The Brief

This October at Santa Ana College, about a dozen people gathered in a newsroom that’s not much bigger than a studio apartment.

For hours, they pored over layouts and stories, analyzing every word and punctuation mark on their computer screens. Some printed out drafts and took to editing with a pen.

The photo adviser floated around, helping students edit images, making sure they had the proper color and exposure. As the evening progressed, two alumni, now students at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State Long Beach, also showed up to help.

The reporters, editors, advisers, and alumni were hard at work on the print edition of el Don, the college’s storied newsmagazine. Soon after, they would submit that edition to compete for the National Pacemaker Awards, largely considered to be the highest of honors.

For decades, el Don has been a routine recipient of these awards. And so, on that night, everything had to be perfect. Santa Ana College had a record to keep.

Covers of recent el Don issues, on display at Santa Ana College.

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Beyond that newsroom’s four walls, the journalism world is less bright. Across the country, journalists are grappling with everything from mass layoffs to the threat of AI, all this on top of an erosion in public trust. One media executive told New York Magazine: “I think you’d have to be crazy to begin a career in journalism right now.”

When Talan Garcia, el Don’s views editor, heard this, she let out a laugh.

“It’s true,” they said. “It is a dying medium.”

“But,” she added, “I also feel like we need it now more than ever.”

This December, el Don is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Ahead of the newsmagazine’s centennial, LAist spoke with those who’ve brought it to life in recent decades. They reflected on how they got their start and the importance of student journalism. They also shared what this newsroom means to them; what inspires them; what scares them; and how to prepare for whatever comes next.

Ash Mojica

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Chris Treble

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How did you end up in journalism?

“I just got out of working for the last 10 plus years and decided to take a semester of, like, personal reflection, personal development time. So, I'm taking this journalism class because it's completely different than what I have been doing — I used to work in aviation manufacturing. And I'm also taking American Sign Language and guitar.”

— Chris Treble, el Don staff writer, returning student

“I was 30 when I first joined, and I had just come back to college for, I think, the third or fourth time. I've got ADHD and have a really hard time focusing on things that are not interesting to me ... My dad was in an art class with one of the [el Don] editors ... And she mentioned to him that the el Don was looking for photographers. So, I was, like, ‘Hey, photojournalism! Sounds great!’ ... And then I saw a small blurb pop up on a local news app about a sexual assault that had taken place on our campus. I came in [the newsroom] and was, like, ‘Hey, so is this a thing you cover, or is this, like, too heavy?’ And they were, like, ‘Oh, we absolutely cover that. Write it up.’ And I'm, like, ‘No, no. I'm a photographer.’ And they were like, ‘Write it.’ So that was the first byline.”

— Carrie Graham, former el Don EIC, freelance reporter in Orange County

“I did a story on a professor that had just passed . . . And it was, honestly, it was an honor to get to write about someone that had affected my life and to get to share that news and get to talk to people who were also affected by her. I feel like that was a perfect story for me to, you know, really like cement that, like, I think I found what I want to do.”

— Ash Mojica, el Don staff writer, earned a B.A. in English at Cal State Fullerton

Inside the el Don newsroom.

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What makes the newsroom special? 

“It's being confined in a small space, working together, and just wanting to do better.”

— Geovanni Esparza, el Don news editor

“I just want to get one percent better every single day. And with the advisors that are in the newsroom, I feel like they have created a great place for us to do so, because they help us through every step of the way without being very controlling. Like, it's still very much our work, with their guidance.”

— Ryla Manalang, el Don lifestyle editor

Ryla Manalang

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Carrie Graham

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“Being in that newsroom is probably the first time in my life that I felt like I fit in somewhere. I've always kind of been the outsider in groups, where, like, everyone got along with me, but I wasn't really part of things or it was easy to forget about me when people were planning stuff . . . That was the first time that I felt like I could be me, in all of my dorky quirkiness, and nobody was looking down on me for it.”

— Carrie Graham 

“[The newsroom] is full of people who want to see you succeed and know the challenges that you're facing. So I just feel like I'll be a part of el Don forever, you know? I don't see any of those people ever leaving my life.”

