Legislative Interview with Assemblymember Marc Berman (AD 24)

On February 1st, 2022, seven representatives from six local Leagues held a Zoom Legislative Interview with State Assemblymember Marc Berman and  staff member Zachery Ross. League members participating:

LWV Palo Alto: Lisa Ratner  
LWV Palo Alto: Mary O’Kicki 
LWV Los Altos-Mountain View: Fiona Walter & Julie Cates
LWV Cupertino-Sunnyvale: Nancy Smith
LWV So San Mateo County: Heidi Kendall
LWV North & Central San Mateo County: Margie Gator

Purpose: Why Leagues conduct annual Legislator Interviews.

• Local League legislative interviews are an opportunity for us to connect with our district representatives, expand our League’s presence, and heighten our collective impact. They are also an excellent chance to cultivate new leaders and build new relationships.
• Key Issues League members will address during the interviews:
  • The issue areas we are highlighting this year relate to redistricting; climate/water impacts on equitable California; and mental health support for children and youth.
  • We would like to hear from the Legislator as to their priorities
  • Local issue of interest to the local Leagues

Question 1: Redistricting Changes in Advance of 2031 -- Nancy Smith, LWV CS

California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission, and the standards they are required to follow, represent the gold standard for independent nonpartisan redistricting. For the 2021 redistricting cycle, the legislature adopted some groundbreaking reforms for local redistricting, establishing requirements for public outreach and ranked criteria to be used for city and county redistricting.

What changes, if any, would you support for the next redistricting cycle in 2031?

• Expanding the current requirements for cities and counties to school district and/or special district redistricting.
• Requiring independent redistricting commissions for local redistricting.
• Expanding the public outreach and transparency requirements beyond what is currently in place.
  

Asm Berman Response:

Yes, to each of these three questions. We have just finished the 2021 redistricting cycle. Before 2031 we will have been able to evaluate how all went in this 2021 cycle. It is too early to determine what changes should be needed. We should let a couple election cycles play out before proposing changes.
Berman fully support the concepts of the current redistricting guidelines; he became more knowledgeable on this topic as he chaired the Assembly Election Committee for 5 years
CA is a diverse state – large urban areas, large rural regions... We should allow regions to follow differing processes for different regions.

Overall in Berman’s view, it is too early to change legislation to change redistricting. It would be too early to claim recent changes made were perfect. We would like to expand changes to larger electoral area... want to be as thoughtful as possible. We should expand redistricting policies locally, but first let’s evaluate how the current processes are working. Then we can keep good and correct the bad.

Nancy Smith: The LWV gathers a state wide view on processes such as redistricting. The League would like to partner with Asm Berman on redistricting and how to evolve its legislation.

Question 2: Climate Change, Water, and Equity -- Mary O’Kicki LWV PA

Scientists estimate that the overwhelming majority of the impacts of climate change will be connected to water –drought, floods, unreliable water supplies, poor water quality, and ecosystem devastation. Historically, within the U.S., low-income communities and communities of color, both urban and rural, have been experiencing the greatest harm, although global warming affects everyone.

What do you see as ways California can help these communities while dealing with the water effects of climate change upon the state? How do we move toward equity and sustainability? Please tell us about both proposed and potential legislation and funding sources.

Asm Berman Response:

It is embarrassing that CA has areas that do not have access to clean water. We expect with that with help from federal government’s bipartisan infrastructure bill there will be no excuse on funding better water supplies, including communities on the coast, including Pescadero in my district.

Access to clean, safe drinking supplies has been a priority for the Legislature. Past state budgets have allocated funding to improve clean drinking water supplies, including improvements for those more rural communities.

Considering California’s climate at large, COVID impacts and drought conditions despite the rain in December, we need to do a better job to address water in an environmental sensitive way. We need to capture more water. The Water infrastructure bond passed in 2014 passed, and still has not funded projects.

