Haircut to High-Speed Rail + Brough disciplined in misconduct probe + Financial aid appeal
Good morning! Thank you as always for reading.
TRIMMING CONSULTANTS
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration plans to cut millions of dollars in spending from the state High-Speed Rail Authority even as the costly project continues to move forward in the San Joaquin Valley.
The administration wants to cut the equivalent of 88 positions for private-sector consultants working on the project, saving $29.8 million annually, according to a budget document released this week.
The department would create new state jobs for 70 public employees, offsetting some of the savings.
The changes reflect years of concerns that private-sector consultants had taken over the project with insufficient oversight.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that high-speed rail has been a gravy train for engineering consultants,” said Ted Toppin, executive director of Professional Engineers in California Government, which represents 13,000 state-employed engineers and related professionals..
In 2018, the California State Auditor released a report that found that the California High-Speed Rail Authority relied heavily on outside consultants, “for whom the state’s best interests may not be the highest priority,” according to the audit summary. The audit recommended that the authority hire and assign full-time state employees to serve as contract managers.
California has been developing the high-speed project since 2008, when voters approved a bond to begin paying for it. At the time, the route was slated to cost $40 billion. The most recent cost projection from the Authority estimates the total cost for phase 1, Los Angeles to San Francisco, to run about $80 billion.
BROUGH DISCIPLINED
The good news, California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Patterson said, is that Assemblyman Bill Brough is not on the November ballot.
Brough, R-Dana Point, was stripped of his committee assignments Wednesday after a workplace investigation substantiated claims he inappropriately touched and offered individuals “political favors in exchange for sex.”
The Legislature’s Workplace Conduct Unit launched last year an investigation into claims that he had behaved inappropriately. The Assembly Rules Committee announced on Wednesday that the panel had substantiated claims that date back to last summer.
In June 2019, someone filed a report alleging Brough had made “unwanted sexual advances” toward unknown individuals, which included unsolicited touching and “propositioning them for sex.”
A July 2019 complaint references reporting by The Sacramento Bee last summer that detailed one woman’s allegation of sexual misconduct by Brough from 2011. The complaint states there were “more people” with similar experiences, and includes details of a casual conversation during which one person said something similar to, “It’s about time, he did it to me.”
Following the investigation’s conclusion, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, formally rebuked Brough, stripped him of his committee assignments and ordered him to take harassment and discrimination training.
Rendon’s letter said the investigative panel had weighed the allegations and evidence to determine that on at least two occasions, the Republican had behaved inappropriately toward one person, once verbally and the second, “both verbally and physically by placing your hand on the small of (the individual’s) back.”
“The panel also found that on one of these two occasions you insinuated that you would provide political help to (the individual) if (he or she) went to your apartment with you,” Rendon wrote.
Brough said in a statement Wednesday that he disagreed with the findings and called the investigation a “politically motivated process.”
Brough was knocked out of his re-election race in the March 3 primary and will not appear on the November ballot. In September 2019, the Orange County GOP asked him to consider retirement rather than pursue another legislative term.
Patterson of the state GOP in a series of tweets praised now Sen. Melissa Melendez for helping to create the workplace investigation unit, expressed empathy for victims and wrote, “Thankfully, Mr. Brough did not qualify for the General Election ballot.”
Read more here from The Bee’s Hannah Wiley.
LAWMAKERS GET A LETTER ON FINANCIAL AID REFORMS
Californians for College Affordability, a coalition of more than 20 groups, has sent a letter to Legislative chairs Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, and Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, urging the lawmakers to use the budget trailer process to enact several reforms for student financial aid.
The list of five recommended reforms included extending by one year the time frame during which eligible applicants can apply for a California Community College transfer entitlement Cal Grant, and waiving the return of financial aid to the state when students are unable to complete their courses due to COVID-19.
“As we weather the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we look forward to working together with you and the governor to enact a budget with targeted reforms and equity-focused investments that protects the state’s most vulnerable students and ensures the least resourced Californians receive the supports they need,” the letter read in part.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“At what point will America address the abusive, racist behavior of law enforcement when it comes to Blacks? They would’ve never treated a white suspect in the same inhumane manner. #georgefloyd”
- Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
More money is coming to unemployed workers in California, starting Wednesday, via David Lightman.
Joe Biden backs new California labor law as Uber, Lyft and DoorDash try to undo it, via David Lightman and Hannah Wiley
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration expects more state workers to volunteer for contact tracing assignments, and if they don’t, the state has the authority to reassign them to the work, according to an administration spokeswoman, via Wes Venteicher.
California and 22 other states filed a new lawsuit Wednesday challenging the Trump administration’s rollback of Obama-era clean air rules that required car manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency, via MacKenzie Hawkins.