— Kate Bustamante, former el Don EIC, Cal State Dominguez Hills undergrad majoring in psychology

What it means to be the 'first rough draft of history'

“We have students that are reporting on things that they're living, and maybe major news outlets might not think of them as being able to be ‘objective’ about that. But we're working with the community members, and I'm training community members to cover and inform their own community . . . So what we really emphasize more is fairness: Did you get enough reporting? Are you talking to all these different types of sources? ”

— Sarah Bennett, el Don adviser and journalism department chair at Santa Ana College, former el Don editor, co-founder of community print studio PLACE Long Beach

“Our publication does a lot for Santa Ana, especially because we're in a community that doesn't get a lot of representation. And, also, we're a community that is poorer than the rest of Orange County.”

— Talan Garcia, el Don views editor

“There's so many beautiful cultural traditions that are taking place here and just people taking care of each other, loving each other, and living their lives together. And this space and time in Santa Ana won't exist again. So, I have been really proud of seeing the way the students have preserved all of this information and their experiences and these people.”

— Jacqueline Schlossman, el Don adviser, associate professor of photography at Santa Ana College and co-chair of the art/photography department

What it takes to be an award-winning publication

“I would say 99% of the students that I got, over my 36 years there, almost all of them had zero journalism experience.”

— Charles Little, taught journalism at Santa Ana College for more than three decades

“The legacy is not guaranteed. There's a lot that goes into keeping [el Don] afloat and keeping it funded and recruiting students and training them. It's, you know, it's just constant . . . I think, because the publication has won for so many years, people sort of expect it . . . And I keep on having to say, like, this is an entirely different group of students that did this. You have no idea what these students went through.”

— Sarah Bennett 

“We have people at all different levels. We have news junkies who have been working here for three semesters, we also have people that are like, ‘Hey, I just want to make content for TikTok’ and kind of learn about journalism in the process.’”

— Ajay Orona, el Don adviser, assistant journalism professor, associate editor of Alta Journal

“We feel like we need to meet that standard and uphold it.”

— Geovanni Esparza 

Geo Esparaza

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Talan Garcia

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“I'm constantly trying to balance between working with people on their stories for print, working with people on their stories for web, and working with people on their stories for social media. Even with a whole day's work, going in at 10 a.m. and leaving around six or seven for el Don, there's still so much that has to be done before the end of the night, before I go to bed. Which is a lot, right? Because there's three different moving cycles all the time. But I'm addicted to it.”

— Talan Garcia 

Is it ethical to encourage people to pursue journalism?

“We are trying to remain positive, but without, you know, blinders on to the reality. I'm thinking a lot about how we approach this. Every semester it's, like, how do we start the conversation? What is happening in the media industry, and how do we frame the work that we're doing here at our school?”

— Sarah Bennett 

“If you can do storytelling — whether it's through writing or photography or making videos or doing social media — then there's going to be a career choice for you. The amount of work, though, that you will have to put in if you want to pursue journalism or photography or photojournalism, it's abundant.”

— Jacqueline Schlossman

“We need entrepreneurship in our field, because we have so many people who are being trained to go expect a job somewhere. And, as we know, those jobs are not waiting for journalism students to graduate. But that doesn't mean that your community doesn't need news and information . . .We're always talking about innovation and community impact, and I'm totally willing to rip up what we've done before and do something different.”

— Sarah Bennett 

“We want our students to be prepared to talk about money, to really clarify what the goals are, what the scope of the job is, what the expectations are, and, also, what the pay is, so they can make a living . . . I also teach them that, sometimes, we educate the industry by turning down work.”

— Jacqueline Schlossman

“There's a definite and desperate need for us to maintain media and make it important and valuable to society. Because, without that, what are we?”

— Charles Little 

Back issues of el Don, piled up on the newsroom floor. Staff members distribute the publication themselves.

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OK, but what’s the point of print? 

“My students, especially the ones who went through high school during the pandemic, they're at a point where being online isn’t necessarily fun, it's just a part of work, just a part of getting things done . . . And I think print is something that's novel and fun and exciting to them.”

— Ajay Orona

“My students love zines. They're kind of, like, TikToks in your hand.”