We need to address environmental justice at large. Last week Governor Newsom came to the district to attend a press event at Innovation Labs in Palo Alto. [See Press Release 1/26/2022 Governor Newsom Outlines Historic $10 Billion Zero-Emission Vehicle Package to Lead the World’s Transition to Clean Energy, Combat Climate Change ] Asm Berman was at the event and spoke with Greenlining Institute that is focused on environmental justice. We need to prioritize spending in disadvantages and rural community.

Asm Berman supports California/Newsom’s goal for all passenger vehicle sales to be zero-emission in 2035. Asm Berman supports Gov Newsom’s proposed $10B in funding to help California transition to all-electric vehicles and infrastructure. Not only for passenger cars, but also transit vehicles including trucks at ports. Prioritize helping lower income Californians to transition to EV vehicles. Working on having the legislators in Sacramento be informed of all the funding programs that exist.

Asm Berman commented on the challenging environment in Sacramento/Legislature at this time The proposal to put the transition to 2035 EV vehicles into law did not pass in the Assembly. The Assembly has a couple vacancies that were held by progressive democrats.

Mary O’Kicki: How should we address floods and not having adequate water supplies?

Asm Berman: It is too early to discuss bills... The legislature is now on bill vetting stage. Flooding, particularly in areas of past forest fires are a huge challenge. We need clean safe creeks and protection against the type of flooding that took place 10 years ago in San Jose...Another example is the flooding of San Fransquito Creek.

Question 3: California’s Children and Youth Mental Health Emergency – Fiona Walter, LWV LAMV

The pandemic has exacerbated existing problems related to the 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 - Detailed Proposal, which allocates $4.4 billion over five years to address these issues, may help reform our overburdened system. The challenges, however, are significant and there have been recommendations made for further legislative action to ensure success.

What more needs to be done to address the mental health needs of California’s children and youth? Do you anticipate proposing or supporting any legislation to confront the growing problem?

Asm Berman Response:

Asm Berman is passionate about youth mental health. He was serving on the Palo Alto City Council in 2010, 2015 during student suicide cluster incidents in local high schools. He became aware that this is a state wide issue once he joined the Assembly. Fresno has also experienced student suicide cluster incidents.

Berman’s intent is to introduce a bill for youth mental health every year. He would love to hear suggestions for this area. Now is a good time to consider proposing new legislation.

With the billions of dollars in the state budget are set to fund this area, we need to ensure that we are equipping teachers, administrators, and students with skills to address mental health injustice.

Berman secured $1.7M for statewide online youth mental health training. The online training to be available for students, teachers, administrators...

The student may go to their peer before a teacher. Thus, we should make sure that students have training and confidence to know when to alert others of mental health issues.

Berman’s bill, AB 563 [AB 563 School-based health programs] was included in the state budget and provides ongoing funding to establish and support the office school-based health. Berman is glad that his proposal for an Office of School Based Health received support. The state budget includes the funding, and the California Department of Education has the policies to help schools take advantage of federal funding. Many schools may not have the ability or bandwidth to apply for available grants. While we ask our schools to educate our youth, we also need them to be able to address the mental health of the youth.

This support is especially needed as we are coming out of COVID’s negative impact on the socio- economic and mental health of our youth.

Fiona Walter: We applaud any measure to address mental health issues upstream. It is good to get ahead of these types of issues and reduce the number of fires that need to be put out.

Asm Berman: I am all for being proactive rather than reactive in addressing youth mental health.

Question 4: Personal Priorities of Legislator – Margie Gater, LWV N&Central SMC

What other major issues do you think the legislature must deal with in 2022? What are your personal priorities?

Asm Berman Response:

Housing, homelessness, mental health all are huge priorities.

Combating climate change... the current bills in the Assembly and Senate should not have been so difficult to move forward.

While California is perceived as a leader in combatting climate change, we need to pass the legislation to maintain that leadership.

