like the transportation stuff.
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And then you see like people who are county board supervisors,
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like Nathan Fletcher was also part of MTS.
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He was on the board of directors for that.
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So we'll get into all that. What special districts are also
00:05:40
just so if you're listening right now and you're like, this
00:05:43
sounds like a really boring topic.
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The other topics we're going, we'll give you that.
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We'll tell you what else we're talking about tonight.
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Go. Ahead.
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That way if you want to skip ad and you're like this sounds
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really exciting guys you went from Trump's getting convicted
00:05:58
to special districts. We're going to be talking about
00:06:01
there's a a plastic bag ban making its way through the
00:06:04
legislature. The ballot initiative to prevent
00:06:09
transgender youth from I guess using or participating in sports
00:06:14
did not make the ballot. There's a bill AB 1995 which you
00:06:21
you looked at it, what's that one specifically about?
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I think it's 1955 and that's the one that they're they're trying
00:06:29
to stop school districts from being allowed to tell parents if
00:06:33
their student is transitioning. Mm hmm.
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And there's something else. Oh, how the recall is going.
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We'll let you wait until the end of the episode to tell you how
00:06:44
the recall of Gavin Newsom is going.
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So yeah, we got other topics tonight.
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Say that the special district thing is not actually not
00:06:53
boring. It sounds like it is, but we
00:06:56
have a little bit of interesting information it it is
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interesting. I mean, if you care about
00:07:00
politics, this actually is interesting.
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And if you are here listening, you probably do care about
00:07:05
politics. So.
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True if you're listening to this.
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I say, I say you should listen and and find out what we have to
00:07:13
share. I mean, you're probably just
00:07:15
driving in your car anyway on a commute or something.
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Like how I listen to all my podcasts.
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So, you know, sit back and enjoy the ride while you're probably
00:07:22
sitting in California traffic and listen.
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Driving home from work stuck. For yeah, you know, just enjoy
00:07:27
this, this conversation about special districts Anyway, so
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let's hop into it. What are special districts?
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Thankfully, one of our favourites, California Globe,
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actually published an article just a couple months ago on
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April 1st, frequently asked questions about special
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districts in California, giving us a little insight into what
00:07:46
they are. So what are special districts?
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According to California Globe, as part of the California's
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local government structure, special districts are agencies
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that provide specialized services across the state.
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They are defined as quote any agency of the state for the
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local performance of governmental or proprietary
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functions within limited boundaries.
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End Quote. The special districts provide
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specified services within a defined geographic area, and
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they are not they are most often single purpose districts without
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police powers. How are they governed?
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In general, special districts are governed by a board of
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directors who are either elected, local elections matter,
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or appointed. Voters who establish these
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districts can also elect the board members.
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Those who are appointed are usually appointed by the elected
00:08:34
City Council members or border supervisors.
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Again, local elections matter. Who you put in these positions,
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put these people on there. Those governing boards adopt
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relevant policies that are carried out by the special
00:08:44
districts. And what is the most common type
00:08:47
of special district? It is the one focused on a
00:08:50
single function such as libraries, flood control,
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irrigation, or mosquito abatement.
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So if you ever hear someone joking about mosquito abatement
00:08:59
in California and special districts and how much money
00:09:01
they get, that's where they come from.
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They are set up just literally to stop mosquitoes.
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Not that I want more mosquitoes. I think it's good that we are
00:09:13
trying to abate mosquitoes. How are they formed?
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The most common reason for a special district to be formed is
00:09:20
due to the fact that the tax base is too low to fund all the
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services that are demanded by a community.
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So anyway, that gives you a little oversight.
00:09:29
Now, do you want to see how high schoolers define what a special
00:09:35
district is? Show me anyway so.
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You're like, I'm just along for the ride, so here we are.
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Yeah. So they had a video contest
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called Districts Make the Difference and this was the 1st
00:09:51
place recipient of a 2000. We'll, we'll, they're only like
00:09:54
a minute long, so we can check out all of them.
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Well, I mean, I'll be the best at parking, but thankfully
00:10:01
there's someone who can handle transportation around here.
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Welcome to the Santa Clara Valley.
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We're getting around this made easy by the Special District of
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Transportation. The Santa Clara Valley
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Transportation Authority, or VTA, operates as an independent
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special district dedicated to delivering sustainable,
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accessible transportation solutions.
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VTA offers bus, light rail and paratransit services while
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collaborating with regional rail services.
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And as the county's congestion management agency, VTA overseas
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congestion alleviation, the implementation of Hwy.
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enhancements, and the advancement of pedestrian and
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bicycle infrastructure. And hey, riding the bus isn't so
00:10:36
bad after all. Plus, I get to make new friends.
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So next time you're in the Santa Clara Valley and need a lift,
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remember the Special District of Transportation, Because even if
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your dog can't drive, there's always a way to get around.
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OK, so that's a video number one, that was the 1st place
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recipient and they got a $2000 scholarship you.
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Know what they actually like that they did this because I
00:11:01
think it was like probably all high schoolers across California
00:11:05
could participate and $2000 is a lot of money that they actually
00:11:10
learned about special districts. So these high schoolers knew
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more than us. Yeah, that's actually a good 56
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second way to summarize like what one special district does.
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So a lot of them are transportation like LAMTS is a
00:11:27
well known special district. Health districts are another
00:11:31
one. We'll get into that.
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So let's go to the second place and watch their video, their
00:11:36
explanation of what a special district is.
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Welcome to the park and Recreation issue.
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Parks, remote green spaces that concerns our natural ecosystem
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and the systems are clean air, water.
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They also promote public health, whether it's walking a dog or
00:12:11
playing basketball. Parks also improve mental
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health, reducing stress, anger and you get that deadline done
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stress free. It's also a place for kids to be
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outside and it's crucial for their development.
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I'm too glad you're able to come outside and for the scenery.
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Yeah, I feel so much more. Relaxed now.
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But isn't your deadline due tonight?
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OK, that was actually pretty funny.
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That one had special effects, which was pretty impressive That
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how did that get second place? Do you?
00:12:46
Think it district. I I mean, it explained what a
00:12:52
special district does. It had special effects, had a
00:12:55
little bit of comedy. I don't know how that got second
00:12:58
place, but for all the people who are listening right now,
00:13:02
there's special effects of them transporting in and out of their
00:13:05
classroom to park. So the.
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First one had a dog. Maybe that like one ever went
00:13:10
over like, oh the dog. Yeah, I mean they just threw a
00:13:14
dog in there and took video of like the bus showing up and
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leaving. So I think they got gypped so
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well. Let's watch the 3rd place one.
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Oh, hi, I need to tell you about special district.
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Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go.
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So what's so special about special districts?
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They are focused services. They are a kind of local
00:13:42
government that give us public services.
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Cool, right? I'm sorry.
00:13:48
One second. My friend called told me that
00:13:52
phone calls are transmitted by a form of special districts.
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What else are special districts? Let's find
00:14:11
out. Special districts are really
00:14:14
special. Bye, bye.
00:14:24
OK, that. Was hard to watch and listen to.
00:14:28
I appreciate the effort. Animating's not easy, so I
00:14:31
definitely appreciate. That I actually, that's the one
00:14:35
thing I noticed. I was like, OK, that that part's
00:14:37
impressive, but the little girl voice and just that wasn't into
00:14:42
that one. Yeah, that one, I, I could see
00:14:45
the vision, but they did not execute quite as well as second
00:14:50
place did. Second place executed their
00:14:53
vision of what they're trying to do with the transportation
00:14:56
everything. So there you go from 3 high
00:15:00
school videos. I think you have a better idea
00:15:02
of what special districts do in California.
00:15:04
That's correct. That's it.
00:15:08
OK, Thanks for tuning in, everybody.
00:15:10
We're not going to talk about any of the other topics that you
00:15:11
want us to talk about. Talk a little bit.
00:15:15
Well, we're going to talk a little bit more about special
00:15:16
districts. So this is the article you sent
00:15:19
me and I pulled some of the more relevant information.
