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.

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Issue No. 124 - September 2, 2022

State Politics

• The two-year state legislative session closed this week amid a flurry of activity. When the Legislature returns it will have many new members. CalMatters tracks, with more below.

• Despite substantial public support, the VISION Act, which would prevent prisons from transferring incarcerated people who have completed their sentence to ICE for deportation, failed by three votes in the Senate, after being approved in the Assembly. Statement from the ICE Out of California coalition here.

• SB 1338, also known as “CARE Court,” passed on Wednesday. The bill makes it easier to coerce people with mental health disabilities into treatment, and is targeted at the unhoused. The bill also contains a TBD plan to manifest the massive amount of resources that would be needed to treat so many new patients. It passed unanimously in the Senate and 62–2 in the Assembly despite overwhelming opposition from disability rights and civil liberties groups.

City Politics

• The contentious fight to fill the council seat in CD 10 escalated quickly, as this week City Council President Nury Martinez agendized a series of motions to rapidly appoint Heather Hutt. A minority of councilmembers advocated for a more transparent and deliberative process delaying the approval, but that resistance collapsed Friday, and Hutt’s appointment passed 12–2 with only Councilmembers Mike Bonin and Monica Rodriguez opposed.

Labor

• AB 2183, which would allow farm workers to vote by mail in union elections, has passed through the Legislature and to the governor to sign. Last year Newsom (who owns vineyards) vetoed an earlier version of the bill, citing “procedural issues.” This year, in support of the bill, a group of farm workers marched from Kern County to Sacramento and are holding a vigil until the governor signs.

• The Legislature has passed AB 257, a bill creating a council to regulate wages and working conditions for all California workers in large fast food chains. Read a little more about AB 257 — the first bill of its kind nationwide — in the context of sectoral bargaining here.

• AB 1577, which would allow workers in the Legislature the right to collectively bargain, passed through the senate, but was blocked from a vote in the assembly by the Assembly Public Employment and Retirement Committee.

Housing Rights

• The Legislature overwhelmingly approved an amendment repealing Article 34 of the state charter, which requires onerous local elections to approve any form of public housing. The bill, widely understood to have been originally pushed by racist segregationists, is among the last laws of its kind on a state charter. In Los Angeles, many council districts are nearing the limits of affordable housing authorized in the last Article 34 citywide ballot measure, and the city failed to put reapproval on the ballot. The amendment will still need to be approved by the public in 2024.

Environmental Justice

• Temperatures will continue to reach triple digits in many areas of the state through Labor Day, breaking records and straining the power grid. In Los Angeles, the city has opened very few cooling centers to help unhoused and other vulnerable people manage the heat, and many libraries are closed for Labor Day. The Kenneth Mejia campaign provides some analysis and calls attention to some programs that are providing mutual aid.

• Citing searing summer temperatures and expected energy shortages, California lawmakers approved legislation aimed at extending the life of the state’s last-operating nuclear power plant. The Diablo Canyon plant — the state’s largest single source of electricity — had been slated to shutter by 2025. The New York Times covers this and other California climate bills from the busy week.

• A fire ignited just after noon on Wednesday and has spread to cover 5,2000 acres near Castaic, in Los Angeles County.