November 21, 2024 • 43 mins
What's the true cost of political ambition? Join us for an engaging conversation with special guest Nick Schultz as he shares his journey from Burbank City Council to the California State Assembly. Nick candidly discusses the legal obligations that necessitated his resignation and the seamless transition of responsibilities to Vice Mayor Nikki Perez and council member-elect Chris Rizzotti. He reflects on his achievements, challenges, and the invaluable support from Burbank voters, offering insights into the weighty decisions and personal sacrifices involved in public service.
Peek behind the curtains of legislative staffing and Capitol operations with a detailed overview of the inner workings of a legislative team. As Nick prepares for his new role, we explore the critical roles within his legislative staff and how resources are strategically allocated. From Capitol tours to maintaining a strong district presence despite frequent travel, listeners will uncover the complexities of balancing local commitments with state responsibilities. Discover how these logistical challenges are met with strategic planning and resourcefulness.
Nick also reflects on his proudest accomplishments during his tenure in local government, including navigating the tumultuous COVID-19 pandemic and spearheading initiatives for economic recovery. With a focus on diversity and fresh perspectives in government, this episode encourages new candidates to step forward with innovative ideas. As Nick transitions to the state level, he emphasizes the importance of understanding the broader impact of state policies on local communities, sharing his aspirations for committee assignments and addressing constituent concerns with urgency and dedication.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From deep in the Burbank Media District.
It's time for another editionof my Burbank Talks, presented
by the staff of my Burbank.
Now let's see what's on today'sagenda as we join our program.
Hello Burbank, craig Schuberthere once again Today.
We've got a very serious show.
We have some breaking news.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh, is that supposed to be breaking?
Oh, no, where's the bottle Iget to break?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That's right.
I'm here along with Ross Benson, and we do have breaking news
for you Our mayor, nick Schultz,has resigned from the Burbank
City Council.
Now let's get into this alittle bit.
Number one it's not a bad thing, okay.
He's being forced to resignbecause of his assembly
(00:47):
responsibilities.
So what we did was we broughthim right in the studio here so
he can talk to you and tell youall about it.
Assembly member Schultz, goodto have you here with us.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Well, thank you.
Thank you guys very much forhaving me.
Yes, this is the firstexclusive since the news broke,
and so you guys are the firstpeople that I wanted to share it
with, and I just want to thankmy Burbank for always being not
only a great source of news forour community, but for giving me
this platform, and so I hope inour time together today, I can
answer some of those questionsthat I'm sure the community is
(01:19):
asking.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So let's get into the .
So you kind of have to do thisfor different reasons.
We'll get into those reasons ina second, but let's talk about
the process first.
When do you officially resignyour seat and what happens once
your seat is now vacant and wenow have four council members
until you swear in our newcouncil member.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
So today is Thursday, november 21st.
You're all hearing this newsfor the first time.
My resignation will beeffective, meaning I will leave
the position of mayor and ascouncil member for the city of
Burbank on at noon on Monday,november 25th, so in a matter of
a few days.
The process is relativelysimple.
I have submitted a letter toour city manager, justin Hess.
(02:03):
It's now on file as part ofcity record and so at that time
I will be stepping down and, inmy absence, our vice mayor,
nikki Perez, while she willremain vice mayor until the
reorganization, she will assumeall of the job, duties and
responsibilities and, for allintents and purposes, will be
our acting mayor from now to the16th.
(02:25):
And, in case you're wondering,after, of course, talking with
my family about it and JustinHess, she was my first call and
I just want to thank the vicemayor for, you know, offering
not only her support butstepping up to lead Burbank in
this time of transition.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Now there's, I'm not sure.
Is there a council meetingbetween now and the
reorganization meeting?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
There's two.
So we have Tuesday, november26th, and then the council is on
break for Thanksgiving untilTuesday, december 10th.
So for those two meetings wewill have four council members.
The vice mayor will be chairingthe meeting, as I would, and
acting in my place, but we havea full council.
We still have business to tendto and I also just want to,
(03:09):
while I'm obviously thanking thevice mayor for performing a lot
of the ceremonial duties, Ialso want to mention that I've
talked to all of my colleaguesat this point and I want to
thank all of them.
They're all going to bestepping up to have an expanded
role in these couple of weeks tomake sure that the community is
served and that we are outthere and we are visible.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So now it really it really hasn't happened.
But if a vote comes up and it'stwo to two um, does that mean
it would probably get held overuntil the new council is?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
then they're going to call us to vote.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh, believe me, I have an opinion.
Whatever it is, I have anopinion.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
So the short answer?
The short answer, craig, is yes.
If there's a vote that's tied,it would be held over.
We have incoming council memberelect Chris Rizzotti, who will
be on the council the 16th.
Congratulations again, chris.
But I will say that this is not.
This is not Nick Schultzleaving Burbank in a lurch,
(04:06):
justin and Jonathan Kimberly.
Joe, we've known about thispossibility for quite some time.
So, when you look at the agendaforecast for the 26th as well
as December 10th, we feelconfident that what you will
find are agenda items that,while important and worthy of
substantial discussion, all ofthem are capable of achieving a
majority, even with afour-member council.
So we're optimistic.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
There have been very few, even three to two votes
Very few, so I'm not reallyworried about that, but you know
it's a possibility.
So let's talk about why this isoccurring.
What is the reason that youhave to kind of do this?
I understand the governor iscalling the assembly and the
state senate together to work onsome things.
(04:47):
So what did you find out aboutthis and what are the reasonings
behind it all?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah.
So before we go on, I just wantto thank all of the voters in
Burbank, whether you voted forme or not.
I'm just grateful to have beenon the ballot and I look forward
to serving everyone.
So let me talk a little bitabout what's expected of me and
how that impacts the end of mytenure on Burbank City Council.
So first thing you have to knowis that the California state
constitution is very clear thefirst Monday in December at noon
(05:17):
, the entire legislature issworn in.
So at noon on Monday, december2nd, I am sworn in as your next
assembly member and Iimmediately start on that job.
Now, that's a non-negotiabledate.
So I have to start that day,and so that obviously is much
sooner than December 16th whenour reorganization meeting would
(05:38):
be.
And under California state lawyou can't hold two offices at
once law you can't hold twooffices at once.
So by accepting thatappointment, by being sworn into
the state capitol in the statelegislature, I, by operation of
law, lose my seat on the BurbankCity Council.
Now the second part of thequestion was okay.
But why now?
Why November 25th?
(05:58):
Well, obviously this decisionwas made in close consultation
with our staff, the city manager.
Obviously, this decision wasmade in close consultation with
our staff, the city manager, myfamily, the vice mayor, of
course, who will be taking over.
It's really twofold.
I knew this time was coming andI didn't want to resign at any
earlier point.
You know at this, at this point, you know this.
Last Tuesday we had a reallyimportant meeting.
(06:19):
A lot of great items discussedand I wanted to be there for
that.
But I also have to balance toyour point, craig, the fact that
Governor Newsom has called aspecial session.
Just a really quick backstoryon this.
The legislature normallyconvenes that Monday in December
.
Everyone's sworn in and they gohome.
That's it until January.
(06:40):
That's obviously not the casethis year.
Governor Newsom is concernedabout impacts on California,
with the Trump administrationcoming soon back into power, and
so he's convened thelegislature to look at ways that
we can safeguard California andpreserve our way of life
against a federal governmentthat may have different values
and different priorities.
(07:00):
So my mind has not really beenthere in these last weeks.
I've been focused on doing thejob of mayor.
But I made the decision toresign Monday at noon, exactly
one week prior to being sworn in, exactly one week prior to that
special session so that I havetime to continue assembling my
team legislative director, justto start with.
(07:22):
And we have bills.
I already have a first billidea that I I don't want to
share quite yet because it'sstill in formation, um, but
there are already bill ideasthat we're going to spend this
upcoming week putting togetherso that we can hit the ground
running and do everything thatwe can to protect California.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Maybe people don't know, but when you become on
Burbank city Council basicallyJustin Hess he picks your staff
and the city staff that workswith the council and everybody
else.
But now, being we're goingassembly, it's up to you now to
pick your own staff.
And how many staff members doyou get?
And you hire these people, youdecide who they are and, of
(08:02):
course, the state pays for itall and everything else.
You don't pay for them.
But how do you?
What are you looking for instaff members?
Can anybody you know give you acall and say, hey, I'd love to
interview for your staff, orhow's that all go about?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
That is a phenomenal question.
So, yes, unlike the city ofBurbank, where the whole council
shares all the staff and reallyeverybody works for Justin
minus Joe McDougal, um, with our, with ours it's a little bit
different.
I hire a chief of staff and inaddition to the chief of staff,
um, you're going to have alegislative director who's going
to be your point person oncrafting and moving your bills
(08:41):
through the assembly and thenthrough the Senate and hopefully
onto the governor's desk.
You're going to have ascheduler.
You're going to have one andhopefully several legislative
aides who are there in thecommittee hearings, advocating
for your bills, taking notes.
Obviously, most of the heavylifting you have to do is the
member, but you still have ateam in the Capitol to help you
(09:02):
move your bills through.
Then you also have yourdistrict team.
So you typically have adistrict director who is your,
for all intents and purposes,voice and face in the off in the
district when you're not here,and you have a couple of field
reps that are out thererepresenting you at ribbon
cutting, speaking on your behalfat council meetings, chamber of
commerce meetings and doing theimportant work of addressing
(09:25):
constituents' concerns.
So, all told, the numberdepends on your seniority.
But what we're being told atthis early juncture is that the
freshman members, includingmyself, will have seven staff
members four in the capital,three in the district.
That can obviously go a littleup or down depending on if
you've been given a committeeassignment.
(09:47):
If you're chairing a majorcommittee, you may have more
resources.
