On February 02, 2022, seven representatives from five local Leagues held a productive Legislative Interview with State Senator Josh Becker and Nicole Fernandez, his District Director, via zoom. Participants included:
Barbara Windham (lead) & Carol Jenson – LWV South San Mateo County
Mary O’Kicki & Liz Kniss – LWV Palo Alto
Beth Claywell – LWV Cupertino & Sunnyvale
Katie Zoglin – LWV Los Altos & Mountain View
Mia Clapham – LWV North & Central San Mateo County
Below is a summary of our conversation:
Question 1: Redistricting Changes in advance of 2031
California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission, and the standards it is required to follow provide a strong model for independent nonpartisan redistricting. The state legislature adopted some reforms for local redistricting and the changes included some requirements for public outreach plus ranking criteria for city and county redistricting. Are there changes you would support for 2031, which is the next redistricting cycle?
Summary of Sen. Becker reply:
Sen. Becker is grateful that California has established a non-partisan Citizens Redistricting Commission. He suggested it would be great if the whole country had a non-partisan redistricting process. He is not looking at any specific changes for 2031 but is open to listening to ideas.
Sen. Becker referenced SB 503, new legislation he authored which implements a statewide standard for signature verification of mail-in ballots, timely outreach to voters whose ballots are rejected, and periodic reporting about the nature of those rejections. He’s also working on proposed legislation which would educate former felons about restored voting rights and would allow overseas military troops same-day voter registration.
Question 2: Climate Change, Water, and Equity
Climate change has and will impact all aspects of our water from poor quality to unreliable sources, droughts floods and more. Data also show that disadvantaged communities and communities of color will be disproportionately impacted. How can California help these communities while tackling the water effects of climate change? How do we move toward equity and sustainability?
Summary of Sen. Becker reply:
Climate change is a big priority for Sen. Becker. He put forward two key bills that were signed into law last year. SB 596 aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from cement use within the state.
Also, SB 68 is now law….it is designed to speed up transition to electric powered buildings.
In looking at climate and water, there is a long term lens, a short and medium term one. In the medium term, we’ve got to focus on water re-use and recycling. His office has done a lot of work locally with Newsha Ajami, Dir. Of Urban Water Policy at Stanford’s Water in the West program. They’ve seen that there’s a lot of wasted water in our system. In Israel, they recycle about 90% of their water; Spain about 40%, whereas the U.S. is at 2%. So, desalinization is not an option for the state until regional efforts toward re-use and recycling greatly improve. He cited San Francisco as a leader for passing mandatory water re-use and recycling standards for certain sized buildings. There’s a lot more work to do in the long term, medium term and short term.
From a drought perspective, we have to look at ways to mitigate against the worst effects of the drought. During the pandemic, a lot of people could not pay their water bills. The legislature did get $1-2Billion made available to help people pay their water bills.
Q: How should projects to help with flooding and scarcity be financed? Who should pay? Bonds? Ratepayers? Valley Water did get a Bond passed to help finance water infrastructure to mitigate flooding last year.
Senator Becker felt that bonding is appropriate to help with water. Millbrae has led with its purple pipe project but he doesn’t know how it was financed it. We definitely need to encourage communities to do more recycling of water.
Can you address flooding and its relationship to equity?
In response to a question regarding flooding and equity, Senator Becker said he’s not aware of plans to address this issue, but promised to look into it and get back to the League.
Question 3: California’s Children and Youth Mental Health Emergency
The pandemic has exacerbated existing problems related to mental health of California’s children and youth, and the ensuing crisis disproportionately impacts under-resourced communities. California’s new Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, which allocates $4.4 billion over five years to address these issues, may help reform our overburdened system. The challenges however are significant.
What more needs to be done to address the mental health needs of California’s children and youth?
Summary of Sen. Becker reply:
The closing of schools during the pandemic has exacerbated mental health issues, especially for the young. School closures have caused tremendous suffering. The Legislature allocated money to schools for mental health, but we need to ask is it going to the right places? As a member of the Mental Health Caucus, Sen. Becker says more oversight would help regarding spending money allocated for mental health needs. He vowed to follow up with caucus members, asking them how the money will be spent.
