All Episodes

August 3, 2025 34 mins
Pacific Palisades has a long way to go in its rebuilding process after January's devastating wildfire, and one local real estate developer says it's time for the neighborhood to leave the City of LA behind. Sen. Adam Schiff joins us to talk about his new legislation he says would offer financial help to people with mortgages in areas affected by wildfires and other natural disasters. Plus, an Orange County supervisor has decided to run for California Secretary of State.
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
We have another hour together and it is a big one.
Undercover billionaire Elaine Culotti joins us. She's a real estate
developer who is unhappy with the rebuild process and Pacific Palisades.
So unhappy she thinks it may be time for the
Palisades to leave the city of Los Angeles. And US
Senator Adam Schiff has a new bill he says would
help people with mortgages in places devastated by wildfires and

(00:27):
other natural disasters.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
He is with us in the next hour, and.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
We'll finish up with the local elected official who's decided
to throw a hat in the ring for statewide office.
This is Michael Monks Reports on KFI AM six forty.
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
We have another hour ahead. If you missed any of
our coverage from the previous hour, look us up on

(00:52):
the iHeartRadio app. You'll find the podcast with the review
of the week's news, including the appeals court decision to
side with Los Angeles and a virtually stop immigration rates. Meanwhile,
Pacific Palisades continues its long road to recovery, but one
resident in real estate developer says it's not going well
and local government is to blame. You know her from undercover.

(01:14):
Billionaire Elaine Colotti joins us. Now, Elaine Colotti is so
good to talk to you again. Thanks for making time.
I heard from your people, your team that your latest
idea is related to de annexation. Before we started, you
told me not to call it secession, but would this
basically take the Palisades out of the city of Los Angeles.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
Well, I mean, listen, this is an option that's available
for anybody, I mean any city, and we need our
resources that we have, which is we have a very
high property tax base in Pacific Palisades. So imagine if
we could use our property tax at least for our
terrible tragedy to do infrastructure and repair of our streets.

Speaker 5 (01:54):
Yeah, it's a half a billion dollars.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
You know, that would be for one year, and that
money's gone right now because there's no so LA is
not going to be the.

Speaker 5 (02:01):
Beneficiary of it anyway.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
Like, let us all pull our resources together in the
Palisades and get and put it into.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
The Palisades, is my point.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
What does that mean to take the money and put
it into the Palisades. Well, I mean.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
Currently when you sign your if you own a home
or any real estate, you pay property taxes every year.

Speaker 5 (02:19):
And property tax is for certain buckets.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
It goes into, for example, schools, it goes to fire
and to police, and it goes into infrastructure, so your
roads and your fire hydrants and all that. So if
you write a property tax check and you're in the Palisades,
you're in a very wealthy area or you're in a

(02:43):
very high.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
Real estate valued area.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
There's a lot of new construction that happened in the
Palisades because Rick Caruso built.

Speaker 5 (02:50):
That beautiful village. So a lot of properties turned over.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
So they have a new property tax basis, which is
a lot. If property tax goes into a state, it's
like it's everybody puts into it, and then property tax
is supposed to be then recycled into these buckets that
you're paying for. And if none of that money ever
comes back to you, if you have a broken police
department and a fire department with no water, and you
don't have roads that you can drive on, and your

(03:14):
school is burnt down at the end of the day,
why would that property tax not come back to us
at least for our emergency. And one of the ways
to get there, which is very clear to me, is
the annexation. Also, there's lots of things you can do,
but they all involved the city taking back their power.

(03:35):
And in charter cities, private incorporated cities, a bunch of
different cities. There's these things called the home rule. And
I did a whole drill down.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
With Florida's home rules and California's home rules.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
This is another way to take back that One is
where all of La City could separate itself from the
state until this is all cleaned up.

