March 17, 2026 · Budget Subcommittee No 5 State Administration · 5,462 words · 5 speakers · 66 segments
Happy St. Patrick's Day and welcome to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee 5 on State Administration hearing today. Today our hearing will focus on the Civil Rights Department. And just a note, we will not be hearing Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development Go Biz. We expect our directors to come and if our directors are not going to make it, then we're not going to hear the items. This is the second year in a row that our director has not shown up to committee and we will wait until they can prioritize this issue. And that would also include edd, which we did hear. Yet the director did not show up. So any future directors that would like their items heard in this committee, they should show up as last year we had the Secretary of State join us. This is a message. If you want your item heard, then show up as a director. Thank you. So we are going to move to our first item, housekeeping. This is an in person hearing with all panelists testifying in person. We will take questions from members of this subcommittee after each panel. Public comments will be taken at the end of the hearing and will be limited to one minute. If you're unable to attend this hearing in person, you may submit your comments via email to asmbudgetm.ca.gov all right, our first and only issue that will be heard today. Some of you may not have heard my first comments. We will be holding Go Biz until we can get the director in front of us. Issue number one, Civil Rights Department chapter legislation. Welcome to our panelists. And as usual, as you speak, please, please make sure you introduce yourself. Welcome.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and members. We are the Civil Rights Department. My name is Kevin Kish. I'm the Director. We enforce and protect the civil rights of Californians by investigating complaints filed with us, mediating those complaints and prosecuting certain complaints. We have a number of special projects and roles and I think we should just jump right in. Would you like to start out?
Go ahead, just jump right in.
Great. Thank you. Chair Corsilva and members. My name is Julia Parrish. I'm the Deputy Director of Legislation, Regulation and Policy at the Civil Rights Department. We will be implementing four pieces of chapter legislation this year. SB464, which updates the pay data reporting requirements. Currently, CRD requires large employers to file pay data reports and maintains an online portal and system to do that. This updates the current job categories from 10 to 23. We are also going to be implementing AB822, which continues the work of the Commission on the State of Hate, originally set to sunset in January of 2027 and is now extended to 2031. The Commission the Commission's mission is to monitor, prevent and respond to hate activity throughout the state. We will also be implementing AB935, which will expand data collection and reporting, establishing new reporting requirements, including demographic data, final action taken on filings, and a timeline for that action. And finally, we'll be implementing SB518, which establishes the new Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery. The Bureau contains three three divisions, Outreach and Education, Legal affairs, and a Genealogy unit. All of the BCPs related to Chapter legislation are consistent with the fiscal analysis during the legislative process.
Thank you.
Isabelle Fairclough, Department of Finance. No comment.
Good afternoon.
Paul Steenhausen with the Legislative Analyst Office.
We don't have any concerns with these proposals. All right, any last comments, questions from our member?
Thanks for your very short presentation. Can you guys actually elaborate a little bit more on the work of your agency? I'm new to this Budget Cut Subcommittee, so this is the first time I'm hearing from you. So if you guys can just talk more about some of the work that you're doing, some challenges that you're seeing. There's obviously also a lot of concerns that are happening, terms of potential civil rights violations within each of our respective districts as we see ice, immigration enforcement, you know, all over our neighborhoods. I represent Northeast la, East LA, and South Glendale, and ICE is all over my district. So, you know, would love to hear about what role do you see your department having as it relates to those types of violations, as it relates to the federal government and what should we be doing? A lot of the work that we're doing now, we're working with AG's office, but obviously your department, in my opinion, should have a role. If you can elaborate.