The legislature needs to help small businesses and youth coming out of COVID...

We in California are fortunate: We have the funding to tackle all these issues. We can use budget surpluses and can dedicate resources in these areas.

Asm Berman’s Personal Legislative Priorities:

Berman is evaluating the housing development approval process. The approval process should be streamlined for affordable housing development to deal with only one entity. Today affordable developers must work with multiple public agencies to gain full approval. Berman proposes putting all agencies to agree to an MOU that provides the developer one point of contact.

Transportation.... Reform the governance section of Santa Clara County’s VTA [Valley Transportation Authority.] Berman was pursuing proposed legislation last year. He was asked to pause in order to continue discussions with stakeholders. Then there was the shooting incident at the VTA office. Now Berman is starting to re-engage stakeholders to improve governance. He comments that the VTA should have the oversight that 2M local residents deserve.

Berman is studying the Governor/Elected Official Recall Process. He would like the process to be more difficult to discourage frivolous recall efforts. A couple of different bills are being worked on to reform the recall process.

While Berman no longer chairs the Assembly Elections Committee he is actively talking to its current Chair, Asm Isaac Bryan.

Berman is now chairing the Assembly Committee on Business and Professions Committee.

In the area of consumer protection and social media, we need to regulate “deepfakes.” His bill on this topic, [AB 602 Deepfakes and Sexually Explicit Material, became law in 2019. His bill, AB 730 Elections: deceptive audio or visual media ] sunsets in 2022 and he has a bill, AB972, to reauthorize AB 730.

Computer Science education: Berman is working with Code.org to pair grants with educators. We need prepare more Computer Science teachers. This effort will address equity to ensure quality Computer Science instruction will be offered to all communities in the state.

Consumer Protection: If someone can sign up for a service or subscription online, he/she should be able to cancel a service or subscription online.

Margie Gater asked about Asm Berman’s efforts to address climate change.
Last year a bill that Berman proposed passed. It bans the use of gas-powered tools and appliances. The gas-powered tools give off substantial emissions.

This year Berman hopes more legislation that will support zero emission vehicles. We need to expand infrastructure, and access to electric vehicles, especially in our low-income communities.

Question 5: Local Issue – Expanding Transportation Options to help address climate, transportation and equity issues across our communities. LisaRatner,LWVPA

We need public funding to support public transportation. We need to address the last mile transportation between transit hubs, homes and places of employment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. How could mini-buses, bicycle support, and non-capital worker salaries be part of the solution? Reducing the need for personal cars would reduce parking space needs. Devoting precious real estate to parking spaces greatly increases the cost of affordable housing and reduces area available for housing units. A Palo Alto study projected $60K construction costs or more needed per parking space.

Asm Berman Response:

COVID has reduced public transport ridership. While we support investing in the electrification of Caltrain, Caltrain is currently operating with a $400M deficit partly due to reduced ridership. We need to use public funding to help Caltrain reduce its deficit.

Parking spaces probably cost well above the $60k estimated 5 years ago when he was on city council. To address parking, one of Berman’s Legislative colleagues is proposing a bill to encourage folks to bike or walk more. Berman visited Germany last year and was impressed with the high usage of electric bicycles. He sees this an opportunity for the US to move more to electric bikes.

Berman has not thought about how electric powered minivans could be added to support the last mile transportation needs. He loves the idea and would be interested to hear more proposals.

    

We need to continue to work on integrating transit agencies across California. Work on Bay Area transit issues and funding. This could lead to 9-county Bay Area Ballot initiative in next couple years.

There are several issues to address, inadequate fare box recovery, availability of government infrastructure funding, and how to address the shortage of bus drivers and transit staff. We need to build the workforce that is necessary to enable these public transit options and move to more electric vehicles. It will be more expensive to recreate programs that have been allowed to lapse.

Lisa Ratner asks about how changing the VTA Governing board, especially removing elected officials, would address these issues

Asm Berman: The VTA Board consists of fifteen city council members and three County Supervisors.

