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Assemblymember Boerner’s staff member Edwin Borbon started the interview. He said they learned a lot during the pandemic and we will see more of a hybrid structure, understanding there are accessibility issues for some. There are laws allowing governmental bodies to have a hybrid model. He said it was important to have a centralized location but also to keep parameters around how much public participation there should be considering some advisory bodies don’t take action vs governmental bodies that do. They will be trying to thread that needle but want to increase that public participation which makes the hybrid structure best. We recently had a committee membership shuffle and Assemblymember Boerner is no longer on the Open Meeting Law Committee. She is just watching those bills and she will analyze any language and details of those bills.

We are already experiencing adverse health effects from climate change. Assemblymember Boener has environmental justice as a priority. There are related issues. When Caltrans expanded I-5 they also expanded the San Elijo Lagoon as a way to curb carbon. She is the chair of the Select Committee on Sea Level rise and the focus is looking at toxic sites to see how sea level rise will affect them in the short and long-term especially because of the nuclear power plants. She has been a champion of sand replenishment and coastal erosion and she will keep working on this.

One of the bigger issues on the state level as far as homelessness is the lag time for housing production and creating affordable housing developments. She has historically tried to target vulnerable populations and capture those most vulnerable. (Assemblymember Boerner joined the meeting.) Last year she introduced a bill around artist housing. She visited cultural districts in San Diego and learned these cultural districts can’t retain artists because areas get gentrified which increases the cost of housing and the artists get displaced. She also wants to reduce the vehicle miles traveled. Last year she introduced a bill to allow cultural districts to create a tenant displacement ordinance to identify a vulnerable population that has been in place historically. This would allow a local ordinance that creates a protected tenant area so they can keep 10% of the housing for these artists.

Another bill created the Unicorn Homes Program for Homeless Youth. The bill would establish a 3-year pilot in the counties of San Diego and Sacramento to allow local community-based organizations to provide emergency transitional foster housing for LGBTQIA+ youth in the case of family rejection.

She will continue to pursue blue carbon projects and the Unicorn Homes LGBTQ issue. Another issue is women’s health. She has introduced a bill that would provide a 6 week check up and physical therapy to women after childbirth to prevent incontinence or uterine prolapse. Other nations do this.

Major Issues from legislature: The budget deficit needs to be considered but she wants to maintain the large increases to the public school system. Kids are still struggling and maintaining that funding level will be a priority for her caucus. Universal TK and the lack of land to build these facilities are a problem and she would like to work with the districts on this. California is now in the top 25% of states in per pupil spending. Another is fighting the climate crisis.

She would also like more formal training for young riders of ebikes to prevent injuries. She wants to get more people on bikes and out of their cars.

This is a local issue and needs a local process and she and Katherine Blakespear and others are working on this. Her concern is around the question ‘has the correct analysis been done to know if it is only that segment or does the entire segment need to be moved’. We should be looking at it in this larger context. If sea level rise is considered, should the entire corridor stay where it is or moved. She chairs the Sea Level Rise Committee and it's over $600 billion just to relocate the essential infrastructure because of sea level rise. State and federal legislators have a role but this needs to be handled by SANDAG and the local authorities.