Essential California September 1, 2020 Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Sept. 1, and I’m writing from Los Angeles. After a frenzied rush of late-night politicking, the California Legislature has officially finished its most extraordinary session in recent memory. As our Sacramento bureau chief John Myers writes, it’s been “a remarkable, chaotic and uncertain year” for the Golden State and the people who govern it. Legislators are attending to a state in great crisis, with brutal fires, an ongoing pandemic and a coming “eviction cliff” all top of mind for lawmakers and the people they represent. The coronavirus also hit the legislative body itself, forcing closures at the Capitol twice this year and shortening the time lawmakers had to craft and debate proposals. Over the past few days, quite a few Republican state senators were debating and voting on bills from home after being sidelined by exposure to Sen. Brian Jones (R-Santee), who tested positive for the coronavirus last week. Last-minute partisan fireworks erupted Monday night, after Senate Democrats voted to limit the number of speakers on each bill, infuriating Senate Republicans who argued that they were being silenced by the Democratic supermajority. Sen. Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) called the move an expletive that I can’t print in this paper. There were some initial questions about whether the public expletive had been an accidental hot mic moment, but Melendez cleared up that speculation by reaffirming her statement on Twitter. More chaos in the upper chamber ensued, as the midnight deadline ticked ever closer. The motion to limit debate on bills was eventually rescinded just before 9 p.m., with a mere three hours remaining on the clock. Here’s a look at where things stand on some of the most closely watched bills. None of the proposals approved in the statehouse are law yet. Their fate still hinges on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature. Newsom has until the end of the month to sign (or not sign) the legislation at hand. Coronavirus protections: There are quite a few coronavirus-related proposals heading to Newsom for approval, including bills to add sweeping new labor protections for hotel, janitorial and airport employees, allow cash-strapped Californians to borrow more money from their retirement accounts without tax penalties and award high school diplomas to students who were unable to finish the final months of the school year due to the pandemic. Read my Sacramento colleague Melody Gutierrez’s story on COVID-19 protection bills for a deeper look at what those proposals entail. A path forward for prison firefighters: Formerly incarcerated Californians who braved fire lines while in prison have long been legally barred from becoming full-time, year-round firefighters with the state — and numerous counties and cities — after their release because of their criminal records. It’s a system that my columnist colleague Erika Smith has termed to be “one of California’s most notorious wrongs.” This proposalwould allow individuals who have successfully worked in one of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s fire camps to petition a judge to quickly expunge their records and waive parole time, clearing their way to suit up again. Diversifying corporate boards: As you might recall, the state passed a lawtwo years ago that requires publicly traded, California-based companies to include women on their corporate boards. Modeled on that 2018 law, this new proposal would require companies to have at least one board director from an underrepresented community by the close of 2021, with the number increasing in 2022 based on the size of the board. (What qualifies as underrepresented? Self-identification as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native, or as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.) Eviction protections: An emergency bill to protect pandemic-burdened renters from eviction through January 2021 as long as they pay 25% of their rent during that period passed late Monday night, and Newsom signed into law just before midnight. The proposal hastily emerged on Friday, and was seen as a compromise with landlord groups that opposed another bill that would have kept tenants from being evicted if they did not pay any rent as late as April. Tenant rights advocates were disappointed that the new proposal does not prevent all evictions. Police reforms: A flurry of bills regarding police accountability and oversight were introduced in the weeks after George Floyd’s death, but many failed to advance. One of the last remaining reform bills — a measure aimed at providing more oversight of sheriff’s departments — passed late Monday night. Allowing duplexes on most single-family parcels: A hotly contested billthat would require local governments to permit duplexes on parcels now largely restricted to one house failed to move forward. It passed the Assembly late Monday night, but died when the year’s legislative session came to an end before the Senate could take it up for a vote. And now, here’s what’s happening across California: August was the deadliest month of the COVID-19 pandemic in California, even as the state makes steady progress in reducing infections, hospitalizations and deaths, data show. The August death toll came after hospitalizations had peaked in late July, when the state reported 7,170 patients being treated for COVID-19. In August, hospitalizations have dropped steadily, hitting 3,940 this week — the fewest since mid-June. Los Angeles Times