00:15:23
Not the stuff that they like you said, all the fluff and
00:15:26
everything. California is one state
00:15:29
government, 58 counties, 482 cities, 939 school districts,
00:15:33
and more than 2000 independent special districts, if that gives
00:15:38
you an idea. Special districts were born in
00:15:41
California's wild Wild West back before they were city or county
00:15:45
governments to provide essential services.
00:15:48
But once cities and counties sprout all around them, special
00:15:50
districts did not go away. While critics have called them
00:15:54
ghost governments and myriad grand juries have called for
00:15:57
their consolidation or elimination, special districts
00:16:00
persist, saying there's zealous guardians of water, sewer,
00:16:03
transportation systems and the like.
00:16:05
The billions of dollars they've amassed to build, repair and
00:16:08
replace vital infrastructure could easily be squandered in
00:16:10
the hands of reckless counties and city council's who might
00:16:13
cave to compete interests and lavish those dollars on less
00:16:15
worthy pursuits. The focus of a special district
00:16:19
is singular and pure, they say. So let's take a look at, I'm
00:16:24
going to pull up the article just because there's so many
00:16:26
numbers. So anybody who's watching can
00:16:28
actually look at the the numbers themselves.
00:16:32
So here's, oh, that's really hard to say.
00:16:35
Can I, can I zoom in a little bit?
00:16:38
No. OK, Anyway, so here is a list of
00:16:46
special districts like we were talking about and the amount of
00:16:50
revenue they get and expenditures and cash
00:16:53
investments. So their revenue for the Los
00:16:55
Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and
00:17:00
This is why I'm a lawyer, not a mathematician.
00:17:02
So it's been 1000. So $4.5 billion in total
00:17:08
revenues, 3.5 in cash investments.
00:17:12
They spent $2.1 billion San Diego County Regional Airport
00:17:18
Authority comes in around oof, that's a lot.
00:17:21
Total revenues. Oh no, that's actually not that
00:17:24
much 441 million cash investments, 2.7 billion and
00:17:32
then total expenditures 431 million.
00:17:37
Although they did get a nice big fat bond from I believe that in
00:17:43
conjunction with the federal government and city of San Diego
00:17:45
because they're now upgrading Terminal one.
00:17:47
And anybody who knows Terminal one in San Diego airport knows
00:17:51
it's more like a Greyhound bus station more than an airport.
00:17:54
So good job San Diego airport on updating Terminal 1 because we
00:17:59
surely needed to update Terminal 1.
00:18:00
Terminal 2 is great. Lots of great stuff in Terminal
00:18:03
2. Terminal 1 Anybody who knows San
00:18:05
Diego, Sorry, I've never. Flown out of San Diego.
00:18:10
So well, just be thankful you don't fly out of Terminal 1,
00:18:13
which is, which is all the like cheaper flights like Southwest,
00:18:17
Spirit, Frontier, like all those flights go out of Terminal 1.
00:18:21
So it's not a good terminal, but it the new terminal is going to
00:18:26
look really beautiful. I'm trying to look at some of
00:18:28
the San Francisco. Sorry, is this still going to be
00:18:30
the same airlines? I don't know, I was thinking
00:18:33
about that because I was like, wow, you're going to have this
00:18:35
brand new terminal. Are other airlines going to want
00:18:38
to come in and be a part of the new terminal like Delta and
00:18:42
United and Alaska? Like, are they going to be like,
00:18:45
OK, move over SW, like the big flights are coming in, we want
00:18:49
the nice new terminal so we can have lounges and all that stuff,
00:18:52
OK. So you're talking about
00:18:53
airports? I'm sorry, I have to throw in
00:18:55
the story. OK.
00:18:56
I fly out of Orange County and unless I'm going somewhere
00:19:01
further international, then it's LAX.
00:19:04
If I'm flying like up to Sacramento, San Francisco or a
00:19:08
short flight to Arizona, I'm OK with going SW like for an an
00:19:13
hour, an hour and a half. I'm OK with Southwest.
00:19:15
I won't do Frontier, I won't do Spirit 'cause I'm snob.
00:19:18
But SW whatever, fine for less than two hours.
00:19:22
So I don't know what I don't remember what terminal that is
00:19:26
for, for Orange County, but but you know, that's that's where
00:19:30
I'm pretty used to going. And then this last time for the
00:19:34
GOP convention, I flew United and I had never been to that
00:19:39
that terminal before that United.
00:19:40
It was that and I was like, this is like a whole new.
00:19:43
It's like it's a completely different world to go to that
00:19:47
from that terminal of like Southwest.
00:19:49
I didn't even know that was like operated.
00:19:52
So are you saying it's bigger and better than the one who
00:19:54
usually? Bigger and better.
00:19:56
And so just like the restaurant options and of course that's
00:19:58
where like the the first class lounge and all, you know, like I
00:20:03
never knew that because I'm so used to just flying southwest
00:20:07
from Orange County and then the bigger airlines from LAX.
00:20:11
So not to not to get way off topic, I mean, I noticed, but
00:20:15
you know, we travel a good a fair amount.
00:20:17
So like I notice when there's good terminals, like we know
00:20:20
these these airports have good terminals or where we're flying.
00:20:24
I'll have to hand it to the brand spanking new terminal at
00:20:27
SFO Harvey Milk Terminal. That's that's a really nice
00:20:32
terminal. You go through that.
00:20:34
It's like a high end mall. They have a museum in there like
00:20:37
we walk through. That's terminal 1, right?
00:20:40
I think that's terminal one up there, yeah.
00:20:43
I I just flew out of that, which I guess you did too.
00:20:46
Yeah, it's like the brand new one, like the the restaurants
00:20:50
and bars and like they're now making all these airports like
00:20:55
luxury malls, which is a good idea because people are going to
00:20:57
be spending a lot of time at these places.
00:21:00
So it makes sense that you you have nice places, like the seats
00:21:05
are nice, the lighting's nice, there's plenty of places to
00:21:07
charge your phone and stuff like that, nice restaurant options.
00:21:12
But that's not the point of what we're talking about with special
00:21:14
districts. We just go back to it though,
00:21:16
'cause I did read that John Wayne, which is Santa Ana, is
00:21:19
getting restaurant upgrades. I didn't read which terminal but
00:21:23
now I know like who's paying for that because of?
00:21:27
This Now we know. Yeah, it's the special district.
00:21:29
We wouldn't have known two weeks ago, 'cause I it's like a week
00:21:33
and a half, two weeks ago that I sent you the article in the 1st
00:21:35
place and I was like, I had no idea about this stuff so.
00:21:40
So there you go. You have special districts to
00:21:42
thank for really nice airport terminals because they're
00:21:45
helping build those and making your weight while your planes
00:21:47
delayed just a little bit nicer. I'm trying to look at some other
00:21:51
big ones that people probably know, San Francisco Bay Area
00:21:54
Rapid, also known as Bart. Total revenues $1.1 billion cash
00:22:00
investments 1.9. Total expenditures 1.1.
00:22:04
I imagine that's down because there's been a decline in
00:22:08
ridership of Bart and they've been talking about that.
00:22:10
That's something like Scott Weiner's been talking about for
00:22:12
years now is like we need to bail out Bart and like the
00:22:15
legislature needs to step in and give him a loan or a bond or
00:22:18
something. I imagine that's probably down a
00:22:20
lot from like pre COVID time because now a lot of people have
00:22:24
moved out of the Bay Area. Plus like remote working in the
00:22:27
Bay Area is probably way more popular now.
00:22:29
So people just aren't taking Bart, right?
00:22:32
I don't know why we need to. Bail them out and upgrade them
00:22:37
if less and less people are using it.
00:22:38
But. Yeah.
00:22:40
And I think. Episode is about.
00:22:42
I mean, that's one of the arguments against like special
00:22:45
districts is like, why? Like if you're providing a
00:22:48
service, so they're these like quasi governmental entities that
00:22:53
provide a, a public service like transportation.
00:22:57
If you're not providing a good product and people aren't buying
00:23:02
it, like so they get their money from property taxes and the fees
00:23:07
that they get from people who use it.