And, there are just fewer adults in school–nurses and guidance counselors – due to funding. Sen. Becker believes we need more adult mentor resources in schools. He referenced a bill that just passed in the state senate requiring that each student have one visit with a mental health counselor, thereby destigmatizing the process, since everyone is seeing a counselor.
Q: Hiring mental health support staff can be a real challenge without affordable housing…do you have any proposed legislation to address this problem?
Sen. Becker said he’s not sure it’s a legislative fix but did point to legislation providing $5.5 billion for early learning and child care providers. People were making $17/hour and now make $23/hour. Affordable housing is definitely an issue, $1.75 billion has been allocated for more housing in San Mateo County, including Redwood City and East Palo Alto. There is also a significant teacher shortage, including a need to hire thousands of transitional kindergarten teachers. And, from a mental perspective, even if one is willing to pay for a mental health professional, they’re not available.
Q: Progress is slow…do you have any ideas regarding resources that can help our children at risk for homelessness and mental health issues –now- instead of having to wait for housing projects to be completed?
Senate Bill 830 is a proposed measure to help with funding for schools. It proposes to determine supplemental funding for K-12 schools based on student enrollment numbers rather than average daily attendance. This is designed to increase funding to the California school system, perhaps providing flexibility for more mental health programs.
Sen. Becker pointed to family-friendly housing models that already exist or are now being quickly built in Mountain View, San Francisco, and Palo Alto. They passed a bill encouraging multi-generational affordable housing which he feels can help. The LifeMoves project in Mountain View has family friendly units and it was done in six months.
Question 4: Personal Priorities of Legislator
What other major issues do you think the legislature must deal with in 2022? What are your personal priorities?
Summary of Sen. Becker reply:
A top priority is economic opportunity and mobility, including education, especially childcare and early learning, and expanding access to higher education. Sen. Becker pointed to San Mateo County’s million-dollar Big Lift Initiative, an effort to have all children at grade level by third grade. He called this a regional model and said it should be a national one as well. He’s also backing childcare meal tax legislation this year which would provide a higher reimbursement rate for meals served in schools, childcare centers and homes.
Next is climate. As chair of the clean energy senate subcommittee and vice chair of the joint legislative committee on climate change, Sen. Becker says infrastructure will be a big focus this year. He mentioned transmission capacity in terms of offshore wind, setting up an infrastructure authority to insure better borrowing rates, and a continued effort for 24/7 clean energy, including performance standards for buildings and building decarbonization leading to a substantial reduction in greenhouse gasses. Tax credits to get used electric vehicles in the hands of low-income drivers and electric charging stations in multi-family residences. He is particularly proud of his low carbon concrete/cement bill that passed last year. This year, they hope to pass legislation to require the state buy low-carbon cement. Since the state buys 40% of the cement in sold in CA, it could create a huge impact.
Criminal justice is another priority, including providing economic opportunities. Specifically, there is a mental health diversion bill that would allow defendants with mental health issues to be diverted from the criminal justice system to a mental health treatment program.
Question 5: Transportation
What do you see as ways to help decrease the transportation congestion and lack of sufficient and affordable public transportation in the Bay Area?
Summary of Sen. Becker reply:
Sen. Becker is working on a bill for fare integration for our public transportation (Seamless Bay Area) noting that a blue-ribbon commission has done a lot of work on schedule integration. Another passion project is grade separations. We’ve put a lot of money into it at the state and are seeking more money at the federal level, but the model of CalTrain every 15 minutes will not work without grade separations. Our district has six of the ten most dangerous train crossings.
One thought regarding bike infrastructure was to put forth a competitive grant for cities with comprehensive bike infrastructure.
Q: Is there a strategic plan for mass evacuation on the Peninsula should a catastrophic event happen?
The County is the entity that takes the lead on Emergency preparedness but there is a lot more collaboration between the state and counties than ever before.
Q: What if anything is being looked at the state level to deal with the lack of mass transit for the Bay Area, especially the South Bay Area?
In addition to the grade separations, the one thing that could be a game changer is Dumbarton Rail. Sen. Becker is assembling a roundtable to advocate for money for Dumbarton Rail, a proposed trans-Bay passenger rail line. As he put it, we need to find better ways to move people around the Peninsula.