Speaker 5 (03:54):
Because what's happening is the state's so.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
Big and we're so broke that there's not enough money
to put it where the emergency is. And so the
people that are in the middle of the emergency that
depend on the basics you know, fire safety and police
and you know low crime, all the basics that government
is here to provide doesn't exist because there's no money
and we're always playing catch up.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
So I'm saying, Okay, we have this big emergency.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
We want an ali ali on Comfrey, let us out,
let us get organized, will be. Maybe we'll come back,
maybe we won't, But let us take care of us,
because clearly you guys cannot.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
That is an interesting observation when you note that we're
pretty well broke, because that's true at the state level,
that's true of the county government, and it's certainly true
of the city of Los Angeles. Do you think that
let's just talk specifically about the city since that's who
is governing the rebuilding of the Palisades and certainly government

(04:50):
leading up to the fire and during it. Is the
city too big? Is it ungovernable? It sometimes feels that
way to me? Is the guy who covers it?

Speaker 4 (04:59):
Okay, No, I don't think that's the issue. I think
it's the leadership. And I'm sorry, but it's clearly you know,
government has a fundamental first step, first temple, and that's
to make sure that the people that live in underneath
that government are healthy, happy and safe. You know, there's

(05:20):
not we're not providing just the basics as a government.
It doesn't have anything to do with the size of it.
There's no management. They're just all over the show. You know,
they're not organized. I was told firsthand from state lawmakers
in a town hall that our administration, meaning Gavin Newsom
and Karen Bass have moved on.

Speaker 5 (05:43):
Those were the words used by our state lawmakers.

Speaker 4 (05:46):
Moved on to the things that they're fighting for example,
you know the ice rates and things like that. Where
the Gavin, I don't know what Avan's doing. Gavin's not
going to be governor. You know he's going to be
out and so I don't think you know, he's got
other land. And if you've got other plans and this
isn't your priority in an emergency, it shows.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
A lot more. It's more like, oh, whoa, he's.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Actually not around versus if you think about like if
he was running for governor, maybe he would be like,
if I could save the Palisades, then I would become governor.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
Right, maybe I'm going to do that.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
I'm saying, if you really mean it, and you really
want to do something, you really want people to pay
attention to, you, work on the palisades, or work on
Alta Dina, or work on emergency response, work on immigration.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
There's a lot of things that they could be doing.
They're not doing.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
What they're doing is they're butting heads with the Trump
administration and we are not in the conversation. We're completely
left out of the conversation, and we have to be
We need we need federal help. So that means we've
got to know if it's kissed the ring, whatever. But
we need help, we.

Speaker 5 (06:54):
Need to ask, and we.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
Need to make concessions so that we can get back
in the conversation.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Do you think that if the Palisades were able to
govern itself per se, either as a city or some
form of localized municipal government, that it would be able
to avoid some of these traps that the city, the county,
and the state government currently fall into.

Speaker 5 (07:15):
Definitely.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
Well, I think the Palisads is unique in that it's
a fairly well funded city. Okay, there's a lot of
people that have a lot of money. That's I get that.
I understand what that might look like. But I just
want to finish my thought here. Why not let us
have a pilot project. Why not let us lead the
charge in what this might look like for other cities
and build a template, because we will have leftover funds

(07:37):
if left to manage our own. But we would like
to have our own police department, and we certainly would
like to have our own fire department. If you think
about what Rick Cruso did, He had his own fire
department and guess what his building is still standing now.

Speaker 5 (07:49):
To me, okay, you have a working model. That is
a working model.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
You can criticize it if you want to, but the
working model is he was preemptive and he said, hey, look,
I'm going to have my own fire department because I'm
not comfortable with what's happening. In two days three days
before he's mobilizing and our management team was away, not
even in the state, not even in the country actually,

(08:14):
so yes.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
We are a little bit wealthier than other locations.

Speaker 4 (08:18):
Fine, but we want to manage ourselves and if we
could build a model, we can share that model, and.

Speaker 5 (08:24):
I do think that Altadina one hundred percent can do it.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
We'll continue our conversation with the Lane Kuloate next, including
her reaction to a pause on certain kinds of developments
in the neighborhood, and later we're joined by Senator Adam
Schiff and the local elected official who's launched a statewide campaign.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
You're listening to kfi AM six forty on demandfi AM.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This is
Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI News. Let's
continue with the Lane Kulaate real estate developer, undercover billionaire
and Pacific Palacey. It's resident unhappy with how the rebuilt
effort is going. Elaine, thanks again for the time you're
giving us tonight.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
Thank you so much, Michael for having me on as
always are so great.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
I appreciate that. What about the fundraising and the charitable
efforts in the Palisades, how's that going?