00:23:09
So to to Scott Wiener's point, if Bart is dying on the vine and
00:23:14
it's not doing well, wouldn't that mean Bart has to, as a
00:23:18
quasi enterprise, figure out how to make up that lost revenue or
00:23:24
cut costs or something like that?
00:23:25
Like why is it OK they're losing revenue, So we need to give them
00:23:29
more money. That doesn't seem like that
00:23:31
doesn't really make sense. Let's see, I'm trying to see
00:23:35
some other ones. I mean, you can go to this OC
00:23:39
Register and see yourself, but there's a lot on here that
00:23:41
you've probably heard of. Look, Orange County Sanitation
00:23:45
District 420. That doesn't seem like that much
00:23:50
for whole Orange County sanitation.
00:23:53
District. I don't know what the sanitation
00:23:55
district does. Oh, here we go.
00:23:59
This was our question before the show, before we hopped on, we
00:24:04
were asking about SANDAG. Now people who don't know what
00:24:07
SANDAG is, SANDAG down here in San Diego is the San Diego
00:24:10
Association of Governments. They've been, we've done
00:24:13
episodes on them. We've done episodes on the CEO
00:24:16
who was embroiled in a bunch of controversy and using public
00:24:19
funds and all that. So SANDAG is a special district
00:24:24
and their total revenue is 695, cash investment 77770
00:24:31
thousand and then total expenditures is 747.
00:24:38
So see that was our question was before, you know is SANDAG a
00:24:42
special district. And again to go back to the fact
00:24:46
that we're talking about local elections.
00:24:47
So SANDAG is a perfect example of why local elections matter
00:24:51
and who runs these special districts because it's made-up
00:24:56
of all your local politicians. So it's made-up of mayors, City
00:25:00
Council, people. So like who's on City Council
00:25:02
for San Diego City makes a difference.
00:25:04
They appoint people. So the people who are sitting in
00:25:07
SANDAG making decisions about transportation and stuff like
00:25:11
taxing you per mile, which we've talked about with Supervisor Jim
00:25:14
Desmond. CEO.
00:25:16
The CEO. What was it, $17 worth of
00:25:19
filet mignon or something like? That yeah, it, you know, it's
00:25:23
that stuff matters. So local elections matter
00:25:26
because they end up picking the people who are on these boards
00:25:30
or they end up representing people and districts on that
00:25:33
board. Let's see, try and think of the
00:25:38
OK, so here's some workers if you want to get an idea of how
00:25:42
much they're paid. These special districts who
00:25:45
provide public services. In San Diego, the Palomar Health
00:25:48
District, the CEO makes $1.7 million.
00:25:56
So that's wages. Because we know we've had people
00:26:00
who've commented on some of our other clips and videos saying,
00:26:03
oh, well, that's their total compensation and you shouldn't
00:26:05
include benefits. That doesn't count as their
00:26:08
compensation. Nope.
00:26:09
San Diego Palomar Health District CEO makes $1.7 million
00:26:14
retirement health contributions $100 which brings his total
00:26:17
compensation to $1.8 million. So would this be considered a
00:26:23
state employee? Like would this be on the
00:26:26
Transparent California or because it's a special district,
00:26:29
is it now different? I don't know that.
00:26:32
I don't know, I guess because but they have oversight by the
00:26:35
state and they're at the local camp for financial reviews.
00:26:38
So I would imagine all this information is public knowledge
00:26:41
because it's being funded by taxes.
00:26:43
So I bet we could look it up. I mean if you look up what's the
00:26:46
same Hassan from SANDAG, he might pop up as.
00:26:50
Yeah. A physician.
00:26:55
It just says position physician at the current position
00:26:59
physician, Kern County Hospital Authority, not the CEO or
00:27:02
anything. They make $1.6 million.
00:27:07
It's a hefty job just for a doctor.
00:27:10
I'm not saying doctors aren't important, I'm just wondering
00:27:13
why these particular physicians are making $1.6 million.
00:27:16
They're not even ACEO or anything, they're just a
00:27:19
physician. Let's see Palomar Health
00:27:22
District in San Diego, the COO makes $857.
00:27:28
And this is kind of a lot. Didn't there was a a story that
00:27:32
just broke recently that the new head of like the LA Department
00:27:37
of Public Works or water or something, she's getting paid
00:27:42
like $700 I. Think 750.
00:27:46
I thought it doesn't. Matter a lot of money, a lot of
00:27:50
money for running something that's supposed to be for the
00:27:52
public benefit. I'm trying to see some other
00:27:56
good ones. Any other San Francisco Beta
00:28:00
Healthcare Group risk management authority makes $1
00:28:03
Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare district president,
00:28:06
chief executive officer officer makes 1.3.
00:28:10
So these are good jobs and I'm, I'm feeling like we're seeing a
00:28:15
trend here of why work in the private sector in California
00:28:19
when you can work these jobs. Seems like you make a lot more
00:28:22
money doing these jobs than you do in the private sector here in
00:28:25
California. I agree I have made some poor
00:28:27
life decisions. Why?
00:28:31
Why are we not working in the public sector?
00:28:33
We're talking about it. And why wouldn't I-20 years ago
00:28:36
go into? Tahoe Forest Hospital District
00:28:41
an orthopaedic surgeon makes $788.
00:28:47
OK, that's a lot of money. But I do feel like an orthopedic
00:28:50
surgeon like that's, they probably deserve to make a lot
00:28:54
of money. Maybe what's orthopedic?
00:28:57
Is that feet? No what?
00:29:01
That's, isn't that just in general breaks like, don't you?
00:29:06
It's not like, 'cause I thought that's who I saw when I broke my
00:29:08
arm, Like I'd just go see an orthopedic surgeon, but.
00:29:12
Yeah, why am I? I'm pretty wrong I.
00:29:13
Don't know, now I feel like an idiot.
00:29:17
So there you have it. You don't know what we're
00:29:19
talking about. Special districts make a ton of
00:29:21
money. They are represented by people
00:29:24
who you elect to your local elections and your local seats.
00:29:28
So when you look at your ballot come November and whoever you
00:29:32
vote for, don't just vote for the president and then just skip
00:29:35
the rest of it because these people end up in these positions
00:29:38
making a boatload of money and making big decisions about your
00:29:43
life. Like SANDAG is a good example.
00:29:45
They've been pushing this per mile tax on drivers for I don't
00:29:51
know how many years. They keep trying it over and
00:29:53
over and over again. So SANDAG is trying to push that
00:29:56
through. Is there anything else we want
00:30:00
to talk? There was one more thing I want
00:30:02
to talk about, but let me get your thoughts first while I'm
00:30:05
looking for this because I think there's one more thing I want to
00:30:07
talk about. My thoughts on special
00:30:10
districts. Yes.
00:30:12
So the article did, or at least one of them mentioned something
00:30:15
about there's actually some districts that they're no longer
00:30:19
operating in the sense of like a hospital may close.
00:30:22
And so that district is still collecting taxes.
00:30:25
That's what that's the interesting thing.
00:30:27
They're still collecting taxes. Now, this is not all, I don't
00:30:30
want to say that special districts are nefarious, but it
00:30:32
is sort of like, OK, so that hospital closed, it's gone and
00:30:36
yet people are still being taxed for it.
00:30:39
And, and I don't know how you, how you would look that up.
00:30:43
I guess you need to go, if you own a home, you need to go
00:30:45
through your property tax bill and look up like literally every
00:30:48
little item and see what is that special district and find out if
00:30:51
it's still active. Now, I would imagine depending
00:30:54
on when a hospital closes, if they're going to have to tear
00:30:58
down the hospital and everything like obviously that they need
00:31:01
the money to, to do that, to demo that.
00:31:03
That's a whole different process.
00:31:05
And so I could see why, you know, if it closes down in X
00:31:08
year and a few years later, it might be still operating because
00:31:11
demolition's a big job. It's a lot of money.
00:31:13
There's a lot of, you know, things that go into that,
00:31:17
especially with an older building and they're like, oh,
00:31:18
espestos and like, anyway, it might it there, it might be
00:31:22
still operating for a very valid reason.
