www.montereycountynow.com APRIL 17-23, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 15 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-andgreets, 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.” Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com. Across the Divide Can a field trip to Sacramento help local leaders get more done? By Sara Rubin ACCESS DENIED…In this cephalopod’s experience, social media is where only vampire squid hang out— it’s a good place for sucking the life force from other creatures. So Squid mostly avoids social media, but follows a few accounts to stay informed. Those include accounts of local politicians, who use social media to toot their own horns, but also to provide useful information. For County Supervisor Glenn Church, his staff— primarily policy analyst Leonie Gray—post about upcoming events, like Aromas Earth Day and a meeting on Highway 183 improvements in Castroville. So Gray was surprised on March 18 to receive a notice from Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, saying Church’s Instagram account was suspended because it “doesn’t follow our Community Standards on account integrity.” Those standards require accounts avoid egregious practices like promoting crime, sexual exploitation or violent content— nothing wrong with announcing a new fee structure for North County wells, it would seem. Gray followed the instructions to verify Church’s identity, including taking photos of him from multiple angles. But to no avail; Meta responded almost immediately to say it had disabled the account. “It seems to me like their whole review process was not run by a human,” Gray tells Squid’s colleague. Did Instagram’s AI analysis mistake Church for an AI-generated politician? Squid (not a human) reached out to Meta to ask, but didn’t hear back from either human or robot. PRICED OUT…One nice thing about the sea is there’s plenty of real estate, and if ever a species becomes too numerous, the food chain eventually sets things right. It’s an elegant if violent process that’s worked for millions of years, at least until humans started messing things up, something you unfortunately excel at. But building housing, not so much—which is why Squid was long a cheerleader for the 106-unit apartment complex on upper Broadway Avenue in Seaside called Sea Grove. On Thursday, April 24 at 10am, Sea Grove is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the project (though people have been living there for weeks already), but if you were hoping to land one of the 16 below-market-rate units, too bad— they were all scooped up within 30 minutes when applications opened up last October. And a representative from Sea Grove says the market-rate units are filling up too, which Squid finds surprising given that one-bedroom apartments start at $3,796 per month. By Squid’s rough calculation, a person would need to earn at least $150,000 a year to float that. That’s beyond Squid’s budget, but nonetheless Squid might ooze on over to take a tour—it might be catered, and in this economy, Squid’s always hunting for a free meal. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. “Our budget affects your budget.” SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
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