Speaker 4 (09:13):
Put your money where your mouth is. If you're going
to raise money, get rid of all the middlemen, the
NGOs and these charities and go directly to where you
said you were going to show.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
Up for the people that gave time to you and
open up shop.

Speaker 4 (09:27):
Put a body there, have someone there answering questions, getting answers.

Speaker 5 (09:33):
I also want to.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
Go on record and say DWP has a new annex,
Emergency X. It's located on pch and Tipanga. They can't
open till September because the Department of Water and Power
does not have power yet.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Man, It's it's just I mean, it speaks to your
point that we talked about earlier with the difficulty that
the city has in governing itself a city mean a
city utility having problems putting power in its own building is.

Speaker 5 (10:05):
It's insane to me.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
It goes back to when Karen Bass was in that
jet way and she was looking out the.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Glass just after the fires.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
Of leadership to me, like, I understand, you've got to
stand in the face of adversity when everybody's mad, but
you have to and you have to listen to what
they're saying, and then you have to have an answer.
And I would never stare at the glass like that
when I was gone. I would say I made a mistake.
I should not have left. I'm on the ground now,

(10:36):
please come with me. I need to learn with you.
Would I need your help. I don't need you to
be angry with me. I made a huge mistake. I'll
deal with that in a minute. Right now, we are
in triage and I need to get to work and
I need to figure out what to do, what my
next steps are.

Speaker 5 (10:50):
To be quite honest, I don't know right say it,
I don't know. I need help. Can you help me?

Speaker 2 (10:58):
I think that's good advice, because I, you know, without
showing sympathy to an elected official. That's not my job,
but you know, we think about it objectively. Of Course,
she wasn't going to be in the bucket brigade. Of
course she wasn't going to be hauling fire hoses up
the hills to fight the fire. So I think people
could be more forgiving and understanding about what her role
would have been had she been here. But she kind

(11:18):
of screwed herself a little bit with the early statements
and the way that she handled the communication of her
role and the position of the community agree.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
I think communication is the key factor, and having in
person front facing.

Speaker 5 (11:33):
C two C B two C installations in these areas
is critical.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
I also want to let you know that the one
stop opened at the Building Department on five and forty one.
People have gone through the one stop. Eighty permits have
been issued and eighteen of them are in the Pacific Palisades.
So what that tells me is that the builders that
are using the one stop are actually the big builders
that you know can't get their permits through normally, and
they can jam through the one stop because it's not

(12:00):
benefiting the palisades.

Speaker 5 (12:02):
It's we need our own building department.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Eighteen permits you said eighteen one eight.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
One, eight out of eighty eight. Yeah, it's not.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
This is it's also so complicated for people that are
retired or people that are you know, just never have
never built a home. Yeah, handhold and you have to
have support there. We don't have it. And it is
the Department of Building and Safety. It's not the Department
of Building. We need them in our village.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Well, speaking of building, it's not just going to be
the homeowners who plan to return. There will be new residents,
There will be new developments in the Palisades. And just
this week, both Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass took a
stand against some types of potential development there. I know
that this order that the governor signed would provide local

(12:54):
elected officials the ability to suspend provisions under Senate Bill nine.
That's a law from twenty twenty one that allowed property
owners to build up to four units on their land
that was previously designated for single family homes. That's something
that I think a lot of Palisades residents objected to.
Can you explain the rationale from your perspective as a

(13:14):
resident of the Palisades.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
Okay, So I'm going to do it through the eyes
of Tracy Parks and Ben Allen because.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
I met with them about city councilmen in state centers.

Speaker 4 (13:22):
It's very complicated for anybody in California who wants to
understand how broke we are.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
City council doesn't have enough money to rewrite bills. Okay,
there's no money, and you have to write the bill.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
You have to have legislation has to be written, which
means there's expensive attorneys, and there's all these surveys and
they have to do a lot of research.