And last thing, craig, anybodycan apply.
We have an open hiring process.
So if you're interested inbeing district director or field
representative, you can go tothe assembly web page after
December 2nd.
You'll see all the jobspostings there.
You can also reach out to medirectly.
(10:08):
I'm just going to refer you tomy chief of staff, but you're
welcome to submit your resumeand we will consider anyone who
wants to work.
Have you picked a chief ofstaff yet?
I have designated a chief ofstaff.
Her name is Allison Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Ross Well, we'll probably be dealing with Allison
quite a bit.
Ross, well, we'll probably bedealing with allison quite a bit
.
Um, you should uh, she shouldknow, uh, myburbankcom is uh
where you had trails and and uhdid many podcasts in our studio
and we did many ribbon cuttingstogether.
So we did.
Hopefully you might be uh down,uh here, uh, and attend a
(10:44):
couple of ribbon cuttingsyourself.
I'm gonna have to write a wholenew script when I, you know, we
do a ribbon cutting introducingeverybody.
I'm gonna have to knoweverybody's new name.
I mean it's gonna throw me off,but uh, you're, you're busy
well, I and you know.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
One thing you're hinting on is you know, how much
should people expect to see ofme?
I think more more than theymight suspect.
So look, we're in Burbank weoften talk about on this podcast
.
It's the best little airportthere is around.
I live a whole eight minutesfrom it, which is great.
So my plan except for thoseweeks when we're really in deep
(11:22):
budget discussions I plan to goup Monday morning, be back
Tuesday late afternoon orevening so I can put the kids to
bed, maybe make a guestappearance at a council meeting,
stop by a ribbon cutting Ross,and then I'll fly back up to the
Capitol Wednesday morning andstay the night and come back
Thursday.
So it's a lot of airtime.
But look, I could spend allthat time in a hotel room by
(11:44):
myself, or I could be sleepingin my own bed in my district.
That's what I'm going to chooseto do.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Do they give you room and board while you're there?
I mean you have to pay for yourown hotel room, or is that?
Is there a perk that you have aplace to stay up there?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
So yeah so.
So they give you in addition toyour salary.
They give you per diem.
So every day that you're in theCapitol, at least for some part
of the day, they do give you aset of money.
It is there to help pay foryour travel, to pay for your
hotel, to reimburse you for food.
You know different legislatorsdo different things.
Some rent a room, I mean.
(12:19):
Some buy, although that's muchharder to do these days.
I mean, having one mortgage ishard enough.
Having to, um, you know, godbless you.
If you can, I will probablystay at you know, either the
Sheridan or the residence in upthere.
Um, look, my, my job is, whenI'm there I want to be in the
Capitol doing the work, and whenI don't have to be, I want to
(12:39):
be back in district with myfamily, with all of you.
So renting and buying is notreally on my radar.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I think even plane fare.
They'll give you some planefare, but you're talking about
so much back and forth.
A lot of them will come out ofyour pocket, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
It is so.
They will pay for two planeflights a week.
So they will pay for you to goup Monday and back Thursday.
If you want to come backmidweek, you can obviously use
your own funds to do that.
They will pay.
It's a reimbursement, it's theper diem I was talking about.
But they will pay for yourhotel room.
As long as you're not stayinganywhere extravagant, it should
(13:17):
be enough to cover it.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
There's a five-star hotels in Sacramento are there.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Well, no, I just I don't want to see any footage of
you know downtown Sacramentoand him living in a motor home
in Winnebago.
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I'll be okay, I'll be no, I'll be just fine.
Um, and then you know, you have, you have the the the Capitol
up there.
I will say if any of yourlisteners are ever um coming to
Sacramento, or they got a classcoming to Sacramento, or their
niece, their nephew, theirgrandkid um, reach out to me.
I'm always happy to arrange aspecial tour of the Capitol.
We have uh a park, historiansthat can walk and share a great
(13:53):
deal of history about not justthe assembly but the Senate and
the historic governor's officeand the historic treasurer's
office, um, and then my uhoffice will be just across the
street in what we call the swingspace, so that's where I'll be
working uh most my time, uh,when I'm not on the floor of the
assembly taking a vote well,craig, wasn't, uh, mayor schultz
(14:14):
, one of our first.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Take the podcast on the road show in a burbank bus.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Oh, I'm just easy now .
Easy now, easy now.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I mean I see where you're going and you know what
never know any any time you wantto come up to sacramento.
One, one fun fact.
One fact I'll just quickly sayum, one of the questions I've
heard so far, for those who evenwatch the legislature, is why
is everything in the assemblygreen and everything in the
Senate is the color red?
It's actually modeled afterBritish Parliament.
(14:47):
So the green is the House ofCommons, it's the House of
Everyday People, the assembly,and that's why you see the
people's president, abrahamLincoln, hanging over the
rostrum, which is where thespeaker sits.
Compare that to the Senate,where you have George Washington
.
It's much like the House ofLords in Parliament.
So there's a lot of history, Imean really.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I've never heard that before.
That's very fascinating.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Now do you have?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
to go buy new wardrobe too.
I might update, because I'll bewearing suits a lot, but no
same wardrobe, same suit and tieor a suit.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Oh yeah, all those mean wow, let's let's talk about
your, your district office.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Now you're allowed one district office in your
district somewhere, and I'mhoping that Burbank will.
We're going to be staying home.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Yes, we're going to be staying put in the district
office that Laura Friedmancurrently occupies, that Mike
Gatto and Paul Krikorianoccupied before.
We'll be right there, so we'renot moving.
We're going to have, you knowat least, out the gate a
district director and two fieldreps hopefully more if I can
secure more funding from thespeaker, but you're going to see
(15:55):
us out there right away.
I already have a bunch of ideasfor some early events.
We have to talk about whetherwe want to do a community
swearing in in January so peoplecan be part of that.
But we really want to get past.
I at this point, just me.
I suppose the pomp andcircumstance is appreciated, but
I know that people did notelect me to put pat myself on
(16:18):
the back.
There are real problems we needto solve, so we want to get to
work right away solving thoseproblems.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Well, when we talk about solving those problems,
I'm sure we kind of keep me liton what you want to kind of
propose.
But we'll get into thatdownline.
Of course.
You know you're going to beinvited to come do a whole
podcast during the year to talkabout what's going on in the
assembly and what's going on inthe future, we'll have to change
that thing.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
At the bottom, craig, it says Assembly Member D Nick
Schultz.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yep, there you go.
Well, on that note, I will sayuh, look it's.
Um, it was a we've said this somany times on this podcast but
it was a bittersweet decision torun.
But I know I can do good inserving Burbank, moving forward,
and I'm really going to befilled with pride every time on
the floor, because you know,they never refer to us by name,
(17:05):
right?
It's always going to be theassembly member from somewhere,
and so every time, whetherthey're agreeing with me or not
that they say the assemblymember from Burbank, I'm going
to be really filled with prideand I'm always going to remember
that I represent my home andI'm never going to lose sight of
that when I'm standing on thefloor of the assembly.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Well, let's talk a little about since we have you
here and you now are leaving usas a city council member.
Let's talk about your fouryears on the council.
Let's talk about, once again,you kind of came out of nowhere
a little bit too, you know andgot elected and made it your own
to a point.
What, in the four years and youstarted during the pandemic,
(17:46):
which you know it was in itself,you know, stressful times.
So what happened in the fouryears that you think you really,
that you left your mark on?
You always say leave it betterthan you found it right, yeah,
so what have you done to leaveBurbank better, you think?
And what are you proud of?
What accomplishments are you?
Speaker 3 (18:03):
proud of Let me start with the last end of that
question I'm proud of Let mestart with the last end of that
question.
I'm proud of the work thatwe've all done together, and you
heard me talk a little bitabout this at the state of the
city, but this is, as much as itmay be, my success.
All of my colleagues, past andpresent, own this accomplishment
, as does our staff, as do youguys, everyone in the community.
(18:23):
We all did it together.
We we survived a once in alifetime pandemic.
We reopened our local economyand we still lost way too many
businesses.
I mean, we didn't.
I'm not saying there wasn'tpain, but we came out of it and
our economy is thriving.
It could be better, Absolutely,but we survived it better than
many communities.
City budget, which was unheardof in the years prior to the
(18:46):
pandemic and leading up to it.
We have seen decreases inviolent crime under Chief
Albanese and our stellar BurbankPolice Department.
We have the best response timesin the region from our fire and
EMS services.
We offer better cityprogramming than anyone around.
Just ask Marissa Garcia and ourParks and Rec team.
Homeless homelessness is downfor the third consecutive year.
(19:08):
You know we passed a landmarkgreenhouse gas reduction plan.
We have an economic developmentstrategy that's going to look
at local incentives to keepanimation and other industry
jobs here.
You know we entitled more unitsof housing in four years than
we had in the prior 20 combined.
I could go on and on, but Ithink that when you look back at
(19:30):
the last four years, evendespite the historic challenges
that we faced, we have done moreto move Burbank forward into
this new century in these fouryears than I certainly thought
was possible.
And you know, I guess what Iwould say is on a very personal
level.
I don't think I've made notevery vote's been right.
I haven't done everythingperfectly, but I hope that maybe
(19:52):
in one way I shifted theparadigm in Burbank just a
little bit, because I thinkbefore my election even with
Constantine Anthony you know hehad run before people knew what
he was A lot of folks didn'tfeel that I had any business
running in 2020.
And I and I and I accept thatof folks didn't feel that I had
any business running in 2020.
And I and I and I accept that.
