SACRAMENTO – Legislation by Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, that would reform California’s cash bail system, reduce traffic ticket fines for people who can’t afford them and prevent school lunch shaming passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 25.
- SB 10, The California Money Bail Reform Act of 2017, replaces a pretrial process that often forces people of modest means to remain in jail until a court can determine their innocence or guilt but allows the wealthy to go free. It establishes a new system in which defendants can be released if they are not a danger to public safety or a risk to miss their court date. The legislation is jointly authored with Assemblymember Rob Bonta, D-Oakland.
- SB 57 prohibits gas injections into the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility prior to the completion, and public release, of an independent analysis of the cause of the 2015 gas leak. The legislation is co-authored with Sen. Henry Stern, D-Agoura Hills.
- SB 185 prevents the automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for people who are unable to pay fines or fees for minor traffic tickets and requires courts to determine violators’ ability to pay before setting fine amounts.
- SB 250 ensures that school officials do not delay or deny food to hungry students as punishment for unpaid school meal fees, and it directs schools to establish a process for notifying their families about unpaid fees and collecting them.
- SB 306 improves protections for whistleblowers so they can keep their jobs while retaliation complaints against their employers are being investigated.
- SB 588 jump starts California’s six-year-old rigs-to-reef program by establishing a clear process for how the program will be funded by oil companies and how the state will decide if a decommissioned oil rig can be converted into an artificial reef instead of fully removing it from the ocean.
- SB 778 ensures that all Californians will have access to safe, affordable drinking water. Specifically, the bill helps the State Resources Water Control Board to intervene when local agencies are failing to provide drinkable water to residents and order remedies, such as appointing an administrator, to rectify the situation.
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Bob Hertzberg, chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water, represents nearly 1 million San Fernando Valley residents of Senate District 18, which includes part of Burbank and the following communities in Los Angeles: Arleta, Granada Hills, Hansen Dam, Lake View Terrace, Mission Hills, North Hills, North Hollywood, part of Northridge, Pacoima, Panorama City, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, part of Sun Valley, Sylmar, Toluca Lake, Valley Glen, Valley Village, Van Nuys, the City of San Fernando and Universal City. See a district map at http://sd18.senate.ca.gov/district. After serving in the Assembly from 1996-2002, including two years as Speaker, Hertzberg invested in solar, wind and electric-car projects; and worked for structural changes in government through the Think Long Committee of California. Learn more at www.senate.ca.gov/hertzberg.
3 comments
Typical Liberal double standard legislation. We both get a ticket for doing 75 in a 65 on the freeway. My ticket is $300, theirs is $50 because they “can’t afford” the $300. If you can’t afford the ticket and/or fine, then maybe you shouldn’t break the law.
Lets make committing a crime more affordable! Pat my back please! Idiacracy is accelerating. Let’s allow the abuse of eating meals at school and stiffing the cafeteria. The school district can ask for more bonds disguised as improvements.
Bail Reform is nothing more than a concerted effort to keep people in poverty by making it less inconvenient to be poor. Accommodating poverty just perpetuates it. We should be making poverty as difficult as possible to remove the disincentive to move out of it.
Eliminating bail would create a system in which NO ONE would be held accountable for a defendant’s appearance. Creating a bigger burden for our already depleted law enforcement.
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