It is the John Phillipshow. Johnny is on vacation, so it's Randy Wang here. John's back on Monday. Eight hundred two two two five two two two. Is the telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. You can email us at Johnny Don't Like show at gmail dot com. You can also email me. My email
address is Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot com. Search for the John Phillipshow wherever you get your podcast, and while you're at it, you can subscribe to my solo show I do at five o'clock on KABC seven ninety every single day, the Newsplitz with Randy Wang. If you're not in La, if you're in the Bay Area and you want to listen to it, you can stream it at KABC dot com. And finally, you can subscribe to my substack to see the California Report. All the stories
we're talking about are right there. You can watch and share the videos at Randywangradio dot substack dot com. Our next guest is the editor of the Voice of San Francisco. The website is the Voice SF dot org, and of course you can follow her on social media. I follow her on Twitter at Susan d Reynolds. Susan dire Reynolds, Welcome back to the John Phillips Show.
Hello, Randy, good to be with you again.
So it looks like Mayor Lurry's having a pretty good week. The poll comes out showing that he's the most popular mayor in the country, and he holds a press conference today saying that, hey, look at this, the homeless numbers are moving in the right direction. What do you make of that?
Well, honestly, he has really good pr You know, he pays three hundred and fifty thousand dollars of his own money a year for what I call his baby pr team, and they follow him around and do really cool Instagram videos. I definitely think he's a breath of fresh air. You know, in La, you guys are looking at Spencer Pratt for the very same reasons people are tired of career politicians. They're they're wanting the common man that feels the same
things they feel. Although you know, in his case, he's Larry is a billionaire inheriting the Levi's fortune from his mother at some point. But I do think that his everyman sort of personality kind of sways people into thinking things are better, But if you're on the streets of the city or you follow for example, JJ Smith, you
see the reality. And you know, I just did a databased article about how there have been over forty nine hundred drug overdose deaths in San Francisco in the past five years, the majority happening indoors inside permanent support of housing about thirty percent. The rest are scattered in different parts and outside or hospitals. But the thirty percent is a big number, and so we need more sober housing, clearly, But then we have to address the hardcore homeless, the
drug tourists that come there for the drugs. They don't want help, they don't want housing. And he's going to have to get a lot tougher before that gets resolved, and that means going after the dealers, and that's something he's very reluctant to do. He also kind of lies a lot. I mean, he says things. I did a story called Laurie's Big Lie where he talks about, you know, we no longer let people die on the street and
don't hand out paraphernalia. And I did a story with JJ Smith where he went out and saw, you know, people handing out paraphernalia by a park giving massages to drug addicts. So the very same nonprofits that are allowing people to die are still getting to hand out free paraphernalia, and they're still getting you know, millions and millions and millions of dollars. That hasn't changed.
Well, and that's what's so wild is he promised that he was going to cut out this nonsense. San Francisco is facing a huge budget deficit, and you would think those programs are the first ones to cut.
Yes, you would think, But yet they just reapped a number of these organizations. In fact, that the top three organizations that have had the most deaths over the past five years. In our report, which is a series called Housing First, morg Second, you can see that they all got re upped in the past year multimillion dollar contracts. And the excuse is, well, Health Right three sixty is so big it's hard to replace them. But in the meantime,
you know ten or Long Housing Clinic. You know, Randy Shaw has been a poverty primp for decades, you know, making millions off of the homeless and then standing there saying he wants more done about drug addicts. When the clients for the drug addicts live in his building and are allowed to do drugs. That's still the problem is that housing first is a California thing. It allows drugs to be used. San Francisco's changed that San Jose. Matt Mayhan the mayor, and Santase has done an incredible job.
I love that the Chronicle and the New York Times are spewing, you know, oh, what a great mayor. You know Danielurias. Well that's because the Chronicle did the poll and they endorsed him and they love him. But the fact is that Matt Mahan and Santase, and by the way, I live both in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco, so I see both. Matt Mahon has housed one third of the homeless, but not just throwing them into these SROs.
He puts them in places that have job training and skills, you know, learning skills, you counseling for their past traumas they have to get, you know, into drug treatment. And he has about an eighty nine percent success rate. He's the best mayor in all of California, and yet he gets almost no credit, whereas Lurie, you know, has a big PR team that he pays for, and you know, he gets splashed across the New York Times, the Chronicle.