— Sarah Bennett

“I feel like Gen Z is kind of a new opportunity to see whether or not print will really flourish in the future . . . I think that we will see a comeback. I mean, even just with zines in Orange County, I have noticed a lot of young people gravitating towards that . . . Sure, statistically, in the last 15, 20 years, there’s been a major decline in people subscribing to the New York Times's print edition and things like that. But, also, post-COVID, we want to experience things and hold it in our hands.”

— Talan Garcia 

How journalism transformed me . . . 

“One piece that I'm really proud of is an interview with a man by the name of Barry Asher. I was scrolling through the Wikipedia of notable alumni from Santa Ana College and one just caught my eye. He was a [professional bowler] . . . And then I learned he's a hall of famer . . . . When we finally finished the print, we went to his bowling alley. I handed him the paper, and what really stood out to me is, as he was reading it, he was getting kind of choked up. And, like, by the end, he was on the verge of tears. And that really just hit me emotionally, that as a journalist, I can have this impact on people.”

— Brandon Rowley, el Don sports editor

“People are gonna hate me for this, but when I had to write [my college papers], I would always just send the first draft. And I would still get A's. It kind of made me a little bit cocky. And that just does not fly in journalism. The first draft is not it. You're gonna have editors ripping apart your pages, ripping up your babies. And you know what? I love it. I love having my work dissected. It's stepping on your pride a bit, but that needs to happen. You need that in order to grow.”

— Ash Mojica 

“I didn't think this was possible, like, journalism was never an option for me . . . My first day in the newsroom last fall, I told [my professors], ‘Hey, I've never taken a journalism class before in my life. I don't know what I'm doing.’ And they helped me get where I needed to be. And then, by the end of that semester, they were like, ‘He's gonna be the next lifestyle editor.’”

— Geovanni Esparza

“[Being editor in chief during the pandemic] was definitely chaotic . . . My youngest [kid] was about three or four, and all three of my kids have special needs. So there was a lot of trying to balance out being at school meetings versus being able to cover what I needed to cover and get edits done. And a lot of it was honestly doing edits at eleven o'clock at night after the kids had gone to bed . . . But it really gave me a chance to have some sense of self again, because I had been a stay-at-home mom for, like, 10 years . . . And I had gotten to a point where I didn't really know anything about myself anymore. I didn't exist outside of my role as mom. Like, if someone asked me what my favorite band was, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. My favorite food: chicken dinos, whatever my kids left behind. It wasn't healthy . . . So, even though it was a lot of work, it was really rewarding, because it was something that I was doing entirely for myself, so that I had some sense of me again.”

— Carrie Graham 

“It was kind of love at first assignment . . . Seeing my name in print made me feel like it was a stepping stone to what my future could be.”

— Ryla Manalang 

Jakki Padilla

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Jarely Olmos

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Is journalism in your future? What is the future of journalism?

“I like writing, and I love to read articles. I think some are very engaging and they inspire me and make me want to pursue this kind of work. But becoming a journalist? I need to see if I do want to do this later on.”

— Paola Cabrera, el Don staff writer

“[It’s] not that I don't love to write, I do. I just get a little insecure about my writing, and — I don't know if this is good or not — but, like, when it comes to video editing, I trust myself more.”

— Lizett Gallo, el Don staff writer

“I think a community college foundation in journalism is great because we can teach [students] how to be good reporters and be responsible and learn AP style and all the rest. But in terms of having a skill set, I think it's very important that they have a skill set outside of journalism, so they can make themselves more valuable and more useful. So, major in economics or business or science or anything that'll give you a step ahead.”

— Charles Little 

The newsmagazine's advisers: Ajay Orona, Sarah Bennett, and Jacqueline Schlossman.

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“No matter what, I'm always going to be a writer . . . I'm always going to be in this field that is tough, this field that is constantly shifting and underappreciated and undervalued, especially with the rise in AI. And it's scary, it's so scary. But I am such a firm believer in doing what you love, doing what's important. And I think, at the end of the day, I'm gonna be out there, fighting . . . I'd rather live struggling with what I love, than to, you know, not be able to even touch it or attempt it. I'm never gonna know unless I try, and I think I was always scared to try before. And now — maybe because I'm getting older — I just don't want to wait anymore.”

— Ash Mojica

“I'm dipping my toes everywhere, but I still feel like my heart is in journalism . . . I'm doing public relations so I can buy a house for my family. Like, I want to be able to survive, and my parents came from Mexico for a reason . . . It's hard for me to be selfish and just want to do journalism.”