Speaker 5 (13:41):
It's expensive. This bill that you're discussing, I think it
was five p. One nine. It existed with this language
in it.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
What happened was Tracy and Ben Allen specifically tried to
write some language to get infrastructure money into the Palisades
in other places, to try to get money in to
fix the roads, and they combined it with a bill
that was previously written, and it blew up. There was
this backdraft that happened where everybody got mad at Ben Allen,
and Ben Allen went in himself and said, Okay, I'm

(14:11):
gonna kick it to next year. And then there was
this town hall and he explained what happened to be
quite honest, I felt terrible for him because these people
are trying. Okay, they're trying, but they're up against this
massive move to have these fifteen minute cities and the
new Green deals and the you know two point oh

(14:34):
la and the Olympics and the it's a nightmare.

Speaker 5 (14:37):
And what happens is.

Speaker 4 (14:38):
We write legislation over up here in the in the
in the King's House, and then all the little patrons
down here in the little towns are like, wait, we
don't want that, and so our representatives are trying to
combine this legislation so that they can get it through faster,
and it just failed. It's not what we want. It's
not going to happen. Rest assured. It's another reason why

(14:59):
ans a patient from these bigger kind of bills that are.

Speaker 5 (15:03):
Existing needs to happen.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
We need our own legislation writers, We need our on
funding to write legislation.

Speaker 5 (15:09):
What are we borrowing money from the state fund to
right legislation.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
For the Pacific Palisades or making boards for the Pacific
Palisaines that don't have any Pacific Palisadians on them, like,
you know, don't make boards, don't have these weird little
legislators that are beneath the actual vote making rules that
we did not vote on.

Speaker 5 (15:31):
And look at this is what happened with mansion tax.
That's what that is.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
It's not mansion tax. It's ula. It's a it's a
tax that taxes everything. It's transactional. It's not on your mansion.
But guess what the payback is. If you own a
property and that property is burned down, it's just dirt.
You're paying mansion tax on that those ashes if it's
over five million dollars.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
Now, was that the intent of the bill was it?
Is that what they wanted to have happened? No, say
we're sorry, take it down.

Speaker 4 (16:04):
Anybody that's in is a burn victim, doesn't pay mansion tax. Crickets,
crickets nothing.

Speaker 5 (16:12):
That's what we got to change.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Still a long road to go. I know we'll get
the chance to talk to you many more times ahead.
Elaine Klane is a real estate developer, and you may
also know her from Discovery plus Undercover Billionaire, and you
may now know her from the Free City of Pacific Palisades. Elaine,
thanks so much for the time you gave us.

Speaker 5 (16:33):
Thank you, You're so awesome.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Senator Adam Schiff says his new bill would bring financial
relief to residents of Altadena, the Palisades, other areas hit
by wildfires and other natural disasters. We will talk with
him and an Orange County supervisor says it's time to
restore trust for those who've lost it in California's election system.
So he is running for Secretary of State.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
KFI SI forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. This
is Michael Monks reports on Michael Monks from KFI News.
Senator Adam Schiff has a new bill he's introduced alongside
Colorado Democrat Michael Bennett. He says it would help people
with mortgages in natural disaster areas like Alta, Dina, and
the Palisades. Let's find out about it. Senator Shift, good
to talk to you again. Thanks for making some time

(17:20):
for KFI.

Speaker 6 (17:21):
You bet good to be with you.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Let's talk about this new bill that you introduced with
fellow Democratic Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado, the Mortgage Relief
for Disaster Survivors ACT. I know that this can apply
to a variety of disasters. Across the country. But specifically,
what could this mean for folks devastated by the wildfires
in January.

Speaker 7 (17:40):
Well, what it would mean.

Speaker 6 (17:41):
Is those that are suffering from a natural disaster and
trying to get back on their feet could apply to
get one hundred and eighty days of mortgage foreclosure relief.
So for one hundred and eighty days, you wouldn't have
to make payments on your mortgage. Now, it wouldn't be
that those payments would never have to be made. They
would be essentially added to the back end of your mortgage.

(18:02):
But if you're trying to re establish yourself, if you're
trying to if your business burned down, you're trying to
once again generate an income, this would take a little
bit of a financial burden away for one hundred and
eighty days, and you can apply, if necessary, to have
that extended a second one hundred and eighty days.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Does this have to get any banks on board? How
would it work? Exactly?