Oh he's so popular. But you know, I can tell you that I've gotten some of those, you know, polls, and they're very skewed toward Daniel Lurie. And I just think that a lot of this is a bunch of ball, to be honest.
Well, and the situation with the SROs, which has been a disaster before Lurie, but it really hasn't changed. And a lot of this is state law, but it really has gotten to a point where it's not even like, you know, a crazy thing to say that if you go into one of those SROs you're coming out in a body bag.
It's well, you know, and I know you know who JJ Smith is. But if you watch him when he's standing by the medical examiner van and they bring out a body and they open up the van at seven in the morning, there's room for four people, and there's usually already three bodies in the van. So it's a still a crisis. People are still dying at the rate of two persons per day in San Francisco. You know, you know, I was, you know when I was there
last week walking around. Did neighborhood look better? For sure, North Beach, you know, the Marina, But when you go to the tenor loin, the mission is a disaster, just worse than I've ever seen it because they've kind of
all been pushed that way. The other thing I'm doing an article on, and it's also very you know, la relevant, is the sheer amount of animal abuse and torture and breeding that goes on in these SROs and very similar to skid Row or Joey Tucco's doing an amazing job, and Spencer Pratt has shined a huge light the amount of abuse and suffering that these officials just ignore. And in San Francisco we just tried to pass the Spaean
neoter law. But what happens is they all get scared of the giant SPCA here, which is a you know, multimillion dollar nonprofit that just does marketing and says very few dogs. And then you know, the homeless coalitions all chime in, Oh, it's so prejudiced against the homeless having pets, and you have all this you know, dumb stuff for these people that even the AKC weighed in. I mean, wait,
aren't you supposed to be about purebread dogs. I mean, I rescued a pure bread Staffaire bull terrier last year. She's twelve, and like yesterday, she had to have sixteen teeth removed because it's part of her breed. And here, here they're breeding all these horrible things into these purebread dogs, and they want the homeless to breed their dogs. I
don't understand. So there's a lot of things in San Francisco going on that are very similar to LA and I don't see the officials doing anything where those kind of things are concerned. I mean, we had a drug addic strangle his pitbull in front of the SRO where he was living. I mean, in what civilized city does that happen.
It's just wild, and you know, obviously it's it's almost it's definitely worse here in Los Angeles. But it seems that no matter whether you're talking about San Francisco, La Compton, what have you, elected officials will not even admit that there is a problem with the animal abuse that's happening, like you said, in government subsidized housing in the SROs. And for as much as we're trying to control our
pet populations. The fact that we're not even requiring the animals that are in these SROs to be spade and neutered. We know what's going to happen. We know they're being bred. It's a business model for these people. It's it's just completely unconscionable.
And you see it. You know, honestly, skid rose is obviously a human disaster too. But when people say, oh, they're just these poor people that need their pets, now, these are these a currency for them, They're a commodity. And the level of I mean, there is someone in San Francisco named kun al Modi who is the kind of the homeless star for Lori. He is trying very hard. He was the one that brought the spey and neuter along with Matt Dorsey a supervisor. But the level of
idiocy amongst officials. I had a supervisor named Alan Wong who was appointed by Lourie after his disaster with the pet cemetery lady that you had the pet store. When she had to step down, he appointed this guy, Alan Wong, and he tells me that he just thought that spaying and neutering a dog was mean to the dogs, that the dogs shouldn't have to suffer. And I've said, are you kids, really? I think you're a supervisor. Do your homework.
I just feel there's a big push toward non politicians because people are sick and tired of politicians that get appointed to these positions, are elected and they really don't know anything. So why are you there? If you can't make thing better, don't be there.
We're speaking with Susan Dyer Reynolds. You can follow her on social media at Susan d Reynolds and of course the website is the voicesf dot org.
Now.
I was up in San Francisco last week and I had a wonderful time. I was actually very pleasantly surprised of how clean Union Square is looking now and not a car breaking to be seen. North Beach was gorgeous, of course, the west Side, Golden Gate Park, Cole Valley. We had a ton of fun, and it sure seems that the good neighborhoods they're looking a lot better right now. But when you look at all the videos from JJ and all the other people that are down in the Tenderloin,
the Tenderloin is as bad as ever. And I don't know if this new Reset Center is really going to change anything.
