A heated debate on state bill to decertify police officers

During marathon afternoon floor sessions that began the last week of what has been an unusual year in the California Legislature, Democratic lawmakers advanced bills on policing, tobacco and more.

The biggest drama of the day was probably over a procedural vote on one of the year's most timely and controversial bills. SB 731 would create a decertification process for police officers. It is designed to prevent officers who have left a force due to wrongdoing in one jurisdiction from finding a job as an officer elsewhere in California.

The idea appears to enjoy support among Democratic lawmakers. But the bill only came into existence on July 27 when an unrelated measure was "gutted," in Capitol parlance, to create a new bill. On Monday morning, it came up for a procedural vote in the Assembly that would allow it to have a hearing in the Assembly Judiciary Committee well after the deadline had passed for measures to be heard in policy committees.

This meant SB 731 needed 54 votes, representing a two-thirds margin, in the 80-member Assembly. With Republicans opposed, that meant Democrats needed the support of nearly all of their members. This took nearly three hours, with only 44 members voting yes in the initial round of voting. Enough members finally voted yes that SB 731 will get a policy hearing, likely on Wednesday.

The most-debated bill of the day was probably SB 793. It would ban most flavored tobacco products, including menthol. The tobacco industry sued to block ordinances against flavored tobacco in Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as in at least two other states.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer in Los Angeles dismissed the suit against Los Angeles County, ruling the law did not violate the federal Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Fischer ruled that local governments are allowed to pass stronger regulations. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company v. County of Los Angeles, 2:20-cv-04880-DSF-KS (C.D. Cal., filed June 1, 2020).

Republican opponents focused on exceptions amended into the bill to ease it's passage, including for Middle Eastern-style hookah bars and cigars costing $12 or more apiece. These could potentially be fodder for future litigation, though its far from clear that would make these cases any more successful.

Another argument repeatedly raised by opponents is that SB 793 would increase police interactions between people of color and police was they tried to enforce the law. This has particularly come up in the case of menthol, which has often been exempted from earlier flavor ban.

This did not sit well with Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, who pushed back in a fiery floor speech calling out what she saw as a stereotype.

"That's what's being stated, that this is discriminatory legislation against black people," Weber said. "There is nothing I've read that says that black people are more interested in mentholated cigarettes, but somehow this represents their culture."

The Department of Tax and Fee Administration estimated the policy could cost the state about $53 million a year in lost tobacco tax revenues. But proponents have argued it would save far more in health care costs to the state in the long run, noting state figures showing smoking costs Medi-Cal alone $3 billion a year.