The VTA’s metrics of effectiveness are very low relative to other cities. City Council members are volunteers, often with full-time jobs. They carry appointments to six to ten regional bodies. They do not have the time to adequate oversee an agency like the VTA. The VTA needs a governing board that can provide the time and attention needed and deserved to improve the effectiveness of the VTA.

Berman is considering introducing a bill to expand VTA Governing Board terms from 2 to 4 years. Berman is currently meeting with stakeholders to hear their views of changes for VTA. Berman is working with Chappie Jones who is Chair of VTA Board this year. These are important conversations and Berman is starting with a blank slate to consider what changes would help.

At the end of the interview, the Assemblymember commented that the issues raised during the call are interrelated. They all must be addressed to accomplish overall goals of mitigating climate change, housing supply and inequities in our communities. We need solutions to reduce carbon emissions, expand local denser housing, improve regional transportation while addressing inequities in our communities.

 

Background Information:

On the Interview Call with Assemblymember Marc Berman:

Assemblymember Marc Berman
Zachery Ross Zachary.ross@asm.ca.gov on Berman’s staff

Interview Team Lead: LWV Palo Alto: Lisa Ratner elizabeth.ratner@gmail.com
LWV Palo Alto: Mary O’Kicki <okickim@gmail.com>
LWV Los Altos-Mountain View: Fiona Walter <fiona@stanfordalumni.org>, Julie Cates Julie.cates@gmail.com
LWV Cupertino-Sunnyvale: Nancy Smith <nchsmith@gmail.com>
LWV So San Mateo County: Heidi Kendall <missoulaheidi@gmail.com>
LWV North & Central San Mateo County: Margie Gator <margie@wedomarketing.com>

 

Overall comments:

The Assembly District 24 includes the southern section of San Mateo County and the Coastside, and the northern section of Santa Clara County. As such, it includes urban, suburban, and rural/coastal areas. Its population is diverse economically and ethnically. The area within this district has the highest cost of living in the state.

Assemblymember Berman’s interview was engaging; we were allotted 45-minutes. Berman is eager to share his passions, directions, what he is studying as well as to learn from others, such as our local LWV experts. His legislative agenda is well aligned with League priorities: Fair elections, voter protections, inequity caused by housing shortage and the impacts of COVID on low-income workers. He was the Assembly’s lead for the 2020 Census and for vote by mail ballots to be sent to all registered voters.

Over his five plus years in office Asm Berman has been prolific in introducing bills, many of which passed into law. In 2021 Asm Berman authored ten new laws, including making California a permanent vote-by- mail state, improving the process for community college students to transfer to a California State University or University of California campus, phasing out the sale of new gas-powered landscape equipment, and making it easier for Californians to cancel their subscriptions online.

As mentioned above his leadership roles include: Assembly lead for the 2020 Census. He chaired the Assembly Committee on Elections. In November he moved from the Elections Committee to be the new Chair of the Assembly Business and Professions Committee, replacing Evan Low.

Introductory remarks: Lisa Ratner (LWV PA)

• We thanked the Assemblymember Berman for making time to meet with the League of Women Voters
  • The LWVs is non-partisan grass-roots organization to serve democracy. It is non-partisan, but takes position on issues We are here today to listen and learn, not advocate.
  • Lisa Ratner acknowledged Assemblymember Berman’s legislative work and its alignment with League priorities.
    • Assemblymember Berman has been highly active in his five years of office. Many of his bills
      have been signed into law.
    • Assemblymember Berman had the lead role in the Assembly in championing state-wide vote by mail support.

 

Closing Remarks – Lisa Ratner, LWV PA

We thanked Asm Berman for his legislation on mail in ballots for all voters in California, which aligns with LWVC priorities. We hope you and your staff are members of the League of Women Voters. That way you can be informed of the bills the League is supporting.