Speaker 6 (18:25):
No, it wouldn't. I mean it would apply to those
mortgages that are federally insured, so federally back mortgages, which
is not all mortgages, but it is I think the
vast majority of mortgages, and because it wouldn't be essentially
forgiving the mortgage, which would implicate the debt ode to

(18:45):
the banks, this really doesn't require their approval. It just
requires the Congress to act.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
This isn't the first piece of legislation at the federal
level that you've introduced related or at least inspired by
the wildfires that took place here, even spoken about. I
think what you've called the Financing Increased Resilience, Environmental Weatherization
and Lowered Liability the Firewall Act, and that's I think

(19:12):
related to a federal tax credit for folks who might
rebuild with those fire resistant materials.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
What's the status of that one.

Speaker 6 (19:20):
We introduced it on a biparisan basis with Tim Sheehe
a Republican from Montana, and Tim used to be an
aerial firefighter, so he has a lot of experience in
dealing with wildfires, and so we've introduced it together. It
will be assigned to the committees of jurisdiction, and then
we need to move it. In the past several weeks,

(19:42):
the Congress has really been preoccupied with the Reconciliation Bill,
and now we're trying to finish the business that we
have before us before we go out to our states
during August, so we haven't had time to move that
bill yet, but I'm hoping when we get back that
it will be a priority for the Congress to address
it in a meaningful way.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Do you think that there is going to be bipartisan
appetite to help California recover, not just through the bills
that you've presented, but with any federal funding that may
be determined to be necessary to restore the Palisades, to
restore Malibu, to restore Altadena.

Speaker 6 (20:21):
I certainly hope. So I hope that we don't start
deciding to allocate disaster relief on a partisan basis, depending
on whether a state is rhet or blue. We've never
done that before. Now President Trump has talked about doing
exactly that. This would be a terrible disservice, you know,
for those and I've been talking to my fellow senators

(20:42):
on both sides of the aisle, for those in Texas
that just went through those horrible floods and storms, and
similarly for those in North Carolina that went through a
similar terrible disaster, for Floridians that go through a hurricane
after hurricane, we really don't want to get in the
business of saying, Okay, we're only going to help victims
here and not there, because you know, to my Republican colleagues,

(21:06):
I make the case, hey, when there's a democratic administration,
do you really want your constituents cut off from help.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
Let's just not go down that road before you run.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
I do want to ask about that. I guess this
deepening partisanship that is taking over this country. We're seeing
a battle between states, including our state, California and Texas
over jerrymandering. Used to be in the House. This doesn't
apply to you necessarily anymore as a senator, But do
you any reaction to this growing battle over how congressional

(21:39):
seats should be created and the way that states seem
to be poised to retaliate against each other.

Speaker 6 (21:46):
I do have very strong feelings about this. First of all,
I think what people need to know is Texas is
already jerrymandered. The Texas legislature and governor, all Republican, have
drawn lines very favorable to Republicans. Of the reason why
the Texas delegation is already really lopsided. They want to
make it worse even more lopsided by redrawing the lines

(22:08):
in the middle of the decade, which is almost never
done because the President is deeply worried that they're going
to lose their majority in the House over that big,
ugly bill. That bill is cutting millions off of access
to healthcare, and so, fearing that their own policy is
so unpopular it's going to cost them the House, they

(22:28):
want to essentially rig the game by changing the lines
in Texas. We cannot allow that states that are are
like California, the subject of independent and nonpartisan redistricting can't
disarm if Republicans are going to engage in that kind
of gerrymander, and so California will need to respond. New

(22:52):
York will need to respond. And none of us want
to go down this road, and we shouldn't. So first
and foremost, we got stop Texas from doing what they're doing.
But if they go down that road, we can't fight
with one arm tied behind our back. We're going to
have to respond too. But at the end of the day,
what we really need to make happen is the Congress

(23:13):
needs to pass a national redistricting reform that ends the
partisan gerrymander that puts re districting in the hands of
an independent commission in every state of Union, not just
in states like California. That's really good governance. But in
the short term, if Texas goes down this road, California
and other states are going to have to respond.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
I think independent commissions make sense to people who are
willing to have a reasonable conversation and helping to create
districts based on district needs and certain demographics. Do you
expect there will be any proverbial adults in the room
who will stand up for that, because right now it
seems a lot of important folks are chomping at the

(23:54):
bit to go to war over this.