— Jakki Padilla, former el Don editor, Cal State Long Beach undergrad

“Misinformation is a plague that is sweeping not only America, but the world . . . I'm studying it because, to some extent, I feel like an activist, and I want to see change in this world. And if that's only through a small part of the media, then that's enough for me. I want to learn how to master it so that I can effect change in media and create things that lead people to trusting their own local news organizations once again . . . I don't know how far I'll be able to take that, but I think it's a risk worth taking. And I think it's worth getting my degree in it because, you know, I'm sure I'm gonna get laid off. I'm sure I'm gonna take a lot of jobs that don't pay. But also, this is a humongous passion for me, not only to write, but to deliver things that are important and that affect local people.”

— Talan Garcia 

“Now we’re starting to worry about AI taking over jobs like mine. And I think that in order to survive, instead of complaining and lamenting about it, you have to accept the reality and figure out how you will fit into that new puzzle.”

— Vera Jimenez, KTLA meteorologist, former el Don editor, winner of two Emmys, three Golden Mikes, and three Golden Pylons

“We need to be transparent about where our values stand.”

— Jakki Padilla 

"It's up in the air. But I feel like we need to take advantage of now and really focus on what we still have left."

— Jarely Olmos, el Don staff writer

“Is it scary? Sure it is but, you know, we can do hard things, and we can overcome these challenges . . . The only way that we become the best versions of ourselves is by confronting things that are challenging and scary.”

— Vera Jimenez

Top image: Row 1 (left to right): Kate Bustamante, Brandon Rowley, Paola Cabrera; Row 2: Ajay Orona, Sarah Bennett,  Jacqueline Schlossman. Photos by Brian Feinzimer/LAist. Composite photo by Samanta Helou Hernandez/LAist.

Two of California’s largest courts are testing an AI tool that can draft orders and produce research memos.

Judges so far are using it primarily for civil cases, but documents obtained by CalMatters indicate the possibility of expanded applications in criminal cases, where people’s freedom and access to justice are on the line.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court began a pilot program in February to test a tool created by the company Learned Hand. Other courts may follow, according to Learned Hand founder and chief executive officer Shlomo Klapper.

Learned Hand uses a combination of language models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google to act as an AI clerk for judges. The company says it tests for bias and accuracy, but it has not yet published results.

In Riverside County, which has a $10,000 agreement with the company to test the program, civil and probate attorneys are primarily using the tool to draft research memos that help judges reach their decisions. It’s typical for research attorneys to assist judges as they review cases.

Los Angeles County Superior Court has a roughly $314,000 contract that includes a roadmap to test the tool’s use in criminal, family and probate divisions. Officials would not describe in detail to CalMatters the criteria they’re using to evaluate whether use of the tool can safely expand to criminal and family courts, where the stakes are often much higher than in civil cases.

One judge who spoke to CalMatters on condition of anonymity due to judicial rules of conduct was alarmed when their colleagues at a recent luncheon said the technology could be used one day to evaluate appeals from people who believe their conviction or sentence was tainted by racial bias. California courts are handling a wave of those claims after lawmakers passed the Racial Justice Act in 2020.

“I think it is outrageous,” said the Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. “AI cannot and never will be able to replace human judgment in evaluating complex social dynamics. Ultimately, that will erode the public’s confidence in the competence and fairness of the judiciary.”

A majority of California's superior courts now have generative AI use policies, according to documents obtained by CalMatters via public records requests, which they were required to create by the state Judicial Council before using the technology. Roughly a dozen of the 51 courts that have responded to CalMatters’ requests said they are using AI-powered tools from LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters, and Microsoft’s Copilot.

Use of AI in courts has been controversial because of the propensity of AI models to cite falsehoods and to produce sycophantic text. Models from major companies like Google and Anthropic can reduce critical thinking and brain activity, according to a 2025 MIT study.

Language model hallucinations have already made it into the judicial system. Researcher Damien Charlotin has documented hundreds of instances of litigants, lawyers, and judges making mistakes when using AI to do their jobs including nearly 90 cases in state or federal courts based in California since August 2024.