Well, we'll find out. One of our writers, woman named Amber Richmond, who started writing for us, a young woman who was an addict and has been clean since December, writing about her stories in the Boys. She is working there, So you know, I'm hoping that it'll be a success, but on such a small scale.
No.
And the other thing is that you know, I interview I've been interviewing the homeless in San Francisco for decades, and the thing I hear from them all the time is they just want to do drugs. They don't want help, they don't want to get clean. Every time JJ offers, you know, someone's substance treatment, you see the videos, what do they say, No, I like doing drugs. I'm not ready now, I'm not ready. I don't want to go to treatment. So even when they're offered it to them,
they don't take it. So I just don't see how effective it's going to be. In Sama's they cuss you, they check your warrants, they put you in jail, and then you either accept help or they put you on a bus and you go go home to wherever you're from. San Francisco says, they do that, but you know there are people still getting seven almost seven hundred dollars a
month that just step off the bus. And you know, JJ just interviewed a woman who crossed the bridge from Oakland and got into housing within four months, and she says, oh yeah, and I love drugs and doing drugs. I'm here for the drugs. Those people, You're never going to be able to help them with something like a reset center. The only thing that's going to help those people is
throwing them in gin jail. You know, I asked Matt Mahon when I toured one of the facilities in Santase, which was clean and sparkling outside and in why I didn't see the drug addicts outside like I do in San Francisco. And he said, because I won't allow it. I want enforcement, And without enforcement, you can't achieve what he's achieved. In Santase.
You will not see.
People doing drugs or selling drugs in public, and if you do, they will be arrested, they will get stay away orders. And you know the problem with San Francisco is the whole sanctuary city myth that you know it's there to protect these working immigrants when in reality, they don't have the butt, but we won't accept it for drug dealers, you know, and criminals and murderers and rapists, like they just won't say it, and it's like it's
politically incorrect to say it. And I don't understand that, because no one should want someone slinging sentinel in their neighborhood. And until until Laurie toughens up on that, I don't see it changing well.
And I remember it was just a couple of years ago when Matt Dorsey tried to change San Francisco's sanctuary city law to make an exception for the illegal alien Honduran drug dealers that are out there every single day dealing in public in the tenderloin in Soma in the mission, and he got shot down and called a racist for it.
Yep, that's right, And nobody stood up for him in that in that scenario, and he's continued to try to get that passed and push things like sober housing and dealing and dealing with the dealers no pun intended. But I haven't heard LORII ever say, and I've written multiple times about this, I've never heard him say, and we will put the dealers in jail and we will deport them. And and everybody knows the drug the drug users, they'll just say it out right, Oh, I get my drugs
from the hondos. They call themselves hondos. Everybody knows that the Hondurans run the tender Win. And you know, there's been an increase in murders in San Francisco, which Laurie doesn't like to talk about, but homicides are up. And I heard from both an emergency room nurse and doctor that they're seeing a lot of more of what they call them this homie drop offs, where they basically pull up in a car, shove the person out and drive off. A lot more stabbing shootings in the emergency room. And
it's game related and drug territory related. So this is just not something that you can gloss over and say homelessness is down and look at us, we're clean and shiny. Parts of San Francisco look a lot better. I think Danie Lurie is popular because he is a cheerleader and he does great you know Instagram. I call him the instamare Matt and Mayhem and Santase is more nose to
the grindstone, get it. Done. He's not flashy. He grew up, you know, middle class in Watsonville, California, different ILKs than Danie. Lurie was born with the golden swoon in his mouth.
You know, I got to ask you, I want to pick your brain on this because you cover both mayors, and you know, Matt Mahon has been going up and down the state thamas is as he's trying to run for governor, and he has put out a very common sense message. Here's what I've done in San Jose. I want to bring the state wide. Why do you think that's not resonating with primary voters.
