Preparing for Policy Committee

https://soundcloud.com/capimpactca/the-clinic-episode-4-preparing-for-policy-committee

In today’s edition of The Clinic, we dive into the process of preparing for a policy committee hearing with Michelle and Keri. It is a long process with lots of steps and lots of people to keep in the loop along the way.

The process started with some initial conversations – back when AB 1784 was just a policy proposal – with some of the consultants to the Assembly Committee on Human Services. That led to more in depth conversations, with more pointed questions about AB 1784, that was assigned to that Assembly Human Services.

In addition to those conversations, Keri and Michelle were also meeting with the Republican party’s consultant to the committee, and the staff of every member on the Assembly committee.

The prep process was also a lesson – learned the hard way – in not falling in love with your bill. In order for AB 1784 to clear the Assembly Human Services Committee, there were some fairly significant changes that Michelle and Keri needed to make. Nothing so drastic that it would dramatically alter what the bill would do – in fact it still would basically do what our two students lobbying the bill want it to do – but enough that they would not be able to say that their bill did not emerge from the committee completely unscathed.

Be sure to tune in for more details from the conversations Keri and Michelle had, what changes were made to AB 1784, and more.

 

Today’s episode of The CAP•impact Podcast takes a look at the impacts of changes at the federal level on the regulated cannabis market in California and looks at how that new market is doing.

For the analysis of federal policy changes, primarily the decision in January by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions to rescind the Cole Memorandum, you might recognize the comments from McGeorge School of Law Professor Mike Vitiello. He talks about what the Cole Memo did, the immediate impact of it being rescinded by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and what the longer term impact of it has looked like. He also gives his thoughts as to the real impact the decision to rescind the Cole Memo will have in California, and on the cannabis industry nationwide.

We then chat with Dustin Moore, a Principal at Main Street Strategies and the Deputy Campaign Manager for 2016’s Yes on Prop 64 campaign, to talk about how the roll out of the legalized adult use of recreational cannabis is going in California, the challenges new businesses are facing, and some of the solutions being discussed to address those challenges. The Cole Memo comes up briefly here as well, but we focus primarily on the hurdles the have emerged in the process of creating a regulated market for recreation adult use of cannabis in California and how the market in California differs from the markets in other states that legalized cannabis before California did.

If you found our conversation about the role of local governments in the new regulated cannabis markets interesting, you should also look into this series the Orange County Register on cannabis laws in cities and counties across California.

You can find the full interview with Dustin, and the rest of this week’s episode on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, or wherever you find your podcasts.

The Many Roles of Your District Attorney

https://soundcloud.com/capimpactca/the-many-roles-of-your-district-attorney

On today’s episode I sat down to speak with Ana Zamora. She’s the Criminal Justice Policy Director for the ACLU of Northern California and she is running their Meet Your DA campaign here in California. This is a slightly different take on our Policy Change in that instead of discussing the process of changing public policy, we discuss the process of implementing – or not implementing in some cases – a recently changed policy.

Meet Your DA is a slightly different kind of campaign. It’s not directly trying to elect particular candidates to District Attorneys’ offices across California. Rather, the campaign is focused on helping people get to know who their local District Attorney is, and highlight some of the positions those DA’s have taken on recent criminal justice reform ballot measures.

Ana and I also discuss the power and influence that a District Attorney has in local law enforcement and how that influence plays out in the criminal justice and prison systems in California.

We also dive into the different roles that a District Attorney plays. The most obvious is the role of prosecutor and representative of the people in court. But getting back to the Meet Your DA campaign, we also talk about District Attorney’s role as a policy implementer and how embrace, or not embrace, recent criminal justice reform measures that have been passed by California’s voters via the initiative process.

 

 

 

Advocacy in Practice with Erin Evans-Fudem

https://soundcloud.com/capimpactca/advocacy-in-practice-with-erin-evans-fudem

For today’s podcast, I sat down McGeorge alum Erin Evans-Fudem (’13), who is a Legislative Representative for the League of California Cities (also known as the League). Full disclosure, we did record this interview a while back. But while one part of the conversation will sound dated, the rest is evergreen. Our conversation definitely differs from the previous Advocacy in Practice interviews that I had with Chris Micheli and Ray LeBov.

Erin focuses on environmental quality and community services for the League. That means she gets to work on all the really fun issues, like water, energy, air quality, utilities, etc. There were a couple of things that really stood out to me in my interview with her.

