The Brief

In a major victory for gig-work companies, the California Supreme Court today upheld a voter-approved law that allows Uber and other app makers to treat their drivers and delivery workers as independent contractors instead of employees.

About the decision

The decision on Proposition 22 was unanimous. Approved by 58% of California voters in 2020 and enacted the same year, Prop. 22 gave app-based gig workers some benefits but not full worker protections because the ballot initiative — which gig companies spent more than $200 million to pass — ensures they are not considered employees.

More than 1.4 million Californians are app-based gig workers for companies such as Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart, according to the industry’s latest estimates.

The court was not considering the pros and cons of the gig economy. During oral arguments in May in San Francisco, justices zeroed in on whether Prop. 22 was incompatible with California law, which gives the Legislature responsibility over a complete workers’ compensation system. By declaring gig workers independent contractors, Prop 22 made them ineligible for workers’ comp benefits. SEIU California, the Service Employees International Union that had sought to overturn the law on behalf of four gig workers, argued that this made the law unconstitutional.

Prop. 22 “does not preclude the electorate from exercising its initiative power to legislate on matters affecting workers’ compensation,” Justice Goodwin Liu wrote.

What's next for gig worker advocates

Advocates for gig workers said the ruling was a blow.

“This is a really tragic outcome,” said Veena Dubal, a law professor at UC Irvine who focuses on labor and inequality. “But it’s not the end of the road.” Dubal speculated that labor advocates could put together a proposition of their own, or municipalities and the state could adopt ordinances and laws that are more worker-friendly — such as making it illegal to set different wages for similar work based on algorithmic formulas.

Gig companies backed Prop. 22 in 2020 to win themselves an exclusion from a new state law known as Assembly Bill 5, which would have upended their business models by requiring them to consider their drivers and delivery workers as employees. Last month, Uber lost a legal battle to overturn AB 5 — meaning only Prop. 22 stood in the way of forcing ride-hailing and delivery app companies to comply with it.

What you should know about Prop. 22

Under Prop. 22, gig workers are promised guaranteed minimum earnings of 120% of minimum wage, health care stipends, occupational accident insurance and accidental death insurance. Many of the benefits come with stipulations:

• The guaranteed earnings are based on time on a “gig” and don’t include time workers spend waiting for a ride or delivery.
• The health care stipends are for certain eligible workers only, excluding those who qualify for public assistance, including Medi-Cal.
• The occupational accident insurance has a $1 million limit
• Gig workers are reimbursed for their mileage, although at less than the IRS-mandated rate employees receive — currently 35 cents a mile vs. 67 cents a mile. But this amount is included in the minimum earnings guarantee — it is not in addition to it.
• Because Prop. 22 will stand, app-based platform workers will continue to be ineligible for benefits such as sick pay, a minimum wage for all time worked, unemployment insurance and more.

Molly Weedn, spokesperson for the gig industry group Protect App-Based Drivers + Services, called the ruling “an overwhelming victory for voters’ rights and the integrity of our state’s initiative system.”

Gig workers vowed not to give up.

“We’ll continue to fight until we have justice for drivers and all workers,” said Nicole Moore, president of Los Angeles-based Rideshare Drivers United. Moore added that this ruling could mean “app companies are coming for all of our jobs, whether it’s in health care, construction, entertainment.”

The Santa Ana City Council approved a $75,000 agreement with the digital service Hoopla to offer for digital lending for movies, music, audiobooks and E-books services through its library department.

The deal comes as digital equity programming becomes more at-risk of losing funding. The federal government pulled back $2.75 billion in funding by slashing the Digital Equity Act. Last October, the Federal Communications Commission also ended e-rate discounts to libraries and schools for digital lending programs, which included hotspots and school bus Wi-Fi.

The city first purchased Hoopla services in 2022. Brian Sternberg, Santa Ana’s library services director, told LAist the service has become increasingly popular with residents. Over the last year, Hoopla usage has been up 109%, with 4,435 people borrowing 24,340 items, according to Sternberg.

“The great people of Santa Ana deserve the same services, programs and collections that would be afforded anywhere else in the county,” Sternberg said. “That's my goal, to find ways to deliver that to our residents.”

What is Hoopla? 

Hoopla offers a variety of popular content like movies, television shows, music, audiobooks and e-books.

“Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Max … the way those models are set up, there's not a good way for public libraries to purchase that content due to cost and just due to the way those content deliverers are structured,” Sternberg said.

Digital equity programming can extend beyond educational material, he added.

“There are kids, and they want to see Spider-Man,” Sternberg said. “And we want to be able to offer that, especially for our residents who might not have all the financial means to sign up for all these 10 different subscriptions. They're all like, $15, $20 a month.”

Hoopla provides content in English and Spanish, and there’s content for all age groups, Sternberg added.

The company uses a “pay-in-advance” model, which means the library is buying digital “credits” that are then used whenever a borrower checks out an audiobook, E-book or other content.

“They have different scales,” Sternberg said. “If you want the newest popular movies, it's this particular price point.”

How else is Santa Ana addressing digital inequities? 

Sterberg said Santa Ana libraries are still lending out Wi-Fi hotspots for three weeks.

