By Antonio Ray Harvey
California Black Media

Last week, Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood) joined a diverse panel of women legislators at the “Women in California’s Legislature: 2023 Speaker Series on California’s Future” luncheon to discuss the essential roles they play in shaping governmental policies benefiting Californians.

The event was hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento.

This year’s class of legislators includes the largest number of women in state history — 18 senators and 32 assemblymembers. Joining McKinnor on the panel were state Senators Janet Nguyen (R-Garden Grove), Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Assemblymember Liz Ortega (D-San Leandro).

McKinnor said she made the decision to get into politics after seeing the video of police officers beating motorist Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1992.

Over the years, McKinnor said, a major influence on her policy decisions are the lessons gleaned from raising a family.

“I think (women) bring diversity to the table because we are about taking care of our families,” McKinnor said. “So, the legislation that you see coming out of this (panel), I believe, will be around housing, jobs, equity and public safety. The women here are going to make a tremendous difference because we take care of our families differently.”

Before McKinnor was elected to the California State Assembly in June 2022, she served as civic engagement director for the nonprofit LA Voice and previously served as operational director for the California Democratic Party and chief of staff to several members of the State Assembly. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting from California State University Dominguez Hills.

Left, Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, PPIC’s president and chief executive officer, was the moderator of the event. Left to right, Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), District 61; state Sen. Janet Nguyen (R-Garden Grove), District 36; Assemblywoman Liz Ortega (D-San Leandro), District 20; and Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) of District 9. The Women in California’s Legislature event was hosted by PPIC in Sacramento on March 8, 2023. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

McKinnor is currently chair of the Public Employment and Retirement Committee. She serves on other policy committees, including the Business and Professions Committee, Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee and the Governmental Organization Committee.

McKinnor’s legislative priorities include California’s continued COVID-19 recovery, increased funding for public education, expanded universal access to healthcare, the state’s housing and homelessness crisis and reforming the state’s criminal justice system.

“I never thought I’d be in politics in 1992. I thought I had better get off the sofa and pay attention to what’s going on,” McKinnor said. “After that, I didn’t sit down, and I got involved in the community.”

Black women are 7.7% of the total U.S. population and 15.3% of the total number of women in the country, according to the U.S. Census.

In the 2021 study, the State Innovation Exchange (SIE) — a group that advocates for representation in state legislatures — and the National Organization for Black Elected Legislative Women (NOBEL Women) took a deep dive into their analysis of women serving in government.

SIE and NOBEL Women reported that Black women fill just 4.82% (356) of 7,383 state Legislature seats across the United States. That same year, eight state legislatures convened without a single Black woman in their ranks: Vermont, South Dakota, Hawaii, Arizona, Idaho, Nebraska, Montana, and North Dakota — all places with Black populations falling in a range from 2% to 6%, the study revealed.

Currently, there are five Black women in the California Legislature: McKinnor and Assemblymembers Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City), Mia Bonta (D-Alameda), Akilah Weber (D-La Mesa) and Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Ladera Heights). They are also members of the California Legislature Black Caucus.

Smallwood-Cuevas is the lone Black woman among 40 state senators.

“I am the 20th Black woman to be elected to the (California) Legislature,” McKinnor said at the event held on International Women’s Day. “Sen. Lola Smallwood became the 21st Black woman. So, we still have a lot of work to do.”

PPIC, the nonprofit that organized the event, bills itself as a nonpartisan think tank with a mission to inform and improve public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research. Former California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye is PPIC’s president and chief executive officer.

Ophelia Basgal, an affiliate at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at University of California, Berkeley, and a senior executive consultant for Inclusion INC, provided the opening remarks.

All the women legislators who participated in the event are members of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, a political body that represents and advocates on the behalf of the diverse interests of women, children, and families.

The panelists discussed gender diversity in state politics, how personal interests play out in politics, legislation they are currently working on, setting better policy for the state, and offered advice to women who are interested in running for office.

“In addition to the vision and experience, we bring that voice into the room that is often unheard and unseen,” said Ortega, a longtime labor leader and activist from an immigrant family. “We will make sure we are seen and heard and deliver (policies) for all in the state of California and the United States.”

The Sheraton Ballroom in downtown Sacramento was filled with women and men listening to the 60-minute conversation between the women that was at times passionate, thought-provoking, reflective and lighthearted.

