Dough buys influence in Sacramento. In Panera-Gate, Gov. Newsom redefines the word | Opinion

Like many political controversies about money and influence in Sacramento, the latest involving Gov. Gavin Newsom centers around the dough. Literal dough made by bakeries and figurative dough - money flowing into Newsom’s campaign coffers - are at the heart of the saga known as Panera-Gate.

Greg Flynn, a prolific Panera franchisee who is a big donor to Newsom, seemingly ended up with a legislative exemption for him and other bakery-cafes from paying higher wages than all other fast food outlets targeted in legislation.

Then questions recently began to surface whether Flynn’s contributions had anything to do with this special legislative treatment of bakery cafes.

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“Absurd,” said the governor.

His administration then offered a novel explanation as to why Panera is not the kind of authentic bakery cafe worthy of being exempt from the legislation to raise the hourly wage of its fast food workers from the current minimum of $16 to $20.

“We believe establishments would not be exempted from the law if they bake dough that is mixed and produced off-site — unlike how a traditional bakery makes bread,” said administration spokesman Alex Stack.

Wait. Since when does raw bread dough have to be made at a bakery in California?

This mandate classifying bakeries based on whether they mix their dough on-site or off-site was not in the legislation itself. I couldn’t find such language in licensing or regulatory requirements for bakeries in California.

Despite repeated requests, the Newsom administration hasn’t produced any documented corroboration for this dough requirement either. For whatever reason, it’s as if the Newsom administration decided to this make-dough-on-site rule up.

If Newsom’s people have corroboration to prove they didn’t make up the dough requirement on the fly, they should produce it. Until they do, Panera-Gate has historical similarities to Watergate, which ensnared President Richard Nixon a half-century ago.

In these political dramas, powerful leaders are not tripped up by the initial alleged “crime.” It’s the cover-up that gets them.

As reported earlier, the powerful Service Employees International Union overcame opposition from the fast food industry to pass two bills to establish a state Fast Food Council for industry oversight and to increase the industry’s minimum wage to the initial hourly baseline of $20. But it passed a single fast food exemption that “applies only where the establishment produces for sale bread as a stand-alone menu item.”

Panera sells bread as a stand-alone item on its menu.

This was no ho-hum exemption. It was crafted in secret by the governor’s office. Assemblyman Christopher Holden, the Pasadena Democrat who authored the bill, said he was not involved when the exemption was created.

It would be silly for whoever was at the pen, behind closed doors, to create this exemption without the state’s largest bakery-cafe in mind. Panera is the 11th largest chain in the nation. Why go through all this secret effort to create an exemption with little to no real-world consequence?

Is that truly what happened? Why are Newsom and his administration so adamant about adding dough requirements beyond what the bill says?

Newsom’s Department of Industrial Relations is backing the governor. It “believes that a restaurant “produces” bread if it makes the dough and bakes it on site,” said spokesman Peter Melton.

Stack of the governor’s office referred to a federal definition of baking that distinguishes between “producing” and “baking goods.”

However a read of the United States’ official definition of bread baking shows that Uncle Sam does not say that the dough has to be made on-site either.

The Department of Industrial Relations stepped into the dough fray because it “is charged with enforcement of the Labor Code,” said Melton. “Before new bills become effective, DIR does an analysis of the bill and creates an implementation plan.”

The final California authority on dough could be a new Fast Food Council this new Fast Food Council. “The Fast Food Council may develop regulations and the Labor Commissioner has enforcement authority over individual claims based on the facts of individual cases,” Stack said.

There’s only one problem. Until Panera-Gate, the Fast Food Council didn’t exist.

The governor was suddenly caught with his apron down. He had failed to make his required seven appointments to the nine-member council

It wasn’t until March 1 when Team Newsom, in the dark of a Friday night, complied with the fast food law and announced his appointees to the council so it could start business by March 15.

Will the Fast Food Council weigh into Panera-Gate? Is Gavin Newsom and his team right about the dough?

“Ultimately, the courts may have to make the final ruling,” Stack said.

Panera-Gate. Before a magistrate.

Newsom is right.

This whole thing is absurd.

Perhaps Panera-Gate is a tale of ineptness, a half-baked bill containing a meaningless exemption that clumsily ended up in the law.

Or, perhaps, Panera-Gate is yet another example of privilege and double standard baked by renowned chef Gavin “French Laundry” Newsom himself or at his behest by the bill’s secret sous chefs, the raw power of dough buying influence yet again.

Anyway you slice it, Panera-Gate is a coverup of something.