But I appreciated the way thatthis community, once I was
elected, embraced me and gave mea chance and helped me grow and
(20:14):
learn, and I think that in any,if there's anything I hope that
we learn from all this, it'sthat sometimes it's the people
that you don't know, that aren'tnecessarily part of the
establishment, that haven't beenaround Um, they can still be
really incredible people withgood ideas, and I think that's
what we need in government rightnow Hardworking people that are
creative, that are willing tothink outside the box, that
(20:36):
understand what it means to be apublic servant and the fact
that we just finished anelection and saw a bunch of
first time people running I liketo think in some small way,
maybe they ran because theythought, well, if he could do it
, I can too, and I think ourgovernment's better because of
that.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I know Ross has questions for you also.
I'm going to give you one morefollow-up on that, though.
What was the because you'venever been in public office
before?
What was the thing for fouryears in public office that you
really didn't expect and thatyou know was you kind of had to
adjust to, and I mean, was iteverything you thought it was
(21:11):
going to be or was like, oh, youknow, I never thought about
that.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
It was everything I thought it would be, and then
some, all positive, really, Imean.
I think what I would say waschallenging, though, is that in
any other context, you knowyou're working at a company
you're working for, in my caseat department of justice you do
your job, you do it well, butultimately it's someone else.
You know, I, I do the best jobI can for my boss and at the end
(21:38):
of the day, it's above my paygrade, so to speak.
Right, we all know that.
Saying well, not in publicoffice, I mean, at the end of
the day, you are faced withimpossible decisions.
Sometimes they're lose, losedecisions.
Um, you know and I think thatthat was the hardest thing to
grapple with is, sometimes youcan't make a decision that makes
everyone happy.
All you can do is do what youthink is best for your community
(22:00):
, whether the public agrees withyou right now or not, and I
think that that is always.
The hardest thing to learn inthis job is that we're all
imperfect and we're going tomake mistakes, but if you can go
to bed at night knowing thatyou did what you thought was
truly right and in the bestinterest of your community, you
know, then, whatever theconsequences, even if you get
(22:20):
tossed out of office becausepeople don't care for your vote,
if you think it was the rightthing and you can sleep well at
night, that's all anyone shouldexpect of you in this job.
Just do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
So true, you know I made many comments.
I know, being an attorney, youread things differently, you
studied things differently.
And I will say, craig and Ihave both watched city council
for many, many years.
(22:52):
We haven't had an attorney siton the dais, I think, since bob
bound or, uh, or uh, georgebatty, um, you know, I mean
we're going back, vince stefano,um, and it's a hard job sitting
up there.
You know, like you said, Iremember Craig and I both
(23:12):
watched council a couple nightswhere you had to put your foot
down, people were calling yousome pretty ugly stuff, but at
the end of the day, like yousaid, we might not agree, right,
but we got to have thatconversation.
You and I'm we're craig and Iare of the same school.
(23:32):
Government just works slowly,right, you know you call and it
takes weeks to get somethingdone permits anything quite a
few things here in burbank whichyou experienced, but I'm
finding we're now moving intothis phaser, this light speed
ahead.
Things are getting done.
(23:54):
You know, look at ourhomelessness.
I know that was one of thethings you have said.
You know if you could say toyour kids you know, when they
grow up, look at Burbank and seewhat we have done.
I mean, some of the things thatthe council has decided on
aren't easy tasks.
You know there's so many Craigand I could probably list, but I
(24:17):
will say having an attorney onthe dais you have done, because
you know a lot of people don'tknow what you do for a living.
You know you were attorneygeneral living.
You were attorney general.
I worked for Bob Banta.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And you just had to resign that position also.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Great question.
Yes, so I am also resigningthat position this week.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
How long have you been with?
Speaker 3 (24:41):
I was hired by Kamala Harris in March of 2016.
So it's been wow, eight years.
Come to think of it, eightyears I've been with Department
of Justice.
So I worked under her, I workedunder Javier Becerra, now Rob
Bonta, but obviously I can'twork for him if I need to also
be funding his department andholding him accountable.
(25:02):
So, yeah, it's a change.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, you know.
So this leap, this change foryou, you got two toddlers, you
know I mean everything that youget to juggle, but I will say
probably having, you know, awife as an attorney.
You still can bounce stuff backand forth, but on the dais for
Burbank, I've listened to you,you know talk on many, many
(25:29):
items and you've been real fair,you know, and I will say our
council, greg and I havelistened to council for years
and I mean I remember back inthe day when Jarvey Gilbert
would take his hearing aid offand put it on the dais and he
was out to lunch.
He could have gone, you know,fallen asleep, but I remember
(25:51):
working on campaigns for jarveygilbert and you know he'd take
that hearing aid off and forgetit.
You're not going to get a voteout of this guy for nothing.
But you know we've had some morerecent councils that I wish
they were wearing hearing aids.
You know they didn't get a lotdone and you look at some things
that have been passed in thepast.
(26:11):
They kicked the can, you know,or pensions and a lot of things.
You did get quite a bit donethe years that you have sat on
council and I think people goinginto your new adventure looking
at Burbank.
I think you'll do a great jobat that, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Well, I really appreciate that, guys.
And you know I just want toemphasize again I was very lucky
along the way to have a reallyfantastic city manager,
excellent city staff, even mycolleagues, to be able to walk
in and learn from JessTalamantes and Bob Frutos and
Sharon Springer, who had servedin really trying times.
(26:52):
You know, I guess what I wouldsay is it's kind of what you
said at the top of the hour,craig I just wanted to leave
Burbank better than I found it.
Not that we don't still haveproblems and you know I wish
Chris the best of luck in hisnew role and there's plenty of
work for the Burbank citycouncil to still do but I I can
look back at the last four yearsand say I do think I'm leaving
(27:12):
it better than I found it, andthat's, I guess that would be my
unsolicited advice toConstantine, nikki, tamela
Zazette and now Chris.
I wish for all four, all fiveof you, the exact same thing
that when your time's done youcan look back and say I wasn't
perfect, I didn't solveeverything.
Maybe I set out to do, but onthe whole, burbank's moving in
(27:33):
the right direction and it'sbetter than it was four years
ago.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
I think there were times that you were, as a
council member, caught off guardby some of those state policies
that came through.
Oh sure, and I think, having amember from Burbank up there,
you're going to be able to comedown here and talk to our
council in advance saying, hey,this is going to pass, yeah, and
you need to start makingpreparations for it to either
(27:59):
protect the Ranto district orwhatever it's going to be.
Yeah, but you need tounderstand this is going to
happen, so let's get ahead of itnow.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
That.
And I also think that whenwe're talking about, say,
housing legislation in theCapitol, I can also tell the
Burbank story and say look, thissounds like a great idea if you
live in San Francisco, but letme tell you about my community
and how it impacts more suburbanneighborhood in Burbank as
compared to, you know, somewherein the city of San Francisco.
That's where I think I can alsobe a good advocate.
(28:30):
But but you're right, I mean Iam one of 80, I need at least 40
other votes to make anythinghappen.
So you know I can advocate forBurbank and I can bring
information back so that Burbankis prepared and ready and
understands you know what it cando and I will say that's where
I think our government works thebest.
Um, we understands what it cando and I will say that's where I
think our government works thebest.
(28:51):
We are not in separate silos.
I have relationships andfriendships and connections with
not just our staff but with ourcity council.
Those don't go away justbecause I'm spending part time
in the capital.
So when there's a bill comingup that I think could impact
Burbank water and power I'mgoing to call Mandeep Samra when
I think that there is apotential solution that could
(29:12):
impact Burbank's approach tohomelessness.
I might call her vice mayor andI'll also call Patrick Prescott
and his team with communitydevelopment.
Um, these Burbank's going tocontinue to be a real source of
support and inspiration for thework that I do, and so, like we
said almost two years ago when Iannounced I was running, I view
this as a continuation maybe ata slightly different level and
(29:35):
harsher environment and toughercircumstances, but it's a
continuation of my love andservice to this really amazing
city we all call home you'realso.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Basically you've got a promotion from city council to
assembly, but now, at leavingthe attorney general's office,
you're going to be taking adecrease in pay now, because I
guarantee you that probably doesnot pay what a lawyer makes Now
.
Are you still going to remain alawyer?
Do you have a certification?
(30:07):
Do you keep that up?
Do you plan to keep that up?
What's the plan with yourstatus as a certification?
Do you keep that up?
Do you plan to keep that up?
What, what?
What's the plan with your, yourstatus as a?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
lawyer.
Yeah, um, I'm going to keep mycertification as a lawyer, for
for two reasons, um, first andforemost, I worked really hard
for it and also there iscontinuing legal education that
you have to do to keep yourlicense.
And I I always think there'smore that I can learn, and so I
want to continue to be a studentand to learn and to get better
at my craft.
(30:33):
And then look, there may come aday whether because of
retirement or maybe the votersdon't like the direction I'm
going I may not serve in theassembly forever.
I know I won't serve more than12 years because that's the term
limit.
So what I do after that, youknow, I very well may find
myself returning to the practiceof law.
You know a lot of people haveasked me like, what next after
(30:54):
assembly?
I'm really not thinking thatfar.
I have a mountain of work to doover the next 12 years to get
California ready for thiscentury.
If I've done all that, I mightfind myself ready to come home
and be a little bit more with myfamily, and I'm going to keep
my law license, just in case,okay.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Well.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
I just uh, yeah, you, you got to think down that road
.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
And, like you said, you uh went to live schooling to
become a lawyer and you got tobe able to.
Uh, you got to stay currentwith that because you're going
to have to you know thosedebates with your wife, who's
also an attorney.
You're going to have to winsome of those battles.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
You know one thing, since it says this will be my
last time on the podcast, atleast until I'm back as a member
, assembly member a lot of folkshave, you know, pointed to
different people in thecommunity saying you know how
has Nick been so successful?