I think one of the things that he got into late, you know, he got in pretty late in the race when people had made some choices. I think another is that he's not known, as you said, he's not known in southern California, and he doesn't have a big brand yet, and he doesn't have a big PR team like Daniel Lurie does to push his name to the national media. Many times, Daniel Lurie wants to be in the New
York Times. He's there just like that. So you know, you have to have a sadly a PR team for that, and I don't think he's picked the right campaign advisors. I think they've made some mistakes making him sound a little bit more liberal than he actually is. I'm not saying that he's a conservative by any means, but he's not this you know, bleeding heart left wing you know, sanctuary for drug dealers. That some of his you know,
the things he said, have come off that way. I think he did get rid of someone that was given over to him by Billala Mamood, who is a really far left in my opinion, supervisor in San Francisco that beat the impressed in the socialist But other than that, he's not much better. And I just don't think he's selling the message hasn't been sold the way the way he sells himself, just when he's in Santase, the way he sells himself is how he should be selling himself
to everyone, and he's not come across that way. I've even been angry with him in a couple of the things he's put out where he just comes across like the run of the mill, you know, liberal dude.
Yeah, the campaign definitely has had its issues, and I think you pointed them out exactly what some of the problem is, you know, we have invited him to come on this show so many times, and he came on the show in the past when he was promoting Prop thirty six, and no problem, Like, you don't have to do this show, but it sure seems like, you know, doing radio that's broadcast in southern California northern California would
be an interesting way to get your message out. But we get Stonewall, which I find very interesting.
That is. I mean, you know, he follows me on X so maybe I'll tag him and say, you know, go on with Randy because he does need to be heard in LA if he's going to win LA. I think people forget what a big chunk of property La is, you know, everybody is. So when they're in the Bay Area, they think, you know, we're the be all and end all, but southern California is vast and he's just not very
well known there. It frightens me a little too that California voters are so apathetic and they look at the Sarah, they recognize the name and they'll just click the box because they wrecked the name.
Yeah, that one might be biting voters in the ass. If this Dana Williamson, thing gets any more interesting. Susan Dire Reynolds, thank you so much as always for joining us. Make sure that you bookmark the Voice of San Francisco the voicesf dot org, and you can of course follow her at Susan d Reynolds. Susandire Reynolds. Thank you so much as always for joining us.
Thank you for having me. Randy talk to you next time.
Johnny's on vacation, well deserved. He'll be back on Monday. When am I taking a vacation? I mean I get to work when I'm in Santa Fe. So I have actually taken a day off all year, but at some point I will, you know, got to bank those days. But he'll be back on Monday. The phone number is eight hundred two two two five two two two. You can email our show at Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. If you want my personal email address,
it's Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot com. Randywang Radio dot Substack dot com is where I have the California Report, my daily rundown of all stories that we get into every single day, and every single day, at five o'clock, I go through the entire California Report all the stories that I found interesting that you should know about. So check it out. It's called The Newsplitz with Randy Wang
and it airs at five o'clock on KABC. If you're in the Bay and you want to give it a listen, stream it at KABC dot com or search for the KABC Newsplitz wherever you get your podcasts. As we're in voting season, there are a lot of people in the Democrat primary that are still freaking out about the very small but still possibility that it could be two Republicans
going into the runoff in June. Now that seems less likely every single day, as Javier Bessera is going up in the polls and Chad Bianco is going down in the polls. But it's still a possibility, and that's why there are some strategists that want to make sure that this never ever ever has happens again, which is why they are now looking at collecting signatures for a ballot measure in twenty twenty eight that would repeal California's top
two jungle primary system. For more on this, we go to KCRA three and the wonderful Ashley's of All You know we would love to get Ashley on the show sometime, but I think she's usually either at the capitol or filing her reports when we're on the air. But we love her as an effort on We really do love highlighting our local voices, whether it's in broadcast journalism or
independent journalism. That's one of the things that we really love to do here because there are some great people covering this great state.
There's an effort underway to ditch California's open primary election system.
And it's because of this year's governor's race. California is one of a few states that allows the top two vote getters at a primary election to move on to the general in November, regardless of their party alation. In case, every three political director Ashley's of All joins us right now with this new effort and what today leaders are saying about this top two system.
Wilson, this issue, as you mentioned, has been front and center because of the governor's race this year. The field is crowded with six Democrats and two leading Republicans. Some Democrats have been worrying that mathematically California voters in November could end up picking between the two Republicans and Democrats would be locked out of that general race.
