The Thorn West is a state and local news roundup compiled by members of DSA-LA. Our goal is to provide a weekly update on the latest developments in state and local politics, and to track the issues that are most important to our membership.

Issue No. 44 - January 29, 2021

Coronavirus and Relief

Though there are ongoing issues in California’s vaccine distribution, Governor Gavin Newsom surprisingly announced on Monday that the state will immediately lift its stay-at-home order — a decision that appears to have been communicated first to the California Restaurant Association. Soon thereafter, LA County announced it will “align” with the state, and Mayor Garcetti announced that the city will “align” with the county. Following up, County Board of Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer updated City Council on the state of the county’s vaccine programs, among other things, and Councilmember Nithya Raman summarized that report on Twitter.

The California State Legislature reached an agreement to extend the state’s eviction moratorium until June 30. The moratorium protects tenants who pay 25% of their rent. The bill also contains a plan as to how to use the $2.6 billion the state will receive from the federal government for rent relief. This money will be disbursed to landlords to cover 80% of their pandemic-related unpaid rents, in exchange for their forgiving the other 20% and agreeing not to evict any tenants who are behind. However, landlords will be able to decline this money.

CalMatters explains estimates that Californians are over a billion dollars behind on water payments — a number twice as much as the estimate for the state's total unpaid rent.

Criminal Justice Reform

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra will soon leave his position to join the Biden administration. But first he has launched a civil rights investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The investigation will determine if there is a “pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing” within the department. A similar investigation in Kern County led, after several years, to their Sheriff’s Department agreeing to a list of reforms.

On Tuesday, the County Board of Supervisors heard the results of their requested report on what legal options they had to remove Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva from office. The results are summarized here. The board took no further actions.

Labor

The United Farm Workers’ December lawsuit against the Department of Labor contesting their proposed regulation changes for H-2A workers has been resolved, with an injunction granted. Following the Department of Labor’s last-minute set of H-2A farmworker regulation changes during the final days of the Trump administration, the Biden administration has withdrawn many of these pending rule changes — including those affecting H-2A workers.

The crewmembers of an independent film were forced to file unpaid wage claims covering five weeks of prep after what is being called a COVID-19 “scare” drove away the project's financier.

City Politics

A motion directing the Los Angeles City Administrator to find 45 million dollars in the budget so the city can purchase Hillside Villa Apartments, for use as affordable housing, has passed unanimously through the housing committee.

The city’s Jobs Committee voted to advance a motion that would require large supermarket chains to pay their frontline workers hazard pay. Long Beach, a step ahead of Los Angeles, passed a similar ordinance last week and now faces a lawsuit from the California Grocers Association.

Though it had been speculated that former councilmember Mitchell Englander could face no jail time for his role in municipal corruption, this week he was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison.

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