And, yes, blake Dellinger was agreat campaign manager and
Nikki Perez has been a wonderfulco-governing partner on council
(31:53):
.
But people don't talk nearlyenough about my wife.
Allie is brilliant in her ownright.
She's got insights into notonly the entertainment industry
but being a working mom.
She is every bit the at-homechief of staff that I never had
on council.
That I will very much enjoy inthe assembly and I can tell you
every idea that I brought intothe dais, every argument I've
(32:15):
made nothing is not vettedthrough Allie she is.
So you know you heard me talkabout it in State of the City A
lot of what we've done over thelast four years.
You'll never see her nameanywhere.
But Allie Schultz has a lot offingerprints on what's gone well
, I think, in the city ofBurbank and you know I always
say she should run for officeone day and she says no, no, no,
(32:36):
I enjoy my life way too much todo that.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Well, what a show.
Yeah, I got one last questionfor you too, just because you
know what.
I've never paid attention muchto the Assembly or the Senate of
California.
I really haven't.
I'm focused Burbank all thetime, absolutely.
Now, with you up there, youknow I need to continue to learn
and be educated.
So how does it work with thecommittee assignments or the
chair committee?
(33:01):
Have you been talked to yetabout which committees you might
be?
Do they assign you?
Do you apply?
How does that work?
Are there committees that you'dlike to be beyond?
And when you go up there, Iknow that's by seniority, you
know especially chairmanshipsand everything else.
But what?
What is it you'd like to getinvolved in?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
That's, that's great, and I also, in answering, I'll
talk just broad strokes aboutthe legislation I want to do.
I appreciate you wanting toallow me to keep it a little bit
closer to the chest, but I'lltalk broad strokes here.
So, being chairman, so you know, the assembly elects a speaker
and that's usually the majorityparty.
(33:43):
In this case, democrats control60 of the 80 seats.
So the Democrats will pick aspeaker to run the assembly and
the speaker, frankly, is a lotlike the mayor, except they're
way more powerful because theyactually can put people on
committee.
They do a lot of the thingsJustin does a city manager.
It's a much more powerfulposition.
So when somebody introduces abill I don't know, ross, let's
(34:06):
give me an example.
Maybe we want to, we want toban plastic something?
Um, well, you can't just voteon it.
It has to go through acommittee first.
So some of the assembly membersmay be on natural resources
that's one of the committeesthat handles the environment um,
so they will study the bill,they will debate it, they will
offer amendments and ultimatelythe bill has to get out of
(34:30):
committee for the whole assemblyto vote on it.
And many bills don't.
Many bills die in committeebecause they're not ready or
there's unanswered questions orit's just a bad idea.
But, assuming you can get itout of committee, the entire
assembly gets to vote on it.
And, by the way, some bills goto multiple committees if they
touch multiple areas.
So maybe it's an environmentalbill, it would go to natural
(34:52):
resources, but you also have tosend it to appropriations
because it's going to cost money.
If it gets through all thecommittees and then it goes to
the assembly floor and it passes, it goes to the Senate for the
exact same process.
But back to your questiondirectly, craig.
It's the speaker who gets todecide who gets put on what
committee.
So you, he will typically he orshe, but in this case he will
(35:17):
ask you when you come intooffice what committees you'd
like to serve on, and then heand his leadership team will
make their decision.
However, they make theirdecision and your answer to that
question is oh, which ones?
I'm putting it on.
I think public safety would be anatural home for me, given my
background as a prosecutor.
I think, given my work withBurbank Water and Power, serving
(35:38):
on utilities and energy wouldbe a really great fit for me,
because the issues that we dealtwith there, trying to power
Burbank and get more renewablesand renewable energy online.
That's what that committeedeals with.
Transportation would also makea lot of sense for me, given
(35:59):
that we have the airport, wehave Metrolink, rail, you know.
There's just there's so much todo in that space and I guess,
if I had to pick one more,insurance is kind of an
interesting committee.
I don't know a great deal aboutinsurance, but it's impacting
this district.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
How many would you go on?
Speaker 3 (36:14):
It's way too high.
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
How many?
Speaker 3 (36:16):
committees do you go on?
There's no hard numbers, sousually everyone serves on at
least three or maybe four.
You can do more, you can doless.
I think it depends, you know,because some committees do more
work than others.
The big, powerful committees,if you will, are appropriations,
which is in charge of whatmoney is appropriated or spent
(36:38):
in the budget.
You have the budget committeeand I have a feeling they might
put me on one of the budgetsubcommittees overseeing the
Department of Justice, becauseagain it just kind of makes
sense.
Committees overseeing theDepartment of Justice, because
again it just kind of makessense.
You know, you have rulescommittee, which really governs
the conduct of all the membersand really is sort of part of
the speaker's leadership team.
(36:59):
Those are the big committees.
And then you have committeesthat are not maybe the big big
committees, but they do a lot ofreally important work.
So public safety any change tocriminal law in California has
to go through that committee.
Natural resources If you aretalking about our forests, our
lakes, our rivers, anything thattouches that, it's got to go
through that committee.
(37:20):
So you know there are, but someof those committees have a lot
of legislation.
There's also medium sizedcommittees, so we have arts and
entertainment, which you wouldthink is a huge committee, given
Hollywood.
Well, there's not a lot oflegislation outside of the LA
area that comes, so there's workto be done on that committee,
but it's substantially less thansome of these other committees.
(37:41):
So I'm working on my list ofwhat I'd like to serve, on all
the ones I talked about I havean interest in, and then
sometime in mid-December thespeaker will announce where I'm
assigned and I will.
I will get to work and ifyou're chair of that committee,
um, that's a lot more like themayor in that there are some
powers to it.
It's it's more of afacilitating a conversation.
(38:03):
It's a bit more ceremonial, butyou know, if you're chair of a
committee, you're on, you'repart of leadership at that point
and you are expected to be thepoint person, the resident
expert, on whatever that topicis.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
A lot of the.
I mean I'm learning a lot, Imean you got your homework set
out for you.
But also, I just wonder howmany of our listeners know
you've explained quite a bit.
This is a big jump, big, bigjump from mayor, council member
to assembly member.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
And you're up to speed in another two weeks and
off you go.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
We'll be right there.
And the last thing I'll justsay About a week, actually About
a week.
And just the other thing.
So you all know it's two-yearterm limits, so it's a quick
turnaround.
You've got to get results rightaway because voters will be
telling me whether they like thejob I'm doing or not in 26.
So you know, unlike a senator,where you have time, the
expectation is you get in andyou get to work.
(39:05):
So I'll simply wrap with this.
You guys, this week, this oneweek break I have between
Burbank and the assembly, I'mspending that entire week just
thinking of every problem I haveheard from my residents, from
my soon to be futureconstituents, from my experience
in Burbank.
I'm trying to figure out howmany different ways we can solve
(39:26):
it, because I got about a weekto do it before it's showtime.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
What's your deadline to submit bills by?
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Well, you can submit your first bills on December 2nd
and I do plan to have at leastone bill introduced that day.
The absolute hard, fastdeadline is the end of February.
All bills have to be introducedin what we call the House of
Origin.
So if it's an assembly billit's given an ab number.
Um, you have to do that byfebruary so that you have time
(39:54):
to go through all thosecommittees, hopefully pass the
assembly, and then you still gotto send it over to the other
house because you know, if wepass it in the assembly and it
dies on a senate committee, itdoesn't become a law very
interesting and then, course,the governor decides to veto it
anytime.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
And we have the line item veto in California, which
other states don't really haveour government, our federal
government, so I'm sure they canknock things out of bill.
Can he knock thingsindividually out of a bill?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
By and large he can line item veto it.
You know, traditionally he'lljust veto and kill the whole
bill, but I'll say it if it'sschool funding that I want to
fix, if it's um, uh, better, uh,renewable energy standards, if
it's more money for anything,any of our needs in burbank, it
gets really challenging because,as you're seeing quickly, you
(40:48):
got to find 40 other votes inthe senate, in the assembly, you
got to find at least 21 votesin the Senate.
And on top of all that you haveto think about, is the governor
going to sign this and so evenpassing one bill?
That's why you have your ownstaff of at least seven people.
That's why it's a full-time jobas opposed to our council,
(41:09):
which is part-time, is becauseit is an incredible amount of
work just to get one A lame duck, a lame duck governor too.
That's going to make it all themore interesting and a
governor's race that'll beheating up here in a couple
months.
I hear that.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
I hear your former boss, he just might be jumping
in.
No, your former boss, who boss?
He just might be jumping in.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
no, your former boss um, who was our vice president
is being, uh mentioned as thenext governor of california also
.
Well, I'll tell you, my myformer boss, kamala harris, and
my former boss javier becerra,and my current boss rob bonta
could, in theory, all findthemselves running for that
governor's spot.
So I'm gonna try to just havemy phone silent.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
You need to stay out of that.
That whole battle ross.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
What else you got no, I'm just uh shocked at the what
you, what you're diving intothe next couple of weeks and the
next couple of years.
And, um, you know, I appreciateyou.
Like you said, you come backand give us a little update when
you're uh in town.
I'll still see you at someribbon cuttings maybe, and you
will you know some people willsay, wow, I, I got an assembly
(42:14):
member here instead of just astaff member.
So, um, and we'll look forwardto seeing you around town.
I know that, but what a heck ofa show absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Well, ross, thank you for coming by.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
You have one more thing to go ahead before you
sign it off.
I just really want to say toyou guys, to your listeners,
just a simple thank you.
These have been the best fouryears of my life.
I started a family, I had twoamazing kids, we bought a home
and all of that grown as aleader.
I've had the chance to be themayor of the best city in the
(42:47):
world.
Whatever happens in the rest ofmy life, these four years are
always going to be incrediblyspecial to me.