The chances it would be a fascinating thing if that actually happened. I don't think it's likely. I know that John is. You know, that's the whole reason he has put forth Bianco and his voter guide. By the way, if you want to look at John's voter guide, you can go to KABC dot com slash John's ballot or KSFO dot com slash John's ballot. It's as easy as that. It's all right there. But I don't think that's going to happen.
The chances of that are very slim, but that's not stopping the effort from moving forward. On Friday, Democratic political consultant Steve Maviglio filed a proposed ballot initiative to get rid of the top two system. It would simply repeal what California voters passed in twenty eleven and return California to a primary system based on political parties.
So what you would have is you'd go back to the way that it was, where you'd have a whole lot of money spent in the primary of everyone going after each other, and then you know it's going to be a Republican and a Democrat and you don't have to even campaign.
Experts in both political parties say this open primary experiment has failed. Before the initiative was filed, I asked California's attorney General and Secretary of State if getting rid of the top two system was something they were talking about or considering.
Here's what each had to say. Very much, so, yeah, very much. So, oh yeah, yeah. People say jungle primary. I never heard that day.
It's the first time Shirley Webers said yes to any interview.
Very much so, yeah, very much.
Oh yeah, yeah, people say jungle primary.
I never heard that until this election.
And I say that because we've never had seventy semid people running for governor.
We have sixty one. By the way, she should know that because she is the Secretary of State. But okay, sixty one seventy, it doesn't matter. We have sixty one candidates on that ballot. It's insane. And apparently all you need to run for governor is four thousand dollars. You either can get a bunch of signatures or four thousand dollars.
So there are some gadflies out there that decided to give California four thousand bucks, just so they could say their name is on the ballot, including one guy, and this is true, who changed his name to Barack Obama. I believe he appears on the ballot as like Barack Obama.
Kent in a primary.
And my girlfriend called me the other night and go, she'd been on Vaca ship.
What the heck is this? I said, what is it? She said, it's like seventy people, sixty seventy people.
I knew what it was, and from day one I voted against it, and I wasn't in the office at all, but I did not like the open primary.
I didn't think it would solve any problems.
They had a list of problems it would solve, and none of those have been seen.
Yeah, we really hasn't gotten us better candidates. Notably, it got us the race between Kamala Harrison Loretta Sanchez in the Senate race. It got us Feinstein versus kd L in twenty eighteen. It is hot as hell, but it really hasn't made things any better.
And none of those have been solved.
So now we have some data, some evidence. There was a lot of hope.
Hey, you recognize that voice that's Bobby Bob Bonta.
So now we have some data, some evidence. There was a lot of hope among some there were some intentions. I think some design outcomes from it. Now, with fourteen years of experience, a voter experience, we can see if those goals have been met or if not.
Now, if you go back to the primary system, is it back to a closed primary system, because that would mean that for certain offices, you'd have a whole lot of people that are no party preferencers that I guess would be locked out of those. Is that what they're looking to do?
And then the people will decide. I'm not part of any particular effort to change the rules. My job is to enforce and implement the existing rules.
Now, we also checked in to see if Governor Gavin Newsom or the state lawmakers who oversee elections had any.
Thoughts on the top two system. We have not yet heard back.
Okay, so taking issative voters is the only way to change Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean at this point, because voters approve the change to open up the primary system back in twenty eleven, they must also vote to undo it. This ballot initiative is currently waiting to get its title and summary before it can start collecting signatures. But no, it will not be on your ballot in twenty twenty six. That'll be in twenty twenty eight. So if this gets enough signatures, so.
This one you won't have to worry about this election. This election, you just have to worry about a bazillion tales, tax hikes, bond measures, and I'm sure a kidney biller too. Meanwhile, in the governor's race, Javier Bakaria is on quite appalling surge.
The Sectory of Health and Educations over I nominated Javier Bakaria.
And that means that the knives are out for him, which is why he's getting asked question after question after question about that Dana Williamson scandal and the whole thing with HHS. Let's see what he had to say at his latest town hall. Here is ABC ten in Sacramento.
They and Democratic candidate for governor, Hobby or Basera, stopped in his hometown of Sacramento tonight. He held an event at Sachs State and ABC ten scars Pole sung what was there? He joins us now live in the student with the latest garsh Paul.
Yeah, Chris Passera returned home, pitching voters on his vision for California while defending himself from growing criticism on the campaign trail at Sacramento State's the Nest.