Thank you. I'm happy to talk a little bit more about this. Any member of the public can file certain types of civil rights disputes with us under certain laws, including fair housing laws, laws protecting civil rights and employment, public accommodations, hate crimes, human trafficking. We investigate each and every one of those cases. We are able to resolve many, many hundreds, sometimes thousands a year. And we select certain cases to prosecute in court, in state or federal court on behalf of the state to vindicate the rights of the Californians who have come to us seeking help. We do not have jurisdiction over the federal government. We do have jurisdiction over other state agencies and entities, which makes us very popular in this building and around the Capitol. But we do not have jurisdiction over the federal government or jurisdiction over laws like the Bain act, which is an act that makes it unlawful for officials to act under color of state law. So we're thinking, when we think of the Bayonet act, often policing tactics that are being challenged in court, that's not within our jurisdiction. At the same time, every day we interact with immigrant communities around the state. We have a very robust education and outreach unit that conducts outreach in multiple languages. We have bilingual Spanish speaking outreach specialists who are going around to fairs, events, community gatherings around the state and sharing information with people about their rights. One of our roles is assisting people by statute who are qualified for certain forms of immigration status. So, for example, a T visa for victims of severe forms of human trafficking, U visas for victims of certain qualifying crimes that fall within our jurisdiction. So each and every day we're thinking about how do we reach these communities? And the big challenge right now, in answer to your specific question about what we're seeing, is how do you distinguish the protections of state law and the structures that enforce those protections from the structures of federal law and the structures that enforce federal law? It is not an easy answer for most people. In my personal experience, the government is kind of one big blob. And so one of our big challenges is saying, California is here, your rights are protected. We do not care what your immigration status is. When you experience sexual harassment at work, when you experience discrimination in your apartment building because of the language that you speak, we could not care less. And typically we would never ask for it. Sometimes it becomes relevant if we're enforcing particular protections that depend on immigration status. You cannot be turned away from certain businesses, for example, because of your immigration status. But by and large, our big challenge is reaching these communities that we know have historically been underserved and that we know are living in fear in our current political moment. And so I'm proud to work with a team of folks who are very deeply committed to that work.
How big is your team?
JAMIE Gillette Chief Deputy Director we have about 350.
Yeah, I was going to say 340.
340 permanent full time employees.
You're a pretty big agency. I know you think you're relatively small relative to other state agencies. I guess when we have, you know, a handful of staff on the assembly side, 340 is a lot.
But
relative to some of the complaints that you receive, obviously you know, you're not enforcing federal law. But in the areas where you do have jurisdiction that you mentioned, housing, employment, public accommodations, businesses, other state funded programs, how many complaints is CRD receiving and what are the complaints about what trends are you seeing that folks, constituents, businesses are coming to you for.
Thank you for that question. We have seen year over year, regardless of federal administration, an increase in the number of complaints that we are seeing, with the exception of a dip in 20, 20, 21 during the COVID era, a dip in filings common to most law enforcing agencies around the state and the country. What we've seen more recently is a very sharp increase in filings. So we went our department had it was created in 1959, a predecessor organization and then the department became a Department in 1980. And for the first time in all that time since 1959, we went over 10,000 open matters. Last year, in one given day, I think we actually went over, I'm looking at Jamie Gillette, 9,000 and then 10,000. And at the end of 2025, we went over for the first time 11,000 Open matters. And as I sit here talking to you today, we have nearing 12,000 open matters. We're seeing a very sharp increase. Now, not all of these matters result in investigations, right? People can, we're the Civil Rights Department, people who feel that their rights have been violated contact us. Maybe it's something that we can help with. Maybe it's not much of our role at that initial stage is helping people understand do they have a claim and is it a claim that we can help with? If it's wage and hour, we can help get you to the labor commissioner. If it's health and safety, we can help get you to osha. But we are seeing a very sharp increase. I have not noticed particular major noticeable trends. Certainly there are cases involving landlords who are threatening people with eviction or calling ICE if they don't do what the landlord wants. We've always seen those cases, right? Maybe there are a handful more today than there were a couple years ago. But those cases have always been part of the docket that we have. So I haven't seen major trends that are different types or different nature of matters. We're just seeing more of everything.
Do you have any of this, like available in a report? That is your. I don't know whether or not you record a report, any of this to us or publicly that we can have a little bit more detail to understand. I say that because being the assembly office and having our team out in the community all the time, you know, our offices, be it at the state level where we are or the local level or the county level, where the one of the first stops for complaints and hear about a lot of These things. And at least from our end, my district office is seeing increased numbers of issues, especially as it relates to a lot of our small businesses and threats of eviction, and wondering to what extent your agency does any assistance in that. Do you provide anything for small businesses facing potential eviction? Is that a role of your agency?
So neither we nor any other state agency has jurisdiction over landlord tenant law as landlord tenant law. So evictions, however, we do have jurisdiction to investigate and in some cases, stop discriminatory evictions. So we have received cases in the past filed by businesses saying, hey, we are being evicted for a discriminatory reason because we are so close to closely associated with a particular group, a protected characteristic, national origin, race, sexual orientation, whatever, that we feel that this is actually discriminatory under the public accommodations laws under the Unruh Civil Rights Act. We do not have an education program. I'm sitting looking at my colleagues targeted right now at small businesses facing that. But it's very interesting to hear you say it. And we do have an annual report. The most recent one is from 2024. It has very detailed information about the bases of the complaints that we're seeing, including broken down by county, and that is up on our website.