“We’ve been truly inspired by this distinguished panel for their questions, insight, and answers,” Cantil-Sakauye said to the audience. “Thank you for making this (speakers’ series) memorable.”

Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌ ‌|‌ ‌California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

This past weekend, the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans received insight on how the state government might implement recommendations the panel submits in its final proposal due before July 1.

Chas Alamo, the principal fiscal and policy analyst at the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), appeared remotely in front of the panel as an expert witness during the two-day meeting held March 3 in Sacramento.

Alamo offered “several paths that could be possible for ultimate recommendations” by the task force to “flow through the Legislature and become state law” and how they can “apply” to the creation of the proposed California American Freedman Affairs Agency (CAFAA). The agency, if approved, would oversee compensation the state authorizes to Black California residents who are descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

The LAO is a non-partisan office overseen by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC), a 16-member bipartisan team. It is the “eyes and ears” of the State Legislature ensuring that the executive branch is implementing legislative policy in a cost-efficient and effective manner. Its biggest responsibility is analyzing the governor’s annual budget.

Khansa “Friday Jones” Jones-Muhammad, is the vice president of the Los Angeles Reparations Advisory Commission. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

Alamo explained to the task force how the recommendations they make will likely become state policy.

“The creation of a new agency would be initiated through the governor’s executive branch and reorganization process, but other options exist,” Alamo said. “Regardless of the path, to initiate a new agency or enact any other recommendation that makes changes to state law, fundamentally both houses from the state Legislature would have to approve the action and the governor will have to sign it.

During discussions at the Sacramento meeting, the task force began the process of clearly defining CAFAA’s role, focusing on adding clarity to the agency’s mission as overseer for other entities offering reparations in the form of assistance to Californians who qualify.

After a two-hour spirited debate at the meeting — the 13^th convening of the task force so far — all nine-members agreed that CAFAA would have specified powers and its structure would include an administrative body that guides implementation.

“The proposed entity would be an agency, independent agency, that would provide services where they don’t presently exist (and) provide oversight to existing (state) agencies,” task force chair Kamilah V. Moore said.

CAFAA would facilitate claims for restitution and would set up a branch to process claims with the state and assist claimants in proving eligibility through a “genealogy” department, the task force members said. A commitment to assisting with the implementation and operation of policies and programs being considered for recommendation would also be in the purview of the agency.

The concept of CAFAA is based on the defunct federal Freedmen’s Bureau. On March 3, 1865, Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees.” The bureau’s main objective was to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to newly freed African Americans.

Ward Connerly, the African American political activist who led the ballot initiative that outlawed Affirmative Action in California in 1996, Proposition (Prop) 209, told FOX News one day after the task force’s Sacramento meeting that offering reparations was a “bad” and a “goofy idea.”

Connerly, former President of the California Civil Rights Initiative Campaign, has made objections to reparations for about a year now as California gets closer than any government in United States history to making amends for historical injustices committed against Black Americans.

“California is a progressive state but we’re not insane,” Connerly told FOX News on March 5. “So, I think that people of this state would rise up and say ‘no.’”

The two-day meeting in Sacramento was held at the Byron Sher Auditorium at the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) in downtown Sacramento. Both days attracted crowds, mainly comprised of interested individuals and groups from Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area.

A participant stands and waits to give public comment at the March 4 Reparations Task Force meeting in Sacramento. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg attended the second day of the meeting. Steinberg is one of 11 mayors who pledged to pay reparations for slavery to Black residents in their cities.

Similar to efforts in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and Richmond, Sacramento is focused on developing a municipal reparations initiative through the city’s ongoing Sacramento Centered on Racial Equity (SCORE) initiative.

“I wholeheartedly support reparations and think everyone should,” Steinberg told the task force panel on March 4. “If government should stand for anything, it should stand for investing in communities and people who have been the victims of discrimination and disenfranchisement for far too long.”

The task force also recommended “appropriate ways” to educate the public about the task force’s findings and future reparations actions by the state.

The charge calls for building a collective base of knowledge to inform racially diverse communities in California about reparations, appealing to different ways of learning, expanding task force discussions into mainstream conversations, and inspiring reflection and action among all residents of California.

Task force members Dr. Cheryl Grills and Don Tamaki presented the proposal.