The library also carries its “Library of Things” where residents can borrow baking tools, video games, musical instruments, cameras and more.

The Main Library and Newhope Library are still closed for major renovations but are expected to reopen by the end of this year. Residents can still visit the library at the Delhi Center and the outdoor library at Jerome Park.

Santa Ana became the latest city in Orange County to approve the use of drones as first responders after a heated debate.

Santa Ana Police Chief Robert Rodriguez told the council the drones will help the department improve response times.

“It will reduce the air support costs associated with the Orange County Sheriff's Department helicopter contract. That contract currently right now sits about approximately half a million dollars a year,” he said. “It will provide responding officers with valuable information before they arrive on scene, which enhances community and officer safety.”

But some on the City Council and in the audience expressed concerns with the vendor, Axon Enterprise Inc., which contracts with the Department of Homeland Security. As Orange County’s only sanctuary city, Santa Ana has grappled with a deep mistrust in the police department as the federal government ramped up immigration raids and ICE detentions last summer. As immigrant families already contend with a fear of coming outside, the increased surveillance, they said, would make them even more afraid.

Ultimately, the council voted 4-3 to allow the city manager to enter into an agreement with Axon Enterprise for a three-year period, joining cities like Newport Beach, Irvine and Huntington Beach who all have drone programs.

Details of the program

The drones will cost the city around $700,000, which will come from a state grant.

All data collected from the drones will be the property of the city and will only be released in accordance with state and city laws. The drones will also be the latest in surveillance technology purchased by the Police Department after they approved the purchase of 57 license plate readers last year.

How will the drones be deployed

The three first responder drones will be docked across the city at fire stations. When the Police Department receives an emergency call, the drones will be deployed within minutes, arriving before first responders. The live video stream, the Police Department says, will allow officers “to coordinate their actions more effectively and gather information in direct support of the Department’s de-escalation strategy.”

In addition to the first responder drones, the city will also purchase two patrol drones to use indoors and in tight spaces “to identify potential dangers.”

Last year, Santa Ana Police Commander Mat Sorenson said the department was looking to add drones to their repertoire as a “reactionary tool,” not for surveillance.

“ I'm not gonna make any promises here right now, but we are more than likely not going down the facial recognition route," he said. "For all intents and purposes, our drones will be a flying body, you know, use it deployed on actual calls for service where somebody's called the police. We're not randomly gonna be using it to surveil people or just fly around looking for crime.”

Community concerns

Carlos Perea, who sits on the Police Oversight Commission, and Tanya Navarro, organizing director with Chispa OC, both expressed concerns with the drone program.

“The vendor selected for this agreement, Axon Enterprise, profits from surveillance and policing infrastructure that is deeply entangled with systems of immigration enforcement and detention. Axon and its subsidiaries maintain contracts with ICE and other federal enforcement agencies at a time when immigrant communities across the country are experiencing unprecedented levels of surveillance, raids, and violence,” Perea wrote in an email to the City Council.

Navarro called the drone program “reckless” for public safety and fiscally.

The language in the policy, she said, “gives police broad latitude to decide when and where drones fly, including over protest, public gathering, and community events. This is exactly how tools get justified for emergencies and then become normalized in everyday surveillance.”

A growing number of Los Angeles-area politicians are calling on Olympics chief Casey Wasserman to step down after recently released files included a series of flirty emails between him and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell from 2003.

The emails were released in the Justice Department's latest drop of the files related to the criminal investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"Casey Wasserman should step aside immediately," L.A. City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said in a statement. "Anything less is a distraction and undermines efforts to make sure the Games truly reflect the values of a city that is for everyone."

Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez, Imelda Padilla, Nithya Raman and Monica Rodriguez, along with L.A. County Supervisors Janice Hahn and Lindsey Horvath, and City Controller Kenneth Mejia also called on Wasserman to step aside.

"Los Angeles cannot trust our financial future to someone connected with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell," Mejia said on social media, citing the city of L.A.'s role as financial backer of the Olympic Games.

The emails include an exchange in which Wasserman writes to Maxwell, "I think of you all the time…So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?"

In another, Wasserman explains the concept of "June gloom" to Maxwell, who responds, "What foggy enough so that you can float naked down the beach and no one can see you unless they are close up?"

In 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for facilitating a sex trafficking ring of minor girls with Epstein.

LA28 did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But in a statement provided to other media outlets over the weekend, Wasserman said he was "terribly sorry" for his association with Epstein and Maxwell.

"I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light,” Wasserman said in the statement, which was shared by The Athletic and other news outlets. “I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.”

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez also referenced LA28's "Human Rights Strategy," which was due at the end of last year but hasn't yet been made public.

"The failure to complete a robust Human Rights plan, coupled with the revelations from the newly released Epstein files, makes clear that no one associated with Epstein and his associates can provide credible leadership in the planning of these games, which now includes Casey Wasserman," Rodriguez said in a statement.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has not called on Wasserman to resign. In a statement to LAist, Bass said that it was critical to be "100% focused on making our city shine."

"Ultimately, any decision on the LA28 leadership must be made by the LA28 Board. As you know, they are a separate and independent nonprofit organization," the mayor said.