Speaker 6 (23:57):
Well, I think the ABC ordinary folks in Texas going
to these public hearings showing up in massive numbers to
oppose this, you know, this, this idea that's been forced
on them by Donald Trump. In fact, the Republican governor
and Republican legislators were apparently very resistant to going down
this road until Trump badgers them to do it. And

(24:19):
as you know, we see all the time in Congress.
When Trump badger is his own party, they do what
he wants. But it would be a terrible road for
the whole country to go down it would just make
the partisan divides even more severe. So if there's any
chance of stopping Texas from taking this disastrous step, we should,
we should do it. But if not, we need to

(24:40):
make sure that that you can't rig the game this way,
and you know, Californias and other states will have to respond.
I would hope that, as you say, the adults in
the room and saying your minds will prevail, Texas won't
go forward and on a bi partisan basis. We can
do the right thing, which is at a federal level,

(25:01):
prevent any state from doing these jerrymanders ever.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Again, Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, always a pleasure
to chat with you. Thanks for making some time for us.

Speaker 6 (25:11):
Great to be with you. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Up next, Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner has announced his
campaign for California Secretary of State.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
So what's his message to the state.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Michael Monks Reports. I'm Michael Monks from KFI News.
If you've missed any of the past two hours, look
us up on the iHeartRadio app or KFIAM six forty
dot com. Get the podcast, and don't forget to hit
me up on social media. Mike monks La on all
the big platforms. That's Mike Monk's La, m I C

(25:46):
m O nks LA, m I C mnks LA. Orange
County Supervisor Don Wagner used to serve in Sacramento as
a state assemblyman. He says he's ready to go back
to the state capitol, this time as Secretary of State.
The Republican candidate is with us now. Supervisor Wagner, thanks
so much for taking time for.

Speaker 7 (26:04):
KFI my pleasure. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
I would think being an Orange County supervisor is a
pretty good gig. Why are you looking to head up
to Sacramento again.

Speaker 7 (26:15):
It is a great gig, and I really enjoy Orange
County and I enjoy my district. But the truth is,
I believe that there are some serious changes that need
to be made in Sacramento and in particular in the
Secretary of State's office. We see too many people in
California who are distrustful of our voting system, who don't

(26:35):
think that it's being run fairly. And I want to
make sure that public has confidence in our system of elections.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Again, what do you think is driving what you see
as a lack of confidence growing among the people of California.

Speaker 7 (26:52):
It's a couple of things, you know. I will start
with the idea that there will almost certainly be on
the ballot in November a voter initiative now that has
over seventy percent polling popularity in California, And that tells
me that the public thinks that there could be something wrong,
and there's no reason not to make sure that the

(27:17):
person who is casting the ballot is in fact the
person who's entitled to cast that ballot. What I think
the public wants, what I absolutely want, is that everybody
who's entitled to vote is allowed to vote and can
vote easily. And I want no one who is not
allowed to vote to be on the rolls and able
to cast a ballot. So when you see a voter

(27:38):
idea initiative polling like that, when you go out into
the community as I do, and you hear people say, well,
why should I vote? They just won't count it or
they'll just cheat. Anyway, there's a lack of confidence in
our system, and that is debilitating for democracy. It shouldn't
be this way, and I want to fix it.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
Look, California is the largest state in the Union. A
lot of people on those of votvoter rolls. What type
of undertaking are we.

Speaker 7 (28:02):
Looking at here, Well, we're looking at a very large
undertaking to clear the voter roles. There was a lawsuit
in Los Angeles a few years ago and they found
that they had more names on the voter roles than
they had citizens in Los Angeles. And that's because we
do a very poor job throughout the state in clearing

(28:24):
our voter roles. People who have moved out, and we
hear constantly of folks going to Texas or going to
Tennessee or otherwise leaving the state of California. Well, we
need to make sure that those folks are not mail
to ballot at their last California address. We are a
wash in ballots, which you know, we're one of the
few states less than ten in the United States just

(28:46):
routinely mail out ballots to everyone that was a COVID provision.
Let's stop it. Let's make sure that the voting role
is clean. If you move, if you pass away, that
the registrars informed and the voting roles can be cleaned.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
We're talking about the voter roles. But when election day
rolls around, ballots are cast and we start to get
the counts. Maybe I'm speaking selfishly here as a journalist
who wants to report the election results, but my goodness,
it takes a long time in California. Is that something
you view the Secretary of State of California being able
to address somehow?