I'm sad to see this chaptercoming to an end.
I'm excited about what happensnext, yes, but just know how
much being your mayor and beingon council has meant to me.
It really has been the honorand privilege of a lifetime.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Well, we really appreciate you coming on and
doing this little breaking newsshow for us.
I think it's good that peoplecan hear what's going on.
So for Ross Benson Hello Molo,let's go.
And for the assembly memberfrom Burbank, nick Schultz.
Thank you.
This is Craig Sherwood sayingthank you very much for
listening.
We always appreciate it Ifyou're in your car right now or
(43:30):
you're watching the YouTubechannel.
Thank you very much forlistening and we'll talk to you
next time.
From deep in the Burbank Media District.
It's time for another editionof my Burbank Talks, presented
by the staff of my Burbank.
Now let's see what's on today'sagenda as we join our program.
Hello Burbank, craig Schuberthere once again Today.
We've got a very serious show.
We have some breaking news.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh, is that supposed to be breaking?
Oh, no, where's the bottle Iget to break?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
That's right.
I'm here along with Ross Benson, and we do have breaking news
for you Our mayor, nick Schultz,has resigned from the Burbank
City Council.
Now let's get into this alittle bit.
Number one it's not a bad thing, okay.
He's being forced to resignbecause of his assembly
(00:47):
responsibilities.
So what we did was we broughthim right in the studio here so
he can talk to you and tell youall about it.
Assembly member Schultz, goodto have you here with us.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Well, thank you.
Thank you guys very much forhaving me.
Yes, this is the firstexclusive since the news broke,
and so you guys are the firstpeople that I wanted to share it
with, and I just want to thankmy Burbank for always being not
only a great source of news forour community, but for giving me
this platform, and so I hope inour time together today, I can
answer some of those questionsthat I'm sure the community is
(01:19):
asking.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So let's get into the .
So you kind of have to do thisfor different reasons.
We'll get into those reasons ina second, but let's talk about
the process first.
When do you officially resignyour seat and what happens once
your seat is now vacant and wenow have four council members
until you swear in our newcouncil member.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
So today is Thursday, november 21st.
You're all hearing this newsfor the first time.
My resignation will beeffective, meaning I will leave
the position of mayor and ascouncil member for the city of
Burbank on at noon on Monday,november 25th, so in a matter of
a few days.
The process is relativelysimple.
I have submitted a letter toour city manager, justin Hess.
(02:03):
It's now on file as part ofcity record and so at that time
I will be stepping down and, inmy absence, our vice mayor,
nikki Perez, while she willremain vice mayor until the
reorganization, she will assumeall of the job, duties and
responsibilities and, for allintents and purposes, will be
our acting mayor from now to the16th.
(02:25):
And, in case you're wondering,after, of course, talking with
my family about it and JustinHess, she was my first call and
I just want to thank the vicemayor for, you know, offering
not only her support butstepping up to lead Burbank in
this time of transition.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Now there's, I'm not sure.
Is there a council meetingbetween now and the
reorganization meeting?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
There's two.
So we have Tuesday, november26th, and then the council is on
break for Thanksgiving untilTuesday, december 10th.
So for those two meetings wewill have four council members.
The vice mayor will be chairingthe meeting, as I would, and
acting in my place, but we havea full council.
We still have business to tendto and I also just want to,
(03:09):
while I'm obviously thanking thevice mayor for performing a lot
of the ceremonial duties, Ialso want to mention that I've
talked to all of my colleaguesat this point and I want to
thank all of them.
They're all going to bestepping up to have an expanded
role in these couple of weeks tomake sure that the community is
served and that we are outthere and we are visible.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So now it really it really hasn't happened.
But if a vote comes up and it'stwo to two um, does that mean
it would probably get held overuntil the new council is?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
then they're going to call us to vote.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh, believe me, I have an opinion.
Whatever it is, I have anopinion.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
So the short answer?
The short answer, craig, is yes.
If there's a vote that's tied,it would be held over.
We have incoming council memberelect Chris Rizzotti, who will
be on the council the 16th.
Congratulations again, chris.
But I will say that this is not.
This is not Nick Schultzleaving Burbank in a lurch,
(04:06):
justin and Jonathan Kimberly.
Joe, we've known about thispossibility for quite some time.
So, when you look at the agendaforecast for the 26th as well
as December 10th, we feelconfident that what you will
find are agenda items that,while important and worthy of
substantial discussion, all ofthem are capable of achieving a
majority, even with afour-member council.
So we're optimistic.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
There have been very few, even three to two votes
Very few, so I'm not reallyworried about that, but you know
it's a possibility.
So let's talk about why this isoccurring.
What is the reason that youhave to kind of do this?
I understand the governor iscalling the assembly and the
state senate together to work onsome things.
(04:47):
So what did you find out aboutthis and what are the reasonings
behind it all?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah.
So before we go on, I just wantto thank all of the voters in
Burbank, whether you voted forme or not.
I'm just grateful to have beenon the ballot and I look forward
to serving everyone.
So let me talk a little bitabout what's expected of me and
how that impacts the end of mytenure on Burbank City Council.
So first thing you have to knowis that the California state
constitution is very clear thefirst Monday in December at noon
(05:17):
, the entire legislature issworn in.
So at noon on Monday, december2nd, I am sworn in as your next
assembly member and Iimmediately start on that job.
Now, that's a non-negotiabledate.
So I have to start that day,and so that obviously is much
sooner than December 16th whenour reorganization meeting would
(05:38):
be.
And under California state lawyou can't hold two offices at
once law you can't hold twooffices at once.
So by accepting thatappointment, by being sworn into
the state capitol in the statelegislature, I, by operation of
law, lose my seat on the BurbankCity Council.
Now the second part of thequestion was okay.
But why now?
Why November 25th?
(05:58):
Well, obviously this decisionwas made in close consultation
with our staff, the city manager.
Obviously, this decision wasmade in close consultation with
our staff, the city manager, myfamily, the vice mayor, of
course, who will be taking over.
It's really twofold.
I knew this time was coming andI didn't want to resign at any
earlier point.
You know at this, at this point, you know this.
Last Tuesday we had a reallyimportant meeting.
(06:19):
A lot of great items discussedand I wanted to be there for
that.
But I also have to balance toyour point, craig, the fact that
Governor Newsom has called aspecial session.
Just a really quick backstoryon this.
The legislature normallyconvenes that Monday in December
.
Everyone's sworn in and they gohome.
That's it until January.
(06:40):
That's obviously not the casethis year.
Governor Newsom is concernedabout impacts on California,
with the Trump administrationcoming soon back into power, and
so he's convened thelegislature to look at ways that
we can safeguard California andpreserve our way of life
against a federal governmentthat may have different values
and different priorities.
(07:00):
So my mind has not really beenthere in these last weeks.
I've been focused on doing thejob of mayor.
But I made the decision toresign Monday at noon, exactly
one week prior to being sworn in, exactly one week prior to that
special session so that I havetime to continue assembling my
team legislative director, justto start with.
(07:22):
And we have bills.
I already have a first billidea that I I don't want to
share quite yet because it'sstill in formation, um, but
there are already bill ideasthat we're going to spend this
upcoming week putting togetherso that we can hit the ground
running and do everything thatwe can to protect California.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Maybe people don't know, but when you become on
Burbank city Council basicallyJustin Hess he picks your staff
and the city staff that workswith the council and everybody
else.
But now, being we're goingassembly, it's up to you now to
pick your own staff.
And how many staff members doyou get?
And you hire these people, youdecide who they are and, of
(08:02):
course, the state pays for itall and everything else.
You don't pay for them.
But how do you?
What are you looking for instaff members?
Can anybody you know give you acall and say, hey, I'd love to
interview for your staff, orhow's that all go about?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
That is a phenomenal question.
So, yes, unlike the city ofBurbank, where the whole council
shares all the staff and reallyeverybody works for Justin
minus Joe McDougal, um, with our, with ours it's a little bit
different.
I hire a chief of staff and inaddition to the chief of staff,
um, you're going to have alegislative director who's going
to be your point person oncrafting and moving your bills
(08:41):
through the assembly and thenthrough the Senate and hopefully
onto the governor's desk.
You're going to have ascheduler.
You're going to have one andhopefully several legislative
aides who are there in thecommittee hearings, advocating
for your bills, taking notes.
Obviously, most of the heavylifting you have to do is the
member, but you still have ateam in the Capitol to help you
(09:02):
move your bills through.
Then you also have yourdistrict team.
So you typically have adistrict director who is your,
for all intents and purposes,voice and face in the off in the
district when you're not here,and you have a couple of field
reps that are out thererepresenting you at ribbon
cutting, speaking on your behalfat council meetings, chamber of
commerce meetings and doing theimportant work of addressing
(09:25):
constituents' concerns.
So, all told, the numberdepends on your seniority.
But what we're being told atthis early juncture is that the
freshman members, includingmyself, will have seven staff
members four in the capital,three in the district.
That can obviously go a littleup or down depending on if
you've been given a committeeassignment.
(09:47):
If you're chairing a majorcommittee, you may have more
resources.
And last thing, craig, anybodycan apply.
We have an open hiring process.
So if you're interested inbeing district director or field
representative, you can go tothe assembly web page after
December 2nd.
You'll see all the jobspostings there.
You can also reach out to medirectly.
(10:08):
I'm just going to refer you tomy chief of staff, but you're
welcome to submit your resumeand we will consider anyone who
wants to work.
Have you picked a chief ofstaff yet?
I have designated a chief ofstaff.
Her name is Allison Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Ross Well, we'll probably be dealing with Allison
quite a bit.
Ross, well, we'll probably bedealing with allison quite a bit
.
