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Guests of Rotarians:
Steve Snyder introduced Brian Maas, our speaker
Lori Tompkins introduced Alex Carnahan Realtor
Betty Bennett introduced Kristi Jay from A-Town Bikes
Birthdays:
Betty Bennett January 12. You are all invited to her birthday party at the California Club this Saturday at 9 PM.
Anniversaries:
Steve and Sharron Snyder January 14, 57 years
Rotary Anniversary:
Vicki Stonebarger January 15, 2019
Helen Ornellas January 12, 2021
Started with pin check.
Next Tuesday BOD meeting 7 AM second floor 11641 Blocker Dr.
PHF +5 Bill Jansen - congratulations!
PHF +8 Bill Johnston - congratulations!
Nick Willick & Brandee Ambrosia- This Old House Project. Paint, cleanup garbage, fix fences, one day project often for an elderly person or someone with fixed income who needs assistance. Builds sense of community. Bring your kids, friends and family. This year looking for one house. If you have a suggestion, let Nick or Brandee know within the next few weeks. Likely to be on April 22nd which is Rotarians at Work Day.
Brandee Ambrosia - Rotary Giving Project. Examples of nominations so far are below. Send in more by Thursday with a 100-word description.
Lighthouse Counseling Center
Scholarships for Teachers
Koinonia Center
Placer Ats
Theater/Ballet
Stand Up Placer
Sight Word Busters
Senior Center
Assistance League
Acres of Hope
Horses for Healing
ARD Youth Assistance Fund
Forgotten Soldiers Fund
Committee of 7 people (John Fink, Betty Bennett, Bobbi Allen, Dave Gibson, Bill Jansen, Caitlin Garrison, Lori Tompkins) will screen and review. If you won’t be at the club meeting on 1/24 you can submit a proxy vote. The budget is $30,000 and will likely select 5 or 6 organizations.
Betty Bennett - Max our RYE student is on Placer High School Ski team. The team needs gatekeepers at the races. Let Betty know if you can help. Includes a free lift ticket for the day. January 23rd at Alpine Meadows.
Steve Galyardt gave $5 for 6 beautiful women at his table.
Cindy gave $20 happy/sad bucks; Christmas was amazing, put horse down, sister having a hard time with cancer treatment. Forrest and she will be in Hawaii later this month.
Ron Martinez sad that he lost a huge tree but happy for his granddaughter's 6th birthday
Kelly Cooper gave $20 for her daughter's DC trip fundraiser. February 3rd. Blue Goose. Crab Feed. Tickets $70. 100 left. Schools no longer pay anything towards the trip so parents and students raise the funds.
Patty Park gave $10 happy for water but sad for the devastation caused by storms.
MaryJo Payne sad she got caught in Southern California with Southwest issues but happy to have found a rental car to drive home.
Raffle (Liza Stefani): $315 - no winner this week.
Program: Brian Maas, President of the California New Car Dealers Association. Steve Snyder introduced: Franchised new car dealers represented. Lobbyist and lawyer. Lives in Sacramento.
California Fair Pay and Employer Accountability Act covers employee wages and hours. Claims are filed under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Under PAGA employees can sue employer individually or as class action for violation of California Fair Pay and Employer Accountability Act and State of California. Three quarters of the settlements supposed to go to State and one quarter to the employees but most of it actually goes to the trial attorneys. Took effect in 2004 as Gray Davis was leaving office. Costs billions of dollars as a shakedown mechanism which doesn’t actually help employees. Trial lawyers make the money.
Hired a consultant to research, focus groups, polling to see how to amend the law. Nothing was going to happen through the legislature so came up with a ballot initiative. Business trade association leaders developing the plan for ballot qualification. Brian is the proponent who will sign it and approve deals. Covers all kind of business employers including retail, restaurants, and others. Replaces private actions with state regulators. That’s the purpose of the Labor Commissioner and that is who should be in charge of enforcing the laws. 100% of penalties should go to the employees. Right now there are no guidance or advice units for employers so they can avoid actions that cause lawsuits. They want employers to do the right thing. This will not be funded by taxes as the Commissioner's office is funded from the workers compensation system. There ballot initiative would require 75% of the legislature to approve any future amendments.
Covid slowed the process down. December 2021 got approval to collect signatures, but people were not going out in person where signatures are collected. Will qualify for the 2024 ballot. 950,000 signatures obtained and it has been qualified for ballot. It cost $10 million just to paying signature gatherers. Dealers stepped up by matching donations dollar for dollar, giving $5 million.
They hoped the US Supreme Court would solve the problem by requiring arbitration, but they didn't. California courts say that you can’t arbitrate PAGA claims since the State is a party and is not included in the arbitration. This decision opened the floodgate of lawsuits. So, the ballot initiative is the only way to fix the situation.
Numbers: $8 billion has been paid by employers since 2017. UPS the largest California employer paid a $16 million settlement and each employee got $57 with most of the settlement going to the trial lawyers.
Their group is working on outreach to increase awareness of the problems that would be solved by the ballot initiative. PAGA has been abused. No employer is exempt from the law including non-profits and unions who can, and have, been sued.
Ballot environment for next year: Greater turn out likely because of the presidential election. Greater ad costs. Lots of other ballot measures will be competing for attention. Very competitive ballot measure environment.
Cost: $50 million for the measure campaign. Polling indicates if message gets out it will be supported by voters. Hoping that organized labor will not oppose. Trial Bar will be likely opponents.