Good morning, CalMatters reader,

State Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-San Bernardino) has been busy this legislative session. She authored 18 bills, with nine of those signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Overall, Newsom signed 785 bills into law and vetoed 123, as CalMatters’ Lynn La reported last week. 

The attorney and former House majority leader pushed through the bills despite undergoing cancer treatment after her diagnosis last December of cancer.

Senate Bill 415 ends confusion over trucking route enforcement. Last year, Assembly Bill 98 required new warehouse construction to be linked to a major road, as CalMatters’ Deborah Brennan reported. The intent was to prevent trucks from rumbling down neighborhood roads. The enforcement of the bill, however, was left up slightly in the air, Gómez Reyes found.

 Who would hold cities accountable if new logistics center plans do not have a major route? What policing agency should make sure trucks are actually following the truck route?

Now, the Department of Justice is directed to bring suit against cities that do not approve complaint plans, and local police, trained by California Highway Patrol, will be responsible for enforcing compliance with the truck routes. If a city or county fails to require proper access to new builds, they may be fined $50,000 every six months.

“We are keeping the truck drivers on the thoroughfares, on the highways, on the expressways, and keeping them out of communities, keeping them out of the backstreets, because they will be cited, they will be ticketed,” Gómez Reyes said.

A second bill, Senate Bill 352, establishes the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Environmental Justice in perpetuity. Former Attorney General Xavier Becerra established the bureau in February 2018, and Attorney General Rob Bonta expanded it in 2021. Before the bill, future attorney generals could decide to close the bureau. 

Bureau attorneys sued Fontana in 2021 over the plan to construct a warehouse next to a school. In 2022, the parties settled after agreeing that the trucks could not idle, that the warehouse would include a rest area for truck drivers, and that Fontana would no longer allow warehouses by schools. 

“There was one (lawsuit) against Fontana. There was one against Stockton. And both of them were settled. It’s part of the negotiations, how they finally got settled, but they put a stop to the building of a warehouse with no one looking to see if it was being done right,” Gómez Reyes said.

The bill also will build on air quality programs created by 2018’s Assembly Bill 617. That bill resulted in studies about how to improve air quality in the Coachella Valley and Muscoy, the unincorporated area near California State University, San Bernardino. Without funding, those projects never took off. Now, money from the state’s cap-and-trade program will be used.

Senate Bill 245 builds on Gómez Reyes’ past efforts to get inmate firefighters into the workforce after they are released from prison. In 2020, Gómez Reyes authored a bill that allowed ex-inmates who served as firefighters to apply to be firefighters before they finish their parole, as CalMatters reported. 

Only non-violent inmates are eligible to serve as inmate firefighters. The law allowed the expungement of the records of former inmate firefighters. Senate Bill 245 shifts the burden to provide documentation for expungement on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, instead of on the former inmate.

“Who has the information? CDCR has it. Easy access, and all CDCR has to do is share it,” Gómez Reyes said.

It also stops former inmate firefighters from being denied a certification as an emergency medical technician based on their conviction history.

“We introduced this bill, or something very similar to it, a number of times, because we felt it was so unfair. We were hearing about all these wildfires, and the inmate firefighters that were helping to put out the fires, but there’s no change in their future. Even though we would see many of the residents holding up big banners, saying, “We love you,” to the inmate firefighters because they helped them out, it meant nothing. I thought, we need to show our love in a different way, which is showing a true second opportunity,” Gómez Reyes said. 

Another bill authored by the senator requires employers to inform employees of their rights when questioned by immigration agencies at their workplace, and to inform their employees’ family if the person is taken by agents.

“Everyone should know their rights, and make sure that we confirm that,” Gómez Reyes said.

Another bill, Senate Bill 686, removes the penalty for developers to pay back their loans early, while Senate Bill 800 requires suicide-prevention planning guidelines for bridges and overpasses on state highways.

Following last week’s reporting on three terminations and two resignations at the March Field Air Museum, Board President Jamil Dada called. 

“The museum is going great. It will be seamless. We will continue as we are. We are a great museum. We are proud of our heritage,” Dada said. “The museum’s been around for about 40 years. We’ve had curators come and go. Collections, people, that have come and gone. It happens to everything. Every kind of organization, municipality. Business owners come and go.” 

Dada maintained that the terminations were not due to any economic reason, and that the curator position, resigned by Jeff Houlihan following his employees’ terminations, will not be open to new hires until the museum hires a new executive director. He was not sure when that would be. The museum has not had an executive director since February.

When asked for the plans for the museum archives, Dada declined to talk.

“That’s museum business, and I don’t want to talk about museum business. The director will decide what the museum will be doing,” Dada said.

After talking with Dada, CalMatters obtained an Oct. 9 email sent from the president to board members’. In it, Dada wrote that there were “recent budget shortfalls.” He also wrote that the museum needed to focus on grant writers, staff to focus on youth education, and the construction of new hangars to house airplanes.

“We also need larger banquet and event facilities, not only because we get a lot of revenue from events, but also because we are very much in demand,” Dada wrote.

On Oct. 16, Dada held a meeting with volunteers. Two volunteers who attended the meeting told CalMatters that Board of Directors Vice President Mel Gutierrez said the museum needed to downsize its collection of planes. They also said Dada said the museum was in financial trouble.

CalMatters obtained a copy of the nonprofit’s bylaws. They say that the Board of Directors is responsible for selecting and removing employees of the corporation. Two members of the board told CalMatters that they were not informed of the decision to terminate the three employees. The bylaws allow the power to fire to be transferred to an executive committee. CalMatters is unaware of the power being transferred.

Dada said that the terminations were approved “by the board,” but said the question of it being approved by the board or the executive committee was confidential.

Dada did not respond to attempts to a second interview following the meeting, and CalMatters’ viewing of the email and bylaws.

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