Um, you should uh, she shouldknow, uh, myburbankcom is uh
where you had trails and and uhdid many podcasts in our studio
and we did many ribbon cuttingstogether.
So we did.
Hopefully you might be uh down,uh here, uh, and attend a
(10:44):
couple of ribbon cuttingsyourself.
I'm gonna have to write a wholenew script when I, you know, we
do a ribbon cutting introducingeverybody.
I'm gonna have to knoweverybody's new name.
I mean it's gonna throw me off,but uh, you're, you're busy
well, I and you know.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
One thing you're hinting on is you know, how much
should people expect to see ofme?
I think more more than theymight suspect.
So look, we're in Burbank weoften talk about on this podcast
.
It's the best little airportthere is around.
I live a whole eight minutesfrom it, which is great.
So my plan except for thoseweeks when we're really in deep
(11:22):
budget discussions I plan to goup Monday morning, be back
Tuesday late afternoon orevening so I can put the kids to
bed, maybe make a guestappearance at a council meeting,
stop by a ribbon cutting Ross,and then I'll fly back up to the
Capitol Wednesday morning andstay the night and come back
Thursday.
So it's a lot of airtime.
But look, I could spend allthat time in a hotel room by
(11:44):
myself, or I could be sleepingin my own bed in my district.
That's what I'm going to chooseto do.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Do they give you room and board while you're there?
I mean you have to pay for yourown hotel room, or is that?
Is there a perk that you have aplace to stay up there?
Speaker 3 (11:58):
So yeah so.
So they give you in addition toyour salary.
They give you per diem.
So every day that you're in theCapitol, at least for some part
of the day, they do give you aset of money.
It is there to help pay foryour travel, to pay for your
hotel, to reimburse you for food.
You know different legislatorsdo different things.
Some rent a room, I mean.
(12:19):
Some buy, although that's muchharder to do these days.
I mean, having one mortgage ishard enough.
Having to, um, you know, godbless you.
If you can, I will probablystay at you know, either the
Sheridan or the residence in upthere.
Um, look, my, my job is, whenI'm there I want to be in the
Capitol doing the work, and whenI don't have to be, I want to
(12:39):
be back in district with myfamily, with all of you.
So renting and buying is notreally on my radar.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I think even plane fare.
They'll give you some planefare, but you're talking about
so much back and forth.
A lot of them will come out ofyour pocket, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
It is so.
They will pay for two planeflights a week.
So they will pay for you to goup Monday and back Thursday.
If you want to come backmidweek, you can obviously use
your own funds to do that.
They will pay.
It's a reimbursement, it's theper diem I was talking about.
But they will pay for yourhotel room.
As long as you're not stayinganywhere extravagant, it should
(13:17):
be enough to cover it.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
There's a five-star hotels in Sacramento are there.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Well, no, I just I don't want to see any footage of
you know downtown Sacramentoand him living in a motor home
in Winnebago.
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I'll be okay, I'll be no, I'll be just fine.
Um, and then you know, you have, you have the the the Capitol
up there.
I will say if any of yourlisteners are ever um coming to
Sacramento, or they got a classcoming to Sacramento, or their
niece, their nephew, theirgrandkid um, reach out to me.
I'm always happy to arrange aspecial tour of the Capitol.
We have uh a park, historiansthat can walk and share a great
(13:53):
deal of history about not justthe assembly but the Senate and
the historic governor's officeand the historic treasurer's
office, um, and then my uhoffice will be just across the
street in what we call the swingspace, so that's where I'll be
working uh most my time, uh,when I'm not on the floor of the
assembly taking a vote well,craig, wasn't, uh, mayor schultz
(14:14):
, one of our first.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Take the podcast on the road show in a burbank bus.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Oh, I'm just easy now .
Easy now, easy now.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I mean I see where you're going and you know what
never know any any time you wantto come up to sacramento.
One, one fun fact.
One fact I'll just quickly sayum, one of the questions I've
heard so far, for those who evenwatch the legislature, is why
is everything in the assemblygreen and everything in the
Senate is the color red?
It's actually modeled afterBritish Parliament.
(14:47):
So the green is the House ofCommons, it's the House of
Everyday People, the assembly,and that's why you see the
people's president, abrahamLincoln, hanging over the
rostrum, which is where thespeaker sits.
Compare that to the Senate,where you have George Washington
.
It's much like the House ofLords in Parliament.
So there's a lot of history, Imean really.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I've never heard that before.
That's very fascinating.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Now do you have?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
to go buy new wardrobe too.
I might update, because I'll bewearing suits a lot, but no
same wardrobe, same suit and tieor a suit.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Oh yeah, all those mean wow, let's let's talk about
your, your district office.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Now you're allowed one district office in your
district somewhere, and I'mhoping that Burbank will.
We're going to be staying home.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Yes, we're going to be staying put in the district
office that Laura Friedmancurrently occupies, that Mike
Gatto and Paul Krikorianoccupied before.
We'll be right there, so we'renot moving.
We're going to have, you knowat least, out the gate a
district director and two fieldreps hopefully more if I can
secure more funding from thespeaker, but you're going to see
(15:55):
us out there right away.
I already have a bunch of ideasfor some early events.
We have to talk about whetherwe want to do a community
swearing in in January so peoplecan be part of that.
But we really want to get past.
I at this point, just me.
I suppose the pomp andcircumstance is appreciated, but
I know that people did notelect me to put pat myself on
(16:18):
the back.
There are real problems we needto solve, so we want to get to
work right away solving thoseproblems.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Well, when we talk about solving those problems,
I'm sure we kind of keep me liton what you want to kind of
propose.
But we'll get into thatdownline.
Of course.
You know you're going to beinvited to come do a whole
podcast during the year to talkabout what's going on in the
assembly and what's going on inthe future, we'll have to change
that thing.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
At the bottom, craig, it says Assembly Member D Nick
Schultz.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yep, there you go.
Well, on that note, I will sayuh, look it's.
Um, it was a we've said this somany times on this podcast but
it was a bittersweet decision torun.
But I know I can do good inserving Burbank, moving forward,
and I'm really going to befilled with pride every time on
the floor, because you know,they never refer to us by name,
(17:05):
right?
It's always going to be theassembly member from somewhere,
and so every time, whetherthey're agreeing with me or not
that they say the assemblymember from Burbank, I'm going
to be really filled with prideand I'm always going to remember
that I represent my home andI'm never going to lose sight of
that when I'm standing on thefloor of the assembly.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Well, let's talk a little about since we have you
here and you now are leaving usas a city council member.
Let's talk about your fouryears on the council.
Let's talk about, once again,you kind of came out of nowhere
a little bit too, you know andgot elected and made it your own
to a point.
What, in the four years and youstarted during the pandemic,
(17:46):
which you know it was in itself,you know, stressful times.
So what happened in the fouryears that you think you really,
that you left your mark on?
You always say leave it betterthan you found it right, yeah,
so what have you done to leaveBurbank better, you think?
And what are you proud of?
What accomplishments are you?
Speaker 3 (18:03):
proud of Let me start with the last end of that
question I'm proud of Let mestart with the last end of that
question.
I'm proud of the work thatwe've all done together, and you
heard me talk a little bitabout this at the state of the
city, but this is, as much as itmay be, my success.
All of my colleagues, past andpresent, own this accomplishment
, as does our staff, as do youguys, everyone in the community.
(18:23):
We all did it together.
We we survived a once in alifetime pandemic.
We reopened our local economyand we still lost way too many
businesses.
I mean, we didn't.
I'm not saying there wasn'tpain, but we came out of it and
our economy is thriving.
It could be better, Absolutely,but we survived it better than
many communities.
City budget, which was unheardof in the years prior to the
(18:46):
pandemic and leading up to it.
We have seen decreases inviolent crime under Chief
Albanese and our stellar BurbankPolice Department.
We have the best response timesin the region from our fire and
EMS services.
We offer better cityprogramming than anyone around.
Just ask Marissa Garcia and ourParks and Rec team.
Homeless homelessness is downfor the third consecutive year.
(19:08):
You know we passed a landmarkgreenhouse gas reduction plan.
We have an economic developmentstrategy that's going to look
at local incentives to keepanimation and other industry
jobs here.
You know we entitled more unitsof housing in four years than
we had in the prior 20 combined.
I could go on and on, but Ithink that when you look back at
(19:30):
the last four years, evendespite the historic challenges
that we faced, we have done moreto move Burbank forward into
this new century in these fouryears than I certainly thought
was possible.
And you know, I guess what Iwould say is on a very personal
level.
I don't think I've made notevery vote's been right.
I haven't done everythingperfectly, but I hope that maybe
(19:52):
in one way I shifted theparadigm in Burbank just a
little bit, because I thinkbefore my election even with
Constantine Anthony you know hehad run before people knew what
he was A lot of folks didn'tfeel that I had any business
running in 2020.
And I and I and I accept thatof folks didn't feel that I had
any business running in 2020.
And I and I and I accept that.
But I appreciated the way thatthis community, once I was
elected, embraced me and gave mea chance and helped me grow and
(20:14):
learn, and I think that in any,if there's anything I hope that
we learn from all this, it'sthat sometimes it's the people
that you don't know, that aren'tnecessarily part of the
establishment, that haven't beenaround Um, they can still be
really incredible people withgood ideas, and I think that's
what we need in government rightnow Hardworking people that are
creative, that are willing tothink outside the box, that
(20:36):
understand what it means to be apublic servant and the fact
that we just finished anelection and saw a bunch of
first time people running I liketo think in some small way,
maybe they ran because theythought, well, if he could do it
, I can too, and I think ourgovernment's better because of
that.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I know Ross has questions for you also.
I'm going to give you one morefollow-up on that, though.
What was the because you'venever been in public office
before?
