Tag Archives: Kevin De Leon

Assembly Passes Victim-Centered Sexual Assault Policy

Kevin de Leon Oath of OfficeWould require unambigious affirmative consent

by Brian Leubitz

The Assembly passed Sen. Kevin de León’s SB967 yesterday, requiring two-sided affirmative consent on college campuses.

A bill doing so, SB967, passed the Assembly on a 52-16 vote Monday as states and universities across the U.S. are under pressure to change how they handle rape allegations. It now heads back to the Senate for what is expected to be a final vote on amendments.

The bill by state Sen. Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, changes the definition of consent for campuses investigating sexual assault cases by requiring “an affirmative, unambiguous and conscious decision” by each party to engage in sexual activity. That marks a shift from the popular sexual-assault prevention refrain, “no means no.” (CBSLA)

With rising awareness of sexual assaults across the country, this is a positive step forward. While opponents have tried to belittle this as something out of an awkward high school health class video, the truth is far from that. Sure, date rape drugs are already illegal, but in an environment like a college campus, information is key. You can’t always get into the head of a college freshman, but this legislation makes that two-way disclosure a greater part of the conversation.  

San Francisco Ellis Act Reform Moves Forward

On reconsideration, bill moves out of Senate.

by Brian Leubitz

When the bill failed on its first time up, Mark Leno said he would bring his SB1439 back for reconsideration. And this time the Senate Leadership, much to their credit, rallied around the bill and pushed it forward. Senators Darrell Steinberg and Kevin de León really got behind it, and pushed previous ‘No’ votes to yes.

The vote went from 18-19 to 21-14, with Sens. Hill, Hernandez and Hueso switching their votes. However, there were a lot of caveats to get those votes, and they probably wouldn’t have switched their votes had this been the final vote. There were a couple key compromises that have been discussed, but there are a lot of details to be hashed out.

The yet-to-be-written amendments would exempt one or two small properties owned by “mom-and-pop” landlords from new Ellis Act restrictions and may also include a sunset date for the bill. (SF Gate / Melody Gutierrez)

The third amendment adds on to the first, namely restrictions on what a “mom-and-pop” landlord really is. Just because an LLC owns only one building, does not a small landlord make. Whether the amended bill will be worth supporting is still very dependent on how that small landlord exception is defined and how long it will be until the bill sunsets.

Kudos to Sen. Leno and his colleagues for moving the ball forward on a measure that nearly the entire San Francisco elected leadership supports.

State of the State for a New Speaker-in-Waiting?

Governor to address legislature as new leadership team emerges. I’ll be on KALW Your Call at 10AM to discuss the State of the State.

by Brian Leubitz

There was a bit of controversy surrounding what was slowly coming into focus last week surrounding the legislative leadership races. Sen. Steinberg said last week that Sen Kevin de León was going to be the next Senate President Pro Tem. That was met with some worrying tones from Northern California, especially from the Bay Area Council:

We respect the importance of Southern California and often work closely with leaders there on key issues, but for the good of California, we must continue to share leadership.

As a region, therefore, we face an enormous and historic political test. Northern California’s senators and Assembly members should stand up for their districts, their voters, their region and this historic balance of power, and ensure that the next leader of either the Senate or the Assembly is from this part of the state. Once we lose that position of power, it’s very difficult to get it back. (Jim Wunderman, CEO of Bay Area Council , op-ed)

While this is a fuzzy kind of truth, you don’t really have to go all that far back to find contra cases. Willie Brown and Bill Lockyer were leading both chambers in the mid-1990s, but it has been something of a recent practice with the fast changing faces of the Legislature since term limits.  

At any rate, the BAC and other northern allies will have another shot at this race in two years. Atkins is term limited in 2016, while de León will face his Senate limit in 2018.

Meanwhile, the Governor has a plethora of topics to discuss at today’s State of the State. Water, climate change, the budget, and HSR all may come up.  I’ll be on KALW Your Call (91.7 in SF) at 10 AM, right after the speech to discuss it.  

What if Senator Feinstein Retired? (Fantasy Draft)

WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on this website.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.