00:31:26
But I would find out what I would look at your property tax
00:31:30
bill and look up each itemized thing and find out, is this
00:31:33
special district still operating?
00:31:35
What's going on and who is on the board of it?
00:31:38
And you know, like we said, come November, are they are they
00:31:42
going to be on your ballot and do you like what you see?
00:31:47
And again, a lot of it's necessary.
00:31:48
There is sewer there is. Water.
00:31:51
You know so. Yeah.
00:31:53
And it's one of those cases where I think because people
00:31:57
aren't aware of how special districts operate or even aware
00:32:01
that they exist, people overlook their importance.
00:32:05
And because of that, politicians go, OK, well, we're just going
00:32:11
to put the people we want to be in there because people maybe
00:32:14
not paying attention or they're not electing the right people to
00:32:17
look into special districts and make sure that they're doing the
00:32:19
right thing and spending our money wisely.
00:32:22
So like. I know when you're Linda.
00:32:24
We had 2008. If it doesn't matter, somewhere
00:32:31
around there we had a massive fire in Yarbalinda and a lot of
00:32:36
it got blamed on the fact that there was supposed to be water
00:32:40
protections in place in the the hills of Yarbalinda where the
00:32:43
fire started. And, and they were not.
00:32:46
And these were things that were paid for.
00:32:47
These were things that were promised and they didn't happen.
00:32:50
And 10s of people lost their homes.
00:32:52
Yeah. So.
00:32:54
Yeah. And they, you know, with the,
00:32:55
what's the old saying that the hardest thing, once something
00:32:58
gets started in government, it's almost impossible to get rid of
00:33:01
it. So these special districts may
00:33:05
have been started a long time ago for special reason or, or
00:33:09
necessary reasons, but now they have become pretty lucrative
00:33:15
positions for a lot of people to go in there and make a lot of
00:33:19
money. So it's more important, you
00:33:21
know, how these these operate, what they are, where do they get
00:33:25
the funding from? Is it fees?
00:33:26
Is it the property taxes? How much is going there?
00:33:29
Who gets on these boards? How do they select the boards?
00:33:34
So that makes a big difference. All right, well, like we said,
00:33:38
we do have other topics to get to.
00:33:40
So I'd like to pivot now to something that I'm sure is at
00:33:44
the top of everyone's mind when it comes to California.
00:33:48
And don't worry, the California Legislature and its infinite
00:33:51
wisdom has got your back. They know exactly what you're
00:33:54
going to say, That one of the most pressing issues in
00:33:58
California that has to be addressed is we got to get rid
00:34:02
of these darn plastic bags at grocery stores.
00:34:06
That's how. Big they decaf coffee, but OK.
00:34:09
That is another bill that died. So thankfully that it it, it,
00:34:14
it, it was dead in committee. But I wanted to highlight, if
00:34:18
you don't know what we're talking about, I posted this on
00:34:20
Instagram this week that California lawmakers actually
00:34:23
took time to write a bill that they wanted to set up a special
00:34:26
committee to investigate the dangers of decaf coffee.
00:34:33
Not kidding. This is what Sacramento wanted
00:34:36
to spend our money on. Sorry, I shouldn't have brought
00:34:38
it up 'cause you know, I'm like just thinking of all the things
00:34:41
that are actual, actual problems.
00:34:44
Decaf coffee. I if you like were like for
00:34:47
$1, you name 500 things that you think are an issue in
00:34:52
California. I would have never.
00:34:55
Never. I'd have lost.
00:34:56
I would have lost out on $1 because I would not
00:34:58
have come up with tea, CAF, coffee.
00:35:00
No, no. And I again, I said the second
00:35:04
convention, I'll say it again, we really need a limit on how
00:35:08
many bills these legislators can actually introduce.
00:35:11
Because if you leave them to their own devices and they can
00:35:14
introduce as many as they want, they'll start introducing bills
00:35:17
about decaf coffee. Move over date shake as the
00:35:20
California official milkshake Decaf coffee Dangerous might be
00:35:24
the dumbest bill I've heard coming through the legislature
00:35:26
in a long time. OK the 2nd dumbest is plastic
00:35:29
bag ban. 2nd dumbest might be the plastic bag ban.
00:35:33
So Assembly Bill 2236 and Senate Bill 1053, authored by
00:35:38
Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer Kahan of Orinda, never heard of
00:35:43
that place. And Senator, I never heard her.
00:35:46
And I don't know where Orinda is.
00:35:48
If you gave me a map of California, I wouldn't be able
00:35:50
to point it out. This was her chance for her 15
00:35:52
minutes of fame. Because now, now we.
00:35:54
Are now we're talking about her Catherine Blakespear?
00:35:59
Senator Catherine Blakespear of Encinitas.
00:36:01
I know where that is proposed to ban any kind of plastic bag at
00:36:05
food stores and convenience stores.
00:36:07
Both bills will act as an expansion of SB-270, a 2014 bill
00:36:11
that was approved approved of by voters in 2016 as Prop 67, which
00:36:17
banned all one time use plastic bags and only allowed thicker
00:36:20
plastic bags to be purchased in stores.
00:36:24
Cal Recycle reports are. You familiar with that?
00:36:27
I don't know. When you arrived to California,
00:36:30
were you? I was here.
00:36:32
I was here in 2016. So then you know that when that
00:36:35
passed, it was kind of weird because there was two things on
00:36:39
the ballot that there was the plastic bags like no more single
00:36:44
use. So we're going to pay for these
00:36:46
plastic bags that could be reused many times for $0.10, but
00:36:50
then the second one was like the $0.10 was supposed to go towards
00:36:55
some sort of climate change, environmental, you know?
00:36:59
Why they charge you now that one was.
00:37:01
Shot down and like, and then the plastic bag reusable thing
00:37:07
passed and it kind of didn't make sense.
00:37:09
It was like, you have to pay for it now, but the the payments
00:37:13
aren't actually helping. Like we're not funding climate
00:37:17
change. It was weird.
00:37:19
Yeah, I'd, I'd love to do a deep dive into where the heck all
00:37:24
that money went because it's been over almost 10 years coming
00:37:29
up on 8 years. Where did all that money go?
00:37:33
You know, every time you forget your reusable bag and you just
00:37:36
press yeah, I'll pay $0.10 for a bag.
00:37:40
Well, I think you. Just paid for the bag.
00:37:42
Like I think that like the grocery store bought the bag and
00:37:45
you just paid for it because it it wasn't, we didn't, we voted
00:37:50
no on it going towards an environmental.
00:37:53
OK, so they just added it as like.
00:37:55
So bizarre. Yeah, yeah, I remember the the
00:37:59
argument against was like the only people who are going to
00:38:02
make money on this are like the grocery stores, because the
00:38:05
plastic bags are like they cost like pennies by the time they
00:38:09
buy them. And then you get $0.10 for every
00:38:12
bag. It's like a huge profit margin.
00:38:14
So they're making a huge amount of money on the plastic bag.
00:38:20
So the article goes on and say cow recycle reports.
00:38:22
Legislation signed by Governor Newsom requires all packaging be
00:38:25
recyclable or combustible by 2032, with 65% of it recycled by
00:38:31
2032, shifting the burden from the consumer to the packaging
00:38:35
producer. Expect prices to go up again.
00:38:38
But banning plastic grocery bags does not reduce disposal and
00:38:42
recycling costs. Studies over the last nine years
00:38:44
have shown like good podcasters backing everything out.
00:38:49
We I looked up that study that they cited too.
00:38:54
This was actually done 2013. So it's a little older, but it
00:38:58
gives you an idea. So in San Francisco in 2007,
00:39:01
they became the first city in the nation to ban common thin
00:39:05
film plastic carry out bags at large grocery stores and
00:39:07
pharmacies. In 2012, the City amended the
00:39:10
original ban to include all retail stores and food
00:39:12
establishments and added a $0.10 charge on all paper and reusable
00:39:16
bags. Let's see.