Okay,
and thanks for that. I'll look into the annual report and we'll follow up with you. I'll schedule a meeting with your agency and my team to kind of tell you about some of the things that we're hearing and curious what education, community outreach resources you all do. And then kind of like the last part that I wanted to ask you about is obviously there's things like the Stop the Hate grants, obviously I know that's not distributed through your agency, but you are responsible for the State of Hate Commission, is that correct? Can you just tell us a little bit more about that commission? And also just like big picture, how is your agency responsible for overseeing or do you work with, to make sure that the things that we're implementing in the community and the work that your agency is doing, that these things are all working together. I just spoke at the Stop the Hate regional convening in Los Angeles last week. And obviously that's one of the things that has been raised as an issue that they're fighting for locally in terms of the budget priorities this year. But if I could get some some
additional details on that, I'm inviting my
colleague Yvonne Su to join us. Oh, I know Yvonne, who is responsible for leading many of our anti hate initiatives. Thank you, Julia. Just to make sure that I give you the information that you want. Thank you Yvonne. Thank you. So yes, we house within our department the Commission on the State of Hate, which is a statutory body with appointees from the governor and from the legislature to study hate, make recommendations. Their most recent annual report was just released last month. It's an extraordinary document in my view. It reflects significant academic research but also original research into Californians experience with hate, including the first ever to our knowledge, representative survey of Californians showing a lot of really interesting data, some of which has never been collected before. It goes on to make a series of recommendations. We work very closely with Stop the Hate grantees through the California vs Hate resource line and Network which our department administers and through the Community Conflict Conciliation Unit which is a mediation unit with our department. I would invite Yvonne to share anything about our collaboration. Part of your question is about making sure that these programs are all working together to share any insight that you have that would be responsive to that.
Thank you. And thank you Assemblymember for the question. I think this is really a good opportunity about how states can work better together. We often hear about silos and how we often operate in different silos. And as you mentioned, the Stop the Hate program which is under the Department of Social Services, we are all aligned in what we are trying to combat, which is hate and address hate. And the Civil Rights Department staffs and operates the California vs. Hate Resource Network and hotline. It was first established the same time in the same bill that the Stop the Hate program was. And we have, it has. Last year we received over 1200 reports of hate to the hotline. And the hotline's main purpose is to provide a resource for someone in the aftermath of a very traumatic incident. It connects people to the resource. The hotline and the care coordinators who answer the phone call connect people to community based resources based on the needs identified by the caller or the victim of the hate incident. And what's unique about this first of its kind statewide hotline is that most of the time when people who deal with a hate incident, their initial reaction is to call law enforcement or it may be to call law enforcement, but sometimes the act doesn't rise to the level of a and so the hotline becomes a resource for someone who is dealing with emotional trauma or maybe calling law enforcement is not an option. As you had mentioned earlier, there are lots of communities that are facing challenges and are being targeted by federal law enforcement. So they may feel uncomfortable. So calling this hotline is a way for them to receive confidential anonymous support. The other question that you had asked was about our collaboration with Stop the Hate and I was also at the regional convening last week that you were at in la. I think I was there a little bit after you, but we've been the California versus Hate program has been sending our staff to meet with all the Stop the Hate regional partners and we've also entered into formal partnerships with them because the hotline, while it is it is a place where people call and get connected to resources. We also rely on trusted messengers in the community to help build trust, to send referrals and also to provide support services. So a lot of the CARE coordinators, when someone calls a hotline, they will connect back to the community based organizations that are within the Stop the Hate network. So I think it gives us a really I have come to see these two programs as working hand in hand together. One cannot exist without the other. So thank you for your question.
Thanks for the response. Yen. That gives me good reassurance that you guys are working hand in hand. I'm glad that you were there at the regional convening. And I think being state government that's something that we see that functions of some of these different policy areas are split amongst different state agencies and whether or not they're working in unison and are building off of each other's work is another question entirely. And so that's great to hear. I don't have any more questions, but would love to follow up with your agency afterward. I think the work of the Civil Rights Department is one that I'm sure you have more things to do than you have hours and hours the day, given the number of expectations there are and the number of issues that arise that come to that come before your agency, whether it's from the assembly or from constituents that are reaching out. But look forward to learning more about some of the work that you're doing.
Thank you.
