California Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) has recused herself from overseeing discussions from matters involving her husband, state Attorney General Rob Bonta, and the state Department of Justice’s budget after coming under intense scrutiny amid questions about a possible conflict of interest.
She issued a statement on Feb. 19 removing herself as chair of a budget subcommittee from all matters directly pertaining to the department.
“While it has been made abundantly clear that there is no legal or ethical conflict in my serving as Chair of Budget Subcommittee 5 as requested by the Speaker, I believe as legislators we have an obligation to ensure the people of California have absolute confidence in the legislative process,” she said.
Bonta won’t participate in any matters pertaining to budget change proposals, proposed trailer bills, and legislative budget proposals that pertain to the department “to ensure that the body may focus on the important work before us,” she said.
Editorials in the Los Angeles Times, Fresno Bee, and Whittier News last week called the lawmaker out for not recusing herself immediately after Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon appointed her as chair of the Public Safety budget subcommittee in December.
On Feb. 14, the assembly member told The Epoch Times she wondered whether her race or her gender could be behind recent conflict-of-interest claims.
“There certainly are many examples in our legislative history where policy and budget chairs had spouses serving in another branch of government. Yet, I wonder if the reason I am being asked these questions is because I am a female legislator,” she said.
Bonta provided a statement to KCRA News on Feb. 17 saying she had spoken with the Assembly’s ethics attorneys who agreed she wasn’t violating ethical rules by holding the position.
“My district is amongst the highest impacted by gun violence and the carceral system and the speaker appointed me knowing that I would be a voice for the victims and communities affected by issues of public safety,” she told a KRCA reporter during a tense exchange on Feb. 17 in the halls of Sacramento Capitol Building.
Mia Bonta was elected to the Assembly in 2021 in a special election after serving on the Alameda Unified School District Board and led several educational nonprofit organizations for low-income students. She and her husband live in Alameda with their three children.
Previously, Mia Bonta said, any budget proposal regarding the state Department of Justice that she would oversee would go through a transparent and open budget process.
Some lawmakers and ethics experts disagreed.
According to Bob Stern, former general counsel for the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission and co-author of the Political Reform Act, a 1974 anti-corruption law, it’s not a violation of the law for Mia Bonta to chair or sit as a member of the budget subcommittee, but recusal would be necessary.
“She shouldn’t be acting on his budget request,” Stern told The Epoch Times. “Clearly, there is a conflict there. It’s not a legal conflict, but it’s an ethical conflict.”
Attempts to reach the California Republican Party on the recusal were unsuccessful. But it said last week, such would not remedy the situation, and called for Mia Bonta’s resignation from the committee.
“Speaker Rendon never should have made this appointment,” California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said. “Assemblywoman Bonta never should have accepted it. It’s as simple as that.”
The conflict of interest speaks for itself, the party said.
“Assemblywomen Bonta should resign from this committee and owes those she needlessly called racist and sexist for accurately scrutinizing the appointment an apology,” Patterson said.
Rendon’s office was unable to be reached by press time.
The budget subcommittee, which will hold its first hearing of the year on Feb. 27, is scheduled to discuss the Department of Justice on March 27.
From The Epoch Times