What was the thing for fouryears in public office that you
really didn't expect and thatyou know was you kind of had to
adjust to, and I mean, was iteverything you thought it was
(21:11):
going to be or was like, oh, youknow, I never thought about
that.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
It was everything I thought it would be, and then
some, all positive, really, Imean.
I think what I would say waschallenging, though, is that in
any other context, you knowyou're working at a company
you're working for, in my caseat department of justice you do
your job, you do it well, butultimately it's someone else.
You know, I, I do the best jobI can for my boss and at the end
(21:38):
of the day, it's above my paygrade, so to speak.
Right, we all know that.
Saying well, not in publicoffice, I mean, at the end of
the day, you are faced withimpossible decisions.
Sometimes they're lose, losedecisions.
Um, you know and I think thatthat was the hardest thing to
grapple with is, sometimes youcan't make a decision that makes
everyone happy.
All you can do is do what youthink is best for your community
(22:00):
, whether the public agrees withyou right now or not, and I
think that that is always.
The hardest thing to learn inthis job is that we're all
imperfect and we're going tomake mistakes, but if you can go
to bed at night knowing thatyou did what you thought was
truly right and in the bestinterest of your community, you
know, then, whatever theconsequences, even if you get
(22:20):
tossed out of office becausepeople don't care for your vote,
if you think it was the rightthing and you can sleep well at
night, that's all anyone shouldexpect of you in this job.
Just do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
So true, you know I made many comments.
I know, being an attorney, youread things differently, you
studied things differently.
And I will say, craig and Ihave both watched city council
for many, many years.
(22:52):
We haven't had an attorney siton the dais, I think, since bob
bound or, uh, or uh, georgebatty, um, you know, I mean
we're going back, vince stefano,um, and it's a hard job sitting
up there.
You know, like you said, Iremember Craig and I both
(23:12):
watched council a couple nightswhere you had to put your foot
down, people were calling yousome pretty ugly stuff, but at
the end of the day, like yousaid, we might not agree, right,
but we got to have thatconversation.
You and I'm we're craig and Iare of the same school.
(23:32):
Government just works slowly,right, you know you call and it
takes weeks to get somethingdone permits anything quite a
few things here in burbank whichyou experienced, but I'm
finding we're now moving intothis phaser, this light speed
ahead.
Things are getting done.
(23:54):
You know, look at ourhomelessness.
I know that was one of thethings you have said.
You know if you could say toyour kids you know, when they
grow up, look at Burbank and seewhat we have done.
I mean, some of the things thatthe council has decided on
aren't easy tasks.
You know there's so many Craigand I could probably list, but I
(24:17):
will say having an attorney onthe dais you have done, because
you know a lot of people don'tknow what you do for a living.
You know you were attorneygeneral living.
You were attorney general.
I worked for Bob Banta.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And you just had to resign that position also.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Great question.
Yes, so I am also resigningthat position this week.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
How long have you been with?
Speaker 3 (24:41):
I was hired by Kamala Harris in March of 2016.
So it's been wow, eight years.
Come to think of it, eightyears I've been with Department
of Justice.
So I worked under her, I workedunder Javier Becerra, now Rob
Bonta, but obviously I can'twork for him if I need to also
be funding his department andholding him accountable.
(25:02):
So, yeah, it's a change.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, you know.
So this leap, this change foryou, you got two toddlers, you
know I mean everything that youget to juggle, but I will say
probably having, you know, awife as an attorney.
You still can bounce stuff backand forth, but on the dais for
Burbank, I've listened to you,you know talk on many, many
(25:29):
items and you've been real fair,you know, and I will say our
council, greg and I havelistened to council for years
and I mean I remember back inthe day when Jarvey Gilbert
would take his hearing aid offand put it on the dais and he
was out to lunch.
He could have gone, you know,fallen asleep, but I remember
(25:51):
working on campaigns for jarveygilbert and you know he'd take
that hearing aid off and forgetit.
You're not going to get a voteout of this guy for nothing.
But you know we've had some morerecent councils that I wish
they were wearing hearing aids.
You know they didn't get a lotdone and you look at some things
that have been passed in thepast.
(26:11):
They kicked the can, you know,or pensions and a lot of things.
You did get quite a bit donethe years that you have sat on
council and I think people goinginto your new adventure looking
at Burbank.
I think you'll do a great jobat that, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Well, I really appreciate that, guys.
And you know I just want toemphasize again I was very lucky
along the way to have a reallyfantastic city manager,
excellent city staff, even mycolleagues, to be able to walk
in and learn from JessTalamantes and Bob Frutos and
Sharon Springer, who had servedin really trying times.
(26:52):
You know, I guess what I wouldsay is it's kind of what you
said at the top of the hour,craig I just wanted to leave
Burbank better than I found it.
Not that we don't still haveproblems and you know I wish
Chris the best of luck in hisnew role and there's plenty of
work for the Burbank citycouncil to still do but I I can
look back at the last four yearsand say I do think I'm leaving
(27:12):
it better than I found it, andthat's, I guess that would be my
unsolicited advice toConstantine, nikki, tamela
Zazette and now Chris.
I wish for all four, all fiveof you, the exact same thing
that when your time's done youcan look back and say I wasn't
perfect, I didn't solveeverything.
Maybe I set out to do, but onthe whole, burbank's moving in
(27:33):
the right direction and it'sbetter than it was four years
ago.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
I think there were times that you were, as a
council member, caught off guardby some of those state policies
that came through.
Oh sure, and I think, having amember from Burbank up there,
you're going to be able to comedown here and talk to our
council in advance saying, hey,this is going to pass, yeah, and
you need to start makingpreparations for it to either
(27:59):
protect the Ranto district orwhatever it's going to be.
Yeah, but you need tounderstand this is going to
happen, so let's get ahead of itnow.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
That.
And I also think that whenwe're talking about, say,
housing legislation in theCapitol, I can also tell the
Burbank story and say look, thissounds like a great idea if you
live in San Francisco, but letme tell you about my community
and how it impacts more suburbanneighborhood in Burbank as
compared to, you know, somewherein the city of San Francisco.
That's where I think I can alsobe a good advocate.
(28:30):
But but you're right, I mean Iam one of 80, I need at least 40
other votes to make anythinghappen.
So you know I can advocate forBurbank and I can bring
information back so that Burbankis prepared and ready and
understands you know what it cando and I will say that's where
I think our government works thebest.
Um, we understands what it cando and I will say that's where I
think our government works thebest.
(28:51):
We are not in separate silos.
I have relationships andfriendships and connections with
not just our staff but with ourcity council.
Those don't go away justbecause I'm spending part time
in the capital.
So when there's a bill comingup that I think could impact
Burbank water and power I'mgoing to call Mandeep Samra when
I think that there is apotential solution that could
(29:12):
impact Burbank's approach tohomelessness.
I might call her vice mayor andI'll also call Patrick Prescott
and his team with communitydevelopment.
Um, these Burbank's going tocontinue to be a real source of
support and inspiration for thework that I do, and so, like we
said almost two years ago when Iannounced I was running, I view
this as a continuation maybe ata slightly different level and
(29:35):
harsher environment and toughercircumstances, but it's a
continuation of my love andservice to this really amazing
city we all call home you'realso.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Basically you've got a promotion from city council to
assembly, but now, at leavingthe attorney general's office,
you're going to be taking adecrease in pay now, because I
guarantee you that probably doesnot pay what a lawyer makes Now
.
Are you still going to remain alawyer?
Do you have a certification?
(30:07):
Do you keep that up?
Do you plan to keep that up?
What's the plan with yourstatus as a certification?
Do you keep that up?
Do you plan to keep that up?
What, what?
What's the plan with your, yourstatus as a?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
lawyer.
Yeah, um, I'm going to keep mycertification as a lawyer, for
for two reasons, um, first andforemost, I worked really hard
for it and also there iscontinuing legal education that
you have to do to keep yourlicense.
And I I always think there'smore that I can learn, and so I
want to continue to be a studentand to learn and to get better
at my craft.
(30:33):
And then look, there may come aday whether because of
retirement or maybe the votersdon't like the direction I'm
going I may not serve in theassembly forever.
I know I won't serve more than12 years because that's the term
limit.
So what I do after that, youknow, I very well may find
myself returning to the practiceof law.
You know a lot of people haveasked me like, what next after
(30:54):
assembly?
I'm really not thinking thatfar.
I have a mountain of work to doover the next 12 years to get
California ready for thiscentury.
If I've done all that, I mightfind myself ready to come home
and be a little bit more with myfamily, and I'm going to keep
my law license, just in case,okay.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Well.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
I just uh, yeah, you, you got to think down that road
.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
And, like you said, you uh went to live schooling to
become a lawyer and you got tobe able to.
Uh, you got to stay currentwith that because you're going
to have to you know thosedebates with your wife, who's
also an attorney.
You're going to have to winsome of those battles.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
You know one thing, since it says this will be my
last time on the podcast, atleast until I'm back as a member
, assembly member a lot of folkshave, you know, pointed to
different people in thecommunity saying you know how
has Nick been so successful?
And, yes, blake Dellinger was agreat campaign manager and
Nikki Perez has been a wonderfulco-governing partner on council
(31:53):
.
But people don't talk nearlyenough about my wife.
Allie is brilliant in her ownright.
She's got insights into notonly the entertainment industry
but being a working mom.
She is every bit the at-homechief of staff that I never had
on council.
That I will very much enjoy inthe assembly and I can tell you
every idea that I brought intothe dais, every argument I've
(32:15):
made nothing is not vettedthrough Allie she is.
So you know you heard me talkabout it in State of the City A
lot of what we've done over thelast four years.
You'll never see her nameanywhere.