Thank you. Really appreciate member Colossa for her pointed questions and for her focus. I do have just a few questions. As noted under Civil Rights you continue to see an increase and it appears to me that in the last good amount of years it's almost on a regular basis that there's a group that becomes targeted, whether it's an API group. Of course in this last year we see this target of individuals that are perceived to be immigrants and usually that would be somebody who would look like me. And we have seen what this does in communities firsthand. Do you work at all with what we'd call it would be I know there's different areas regionally, but the rapid response to teams out there that are being called once they see some type of action by ice, or is that. Can you talk to that?
I would say that our education and outreach teams are in close communication with community groups around the state in every possible context. And we have very deep ties to, to these groups. It's one of my personal priorities. I don't think government can be functional in this area if we aren't actually in conversation with the people that we're purporting to serve. I don't have a specific answer for you about the rapid response networks, but I can get that to you.
And then another group that we know has been really targeted and matter of fact today in the Capitol, they are here in a protest of perceived legislation related to our transgender communities. And we have heard these cultural wars now for well over a few decades. And at first it was being against any type of LGBT interactions, then it was against gay marriage, and now it's drilling down to transgender individuals just because of who they are or related to sports. So whether it's legislation that is being put forward, I mean, the good old bathroom stories that we continue to hear, that every 16 year old boy wants to become transgender so they can peek in the women's bathroom. This I've now heard for two decades. And we know that this is less than 1% of our population, and yet it's taking up so much oxygen from the federal government, the president, all the way down to our committee rooms, even this morning with a bill for mental health and sports and all of these. What do you hear from that community as far as hate goes?
The transgender community is very disproportionately targeted with hate and discrimination. There is almost no transgender person who has not experienced as an adult, some form of discrimination. There is information in the most recent annual report of the Commission on the State of Hate, specifically about transgender Americans and their experience with hate. I really recommend reading is a very long report, but you can do a keyword search and search for the parts that are of highest interest. In response to your question, I can offer a very specific action that our department has taken. We know that our federal partner in the enforcement of workplace anti discrimination laws, the federal eeoc, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has issued internal rules purporting to comply with the President's executive order, where they are turning away cases involving gender identity, gender expression. We have negotiated, we have a contract with federal partners in the fair housing context. We have it with hud in the employment context, we have it with the EEOC we have negotiated. So that EEOC is sending us directly any case that involves these allegations because they are not going to investigate it. If it falls under California's laws, we should investigate it. And so that is a very direct action that we have taken to both send the message, but also to do the work of showing Californians that our department is still here, our California laws are still here. Everybody has the same protections that they had last year and the year before, and we're very committed to making sure that those are real.
All right, well, I don't have any other questions on this topic. I really do appreciate you as a department. I appreciate you, Mr. Kish, as the director coming today. That means a lot. Sometimes we hear the word civil rights and people think about the 60s that, you know, was most associated with sweeping change. And yet here we are in 2026, and we're seeing rights trampled on, and we're seeing historic attacks on individuals, whether they're from a Latino community, an API community, an LGBT community, or even women's rights. And it's shocking and it's shameful and it's saddening. And as I end my tenure, I am more than happy to support the investment in your department. Sadly, we would hope that these numbers would be trending down. And yet we can see in a short time how these numbers can just continue to go up. And it's all about what people say and what people used to say in closets or in back rooms. Now they feel the freedom to say it online, to tack. Even with our governor sharing his disability, reading disability. And now we have our president who is talking about disabilities, as if that's something that you can just say with no regard to people. But we appreciate you. Thank you so much. All right, any public speaking on this item, item number one, you may come to the mic. Hi, everyone. I don't know if there's a microphone. Is that going to work for you? Okay. Yeah. You can hold it up if you need to. My name is Megan Esridge. I am the. Civil rights department. Our goal is really to support our community and support our fathers. We work with them 247 on a regular two month.
And we wouldn't be able to do
that without the Civil Rights department supporting us, letting us be the boots on
the ground, working with the community, working with the resources in the community, and
really empowering our callers to kind of get through this incredibly traumatic experience, holding their hand, making sure that they're getting
connected so we just wanted to stand
as a network of 21 ones across the state in support of the Civil Rights Department.
Thank you.
Thank you. Appreciate those comments. All right, it looks like we will have the same panel up for our next item, which is item number two. Ongoing workload related to cannabis discrimination in employment related to AB 2188. And we'll go ahead and move to that item.