Oh who did that?
Former California Attorney General and former Hilton Human Services Secretary Javier Bisera for his Fighting for California Dream tour back home.
We cannot lose if you go out and vote.
Boy is he inspiring family supporters and his mother filling the crowd.
I got at least one vote in this place.
I know that the hometown stop comes as polls show Republican Steve Hilton and Bessara tied at eighteen percent, with Republican Chad Bianco at fourteen percent, Democrat Tom Steyer at twelve percent, and Democrat Katie Porter at eight percent.
Oh, poor Katie. I guess that ad that referenced this out has not resonated. She's like going back and forth where it's either her or Mayheon in that fifth place spot now.
And Democrat Katie Porter at eight percent.
They're coming after me because they're afraid of you.
That's not why you could argue that they're coming after you because there is a real fear that you might fall apart before November.
The attacks have already started. The Sacmento B reports, but Sarah is accused in an anonymous Fair Political Practices Commission complaint of violating campaign finance laws by using Endorment Attorney General campaign account to pay former advisor Dana Williamson's firm after leaving office. As the fraud case continues, but Sarah has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
Tis the season for negative campaigning.
This is the guy forty million people and this is the one that's going to lead us into the future. Oh boy.
Fellow Democrat Katie Porter took am Abassera.
Might be pulling up Zillo during the break Santa Fe. I'm on my way.
Fellow Democrat Katie Porter took Amabassera during an appearance on CNN Monday, raising questions if Bisera will be dragged into the investigation.
Oh yeah, Katie Porter is full on the offensive.
Now.
Two of the three people who were initially implicated are negotiating plea deals, and in those plea deals they could name Secretary Bessera. I don't know if they will, but that is a risk, and so I don't want to see what happened with Eric Swalwell, happened with Javier Bisera Well.
I mean, it's a totally different kind of scandal. This is a election scandal where they paid someone out of a campaign account. It's a little more complicated than accused rapists. But Katie Porter is trying to tie those together. Please, And it is true a lot of the big unions that supported wall Well, they jumped ship and went over to Bisarah.
This race is too close, it's too chaotic, and there's no reason to take a risk.
US Attorney's office, the FBI investigated, She's risk free right. US Attorney's office. The FBI investigated this. I cooperated with him, and I will say one way or the other, everyone is accountable. I'm moving forward. As I said, everyone will be accountable for their actions.
We're moving He's using that word more than Gavin Newsome.
Accountability, accountability, accountability, that everyone will be accountable for their actions. We're moving forward. We feel very comfortable and confident about this elections.
I want you at Sacramento State. But Sarah's focused on affordability, homelessness, and public safety while urging supporters to stay energized.
Well we fight, oh boy, and mail and balace should be arriving in your mailboxes. And with primary election sept for June second, Chris Now.
Meanwhile, the other front run in the race is Steve Hilton, and he put out his plan to cut your energy prices. Let's see what he had to say. Let's go back to ABC ten.
Wellocking. Steve Hilton held a news conference announcing what he calls a bloat report when it comes to California's energy regulators. His proposals promised to cut energy costs, but he is not the only one with a plan, and there are some big differences. Every flick of the light switch, phone charge, and load of laundry costs money.
Today, we're focusing on something that affects every single person in California.
The way laundry is well worth it. Don't start encouraging people to only wash every other week.
Today, we're focusing on something that affects every single person in California.
At a recent news conference held outside the California Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Sacramento, Republican candidate for California governor Steve Hilton announced his plan to lower energy costs by reforming the state's energy regulators, which.
He calls a massive, sprawling, bloated bureaucracy.
We've accurate.
We've got all these different agencies. We've got COBB, the California Air Resources Board, We've got the Public Utility Commission CPUC, We've got the Energy Commission, We've got KAISER.
And those two right there, like, how are those not the same agency.
We've got the Public Utility Commission CPUC, We've got the Energy Commission, We've got KAISO.
And every single one of these bureaucracies which are appointed by the governor. Those are all filled with all kinds of employees in so many different checks. And no, and this is where all the regulations come from. We've got and this is one of the things where if Steve Helton does get in there and he still has a legislature that won't work with him, you can make a lot of changes to these appointed offices. That is true.
We've got all these different regulators.
