Thursday, July 2, 2026
In This Edition:
· Another Bureaucracy
· June Election
· Fatigue’s Role in Safety
· Social Security and Medicare Broke
· Classifications for Public Works Projects
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Another Bureaucracy Won't Build a Single Home
On July 1, Governor Gavin Newsom officially launched California's new Housing and Homelessness Agency, complete with a secretary, six deputy secretaries, communications staff, external affairs staff, legal counsel, advisors, and assistants. Newsom announced the reorganization plan a year ago after a stinging audit that showed little progress after spending billions on homelessness.
The annual salary bill for just these twelve senior officials is more than $2.1 million. Add pensions, health benefits, office space, support staff, travel, and overhead, and taxpayers will likely spend well over $3 million every year simply to operate the executive suite.
Perhaps that would be easier to accept if California had a proven record of success.
It doesn't.
In 2024, the California State Auditor concluded that the state had spent nearly $24 billion on homelessness programs over five years without consistently tracking whether the money produced results. The audit found that the state lacked reliable information about program costs, outcomes, and effectiveness, making it difficult—even for policymakers—to know which programs worked and which did not.
That audit wasn't written by political opponents. It came from California's own independent State Auditor.
Now, instead of demonstrating measurable improvements in housing production or reductions in homelessness, Sacramento has unveiled another organizational chart.
Of the many ways the scarcity of affordable housing affects most people, “the lines on the org chart” don’t crack the “top 100 list,” Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, a Napa Democrat, said of the governor’s proposal at a hearing.
Cabaldon noted that executive reorganizations are a semi-regular feature of California governance. The Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency is itself the product of a reorganization that spun off California’s independent transportation agency.
“The dance of the secretaries we do constantly, always with grand ambitions,” said Cabaldon. “Simply saying that it’s going to cause more focus, that it will be streamlined, that it will cause leadership-level action — but how?”
The question Californians should ask isn't whether these appointees are capable or well-intentioned. Many undoubtedly are. The real question is whether adding another cabinet agency, another secretary, more deputy secretaries, more communications staff, and more administrators will accomplish what billions of dollars and dozens of existing programs have failed to achieve.
Government agencies rarely measure success by eliminating themselves. They measure success by expanding responsibilities, hiring more staff, and requesting larger budgets.
Housing affordability will not improve because Sacramento has another deputy secretary. Homelessness will not decline because another communications office issues press releases.
Homes are built by reducing barriers to construction, shortening permitting timelines, lowering costs, and holding public programs accountable for measurable outcomes.
Until California can demonstrate that its existing billions in homelessness spending are producing results, taxpayers are justified in viewing another layer of bureaucracy not as a solution, but as another expensive promise.
The new Housing and Homelessness Agency should not be judged by the size of its executive staff or the polish of its organizational chart. It should be judged by one standard alone: are more Californians housed, and are fewer Californians homeless? If those numbers don't improve, this agency will simply become another line item in a long history of good intentions and disappointing results.
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June Election
The June election is over, except for the counting (by hand in Shasta), and there are a few races I’ll be watching in November.
CA 6 (Sacramento): One of the new Prop 50 districts drawn to give Democrats a new seat. Kevin Kiley (R I) leads with 47,165 votes. Second is Democrat Richard Pan with 45,008. Republican Michael Stansfield is at 39,118. This will probably be a Democratic pickup because FIVE Democrats ran in the primary, nearly eliminating Pan from the November runoff. This should be Pan’s win and third time in office.
CA 7 (Sacramento): This will be a Dem-on-Dem runoff in November. Incumbent Doris Matsui is in second place! Dem Mai Vang leads with 31%. Matsui could lose in November, but it will be expensive. Republicans got 36% of the votes in June and are more likely to vote for Matsui over Vang.
CA 14 (East Bay): This is Eric Swalwell’s old seat. Democratic State Senator Aisha Wahab leads with 38%, and Melissa Hernandez, another Democrat, has 17%, but it is unclear where voters will move.
AD 9 (Ripon): Assembly minority leader Heath Flora, who has been MIA from his district longer than Tom Kean Jr., is leading. This is a +10 R district, so Flora should win in November, but we can hope, right?
SD 4: But in one of the more interesting races, an incumbent will not make the runoff. State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil, a Republican from Jackson, is in third place in the race for Senate District 4, which means she will not advance to the November general election. The race for the red-leaning district includes Democrat Jaron Brandon, a Tuolumne County supervisor. But Republican candidate Alexandra Duarte came in second and will probably pick up most of the Alvarado-Gil voters. This was the first time Alvarado-Gil has faced an election since switching parties from the Democratic Party to the GOP in 2024. This is an R+7 district, so Duarte will probably win in November.
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Study Links Construction Worker Fatigue to Unsafe Behaviors
- Physical fatigue strongly contributes to construction safety incidents by increasing the likelihood of unsafe worker behavior.
- The ASCE Library study evaluated this impact by monitoring three workers performing material handling tasks over three days.
- Results showed that unsafe actions increased notably after 30 minutes of strenuous manual work as physical fatigue accumulated.
- Continuous electrocardiogram data confirmed significant correlations between these workplace safety risks and specific cardiac variations.
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Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds Will Be Depleted Within the Next Decade
The Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their annual reports on the programs’ financing, showing that the future of these vital programs remains at risk. The Social Security Trustees note that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund is expected to become depleted in 2032, one year earlier than projected in the last two reports and the same as the Congressional Budget Office projected earlier this year. Upon depletion of the OASI Trust Fund in just six years, millions of older Americans would face an automatic cut of 22 percent to their Social Security retirement benefits.
More
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Law Requires Awarding Agencies to Follow CSLB Regulations When Determining Classifications for Public Works Projects
The Contractors State License Board (CSLB) is providing additional guidance on following licensing regulations for public works projects as a result of Senate Bill 1455 (2024).
SB 1455 amended California Business and Professions Code (BPC) §7059 to clarify that awarding authorities must ensure that contractors bidding on public works projects hold the license classification appropriate for the work being performed, in accordance with CSLB regulations. The italicized information below in BPC 7059 (b)(1) shows what was changed in the law.
- In public works contracts, as defined in Section 1101 of the Public Contract Code, the awarding authority shall determine the license classification necessary to bid and perform the project, in accordance with the classifications prescribed by this article and as set forth in Division 8 of Title 16 of the California Code of Regulations.
What Changed
SB 1455 clarifies that awarding authorities must determine the required license classification using CSLB’s classification descriptions in Division 8 of Title 16 of the California Code of Regulations. Previously, the law required proper licensure but did not expressly connect to CSLB’s classification descriptions.
The classification descriptions noted in Division 8 of Title 16 of the California Code of Regulations are included in CSLB’s Description of Classifications publication, which awarding agencies should review in determining the most appropriate classification or classifications.
In addition, CSLB’s Fast Facts: What Jobs "B" General Building Can/Cannot Perform provides further clarification to help awarding authorities determine whether a “B” is appropriate for a project. While it is CSLB’s largest classification, the “B” is not always suitable depending on the project. “B” General Building may not be appropriate if the work does not involve the construction of a structure involving framing or carpentry, does not require multiple building trades, and is not incidental to a project.
What This Means
Awarding authorities must review the project scope and select the appropriate classification that best aligns with the work described using CSLB’s Description of Classifications.
Contractors are responsible for ensuring they hold the appropriate license classification at the time of bid and use properly licensed subcontractors for work outside their classification. Failure to do so may affect bid eligibility and could result in enforcement action under existing contractor license laws.
For more information or questions regarding classification determinations, contact CSLB’s Classification Deputy at Classifications@cslb.ca.gov.
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