Last fall, a Los Angeles-based lawyer received a historic $10,000 fine for citing cases that don’t exist, and earlier this month the Sacramento Bee reported that use of AI led to errors in four cases handled by prosecutors in Nevada County. Most of these cases involve lawyers or people who are representing themselves in court, but UCLA Law School professors predict that more judges will make AI-fueled mistakes in the future. In recent months, the U.S. Senate investigated federal judges in Mississippi and New Jersey for drafting decisions with generative AI that had serious factual errors.

Klapper, who previously worked as a clerk for a federal appeals court and for surveillance technology company Palantir, said the judiciary needs AI in order to reduce backlogs and increase efficiency.

“Could we hire more people?” he told CalMatters. “Maybe, but it’s not going to keep pace with the exponential increase that’s coming, nor is it going to be able to adequately solve the crisis of today. I think the only solution is to give every single judge and staff attorney their own AI clerk.”

Klapper said he’s aiming to combine the best parts of what human judges can do with the best parts of what machines bring to bear.

“I’m not saying all machines aren’t biased,” he said. “I’m not saying my machine isn’t even biased. I’m saying we can test it and people have tested it. And that is the benefit over humans.”

Generative AI use policies for the Los Angeles and Riverside County superior courts only require disclosure if a motion, decision, or other document is written entirely with generative AI.

Both courts refused to say whether plaintiffs are aware that the tool is being tested on their cases. In a statement to CalMatters, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Superior Court said testing is done on motions that have already been decided, separate from live case environments. However, the contract allows for testing on live cases.

“It is important to note that even with successful evaluation and thorough testing, the Court remains several months, if not years, away from implementing this type of tool,” said the spokesperson.

The contract allows the tool to be used for two critical motions in the criminal division: A motion to suppress, which is designed to determine what type of evidence the prosecution is allowed to present at trial, and motions for post conviction relief, which are filed by people who have already been convicted and want another shot at freedom.

That’s the “greatest concern” for Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. When he reviewed the contract, he referred to the motions as “two incredibly important motions in the criminal justice system.”

“When you’re dealing with someone’s liberty — as opposed to in the civil setting, which is everything other than liberty — the stakes couldn’t be higher,” said Hochman. “I don’t want to take the chance, particularly in a criminal case, that AI happens to get it wrong. And now someone’s constitutional rights have been infringed. Someone has gone to prison who shouldn’t have, or on the flip side, that somehow someone gets off.”

'An extremely perilous road'

In Los Angeles, some judges first heard about the new Learned Hand contract during a March presentation by Superior Court Judges Yvette Verastegui and Olivia Rosales. They lead the criminal branch and visit courthouses throughout the county as part of an annual roadshow, where they update judges on court operations, discuss workload and field questions. During a luncheon, Verastegui and Rosales said the tool could be used to assist with Racial Justice Act petitions in the future.

California’s Racial Justice Act allows people to challenge a criminal conviction or sentence that they believe was based upon racial bias. Petitions are filed directly to the court from people in state prison. If a case is found to have merit, the process includes appointing legal counsel, filing briefs and setting evidentiary hearings before a judge would decide whether to grant the petition.

That process could look different with a tool like Learned Hand. Verastegui and Rosales explained that, following an incarcerated person’s petition, the tool could generate tentative decisions for judges to consider in denying or advancing cases to the next stages, according to one judge who attended the luncheon.

“The concern, of course, that I have is that the courts will utilize that as a reference point and then get stuck to that initial analysis,” said the judge. “It’s an extremely perilous road to go down. Putting aside the inaccuracy, which will be a significant concern, it dehumanizes the whole process. It does not treat people as individuals with lived experiences. It essentially reimposes a one-size-fits-all style of justice.”

A second Los Angeles Superior Court judge who spoke with CalMatters on the condition of anonymity remembered the presentation and said they would not trust nor use the tool to summarize a Racial Justice Act petition.

AI can replicate or intensify patterns contained in the data used to make a model, including human biases. Large language models have a history of demonstrating race and gender bias, an analysis of predictive policing tech used by LAPD found racial bias, and an analysis of the risk assessment algorithm COMPAS found that it is more likely to label Black people as at risk of committing crimes after incarceration than white people with a similar record.