00:39:20
Plastic bags amount to less than .5% of the waste stream and
00:39:24
similarly minuscule amount of landfill space.
00:39:27
Paper bags are six times heavier and take up 10 times more space
00:39:31
than plastic bags. Thus, plastic bags should have
00:39:34
been responsible for no more than 900 of San Francisco's
00:39:37
annual collection disposal costs and 300 of the landfill
00:39:41
liability. So they don't take up a lot of
00:39:45
space in land. If that's their whole thing is
00:39:47
they want to stop it because of environmental reasons and it's
00:39:50
filling up the landfills, then that it it doesn't really bear
00:39:56
out that that's really what's the problem here.
00:39:58
No, I I have read that they take longer to decompose than than a
00:40:04
plastic or than a paper bag would.
00:40:07
But then paper bags hurt the environment because.
00:40:11
You're cutting down trees to make them.
00:40:14
And so what's, where do we win this?
00:40:18
Like where? Where do we go from here?
00:40:22
Well I guess they think if we ban plastic bags that will
00:40:25
change everything and help the environment.
00:40:27
Forget again how much China and India probably dump into the
00:40:30
ocean. What are we supposed to?
00:40:33
Are we going back to paper bags which then means more trees?
00:40:37
Cutting down paper bags are now going to be the thing as opposed
00:40:43
to plastic bags or reusable bags.
00:40:48
This was actually pretty interesting from that the this
00:40:50
article anticipated environmental gains resulting
00:40:56
from the ban were quote non existent at best.
00:40:59
End Quote. And the ban likely did more harm
00:41:00
than good. Consumers just switched from
00:41:02
single plastic to double paper bags.
00:41:05
Few consumers remembered reusable totes, which caused
00:41:08
delays in checkout and recycling bins were hard to find or non
00:41:11
existent. Additionally, this is
00:41:14
interesting. A recent microbiological study
00:41:17
found unacceptably high levels of bacterial, yeast, mold and
00:41:21
fecal bacteria counts reside in reusable bags because.
00:41:27
The not the plastic ones but the reusable bags.
00:41:30
Didn't they for a time banned them in grocery stores during
00:41:33
COVID because of. Right, Right.
00:41:35
Yeah, that, yeah, they were banned because they people were
00:41:38
afraid if you brought them from home, you were dragging COVID in
00:41:43
even though you're coming from home.
00:41:46
So you coming from your home, wouldn't you have COVID?
00:41:49
In your shoes, but it in your purse.
00:41:55
Exactly. It was the bag.
00:41:58
It was the bag. The bag specifically was a
00:42:00
harbinger of all the COVID, but again, we did a lot of dumb
00:42:06
things in COVID. I still laugh at the idea that
00:42:09
there was an actual diagram that the government put out in a
00:42:12
video to show you when you get into your house, you should have
00:42:16
an area, a little taped off box right in your front door where
00:42:21
you remove all of your clothes and your shoes when you get in
00:42:24
because those clothes and shoes may be contaminated with COVID.
00:42:27
And if you bring it into the house, you're going to
00:42:29
contaminate everybody. We did an episode on this, all
00:42:33
the absurd COVID things there, in case you wouldn't check that
00:42:37
out. We had a couple guests on and we
00:42:39
just talked about all the fun COVID memories of, you know,
00:42:43
this one one way grocery aisles and how that saved us all.
00:42:47
Right. The one way.
00:42:48
Oh my gosh. One way.
00:42:49
Grocery aisles. Yeah, sometimes you'll still see
00:42:54
an arrow here or there in certain grocery stores of like,
00:42:56
you're supposed to walk this way.
00:42:58
Don't know how that helps anything, but going on the study
00:43:01
found that 64% of reusable bags tested were contaminated with
00:43:04
some level bacteria and close to 30% had elevated bacterial
00:43:07
counts higher than what's considered safe for drinking
00:43:09
water. Further, 40% of the bags had
00:43:12
yeast or mold. Some of the bags had an
00:43:14
unacceptable presence of fecal intestinal bacteria when there
00:43:18
should have been zero. I mean, I, I could see that.
00:43:23
I mean, how many times do you does anybody wash their reusable
00:43:25
bags that they get? Like I, you usually throw them
00:43:28
in your trunk, you throw them all over the place, you throw
00:43:31
groceries in there like who knows what.
00:43:34
We reuse them when when my kids clean out litter boxes or the
00:43:37
dog poop, you know, like then then they get thrown out of
00:43:40
course. So not not great for your health
00:43:47
to use those reusable bags. So that is making its way
00:43:51
through the legislature right now.
00:43:53
So that's fun. Where were you?
00:43:56
At with that, have they voted on it or is it?
00:44:01
It doesn't say where they are specifically, it just says I.
00:44:08
I assume it's still going, but. Which what is?
00:44:11
What is it? Assembly Bill 2236 and Senate
00:44:17
Bill 1053. So I'll let you do that while we
00:44:22
pivot to our next story. I'm.
00:44:24
Going to totally ask for those numbers again. 2236AB2236 and
00:44:33
Senate yeah, just look at that one so pivoting right now
00:44:37
Camille looks that up to see where it's at I so.
00:44:40
It passed the assembly floor on 5/21.
00:44:45
OK, so it's probably going to be law because it's something that
00:44:48
doesn't really cost the government anything.
00:44:50
It's just the nanny state again, gets to ban something and feel
00:44:54
good about themselves. We keep in mind, like this year,
00:44:59
with everything that's going on with the budget and the huge
00:45:02
deficits, a lot of stuff is getting cut, like the Decaf
00:45:06
Coffee Commission to study danger, that got cut because
00:45:10
there's not enough funding, there's not enough money.
00:45:12
But stuff like this that is just like a pat on the back that hey,
00:45:16
we did something for the environment because we banned
00:45:18
plastic bags. This could fly through just
00:45:21
because it doesn't cost the government anything to do this.
00:45:25
All right, pivoting again. So there was a ballot measure of
00:45:31
one of our good friends of the show, Jonathan Zackerson.
00:45:35
He was part of his his save, save kids California, Save
00:45:38
children California or something.
00:45:41
So I apologize, Jonathan, if I butchered what the name of your
00:45:44
your website is. This is from the AP proposed
00:45:47
gender identity measure fails to qualify for California ballot,
00:45:54
meaning it's not going to be on the ballot.
00:45:55
They were trying to get it on the ballot.
00:45:58
And the basic gist of it, it was to create such a statewide
00:46:04
policy to put a measure that would have provided necessary
00:46:09
transparent for parents. But opponents said it could have
00:46:12
threatened the safety of children who didn't, who don't
00:46:14
live in welcoming households. So this is sort of in line with
00:46:21
the idea of the parental notification issue that's been
00:46:24
going on a lot of local school districts.
00:46:28
You know, the controversy that's that's happening around.
00:46:30
That article goes on to say proponents of the measure had
00:46:34
sued Attorney General Rob Banta over the title and summary he
00:46:37
issued for the proposed ballot measure, arguing it was biased
00:46:40
and made it harder for them to collect signatures.
00:46:42
Banta titled the measure the quote Restrict Rights of
00:46:45
Transgender Youth and quote Initiative, but backers wanted
00:46:49
it changed to quote, Protect Kids of California Act and
00:46:53
quote, they also wanted the summary update.
00:46:55
Those are radically different titles.
00:46:58
I mean, if you're just reading the titles of those ballots,
00:47:01
those are radically different titles.
00:47:03
So this is, if you're not familiar, the attorney general
00:47:08
has the power in California, it comes to ballot measures to
00:47:11
change the title of the ballot measure.
00:47:14
So citizens who collect them enough signatures, they give
00:47:18
them like a proposed title. And then the attorney general in
00:47:21
this case, Rob Bonte, gets to step in and say, no, I'm going
00:47:24
to change the title to what I want it to be.
00:47:27
And there's been some discussion about, like, how much power he
00:47:29
should have and whether they should rein that in a little
00:47:31
bit. Because it, if you have an
00:47:33
attorney general like Ralph Bonte, this is a clear example
00:47:36
of, well, he's going to change it from Restrict Rights of
00:47:38
Transgender Youth to Protect Kids of California Act.