Thank you. Regarding all of the ongoing workload BCPS. When AB 2188 was passed, as well as AB 1041 and and 1949, the legislature initially provided limited term resources to the Civil Rights Department that will expire on June 30, 2016. To enforce these new legislative requirements. The BCPs reflect a request for permanent position authority instead of the limited term funding. The funding was based on CRD's estimate of increased workload prior to implementation of the legislation and overall additional workload has met initial estimates.
Any comments from the lio?
Nothing to add.
Thank you.
All right. Just policy in with the lao. The proposed funding would allow the department to implement continue implementing required activities without interruptions. We don't have any concerns.
Okay.
Assemblymember, I don't have any comments or questions either. Anybody from the public wishing to speak on this item. That's item number two under Civil Rights Department seeing none, we will close that item. Go to item number three, which is ongoing workload resources for AB 1041 and AB 1949. And same team up here actually.
Yeah, same comments. It was based on an initial estimate. Workload has exceeded initial estimate.
All right, LAO assembly member. I have none. Public. Did I forget to ask the public for the last. Okay, see no. 1. We are going to close item number three. And now security at public counters. That would be item number four.
Good afternoon, I'm Jamie Gillette, the Chief Deputy Director with the Civil Rights Department.
And.
And this next item is a request for $502,000 for ongoing funding for security guard services at our department's public counters. We maintain offices that are open to the public and we want to ensure the safety of CRD employees and also the public visitors that we have. We've had over a dozen incidents since July of 2024 of individuals making threats to our CRD employees. And that's created a lot of concern internally. So these on site security guards would greatly enhance our staff security and safety and then also help deter potential threats.
Thank you.
We don't have any concerns with this proposal.
Thank you for your presentation. I'm sorry to hear about some of the threats have been Made to your staff and your teams as know as you try to protect the civil rights of other people and the public, it's, you know, to have your civil rights also under threat is awful. And you know, I know my staff knows that feeling. As well as we're out in the community, we also have public facing offices. We know that security and threats to staff and wanting to make sure we provide a safe workplace is of the utmost important to us. And so really my question is very simple for the Los Angeles location. Where is that located so we can go bother you.
It's 4th and Hill in the Junipero Serra State Building.
Okay.
It's the building with the labor commissioner.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. You'll see Assembly District 52 there.
Great, thank you.
Yeah, related to where offices are, you don't have an office in Orange County. Are there any thoughts about that?
You know, the department in the 90s had 12 offices throughout the state. Many of those were closed during the last recession, 2008, 2009, in an effort to save positions, which actually is a decision that I understand and support. We have since been able to open a single additional. Well, we've opened two offices, but we now have six. And the one that we were able to open is in the Inland Empire. And we're happy to be able to serve the communities out there. I think it would be great to have offices in every county. But you know, we all know, I
get it sometimes though, a county like Orange county, It could be really important to have an office there. They had the Orange County Human Relations that was run by the county and of course of recent, that was kind of cut in half. And we know that Orange county, with all of its beautiful beaches and theme parks, there can certainly be a lot of hate in that community. Not one city, but as a whole. And sometimes it makes headlines across the United States and it's. We always want to be looking at that, but I certainly support this. We understand it as legislators, as we have our own events and have had to increase security because of some of the individuals that we encounter ourselves without saying where I live. I live in an old neighborhood that backs up to a alley. And up until literally this summer, I did not have a security system, even a ring camera. We have a big dog, big family, people always in and out. Never really felt any particular threat until we in fact did have a very serious threat that we had to actually have a restraining order. All of those things you have to do with the local police department and then certainly now have a system. But even at our very basic events that we have, whether it's a community engagement, we have to have security. And almost every event that we have, there is somebody who shows up that is not easy. And this, this has really changed. I used to do walk in talks, I used to do community conversations, kind of open ended engagements. Always really enjoyed that. And in the last year have really had to change quite a bit of what we do. And even though 98% of the people who come are very pleasant and you know, just great people, it's the one or two that we have, we just had an event last week and two individuals that we were very happy to have had the security there. So this is real for all of us. I, you know, just pray at some point we can see a change because it really impacts the work that we're trying to do. But that being said, I certainly support this. And do we have anybody from the public wishing to speak? See none that will then close item number four. Thank you.
Thank you.
And as we are not hearing our next item, we look forward to when our directors can join us. And we will be happy to reschedule those as we get commitments from directors to come to our committee. We want to be supportive and engage with them, but we want to see our directors with that. That will end our hear.