Public defenders who spoke with CalMatters echoed those concerns.

Elizabeth Lashley-Haynes, a deputy public defender at the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, said it would be “highly problematic and bordering on unethical” for a judge to use the tool to review Racial Justice Act petitions, which she described as “incredibly nuanced.”

“They’re like nothing else in the legal system that has ever really been done,” said Lashley-Haynes, who specializes in Racial Justice Act cases. “Words that are used in these cases that have racial undertones or racial meanings are way beyond the realm of anything that artificial intelligence could do.”

In interviews with CalMatters, Klapper and Los Angeles County Superior Court Executive Officer, David Slayton, denied that the court has any plans to use the tool for Racial Justice Act petitions. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Superior Court later confirmed in an email to CalMatters that the contract permits the tool to be used in such a way “but that possibility has not commenced in any way.”

Klapper said if they were to build out a Racial Justice Act module, the tool would need to be evaluated for bias and co-developed with the court.

“The timing very fortuitous, right?” he said. “It’s a very fraught decision, I’m not going to lie…extremely high stakes — a scenario where I understand people might be very concerned. Especially with criminal, I have even more hesitancy, even more guardrails than normal about, because there are liberty interests at stake.”

Extending beyond civil cases

In Los Angeles, six superior court judges and their research attorneys are primarily using the Learned Hand tool to conduct research, summarize motions and assist in drafting tentative rulings, according to Slayton. He says the tool won’t move beyond the civil division “until the court leadership is comfortable.”

“The court is being very deliberate and careful about how we use technology like this,” he said. “So until we evaluate it and determine that it is effective in those areas, we will not extend it to other areas.”

Los Angeles County Superior Court's Hollywood Courthouse, in Los Angeles, on March 12, 2025. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters The tool will be evaluated on a quarterly basis to determine its future application, Slayton said, but he did not specify what kind of evaluation that entails. In an email to CalMatters, a spokesperson later said that Learned Hand is evaluated “against the same substantive expectations applied to law clerks and research attorneys: accurate legal research, sound analysis, neutral and judge-ready writing, and reliable work product that supports judicial decision-making.”

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Samantha Jessner, who chairs the Judicial Technology Advisory Committee, said she was unaware of the possibility that the tool could eventually be used outside of the civil division until recently. Judges are not privy to contract negotiations due to certain ethical limitations, she said.

“I think we have a duty and obligation to explore whether or not there is a place for artificial intelligence in what we do as a judicial branch and that’s exactly what this pilot is intended to afford us the opportunity to do,” said Jessner.

Riverside County Superior Court signed an agreement with Learned Hand in February. In emails obtained by CalMatters, Klapper proposed to two Riverside County Superior Court executives, Jason Galkin and Sarah Hodgson, that the court use the tool for a common civil court motion and “then expand quickly once we earn our stripes.” He suggested that Hodgson assemble a list of motions and workflows “that generate the most pain,” citing examples that included the Racial Justice Act.

Roughly two weeks later, Hodgson described the most laborious motions “that want to drive us into retirement,” including discovery motions and attorney fee motions. For criminal cases, the court suggested that Klapper focus on “things with the largest paper records,” citing death penalty habeas petitions and parole revocation.

Since the pilot started, seven civil and probate attorneys have been granted access to the tool. Galkin, the chief executive officer of the Riverside County Superior Court, said they are “kicking the tires on the product” to see what tasks it can do. The tool is not being used to draft tentative rulings, he said.

“We don’t even know if expansion is likely so there is no set criteria for what expansion might look like or thresholds for that because right now, the core question is: Does this help staff and does it advance what they’re trying to do in their roles?” said Galkin.

As testing is underway, attorneys like Hochman say that use of AI is inevitable, but would be better suited for low-level, repetitive and routine tasks.

“It’s the analysis of the case itself, coupled with the conclusions that will be reached, that I’m very hesitant to trust AI at this point — in large part, because I don’t know all of the inputs that AI is using to make its decision. The only thing I’m 100% sure of is that AI didn’t go to law school,” said Hochman.

Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

California’s Board of Equalization is a coveted spot once again for state lawmakers looking for a new gig almost a decade after then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law gutting the organization of any serious governing responsibility.

