Former California mayor slams Gov. Newsom’s use of ‘orderly payments’ as recall threat nears 1.8 million signatures

Former Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill took to Facebook on Friday to draw attention to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s use of “forced payments,” a technically legal but very opaque that can generate untold amounts of “donations” to favorite projects of politicians and nonprofits.

O’Neill, who was mayor of the coastal city of Orange County between 2019 and 2020, asked readers to imagine they are running a business, and Newsom is asking for a donation “to a cause close to his heart.” .

“Sounds like a shakedown, right? No, perfectly legal. It’s called ‘orderly payment,” O’Neill wrote.

Under California law, payments over $ 5,000 must be reported. But unlike political donations, there is no cap. The practice is relatively obscure and little used. In 2019, for example, the Newsom administration reported only $ 12 million in requested payments.

But in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic erupted and the governor’s emergency powers were extended, payments to various entities – at Newsom’s request – climbed to $ 226 million, the data shows. of the State Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).

Behested payments rose to $ 226 million in 2020, from $ 12 million the year before.
(FPPC)

In 2020, Newsom raised $ 45 million from Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente for its housing initiative. Blue Shield chief executive officer Paul Markovich then served as co-chair of the governor’s COVID-19 testing task force. And last month, the governor chose Blue Shield and Kaiser Permanente to help manage vaccine distribution in California.

Since the outbreak, Verily Life Sciences – which, under the same parent company as Google – has received up to $ 44 million in three separate contracts from the governor’s office of emergency services to operate COVID-19 test sites .

O’Neill cited reports from CapRadio, a subsidiary of Sacramento NPR, showing that between 2018 and 2019, UnitedHealth donated $ 220,000 to political committees controlled by Newsom, which then awarded $ 492 million in contracts to UnitedHealth subsidiaries in non-tender and expedited situations.

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Bloom Energy, a California-based company, paid Newsom some $ 85,000 between September 2018 and October 2020, CapRadio reported. In March 2020, the company was awarded a $ 1 million non-tender contract – later increased to $ 2 million – to refurbish the fans, according to the outlet.

CapRadio also reported that Chinese manufacturing company BYD made two contributions of $ 20,000 to Newsom between March 2018 and November 2019. In April 2020, the company was awarded a non-tender contract for nearly $ 1 billion. dollars for the masks.

In his Facebook post, O’Neill included a quote from Bob Stern, a registered Democrat and former FPPC general counsel in California who said: “I really think the governor has an iron ear in terms of receiving huge contributions to the campaign and -source contracts for the companies that gave him these contributions.

“‘Tin ear’ is one way of saying it. What would you call it?” “O’Neill.

FILE: California Governor Gavin Newsom presents a vial of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center in Los Angeles.
(AP)

This is not the first time that the former Republican mayor has challenged the Democratic governor. Last May, when California – like the rest of the country – was strictly closed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, O’Neill slammed Newsom for his order to close Orange County beaches.

During an appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” O’Neill accused Newsom of shutting down 43 miles of Orange County beaches, “not because of data, but because of politics.”

“In our local hospital, we have 475 beds. They never treated more than 25 people at one time, and yesterday they had nine people they were treating, and only 1% of their ventilators were being used.

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Criticism of the demanded payments comes as Newsom faces the likely prospect of an election recall due to its drastic response to the pandemic. Recall that Gavin 2020 Senior Advisor Randy Economy told Fox News on Sunday that the campaign had garnered more than 1.72 million signatures. That’s more than 200,000 above the threshold required to qualify for a poll, but organizers are aiming for 2 million signatures by the March 17 deadline to compensate for invalid signatures.

“Our work continues… we will not stop (until) the last day of March 17,” Economy told Fox News. “We are thrilled with the progress and this movement is changing politics as we know it here in California and across America.”

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Fox News has repeatedly attempted to contact Newsom’s press office with a request for comment on the recall, but has received no response.