The first is that with Erin being closer to her time in law school than Chris or Ray, she was quick to point out where law students and job seekers interested in the Capitol can look to find jobs. She also stressed the importance of being visible, of putting yourself out there. She brought up an anecdote of running into the right person at the right time, and while the encounter was unplanned it proved fruitful and led to a problem being solved quickly.

We discuss many more aspects of the lobbying profession in our interview. I hope you enjoy it.

 

 

 

Other Types of Lobbying

https://soundcloud.com/capimpactca/other-types-of-lobbying

Today’s podcast is a follow up on last week’s post about the different types of lobbying clients and services. Today we’ll be looking at other types of lobbying.

Although most lobbying occurs in the legislative and regulatory arenas generally, there are several other types of lobbying – such as grassroots lobbying as well as advocacy before specific agencies that often have unique rules and procedures for lobbying those agencies. Today’s podcast will discuss grassroots lobbying as well as a few of those specialized state bodies that lobbyists should be aware of.

Grassroots lobbying, which is sometimes referred to as indirect lobbying, involves members of the general public as opposed to those directly impacted by a bill or issue. In essence, grassroots lobbying is an effort to cajole members of the general public into contacting their elected officials so that the members of the public are lobbying the decision makers.

This type of lobbying requires educating large groups of individuals and then mobilizing them into some sort of call to action. It usually involves efforts to get specific organizations or community groups to become involved in the efforts to pass or defeat pending legislation or regulations.

Educating the public can take multiple forms: such as direct mailers, social media, paid or earned media, press conferences, etc. Outreach efforts are key to successful grassroots lobbying and the media often play a critical role in these outreach efforts.

Now let’s turn to lobbying some of those specialized agencies. Some of the state agencies that have specialized lobbying rules and procedures include the Public Utilities Commission, PUC, the California Coastal Commission – the Coastal Commission – and the California Air Resources Board – CARB.

In general, a lobbyist is one who is paid to communicate with officials for the purpose of influencing legislative of administrative action. This is the definition of lobbying in the Political Reform Act in the Government Code. In the brief podcast, I go into more depth about some of the specific rules for lobbyists lobbying the PUC.

It’s important for lobbyists to be aware of rules regulating conduct when lobbying different state agencies and departments. These rules need to be reviewed prior to undertaking any activity, and then of course, you have to follow them to ensure proper compliance. Otherwise, both the lobbyists and his or her client could be adversely impacted.

The Clinic – Episode 3: Early Stages of Coalition Building

https://soundcloud.com/capimpactca/the-clinic-episode-3-early-stages-of-coalition-building

This week on The Clinic, we speak again with Keri and Michelle about the bill they are working on with Asm. Brian Maienschein, AB 1784. This episode concentrates on the process of finding support – both inside and outside of the Building – for their bill.

Keri and Michelle talk about how they approach special interest groups as well as the advocates for the policies they are working to improve. They speak about the process of building relationships with those groups and how they present their bill to them.

Building a coalition of supporters for your bill is a fine art that Keri and Michelle have been mastering this semester and they share with us how they approach presenting their bill to different groups. We hope you enjoy this week’s episode of The Clinic and we look forward to sharing next week’s episode where we start to talk about the Committee process!

It’s not news that California is in a dire housing crisis. Lt. Governor, and current gubernatorial candidate, Gavin Newsom told the New York Times recently:

It’s a crisis. We can’t live on intentions. At the end of the day, if you want to move the mouse, you’ve for to move the cheese. The middle class of the state is leaving in droves. This is a Code Red in California.”

That sentiment is why last night’s panel discussion at McGeorge School of Law could not have come at a better time. The California Legislature passed a package of 15 bills last year to address the housing crisis, and while there are some interesting impacts from that package of legislation discussed in the video below, it’s clear that much more still needs to be done.

We assembled a fantastic panel of experts last night discuss the housing crisis, some of the factors that led to how California got to where it is today, some potential fixes that the California Legislature is currently considering – primarily SB 827, a bill by California State Senator Scott Wiener that would override local zoning and permit the construction of eight-story housing near transit stops – as well as other potential changes likely to come into the Legislature’s sights in the near future.

https://www.facebook.com/McGeorgeCapCtr/videos/1813018195667725/?t=35

The panelists were Liam Dillon, a journalist for the Los Angeles Times an co-host of Gimmie Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, Nick Cammarota (McGeorge ’91) of the California Building Industry Association, and Jason Rhine with the League of California Cities.