This year, three current state lawmakers are competing for seats on the nation’s only elected tax board. They’re among some two dozen candidates on the ballot for its four elected positions, which are divided by geographic districts.

The board has long been a launching pad to higher offices in California politics — Fiona Ma served on it before becoming state treasurer, as did Betty Yee and Malia Cohen before each being elected state controller.

The agency itself is a throwback to the 19th Century. It’s rooted in an 1879 constitutional amendment that created it and charged it with “equalizing” county property tax assessments statewide.

From that narrow mandate, it swelled to become a juggernaut that collected a third of the state’s tax revenue and provided a venue for people and businesses to contest their tax bills in front of the elected board. It survived numerous efforts by governors to kill it outright, including attempts by Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

That is until 2017, when a cascade of allegations about board members misusing the office to promote themselves led to an authoritative state audit that lawmakers could not ignore.

Brown signed a law stripping the agency of any powers beyond what voters gave it in 1879 and created two new departments that report to the governor instead of the elected board: one to collect sales and use taxes and another to hear taxpayer appeals.

After that, Board of Equalization elections tended to be lower profile contests. Ted Gaines, a former Republican state lawmaker from the Sacramento area, won a seat. Former Democratic Assemblymember Sally Lieber is up for reelection on the board this year. The other members had experience in local politics instead of inside the Capitol.

“We’re lean but we’re not mean,” said Lieber, the incumbent for District 2, which includes 19 counties centered on the Bay Area. “I think the Board of Equalization is the right size in the system right now…I do really believe that the board has a role to play in being a forum for taxpayers to come forward to.”

This year voters will see more contentious elections for the tax board:

• In District 1 representing inland California, Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove of Bakersfield has more than $900,000 in a campaign account and name recognition from her representing the San Joaquin Valley in the Legislature since 2010. Democrats are putting up a fight for the district. Fresno City Councilmember Nelson Esparza is running with the party’s support.
• In District 2 representing coastal California north of Los Angeles, incumbent Lieber faces San Mateo Community College District Trustee John Pimentel. Lieber has the Democratic Party’s endorsement, but a number of Bay Area Democratic leaders are backing Pimentel, including state Treasurer Ma and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
• In District 3 representing the Los Angeles area, former Monterey Park City Councilmember Yvonne Yiu put up $760,000 of her own money and has about $1 million on hand. The race has another heavyweight in Assemblymember Mike Gipson, a Democrat from Gardena who has served in the Legislature since 2014. 
• District 4 representing the San Diego area has an especially crowded race with Democratic state Sen. Tom Umberg of Santa Ana, San Ysidro school board member Martín Arias, San Diego Unified School District board member Cody Peterson, and Denis Bilodeau, a Republican supported by San Diego Assemblymember Carl DeMaio’s Reform California organization.

A forum for California taxpayers

The board was always popular among taxpayer advocacy groups, who liked that it provided a forum to focus on tax issues in a capital where debates often center on labor and business.

“It’s a very useful elected body that answers to the voters,” said Susan Shelley, vice president of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Some of this year’s candidates are thinking of ways to make the most of the agency.

Arias believes the board could do more to assist homeowners and potential homeowners. As a taxpayer advocate in the San Diego County Assessor’s Office, he says he works with the Board of Equalization every day and has a front seat to how the system works.

“I think there’s a bigger opportunity here to make the Board of Equalization the constitutional office that it is — that it should be,” he said. “There’s a clear opportunity here for us to start advocating at the state level for all of our taxpayers, including those that don’t speak English.”

Umberg said he’d like the board to have more investigative power and resources. Citing instances in which San Bernardino and Los Angeles assessors have been arrested on felony charges, he said he’s most interested in the board’s oversight of property tax assessors.

“Although it’s not a high-profile job, it’s a critically important job, especially when we’ve got so many revenue challenges in California,” Umberg said in an interview with CalMatters.

Questioning BOE’s relevance

Advocating for the board’s expansion has drawn criticism from former board members and employees. Yee, a board member from 2004 to 2014, has been vocal about abolishing the board entirely because she believes that its limited responsibilities could be easily transferred to another department or agency.