00:47:41
I mean, those are completely different statements.
00:47:43
If you're reading that and you don't really know about it and
00:47:45
you're like, well, yeah, I want to protect the kids of
00:47:47
California. That sounds good.
00:47:49
I'm going to vote for that. But restrict rights of
00:47:52
transgender youth sounds completely different as well.
00:47:57
So you might vote up or down based simply on the title
00:48:01
because you're not going to. Most people aren't nerds like
00:48:03
us. We're going to sit there and
00:48:04
actually go through the propositions, and we'll do a
00:48:07
proposition breakdown once we know and we have a better idea
00:48:10
of which ones are actually going to be on the ballot.
00:48:12
They're still qualifying. This is from Jonathan.
00:48:16
His quote was while we are disappointed we didn't meet the
00:48:18
threshold to qualify the ballot, we are encouraged by the amount
00:48:21
of support from every sector of the state.
00:48:24
They gathered 400 of the 546 signatures needed.
00:48:29
That's actually pretty good. Got very close.
00:48:32
This is the first time they did it.
00:48:34
And a Sacramento Superior Court judge sided with Bond after a
00:48:37
hearing last month, saying his description of the proposal was
00:48:40
accurate. OK.
00:48:44
Proponents of the measure plan to appeals accuracy said if
00:48:46
successful, they hope it would allow them to reopen the
00:48:49
signature gathering process for another shot at making the
00:48:51
ballot. Sort of what happened with the
00:48:54
recall. If you remember several years
00:48:56
ago, they appealed the recall and what happened and because
00:49:01
you were waiting on the appeal, you get more time to go back and
00:49:04
get signatures. So that's where that is right
00:49:09
now. But Speaking of transgender
00:49:12
youth in California, what were you going to say?
00:49:15
I've. Said recalls.
00:49:17
Speaking of recalls, but. No, we'll get to that.
00:49:19
We'll get to that one. There is a bill making its way
00:49:23
through California Senate AB 1955, California Education
00:49:30
Committees, is from Ashley Zavala.
00:49:34
She had put this up on X to clear up California law in a way
00:49:38
that would prohibit school districts from having policies
00:49:40
requiring parents to be notified if children identify as
00:49:43
transgender. So you have the ballot measure,
00:49:48
you have this bill that's making its way through the Senate.
00:49:51
So this is a big issue in California.
00:49:53
And we we've had people on to discuss this, what's going on at
00:49:57
the local level and local control and local school board
00:50:00
districts. And now Sacramento's coming in
00:50:02
and they don't like what's going on with these local school
00:50:04
districts. So they're trying to impose
00:50:06
their will basically on all these school districts.
00:50:09
So much for localism. It's a top down kind of
00:50:12
governance here in California. I'm going to just skip ahead
00:50:17
because she gives sort of all the notes it got out of the
00:50:20
committee strictly on party lines, and it's heading to the
00:50:24
Senate Health Committee, so that's where that one's at, so.
00:50:31
I passed Assembly and it's on to the Senate.
00:50:34
It got out of committee, Yeah. So it's it's on to the Senate
00:50:39
Health Committee. So now it's on to the next
00:50:41
committee. OK.
00:50:43
They have to go through a lot of committees.
00:50:44
It's not as yeah. And we always follow that.
00:50:46
We do our legislative update or that should be coming up soon,
00:50:50
legislate, we usually do it around June or so to give it.
00:50:53
Like I think that they only have so much time left and then we'll
00:50:56
probably that's I, I forget the exact date, but they're, they're
00:51:00
in session right now. But then we'll be like, OK,
00:51:02
here's where we're at with. Yeah, and a lot of them might go
00:51:06
to the suspense file because of what's going on with the budget.
00:51:09
And the Legislature has responded to Gavin Newsom's
00:51:14
budget. So now the back and forth begins
00:51:17
where they go back and forth and figure it out.
00:51:20
So. Talk about this though, 'cause
00:51:22
so at, at like you said, we've had, you know, school board
00:51:27
members on and such who are, they're fighting to, you know,
00:51:32
talk, be able to talk to parents about these things.
00:51:34
And then that's a local government issue.
00:51:37
But Sacramento's coming in and trying to pass this new law to
00:51:40
say, no, you can't. But former guest teacher Jessica
00:51:46
Tapia, who was on this show, she won her lawsuit.
00:51:51
And, you know, she was fired because she said, no, I won't.
00:51:54
She didn't. Just to clarify, she did not out
00:51:57
a student, but they found out she was a Christian via her
00:52:01
Instagram and basically questioned her.
00:52:04
And she was like, no, I'm not gonna hide pronouns from
00:52:07
parents. And they're like, well, then
00:52:08
fine. We don't have a place for you.
00:52:10
She sued. She won.
00:52:14
Now they they didn't, I don't think she won on policy.
00:52:18
I don't know how much you followed up with that lawsuit.
00:52:20
And then so I'm kind of asking you from a legal standpoint, but
00:52:23
it's not like policy changed within the district.
00:52:26
But she she won because she was fired for like for not doing
00:52:34
anything. She didn't do anything and they
00:52:35
fired her, but not because she was following policy.
00:52:39
Am I making sense? So I just want to clarify where
00:52:43
your lawsuit fits into all this. I think if I remember correctly
00:52:49
it was there wasn't a policy, but they were upset with the
00:52:56
fact that she wouldn't allow transgender youth to go use a
00:53:02
girl's bathroom during PE based on her Christian beliefs.
00:53:09
So that was I, as I remember that was the whole foundation
00:53:12
was it was a violation of our First Amendment rights to
00:53:15
exercise of religion. So, so the lawsuit.
00:53:18
I'm and I'm not trying to pick apart her lawsuit, but I just
00:53:20
wanted to so it has no bearing on any of this.
00:53:24
No, it and yeah, it has no no bearing on what's happening in
00:53:28
terms of the the actual policies.
00:53:32
Like I would say for a better context, like we had Sonia Shawn
00:53:37
who discussed this and that was a more that was more directed on
00:53:41
point of like they had voted in this policy as the school board.
00:53:45
And then Sacramento like came in, like Tony Thurman came in
00:53:48
and like they made a big deal about and they were like at the
00:53:51
center of all this heat from Newsom and Rob Ponta and like
00:53:54
they were all coming down on them hard like we're going to
00:53:57
get this law, we're going to sue you and all that stuff.
00:53:59
So that was they had set up a policy of you're required to
00:54:04
notify parents of what's going on and Sacramento didn't like
00:54:09
that. So Sonia Shaw, that episode is
00:54:12
if you want to go back and listen to it, I think that's
00:54:14
more on point with what's going on with these policies and why
00:54:17
does Sacramento care about passing this law right now?
00:54:20
And why are opponents like Jonathan Zackerson also
00:54:24
proposing these ballot measures in terms of what's going on with
00:54:28
this, you know, parental notification, transgender youth,
00:54:30
all that stuff going on in schools.
00:54:32
So OK. Sorry about that.
00:54:35
No, I, yeah, I think if anyone wants to go back and listen to
00:54:39
those episodes, go back and check them out, that we did a
00:54:44
lot more in depth discussion about it there.
00:54:46
So you can see this is a big fight.
00:54:47
And I, I, I wonder how much of like how much of this is purely
00:54:55
just politics from people in Sacramento that they just don't
00:54:58
like the idea that local school districts can do this and go
00:55:03
against like their approved narrative or their accepted
00:55:07
narrative. Like they just don't like that.
00:55:09
Like they're always for, you know, you, the Democrats love
00:55:13
spouting out like we're fighting for democracy.
00:55:16
And it's like, but just not that democracy.
00:55:18
Like, we don't like when local school boards that are duly
00:55:21
elected by the citizens of that district vote in a policy that
00:55:26
the voters approve of because they voted them in.
00:55:31
And then Sacramento comes and go, no, no, no, no, you can't do
00:55:33
it like that. You can't.