He says, overlapping functions and redundant staffing are driving up costs.
We are going to massively simplify this whole system.
And by the way, I would argue we don't even need the CPUC because the CPUC is made up of a bunch of former executives from PG and E who've been doing nothing but rubber stamping rate increases for PG and E.
Instead of these four different agentsies all basically doing the same thing, we're going to combine three of them into a very simple, clear, streamlined energy division.
He says. He also wants to return KARB to what he described as its original mission of air quality management, stripping its climate policy authority. All of these changes, he says.
Will cut electric bills in California by twenty five percent.
Moving toward his camp I mean maybe, I mean, I would love to see this, but Steve Hilton, just wait till you are battling PG.
And E moving toward his campaign goal of cutting electric bills in half. To be clear, the move would cut jobs. Hilton's proposal is part of something he launched earlier this year called cal DOGE. It's modeled after the Federal Department of Government Efficiency that Elon Musk led at the start of President Trump's second term. Numbers show DOZE shrunk the
federal workforce by about ten percent. ABC ten reached out to the California Democratic Party for a response to Hilton's proposal, but they did not make anyone available, and the governor's office told ABC ten it does not comment on the gubernatorial race.
Yeah, Gavin's not getting involved now.
So we turned to the bipartisan Little Hoover Commission. That's an independent state oversight agency that held four hearings in twenty twenty five studying the high cost of electricity in California and issuing this report with recommendations. Both the Commission and Hilton say regulatory reform is needed, but the commissions approach focuses on making the existing agencies work better.
Mandating timeline well, again, that's going to Maine that you have to appoint people that are not lobbyists for those companies. You should not be able to work at the CPUC if you have a vested interest in PG and E stock price going up.
Mandating timelines for rate cases, integrating proceedings, and auditing staffing. The report did not address agency consolidation one way or the other. The Commission's recommendations also include more assistance for the lowest income Californians struggling to pay their energy bills, and more scrutiny on utilities and their profit margins and spending.
Yeah, did you know that our public utility monopolies get a guaranteed rate of return whenever they do infrastructure investment, And that's part of the way they've been able to get these rubber stamped rate increases PG and he got six rate increases over the course of a year. The Commission says, As much as I think he's completely insane, the one thing I like about Tom Steyer's campaign. The
only thing is that he won't be successful. But I like that he wants to break up these companies because I think PG and E and OKEL Edison and SDG and E are disasters and that business model doesn't make any sense. The Commission says, there are plenty of municipal owned utilities that work very well. Not LEDWP, of course, who do we put in charge of LEDWP someone who used to work at PG and E. But you know, whether you had smut Burbank water Power. There are plenty
of municipally owned power companies that well. They don't have to worry about profits because they're owned by us.
The Commission says, achieving significant electricity cost reductions may be possible, though challenging, suggesting a different approach is to flatten the curve of accelerating costs.
No, we need to lower the price. I mean, good luck trying, but we need to now.
Hilton said.
The so called Bloat report on California electricity prices could be found on kel Doje's website, but when I visited the site today I couldn't find it. I reached out to Hilton's campaign and kel Doge I have not heard back about obtaining a copy of that report, Alex.
So there you go. Those are the latest updates you need to know about in the California governor's race. It's Randy Wang here on the John Phillips Show. Well, I'm about to pack up, go sit on the freeway for an hour, have a little lunch, and then get ready for my next show. I do a local show on seven ninety KABC every single day at five o'clock. But if you're in the Bay you should definitely give it a listen because I cover everything that we didn't get
a chance to cover today. Look, every morning I go through all of the southern California news stations, the Bay Area station Sacramento, San Diego in the Central Valley. I isolate the ones that I think I should listen to, and then I get those down to the list of the things that I think are important for this audience, and I post them all on my substack Randywangradio dot substack dot com, and we're gonna go through all of
them today at five o'clock. So, for instance, some of the stories I didn't get to do today that we'll be talking about tonight. Oakland's housing market is showing the steepest drops in the entire country, and Matt Haney wants to push a bill that will cap concert ticket resale fees. We'll get into all of that tonight on the news Splits with Randy Wang on KABC. If you want to give it a listen seven ninety am in Southern California
or stream it at KABC dot com. I'll see you tomorrow regardless, noon to three for another edition of The John Phillips Show.