“I just really do question how this board continues to have relevance,” she told CalMatters. “I sometimes feel like the board is really doing a lot of work in search of finding problems to solve. …I know with each of the board members, they feel very strongly about being a taxpayer advocate. But frankly, every public official should be a taxpayer advocate. ”

Democrats stopped short of killing the agency entirely because they would have had to put that question to voters.

“They should have just chopped the head of the snake off and done away with the Board of Equalization altogether,” said Mark DeSio, a former communications director for the board. “They didn’t do that. They left enough of the cancer to grow back.”

He cooperated with the audit that revealed misspending at the agency that appeared intended to promote its elected members as well as another that showed widespread nepotism in its hiring practices. He then lost his job in the reorganization and filed a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against the state.

DeSio believes lawmakers want seats on the Board of Equalization because it allows them to maintain a high profile until they can run for office again.

“That was the recipe for disaster a few years back,” he said. “Somebody better watch these guys. They’re not there for the policy. It’s for the exposure.”

Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Even as gas prices continued to rise across the United States, sales of electric vehicles fell in April. That is in contrast to strong growth elsewhere in the world, such as Europe. But American drivers are gravitating toward at least one more efficient powertrain: hybrids.

Sales of new EVs fell roughly 18 percent from March to April, according to the latest data from Edmunds, an auto research firm. Another company, Cox Automotive, pegged the drop at closer to 6 percent. Either way, experts said it’s clear that high gas prices aren’t leading to a significant shift toward EVs.

“There was a lot of window shopping,” said Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, noting that searches for electrified vehicles on the company’s site were strong. “It did not translate to tire-kicking and purchases.”

Price remains the steepest barrier for most people, said Drury. While electric vehicles can be less expensive to operate over the long-term — especially when gas prices are high — the upfront costs remain significant. The average transaction price for an EV in April was $6,214 higher than for vehicles with internal combustion engines, Cox reported.

“It’s still a cost hurdle,” said Stephanie Brinley, a principal automotive analyst at S&P Global Mobility. “You don’t know how long it’s going to take to get that back.”

At Thursday’s average gas price of $4.56 per gallon, an EV buyer would have to drive more than 40,000 miles to make up the difference with a car that gets 30 mpg. Savings on maintenance, like oil changes, could accelerate that timeline, but factors such as higher insurance prices and having to install a home charger could make the payback period even longer. If fuel prices fall, the advantage of an EV also shrinks.

“It’s very difficult for people to wrap their head around, ‘Hey, if I spend this $55,000, I might over time save’,” said Drury. “It requires a bit more math than most people want to go through.”

The calculus is much simpler for hybrid vehicles, which utilize batteries that can improve fuel economy by 25 to 45 percent without needing to plug in. A Honda CR-V, for example, gets around 29 mpg while the hybrid version gets 37. More and more popular models are only available as hybrids, a strategy that Toyota has perhaps embraced most notably. Last year, it ditched the gas-only version of the Camry sedan. The 2026 RAV4 followed suit.

Overall, Edmunds data shows that sales of hybrids are up 20 percent year-over-year and nearly 50 percent since February, when the U.S.-Iran conflict began. Sales of gas-powered gas are up about 11 percent over those same two months.

“I think this is going to be a hybrid moment,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive. “There are a lot of options.”

Used EVs provided another somewhat bright spot, she said. The segment saw a 3 percent increase in sales from March to April and a price premium of only $1,096 over used internal combustion vehicles. Used EVs also sold faster than their used gas-powered counterparts. “They’re really selling efficiently,” said Valdez Streaty, who added that there should be a glut of EVs available throughout the year as leases end. “I don’t think the inventory will be an issue.”

With Iran maintaining its hold over the Strait of Hormuz and summer travel season looming, gas prices appear set to keep climbing — which would only make an EV more appealing. Other parts of the world have seen significant jumps in sales since the conflict began, with Europe experiencing a surge and China setting an export record in April, according to BloombergNEF.

In the United States, though, it seems that only people already in the market for EVs are making the leap. “Edge-case people,” as Brinley called them. Dramatic pump readings “might nudge them because they were already in that direction,” she said. “But what we’re unlikely to see is a shift in current [internal combustion car] owners just fundamentally making that change simply because of gas prices.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/solutions/why-hybrids-not-evs-are-winning-over-u-s-consumers/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org