00:55:33
No, no, we don't approve of that democracy.
00:55:36
And it's kind of like what's going on right now, I think at
00:55:39
the Supreme Court is they heard arguments about whether or not
00:55:43
Californians can vote on a certain ballot measure regarding
00:55:47
taxes. Because I think that, don't
00:55:51
quote me on that. I believe the ballot measure
00:55:53
wants to make it harder for lawmakers to raise taxes.
00:55:56
And so obviously people in Sacramento are fighting like
00:55:58
hell to be like, no, no, no, you, you.
00:56:00
We can't let people vote on that.
00:56:01
Like voters are too stupid to understand.
00:56:04
And that I'm not, I'm not being hyperbolic.
00:56:06
That was actually Newsom's attorney's argument is that
00:56:09
voters are too stupid to vote on this stuff 'cause they don't
00:56:12
understand it. So that was literally their
00:56:14
argument was like, we don't think the citizens are smart
00:56:16
enough to vote on complex issues like taxes.
00:56:20
They won't. They won't.
00:56:22
Teach them at public schools and make them smarter.
00:56:25
No, no, that. I mean, instead of like
00:56:28
advocating like maybe people should learn about taxes in
00:56:31
schools. I think if people learn more
00:56:33
about taxes in schools. Taxes.gov website,
00:56:36
youknowtaxes.ca.gov and like what's you?
00:56:40
What do taxes go to? Why do you pay taxes?
00:56:44
I think that's probably why they don't.
00:56:46
I think that's probably why specifically there don't teach
00:56:48
taxes in public schools, because they don't want people to.
00:56:52
Like don't open the curtain. Don't open the curtain.
00:56:55
Yeah, big, big proponents of democracy.
00:56:57
Just not, you know, not on the stuff they don't approve of.
00:57:01
But Speaking of Gavin Newsom and ballot measures, do you want an
00:57:06
update on how the recall of Gavin Newsom is going?
00:57:08
I absolutely do want an update on that.
00:57:11
OK, so Rob, Rob Pires, if you if you follow him on X, I'm going
00:57:19
to say you're a fellow political nerd.
00:57:22
Even more so if you've set if you've set your notifications to
00:57:25
go off when he tweets, because I don't.
00:57:28
Have notifications on anybody so I guess I'm.
00:57:31
Not well, if you want breaking news of what's going on, Rob,
00:57:34
Rob Pires. I follow him, I just don't have
00:57:37
notifications on that's all. Yeah, he's, he's part of the
00:57:42
California target bot. So they do a lot of like data
00:57:45
and stuff like that. They do a lot of great work
00:57:49
collecting all this information. So he had recently tweeted or X
00:57:55
or whatever you call it now how the recall is going.
00:58:01
And as of the second reporting period, they had additionally 0
00:58:09
signatures on top of 0 signatures they already turned
00:58:17
in during the first reporting period.
00:58:21
So over 2. What?
00:58:24
Like what's? What's going on now?
00:58:28
I would say it's probably not for a lack of people who want to
00:58:34
sign a petition to recall Gavin Newsom because there's, I would
00:58:38
wager there's millions of people in California who would sign,
00:58:41
maybe not millions, but there's, there's, there's 10s of
00:58:44
thousands, there's a, there's a lot of people, 10s of thousands
00:58:46
who would sign that, that petition, who would sign a
00:58:50
petition to recall Gavin Newsom. So the fact that you show 0
00:58:55
signatures in two reporting periods.
00:59:00
And if anybody who's not familiar how we got our story,
00:59:05
how I got to know Camille, we are always on alert, high alert
00:59:11
for grifters and people who are using the political process to
00:59:15
make money. I don't know who runs this, but
00:59:21
if you're not getting any signatures after two reporting
00:59:24
periods in a year that Gavin Newsom's facing a $73 billion
00:59:29
budget deficit and record homelessness and $21 billion or
00:59:34
$24 billion of homelessness spending, we don't know what
00:59:37
we're in. You didn't gather any signatures
00:59:40
in two reporting periods. I might suspect you're not doing
00:59:45
this for the correct reasons. I would think you're doing this
00:59:50
for all the wrong reasons. What are your thoughts?
00:59:54
I, I actually, I think it was on one of your posts that I
00:59:57
responded to somebody about that and said I'm starting to
01:00:01
question if they can't. If it's turned in 0 signatures,
01:00:05
then it who's who's making money off of this?
01:00:08
Who's who's benefiting from this?
01:00:13
Zero. OK, so we talk about very large
01:00:16
numbers, inflated numbers all the time, but zero, wow, you can
01:00:20
argue it's not a number, whatever, it speaks volumes.
01:00:25
It's that zero is very loud here.
01:00:29
So yes, I, I do question, OK, the recall I believe is bringing
01:00:38
in money. Who's donating now?
01:00:42
Is it like, I don't want to just outright say, OK, someone's
01:00:45
benefiting from this, but are they, they don't have volunteers
01:00:49
to collect signatures. The people that started this
01:00:52
recall aren't collecting signatures themselves.
01:00:55
Are the volunteers not turning in the signatures?
01:00:59
Are people just tired and not signing?
01:01:02
But like you said, there's got to be at least 10s of thousands,
01:01:05
maybe hundreds of thousands who want to sign this.
01:01:08
I personally haven't seen this come across my my way yet.
01:01:15
Like, well, my personal belief, opinion, whatever is like, we're
01:01:20
in an election year. Let's just flip Assembly and
01:01:23
Senate seats. Let's not worry about Newsom.
01:01:27
If, if I was coming out of a grocery store and presented with
01:01:30
this ballot, I would sign it because I think these people
01:01:33
have every right to have it on the ballot and vote.
01:01:37
So I would, I would absolutely sign it.
01:01:39
It has not come my way, which I I'm surprised, especially in the
01:01:44
conservative city that I live in.
01:01:46
They're usually all over. And I'll be like, oh, I signed
01:01:49
that one already. I have not seen it.
01:01:51
Have you seen it? I haven't seen it.
01:01:54
No, I, I haven't. I've never seen a petition.
01:01:58
No one's asked me like, hey, do you want to sign this?
01:02:03
I'm looking at it right now. And maybe we just do a live
01:02:08
check right now to show like this is where we go when we need
01:02:12
to figure out what the heck is going on.
01:02:15
You can go to California. Show me what you have.
01:02:18
I'm very. The Secretary of State go ahead
01:02:23
share. So the they're called rescue
01:02:27
California, the support to support the effort to recall
01:02:32
governor if you go to general information.
01:02:37
So they're active. So this is how you kind of tell
01:02:39
also, I double checked like the the the ID like always double
01:02:43
check the ID, which is like right here, the filer ID.
01:02:46
And I apologize to people who are on audio who don't know what
01:02:48
the heck we're looking at. We're at the California
01:02:50
Secretary of State Cal Access Search.
01:02:55
It looks like total contributions in 2023 totaled
01:03:01
over $1, and they only spent 150.
01:03:07
OK. Can you click on the filings?
01:03:11
Sure. Is it this one electronic file?
01:03:14
Not to point you're not. Yeah, you're pointing out I'm
01:03:16
like. And then it on the middle of the
01:03:21
page right now where it says view, yeah, it should be the
01:03:25
bottom something filings. Electronic filings.
01:03:28
Yeah, that it's very tiny voice screen.
01:03:31
I apologize. I'm like trying to read, OK, my
01:03:35
phone thinks I was just trying to access Siri, calm down.
01:03:39
So there's filings. Right.
01:03:42
So I guess click on the most recent one.
01:03:46
Filing period. This is from July 1st, 2023 to
01:03:50
December, OK. So I mean not recent, but we
01:03:53
could take a look. Actually, that's a statement of
01:03:57
organization, so. Well, no, it's OK that that
01:04:03
should show you something. General Purpose Committee Rescue
01:04:09
California-based out of Newport Treasurer is Kelly Lawler.
01:04:15
OK. Don't know who Kelly Lawler is
01:04:18
the the calgroup.com. That might be interesting to see
01:04:21
where the Cal group is. Kalgroup.com I suppose.