Speaker 7 (29:24):
Absolutely, the Secretary of State can address it. It is
probably the best elected official in the state of California
to address that problem. And you recognize that it takes
so long to actually get results nowadays that that contributes
to the lack of confidence that voters feel. It used
to be you would get the results that night, maybe

(29:47):
the next morning in a complicated race, and nowadays we're
waiting thirty thirty days to get results. That is because
of the legislature. It's because of changes that were made
by the folks up in Sacramento, and it contributes to
this enormous delay. We need to roll those back, and
the Secretary of State should be the point person in

(30:09):
going to the legislature and saying that day of voting
or voting at the voting centers is much quicker to count,
and we won't take thirty days if we don't have
so many mail in ballots out there. We won't have

(30:29):
the cure period stretching for the full thirty days because
that is so time consuming. If we change the law
so that your ballot is as it used to be counted,
if you get it to the registrar's office by election day,
if it's postmarked by election day, and right now, that

(30:50):
isn't the law in California, and that's why we stretch
out to thirty days. The Secretary of State needs to
say this is wrong. It's contributing to the disincentive to
vote in the state, and it's contributing to the sense
that our elections are not free and fair.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
We're talking with Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, a Republican
who has announced as candidacy for Secretary of State in California.
You have been in the State Assembly before, so you
have Sacramento experience, but you've also been the mayor of Vervine.
You're currently an Orange County Supervisor. I'm wondering what you
view as the best strengths you would bring to a

(31:29):
statewide role because of the experience serving where the proverbial
rubber meets the road at the local level.

Speaker 7 (31:36):
I do think you've hit on what will be a
defining difference between me and the governor whos from appointed incumbent,
And that difference is I have been at the state level.
I've been at the city level. I've been at the
county level. I was even on an education board, a
college board. So I have seen California government work or
not work, at so many different levels, and I think

(32:01):
that's a record that it would be hard for the
incumbent to match what I bring. Then is a way
to say I've seen where it works, I see what
we do well, I see what we don't do well,
and that changes need to be made, for example, and
the Secretary of State's office is right in the middle
of this. One of the things California does worse than

(32:24):
almost anything else in its surprise and given Silicon Valley,
we do technology terribly. When I was in the state legislature,
there had been for several years an effort to come
up with a court a program dealing with our court systems,
a computer system, and we had spend in California half
a billion dollars on it. It wasn't working. We absolutely

(32:47):
junked it, and I thought, why in the world is
a state like California, with all of the tech experience,
we have so bad at technology. Well, we need to
fix that. And in California, if you own a business here,
if you start a business here, you're going to deal
with the Secretary of State's Office. Although we focus on elections,

(33:07):
the largest single department in the Secretary of State's Office
is the Business Records Department, and we handle millions of
files in the Secretary of State's Office every year. There's
no reason we shouldn't be able to have all of
those automated, all of those online. We should have absolutely
top notch, first rate customer service when businesses call in.

(33:31):
It's already hard enough to do business in California. The
Secretary of State's Office should not make it that much harder.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, a Republican candidate for Secretary
of State. Supervisor Wagner, we do appreciate the time you
gave us. I'm sure we'll have calls to talk again,
whether about Orange County or the campaign.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (33:48):
I look forward to it. Thank you Michael, and.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
That's it for us on another beautiful Saturday night in
southern California. I do hope you stay cool in the
hot week ahead. It's coming. I'll be with you every
day next week, bringing you the news here on KFI
and we'll be back together next Saturday for another edition
of Michael Monks Reports. Thanks for spending your Saturday night
with us right here on kf I AM six forty

Speaker 1 (34:12):
Kf I AM six forty on demand
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2

Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2

Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.