The event was organized by McGeorge’s Real Property Club, and was co-sponsored by McGeorge’s Government Affairs Student Association and the Capital Center for Law & Policy at McGeorge School of Law.

The Capital Center for Law & Policy is excited to announce the launch of our new podcast, The CAP·impact Podcast. You can find the new podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, and Soundcloud. We will be expanding our list of podcast clients that you can find us on in the next few days. If there is a particular app you like to use for listening to podcasts, let us know in the comments and we’ll get The CAP·impact Podcast on there for you.

Erin Scott – Board Chair, California Partnership to End Domestic Violence – sitting down with Jon Wainwright at The Partnership’s office in Sacramento.

If you’re a die hard reader of CAP⋅impact, you might recognize the people in today’s episode. The episode starts with Jon Wainwright giving an introduction to the podcast. That is followed by an abridged conversation between Ray LeBov and Chris Micheli on lobbying the state budget in California.

Following their chat is Jon’s conversation with Erin Scott, the Chair of the Board of Directors for The California Partnership to End Domestic Violence. While it’s not in this episode, you’ll want to stay tuned for a follow up to this conversation that Jon had with some of the folks at the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault on the cost of sexual violence in California and on their joint efforts with The Partnership to get more funding for preventing sexual violence and domestic violence in California.

The launch of The CAP⋅impact Podcast is a very exciting next step for us. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to more great conversations about law and policy in California added into your feed every week and please give it a 5-star review – and a positive comment – so other people can find the show more easily.

Thank you for listening!

Advocacy in Practice Interview with Ray LeBov

https://soundcloud.com/capimpactca/advocacy-in-practice-with-ray-lebov

For today’s podcast, I sat down with veteran lobbyist and familiar voice, Ray LeBov. As I’m sure you remember from Ray’s many posts, he’s a 40+ year veteran of the California Legislature, working both in the Building as committee staff and in the third house.

He graciously took the time to share the wealth of wisdom that he has when it comes to navigating California’s legislative process that he gained from his depth of experience.

We talk at length about his time at the Judicial Council of California and the nuances of client management, the most difficult part of job.

 

 

 

Types of Lobbying Clients and Services

https://soundcloud.com/user-259535370/types-of-lobbying-clients-and-services

Today’s post is on the types of lobbying clients and services provided. There are several different types of clients that contract lobbyists have, each requiring different levels and types of services. Some clients are at a low end of the service spectrum while other clients are at the very high end, requiring daily attention.

Contract lobbyists may have a myriad of clients in different industries while others may specialize in specific types of clients. Regardless of the subject matter of the client’s interest, there are essentially four types of clients: monitoring, lobbying, consulting, and procurement.

Monitoring clients simply desire to know what is happening at the Legislature and/or with regulatory agencies and the Governor’s office. This type of client requires a lobbyist to monitor relevant legislation and regulations, sometimes budget items, and politics generally involving particular issue areas or industries. As a result of monitoring legislation and regulations, lobbyists may work with their clients to develop strategic plans, designed to meet their near-term and long-term objectives.

The next type of servicing is lobbying. These services can range from supporting or opposing legislation or regulations, or sponsoring bills, to make specified changes in the law. There are essentially three types of lobbying – legislative lobbying, regulatory advocacy lobbying, and budget advocacy.

Legislative consulting and advocacy services usually include research and analysis of policy issues, daily monitoring of legislation introduced and amended, and advocacy for and against legislation affecting clients. Regulatory advocacy is similar, but it’s a world unto its own with separate rules. Lobbyists help their clients meaningfully engage in the public comment period and the formal hearings when regulatory bodies engage in their quasi-legislative activities.

The next type of client and service is consulting. This type of client doesn’t require lobbying or advocacy services, but instead desires to retain a lobbyist to provide consulting or advisory services. These types of clients want active advising regarding what they should be doing such that the lobbyist provides political advice or consulting to the client, such as how to navigate the legislative or regulatory processes, identify viable candidates for open seats, and recommend candidates without actually advocating.

The last type of lobbying service provided is procurement lobbying. These types of lobbyists do not have to register as a lobbyist under the Political Reform Act. In this role, lobbyists try to secure contracts for the purchase of goods or services by the State of California.