The next two-day task force will return to Sacramento at the end of March. For more information on the next meeting, visit the California Department of Justice’s website (https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121).

By Tanu Henry and Antonio Ray Harvey
California Black Media

Rep. Barbara Lee Holds First Campaign Rally in Oakland

Last Saturday, Rep. Barbara Lee held her first U.S. Senate campaign rally at Laney College in Oakland.

“We fight for freedom, for dignity, for justice, and, together, we win,” said Lee to a cheering crowd of supporters gathered at the Alameda County community college.

“That’s why I’m running for the United States Senate,” continued Lee, who is the highest-ranking African American woman in the U.S. Congress and the only African American so far in the 2024 California senatorial race.

Lee, 76, is serving her 12^th term in the United States Congress. Known for her progressive politics, she joins the race to replace Feinstein against two other members of California’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives: Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA-37), 49, and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA-30), 62.

Several high-profile Bay Area politicians attended the rally, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, the first Hmong-American mayor of a major American city.

“Black women have been at the forefront of frontlines of the fight for freedom and dignity and justice and peace for centuries. Black women get the job done,” said Lee.

The Bontas Have (Clearly) Moved On

After weeks of facing a torrent of criticisms coming from several journalists across California — including an editorial in the L.A. Times — it seems Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Alameda) and her husband, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, have moved on.

Mia Bonta showed her support for Rep. Barbara Lee after the Congresswoman held the first rally of her senatorial bid on Bonta’s Alameda County home turf.

“Barbara Lee speaks for me,” said Mia Bonta who has been keeping herself occupied tackling other issues in her district, including excessive use of force by law enforcement and the persistent digital divide affecting families of color.

Last week, Assembly Budget Committee chair Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) also released a statement assuring the public that Mia Bonta will not influence issues affecting her husband or the California Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Effective immediately in the Assembly Budget Committee, any state funding matters pertaining to the Department of Justice will be temporarily moved to and overseen by Budget Subcommittee 4,” said Ting. “DOJ’s proposed allocations will go through the same vetting process that all entities funded by California’s budget do, allowing for anyone to weigh in during public hearings.”

On Friday, Rob Bonta delivered remarks at California’s commemoration of the National Day of Racial Healing.

While pushing back on the media attacks, the Bontas enjoyed support from some commentators.

“The media focus should be on covering both (Rob and Mia Bonta’s) efforts to promote public safety and make California a better place for all citizens. I urge all reporters and editors to uphold the principles of responsible journalism and prioritize the truth and accuracy of their reporting over sensationalism and clickbait. The public deserves better than to be misled by unfounded innuendo,” said Paul Cobb, publisher of the Oakland Post. “The Black press has a responsibility to step up and do its part to foster a more informed and engaged public and not allow mainstream media and newspapers to marginalize Black leaders without pushing back especially when their reporting shows ignorance and fails to uphold the principles of responsible journalism.”

Assemblymembers Holden and Jones Sawyer Eye Futures in Local Government

As their time in the state Legislature gets closer to the end due to term limits, California Legislative Black Caucus members Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) and Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) have announced their future political plans.

Assemblymember Holden is entering the race for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (5th District). He’ll face Republican incumbent Kathryn Barger.

Assemblymember Jones-Sawyer is seeking to represent the 10^th District on the Los Angeles City Council, hoping to replace Heather Hutt who was appointed to the seat because Mark Ridley-Thomas is under federal indictment.

Each member elected on or after the passage of Proposition 28, in 2012, is allowed to serve a lifetime maximum of 12 years in the state Legislature, or a combination of service in the Assembly and Senate. Holden has been in office since December 2014 and Jones-Sawyer has served in the Assembly since December 2012.

Public Policy of California Releases Profile of Black Community

As Black History Month draws to a close, the Public Policy Institute of California has released a profile of Black Californians titled “California’s African American Community.”

“One in 20 Black Americans lived in California in the most recent Census count, and California’s Black population is larger than that of all but five other states (Texas, Georgia, Florida, New York, and North Carolina),” the report reads before giving an overview of the history of Black people in California and pointing out that only 3% of California’s Black population are non-citizens and only 4% are naturalized.

According to the profile, Black Californians “lag behind other groups in college graduation, home ownership, and income.”

When it comes to political participation, Black people engage in the electoral process at rates almost equal to their white counterparts.