Sacramento is less than 200 miles from Salinas, about a three-hour drive. But it can feel a world apart, even for elected officials who straddle both worlds.
Those include one of the most powerful people in California, Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas, D-Hollister. Rivas says when he first arrived in the Capitol six years ago, colleagues thought he was from San Bernardino County – they hadn’t even heard of San Benito. “I remember how isolating it felt when I got here,” Rivas said on Wednesday, April 9. “My colleagues didn’t know much about the Central Coast, the diverse communities we represent.”
The people who do know are the people elected to represent those communities in Rivas’ Assembly District 29. In an effort to bridge the gap, Rivas and his Salinas district staff invited local elected officials for a day trip to the Capitol on April 9. I joined the group of 18 county supervisors, city council members and mayors, starting with coffee and breakfast burritos from El Charrito to board a bus at 7am.
The feeling of isolation cuts both ways. Some of them told me that especially since Rivas assumed greater responsibility as Speaker in 2023, a role that includes traveling the entire state, not just to and from his district, they’ve felt he is less accessible. One day of meet-and-greets, photo ops and presentations cannot transform relationships, but it can certainly help to reset them. Rivas spoke first, followed by other state-level elected leaders representing the region – Assemblymember Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, who represents neighboring coastal District 30, and State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who represents all of Monterey County, as well as Assemblymember Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, whose district includes part of San Benito County. Committee chairs – also elected Assembly members – and staffers serving on Assembly committees on transportation, housing, public safety and the budget came next.
“I have seen firsthand when we work together we are not only stronger, but we are much more effective,” Rivas told the group. “The ability to build relationships here in Sacramento makes all the difference.”
Of course, what difference those relationships make remains to be seen. It’s a tough budget year for the state, so not everyone’s wishlist can or will be fulfilled. “Our budget affects your budget,” District Director Dominic Dursa said on the bus ride up, referring to the looming $68 billion state budget deficit. “This year especially, with things being interesting, shall we say, it seemed important [to help create these relationships]. It doesn’t hurt to tell us about budget asks.”
Despite – or perhaps because of – challenges at the state level and a philosophy of government destruction and chaos at the federal level, local officials I spoke to were generally enthusiastic about a day dedicated to relationship-building.
“How does nature produce a diamond?” Soledad City Councilmember Fernando Cabrera asked. “Compression – we are in a compression time. Right now we are under a lot of pressure, but how many diamonds can we bring out of that?”
Monterey County Supervisor Wendy Root Askew recently traveled to Washington, D.C. in the early days of the Trump administration where she was demoralized to meet with congressional representatives. “I walked away feeling like we are on our own,” she told me. “If there’s anything I can take home from my experience in D.C., it’s that if there ever was a time to build local relationships so we are prepared for whatever it may be, it is now.”
Just a few hours later, as if to prove the point, Askew connected via social media to members of the Otter Dreamers Club at CSU Monterey Bay who were on the Capitol grounds protesting. As much as the intent of the program was to make connections between local and state elected officials, there was a spontaneous connection to a student club; supervisors Askew, Glenn Church and Luis Alejo converged with the group in the Capitol for a photo op, and then Rivas’ director of communications, Nick Miller, led them on a tour of the Assembly chamber. One by one, the students stood at the lectern as Askew took their photos. “I have seen the future,” she said, “and the future looks good.”
(1) comment
Watching Robert Rivas wax poetic about "relationship building" while Sacramento crumbles under his watch would be laughable if it weren’t so costly.
As someone who ran against Rivas in 2018 — in an election marred by corruption and fraud — I’m not surprised he now presides over the Assembly as the living embodiment of government waste.
Just look at the Capitol Annex project: under his so-called leadership, taxpayers are being forced to foot a $1.1 billion (and rising) bill for a legislative palace complete with private escape corridors shielding lawmakers from the very public they supposedly serve. A building as bloated as an NFL stadium, but instead of touchdowns, it scores backroom deals and runaway spending.
This annex is a monument — not to California's future, but to its political decay: a shiny mausoleum of arrogance, secrecy, and fiscal abuse.
Rivas wants you to believe he’s "bridging gaps," but the only bridges he’s building are for insiders trying to dodge accountability — at your expense.
We deserve better than a Speaker who builds walls between citizens and their government while torching billions of your hard-earned dollars.
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