As with any other team, California Local has its heroes. One of them is Baratunde Thurston, the astute commentator whose podcast How To Citizen is a source of inspiration for our co-founders, Chris Neklason and Eric Johnson. Thurston considers “citizen” a verb. The podcast’s website outlines four different definitions of the verb, starting with “to participate”—specifically in “ways that include and go beyond voting.”
Though it’s not election season, this past week was nonetheless a time of intense activity in the political and governmental arena. The last day of August marked the end of the eight-month session of the California Legislature, and the deadline for bills to pass out of the Legislature.
Many bills touch on the hot-button issues of the day, including climate change, abortion rights, housing, and the CARE Court. It’s a dizzying task to keep track of all this legislation, but it’s definitely a keystone activity when it comes to citizening. Fortunately, CalMatters offers a cheat sheet that runs down some of the highest-profile bills—and it will be updated as the fate of each is determined on the governor’s desk.
Every bill has a story behind it that explains how and why its proponents took up the task of writing, sponsoring and lobbying for it. One local example is Senate Bill 850, introduced by state Sen. Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz). The bill addresses situations in which the children of slain law enforcement officers did not receive survivor benefits because they were part of nontraditional families. With its passage, reports the Santa Cruz Sentinel, children in three local families—including that of fallen Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputy Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller—will receive survivors’ benefits.
“This is a righteous bill,” Laird told the Sentinel.
Just over the hill in Los Gatos, another local news story inspired two Silicon Valley politicians—state Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose) and Assembly Member Evan Low (D-Campbell)—to champion Senate Bill 1100, which grants California school boards, city councils and boards of supervisors clear authority to remove disruptive participants from their meetings. The impetus came when Marico Sayoc, then mayor of Los Gatos, was attacked with anti-LGBTQ and anti-vaccine rhetoric both during meetings and outside her home.