But Allie Schultz has a lot offingerprints on what's gone well
, I think, in the city ofBurbank and you know I always
say she should run for officeone day and she says no, no, no,
(32:36):
I enjoy my life way too much todo that.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Well, what a show.
Yeah, I got one last questionfor you too, just because you
know what.
I've never paid attention muchto the Assembly or the Senate of
California.
I really haven't.
I'm focused Burbank all thetime, absolutely.
Now, with you up there, youknow I need to continue to learn
and be educated.
So how does it work with thecommittee assignments or the
chair committee?
(33:01):
Have you been talked to yetabout which committees you might
be?
Do they assign you?
Do you apply?
How does that work?
Are there committees that you'dlike to be beyond?
And when you go up there, Iknow that's by seniority, you
know especially chairmanshipsand everything else.
But what?
What is it you'd like to getinvolved in?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
That's, that's great, and I also, in answering, I'll
talk just broad strokes aboutthe legislation I want to do.
I appreciate you wanting toallow me to keep it a little bit
closer to the chest, but I'lltalk broad strokes here.
So, being chairman, so you know, the assembly elects a speaker
and that's usually the majorityparty.
(33:43):
In this case, democrats control60 of the 80 seats.
So the Democrats will pick aspeaker to run the assembly and
the speaker, frankly, is a lotlike the mayor, except they're
way more powerful because theyactually can put people on
committee.
They do a lot of the thingsJustin does a city manager.
It's a much more powerfulposition.
So when somebody introduces abill I don't know, ross, let's
(34:06):
give me an example.
Maybe we want to, we want toban plastic something?
Um, well, you can't just voteon it.
It has to go through acommittee first.
So some of the assembly membersmay be on natural resources
that's one of the committeesthat handles the environment um,
so they will study the bill,they will debate it, they will
offer amendments and ultimatelythe bill has to get out of
(34:30):
committee for the whole assemblyto vote on it.
And many bills don't.
Many bills die in committeebecause they're not ready or
there's unanswered questions orit's just a bad idea.
But, assuming you can get itout of committee, the entire
assembly gets to vote on it.
And, by the way, some bills goto multiple committees if they
touch multiple areas.
So maybe it's an environmentalbill, it would go to natural
(34:52):
resources, but you also have tosend it to appropriations
because it's going to cost money.
If it gets through all thecommittees and then it goes to
the assembly floor and it passes, it goes to the Senate for the
exact same process.
But back to your questiondirectly, craig.
It's the speaker who gets todecide who gets put on what
committee.
So you, he will typically he orshe, but in this case he will
(35:17):
ask you when you come intooffice what committees you'd
like to serve on, and then heand his leadership team will
make their decision.
However, they make theirdecision and your answer to that
question is oh, which ones?
I'm putting it on.
I think public safety would be anatural home for me, given my
background as a prosecutor.
I think, given my work withBurbank Water and Power, serving
(35:38):
on utilities and energy wouldbe a really great fit for me,
because the issues that we dealtwith there, trying to power
Burbank and get more renewablesand renewable energy online.
That's what that committeedeals with.
Transportation would also makea lot of sense for me, given
(35:59):
that we have the airport, wehave Metrolink, rail, you know.
There's just there's so much todo in that space and I guess,
if I had to pick one more,insurance is kind of an
interesting committee.
I don't know a great deal aboutinsurance, but it's impacting
this district.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
How many would you go on?
Speaker 3 (36:14):
It's way too high.
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
How many?
Speaker 3 (36:16):
committees do you go on?
There's no hard numbers, sousually everyone serves on at
least three or maybe four.
You can do more, you can doless.
I think it depends, you know,because some committees do more
work than others.
The big, powerful committees,if you will, are appropriations,
which is in charge of whatmoney is appropriated or spent
(36:38):
in the budget.
You have the budget committeeand I have a feeling they might
put me on one of the budgetsubcommittees overseeing the
Department of Justice, becauseagain it just kind of makes
sense.
Committees overseeing theDepartment of Justice, because
again it just kind of makessense.
You know, you have rulescommittee, which really governs
the conduct of all the membersand really is sort of part of
the speaker's leadership team.
(36:59):
Those are the big committees.
And then you have committeesthat are not maybe the big big
committees, but they do a lot ofreally important work.
So public safety any change tocriminal law in California has
to go through that committee.
Natural resources If you aretalking about our forests, our
lakes, our rivers, anything thattouches that, it's got to go
through that committee.
(37:20):
So you know there are, but someof those committees have a lot
of legislation.
There's also medium sizedcommittees, so we have arts and
entertainment, which you wouldthink is a huge committee, given
Hollywood.
Well, there's not a lot oflegislation outside of the LA
area that comes, so there's workto be done on that committee,
but it's substantially less thansome of these other committees.
(37:41):
So I'm working on my list ofwhat I'd like to serve, on all
the ones I talked about I havean interest in, and then
sometime in mid-December thespeaker will announce where I'm
assigned and I will.
I will get to work and ifyou're chair of that committee,
um, that's a lot more like themayor in that there are some
powers to it.
It's it's more of afacilitating a conversation.
(38:03):
It's a bit more ceremonial, butyou know, if you're chair of a
committee, you're on, you'repart of leadership at that point
and you are expected to be thepoint person, the resident
expert, on whatever that topicis.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
A lot of the.
I mean I'm learning a lot, Imean you got your homework set
out for you.
But also, I just wonder howmany of our listeners know
you've explained quite a bit.
This is a big jump, big, bigjump from mayor, council member
to assembly member.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
And you're up to speed in another two weeks and
off you go.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
We'll be right there.
And the last thing I'll justsay About a week, actually About
a week.
And just the other thing.
So you all know it's two-yearterm limits, so it's a quick
turnaround.
You've got to get results rightaway because voters will be
telling me whether they like thejob I'm doing or not in 26.
So you know, unlike a senator,where you have time, the
expectation is you get in andyou get to work.
(39:05):
So I'll simply wrap with this.
You guys, this week, this oneweek break I have between
Burbank and the assembly, I'mspending that entire week just
thinking of every problem I haveheard from my residents, from
my soon to be futureconstituents, from my experience
in Burbank.
I'm trying to figure out howmany different ways we can solve
(39:26):
it, because I got about a weekto do it before it's showtime.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
What's your deadline to submit bills by?
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Well, you can submit your first bills on December 2nd
and I do plan to have at leastone bill introduced that day.
The absolute hard, fastdeadline is the end of February.
All bills have to be introducedin what we call the House of
Origin.
So if it's an assembly billit's given an ab number.
Um, you have to do that byfebruary so that you have time
(39:54):
to go through all thosecommittees, hopefully pass the
assembly, and then you still gotto send it over to the other
house because you know, if wepass it in the assembly and it
dies on a senate committee, itdoesn't become a law very
interesting and then, course,the governor decides to veto it
anytime.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
And we have the line item veto in California, which
other states don't really haveour government, our federal
government, so I'm sure they canknock things out of bill.
Can he knock thingsindividually out of a bill?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
By and large he can line item veto it.
You know, traditionally he'lljust veto and kill the whole
bill, but I'll say it if it'sschool funding that I want to
fix, if it's um, uh, better, uh,renewable energy standards, if
it's more money for anything,any of our needs in burbank, it
gets really challenging because,as you're seeing quickly, you
(40:48):
got to find 40 other votes inthe senate, in the assembly, you
got to find at least 21 votesin the Senate.
And on top of all that you haveto think about, is the governor
going to sign this and so evenpassing one bill?
That's why you have your ownstaff of at least seven people.
That's why it's a full-time jobas opposed to our council,
(41:09):
which is part-time, is becauseit is an incredible amount of
work just to get one A lame duck, a lame duck governor too.
That's going to make it all themore interesting and a
governor's race that'll beheating up here in a couple
months.
I hear that.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
I hear your former boss, he just might be jumping
in.
No, your former boss, who boss?
He just might be jumping in.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
no, your former boss um, who was our vice president
is being, uh mentioned as thenext governor of california also
.
Well, I'll tell you, my myformer boss, kamala harris, and
my former boss javier becerra,and my current boss rob bonta
could, in theory, all findthemselves running for that
governor's spot.
So I'm gonna try to just havemy phone silent.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
You need to stay out of that.
That whole battle ross.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
What else you got no, I'm just uh shocked at the what
you, what you're diving intothe next couple of weeks and the
next couple of years.
And, um, you know, I appreciateyou.
Like you said, you come backand give us a little update when
you're uh in town.
I'll still see you at someribbon cuttings maybe, and you
will you know some people willsay, wow, I, I got an assembly
(42:14):
member here instead of just astaff member.
So, um, and we'll look forwardto seeing you around town.
I know that, but what a heck ofa show absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Well, ross, thank you for coming by.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
You have one more thing to go ahead before you
sign it off.
I just really want to say toyou guys, to your listeners,
just a simple thank you.
These have been the best fouryears of my life.
I started a family, I had twoamazing kids, we bought a home
and all of that grown as aleader.
I've had the chance to be themayor of the best city in the
(42:47):
world.
Whatever happens in the rest ofmy life, these four years are
always going to be incrediblyspecial to me.
I'm sad to see this chaptercoming to an end.
I'm excited about what happensnext, yes, but just know how
much being your mayor and beingon council has meant to me.
It really has been the honorand privilege of a lifetime.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Well, we really appreciate you coming on and
doing this little breaking newsshow for us.
I think it's good that peoplecan hear what's going on.
So for Ross Benson Hello Molo,let's go.
And for the assembly memberfrom Burbank, nick Schultz.
Thank you.
This is Craig Sherwood sayingthank you very much for
listening.
We always appreciate it Ifyou're in your car right now or
(43:30):
you're watching the YouTubechannel.
Thank you very much forlistening and we'll talk to you
next time.
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