01:04:27
I'm supposed to go to there tell you.
01:04:30
You could, yeah, while we're we're looking at this.
01:04:34
So contributions received. Kalkalgroup.com.
01:04:40
Yeah. It's a trucking company.
01:04:44
Oh, interesting. I mean, could be somebody who's
01:04:48
just, you know, they're just getting it like they're just
01:04:50
doing it because they believe in this, right?
01:04:54
So let's see. Which good for them because a
01:04:57
lot of us all say and complain and and don't do anything.
01:05:01
Someone did something. We don't all have to agree that
01:05:04
they did something. Monetary can contributions for
01:05:08
this period, so this is from July to December of last year is
01:05:12
only $2500 loans received $1 million.
01:05:18
OK. That's interesting.
01:05:21
And then it says expenditures they only spent 150 so.
01:05:28
On what? Let's.
01:05:30
Well, let's look, let's see. These are the.
01:05:34
It's very small on my screen, so you're gonna have to read to me
01:05:36
what's happening. Here, let's see.
01:05:37
Hold on, hold on. We can figure this out.
01:05:41
How do I Adobe switched all their stuff around?
01:05:45
Is that better? It's a little better, but I
01:05:48
mean, you can, yeah. So this is all the people who
01:05:53
donated. Let's see Schedule D schedule.
01:06:04
EI think I looked at this before, but I don't remember
01:06:07
what's on it and I wasn't actually convinced that I was at
01:06:12
the right at the right campaign. And then I kind of closed it and
01:06:18
didn't do any more research. So, but I see a lot of payments
01:06:22
going to antidote, which of course.
01:06:24
Is normal. That's normal.
01:06:26
Gilliard, Blanding and associates.
01:06:31
Law firm probably. Probably a law firm $14
01:06:35
Seventy $500 What's the? The code is CNS.
01:06:39
What's What is that? I don't know what CNS Oh, here
01:06:44
it is. Campaign consultants.
01:06:46
OK, so they've paid Campaign consultants $14, almost
01:06:52
$30. The Monaco Group LITI imagine is
01:06:58
litigation. Oh, campaign literature.
01:07:01
Let's see. Callahan and Blaine Professional
01:07:06
services $23 Callahan playing a lot more money amount
01:07:15
incurred Callahan playing $50 so a lot of so this was.
01:07:21
Here and this did not get approved until this year.
01:07:24
So they obviously could have been political consultants,
01:07:29
lawyers help us get this on, on the ballot kind of thing.
01:07:35
It's approved. We don't have updated numbers
01:07:39
but now I want to see are they? Are they paying anybody to
01:07:42
gather signatures? I would imagine not based on the
01:07:46
0 signatures gathered, but that's.
01:07:50
A lot of money to spend to people to get this all ramped up
01:07:54
just to not collect any signatures and to reporting.
01:07:58
Periods now she need like at least on that there wasn't, you
01:08:02
know, ad space. There's not like radio time,
01:08:05
media or no. Texting, stuff like that.
01:08:08
Now that it's a go ahead, we may see that now, but they already
01:08:14
got that $1 million loan and that's kind of worrisome because
01:08:17
$1 is a lot of money for something that doesn't seem to
01:08:20
be gaining traction. Right.
01:08:23
So it's, it's $150 spent out of over $1 raises
01:08:30
questions, especially when you have to get it on the ballot
01:08:33
this year. Like you'd be you'd, you're
01:08:36
spending money because you want to get this and you don't have
01:08:39
that much time to get this on the ballot or get this
01:08:42
qualified. So you're trying to get this
01:08:44
done in a certain amount of time.
01:08:45
You can't just start a recall and take years and years and
01:08:48
years. Like you, you get a certain
01:08:49
amount of time to collect signatures.
01:08:51
So the fact that you've wasted two reporting periods and you've
01:08:54
collected no signatures really does.
01:08:59
I, the filings I think are due at the end of this month and so
01:09:04
we won't see them until about then.
01:09:07
But zero signatures doesn't sound like there's any monetary
01:09:10
action. So I don't, I'm not expecting
01:09:13
much from these numbers. And then if I see that they
01:09:15
actually did pull in a ton of money but still gathered 0
01:09:18
signatures, that's where I'm gonna really raise questions and
01:09:22
go. Through that fact, if there's.
01:09:23
To be like grifter alert. Yeah, to to raise that amount of
01:09:27
money and not do anything. But they're not spending on like
01:09:31
lavish stuff. Like usually we've looked into
01:09:33
stuff and we've been like, wait a second, this doesn't make
01:09:37
sense. I'm trying to get an idea of
01:09:40
like, so Anne Hide Dunsmore is who is the chair of Rescue
01:09:44
Rescue California, who's starting this might be
01:09:48
interesting to see what she's up to or what she's doing.
01:09:52
But anyway, that's an update on what's going on in the recall.
01:09:55
So no signatures, 2 reporting periods, haven't gotten any
01:09:59
closer to that, but they have raised a lot of money, so good
01:10:03
for Rescue California. So we'll keep an eye on it.
01:10:08
And I think this might be something interesting to kind of
01:10:10
look into more as to what's going on here.
01:10:15
Maybe ask a question, maybe put something out there on X, like
01:10:19
what's going on? They've reported no signatures,
01:10:21
but they've raised $1. What's going on here?
01:10:25
Rescue California. Just keep an eye out for that.
01:10:29
All right? Any other final thoughts about
01:10:31
the recall? Nope, I'm definitely just
01:10:34
interested to see what happens. Yeah, it's our antennas are
01:10:37
definitely raised on this one. So we're definitely going to
01:10:40
keep an eye on it and see what is going on here, keep an eye on
01:10:43
those filings, who they're paying and stuff like that and
01:10:46
how much more money they raised. So with that, that's our
01:10:49
multiple topic episode. We covered a lot.
01:10:53
We had way more than an hour of content for you guys.
01:10:57
Told you it wasn't just going to be all about special districts,
01:10:59
which were super interesting anyway.
01:11:02
At least I hope you guys found it super interesting for special
01:11:04
districts and you learned about plastic bags and the recall.
01:11:07
So here we are. We'll try to do, like I said,
01:11:10
we'll we'll try to do more multiple topics.
01:11:13
I understand why people probably want us to do multiple topics.
01:11:15
So much happens in California. Maybe a story doesn't fill up an
01:11:19
entire hour. Podcast doesn't mean we
01:11:23
shouldn't comment on it. I think it's it's important to
01:11:25
keep people apprised of all the stuff that's happening in
01:11:27
California, not just one topic at a time.
01:11:29
So appreciate the feedback of everybody on Instagram who voted
01:11:34
in that poll to tell us try out multiple topic episodes.
01:11:37
This is our first one and you can let us know how how you like
01:11:40
it with that. Any final thoughts or?
01:11:47
No, I'm good. OK with that, make sure you like
01:11:51
share, subscribe, review all of that stuff helps with the
01:11:54
algorithm helps people find us and all that stuff.
01:11:56
Make sure you follow us on social media.
01:11:58
Instagram's probably the most active place we are on are also
01:12:00
on X and the best way you can support this that is absolutely
01:12:05
100% free. Well, there's another way you
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can support this show is you can go check out our merch at
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That helps pay for, you know, these little things like
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Or the other way you could support us that's 100% free is
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worker. I would double check with the Co
01:12:35
workers. Make sure, you know, make sure
01:12:38
you're on the same plane politically.
01:12:40
You never want to be that Co worker who just sends out
01:12:42
podcasts without solicitation. That's never a good idea for
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your your working space, for your working environment.
01:12:48
Make sure you're on the same level.
01:12:50
You have a couple conversations first, maybe usually open up
01:12:53
with complaining about taxes. See where that usually gives
01:12:56
people a good idea where where you lie on the political
01:12:58
spectrum. So yeah, share it with somebody
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who might enjoy this. And with that, we'll see you on
01:13:04
the next one later. Thank you for listening to
01:13:18
another episode of California Underground.
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